Chapter three: Parrot

She waited for the new moon—a new moon for a new beginning.

On the chosen night, Serena stood shivering with anticipation in the shadow of the trees. She wore her heavy winter gown over her light summer one; it would be best to have both, she thought, just in case the Labyrinth wasn't all as hot and dry as the entrance. In her pockets were the heel end of a loaf of bread from that day's baking, a clean handkerchief, some pretty feathers and stones (she had found they helped with some kinds of magic), a ball of string, a small bit of steel that she had bought from a peddler two years ago, and a flint knife she had made, sharp as any of metal and small enough to fit comfortably in her hand.

She sat down carefully. Around her, the thirteen stone balls lay evenly spaced along a circle she had drawn in the dirt. The orbs were varicolored and glinted wetly in the starlight. In between were a few more objects she thought would help—a white butterfly's wing, a ragged owl feather, a fool's mask from the summer festival, and a chunk of sparkling rock, among other things.

Serena took a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to get up her nerve. If it didn't work—but it had to! She repeated this thought fiercely to herself. It would work, because otherwise the goblins would continue to do as they pleased with humans. She had to stop it. It was wrong.

Besides, she had almost entered the Labyrinth before, and that wasn't even on purpose. Now the spell was set up, ready for her magic to give it life.

She took another steadying breath, then let her eyes drift closed. Her power shone at her center, and she began drawing on it, giving it momentum until it flooded outward of its own accord. It caught on the stone balls and anchored itself; it would not go beyond the edge of her circle. That was a good sign.

A sudden breeze stirred her hair, and she brushed a mosquito away from her face, still keeping her eyes determinedly closed. It wasn't done. Not yet.

Slowly, her power absorbed itself into the thirteen stones. If her eyes had been open, she would have seen that they glowed like beacons in their respective colors—orange-red, cream, blue-grey, green, even a deep indigo gleam from an orb of black obsidian. Slowly her magic merged itself with the stones, until she had only the merest of threads to connect it to herself.

Then she tugged, and the power came flooding, spiraling back. The stones hummed, then rang, then keened with the intensity of the working. The air swirled around Serena, a reflection of her power's whirling; then the last vestiges of magic returned to their rest inside of her, and silence reigned.

For a moment, Serena didn't want to open her eyes. Then she shifted uncomfortably. Something prickled through her skirts. She put her hand down and felt… thorns?

She opened her eyes. A moonlit, windblown waste met her gaze, rising in hills to either side. The landscape was covered in stunted, twisted trees and ragged weeds. Before her, the land sank into a shallow valley, and in that valley…

She didn't know whether to laugh or scream or cry. The Labyrinth sprawled beneath her like some mangy beast, its maw gaping open to devour her as soon as she should come near enough. The twists and branches of the corridors, a thousand thousands of them, stretched for miles and, if she was not much mistaken, some sections were changing even under her eyes.

At the center, the Labyrinth sloped up to a misshapen head, and wore for a crown the twisted towers of the Goblin King's castle.

So this was it. She had found her way to the Undergound at last. A feral grin stretched across her face. The Goblin King was about to learn the price of his crimes—and if she had any say in the matter, the price would be steep indeed.

Serena climbed to her feet and dusted off the back of her dress, then started down the slope, placing her feet carefully. It would be the worst sort of irony to have come all this way and then to twist her ankle before she reached the entrance.

Then she was there, and she smiled again, wild with delight. The ironbound doors were just the same as she had seen in her vision of a few nights past—but this time, she was sure that what she saw was reality. She took a deep breath, steeling herself against whatever she might find inside, and stepped forward.

Serena tugged at the doors, but they wouldn't budge. After a few minutes of futile exertion, she threw up her hands and backed out of the doorway, contemplating the wall. It was tall, she mused, but those stones were fairly rough, and the vines might help…

She took firm hold of a branch and wedged her toe into a crack, starting the long climb upward. Here was yet another occasion when her size complicated things—if she were two feet taller, as she ought to be, the climb would have taken only half as long.

After a few minutes, Serena began to wonder if she would ever reach the top. She looked upward. Funny. Her goal seemed just as far away as ever. She looked down—

--and swore under her breath. The ground was only a few inches below her feet.

She shut her eyes and leaned her forehead against the stone. It was obviously some sort of spell, something to keep unwanted visitors out of the Labyrinth. After a few deep breaths, she opened her eyes and started climbing determinedly, drawing on her own power. The stones around her rippled and buckled as her magic fought to find a hole in the enchantment, but she clung to the wall and hauled herself upward until, at last, her fingers found the edge of the last stone. One final scramble, and she lay down on the wide surface at the top of the wall, gasping for breath.

Fighting that spell had taken a lot out of her, and she hoped she wouldn't have to do it often. She rolled carefully onto her side to look at the maze below.

Maze, was it? A single stone corridor ran as far as she could see in both directions. Beyond it the passages did become tangled, but she couldn't see any way into that section, and she didn't feel up to climbing another wall like the first. How was she supposed to get through?

Then again, the spells might not be so powerful inside the Labyrinth, if it was true that they were meant only to keep intruders out. If that were so, Serena could probably handle one more climb. She sat up, then turned around and started feeling her way backward down the wall. She slipped near the bottom and fell the last two feet, but the worst of her injuries were a scraped knee and a bruised ego.

Brushing herself off—where did all this glitter come from, anyway?—Serena surveyed her surroundings. The corridor was empty except for a few broken twigs and dry leaves scattered on the ground. It did seem to continue forever into the distance, the blank walls unmarred by turns or openings. She hesitated only a moment, then crossed to the opposite wall and grabbed a convenient protrusion in the stone.

Serena climbed with vigor, simultaneously channeling her power outward to shove the spell aside as she had done the first time.

She wasn't expecting it to shove back.

The force of the spell's reaction threw her to the ground; fortunately, she had not had time to get very high, so her fall was a short one. She shook her head to clear sudden spots from her vision and a ringing from her ears, but only succeeded in making herself dizzy, and so settled for squeezing her eyes closed and resting her head on her knees for several minutes. Her entire body ached, and her stomach roiled; she wished to faint just to escape the sensation.

When she no longer felt like she might pass out at any moment, Serena climbed slowly to her feet and approached the wall again. Her hand rested lightly on the stone as she sent out a gentle pulse of power; the answering pulse gave her a painful shock that left her hand numb. She was not getting in that way.

Well, now that she thought about it, the Goblin King certainly wouldn't want anyone cheating their way through the Labyrinth. She would definitely have to rethink her plan; she would never be able to help anyone unless she had some advantage over the poor people that the goblins brought here against their will.

She turned around and found the door—it made her uncomfortable to be even in the outer layers of the Labyrinth, and she thought that her planning would best be done outside—but she quickly discovered that she could not open it from the inside any more than she had been able to from the outside. She was stuck.

"Well, no sense in standing around," she muttered sourly, and looked either way down the passage. Both ways seemed equally deserted, but she decided that the right side seemed a little brighter, so she started in that direction.

Several minutes later, she slowed her walk, then stopped altogether, leaning against the wall. Nothing was changing. She was getting nowhere. And she was starting to get hungry. She slid down and seated herself against the wall with a sigh, and began digging in her pocket for that crust of bread.

"'Allo."

Serena nearly jumped out of her skin as the voice spoke almost in her ear. She glanced around wildly, but she couldn't see anything. Then she caught sight of a splash of blue near her shoulder and, looking more closely, saw a small caterpillar wearing—what on earth?—a red scarf. "Hello," she said slowly.

"Are you all right, miss? You seem a bit lost." There was no doubt; the tiny being was speaking to her. But his large brown eyes were friendly, and he seemed concerned for her; besides, she reminded herself, this was the Labyrinth. Some things were bound to be odd.

"I am lost, a bit," she admitted. "I can't get out of this corridor—the gate won't open, and I don't know how to get deeper into the Labyrinth."

The worm smiled. "You just have to learn the right way to look, is all. Come inside, I'm sure the Missus would love to meet you." He nodded toward a small hole in the stone.

"Oh—no thank you. But what do you mean, the right way to look? I've been looking pretty hard, and I can't find any doorways or anything."

"Well, that's the problem, then. You need to look soft to find your way around here." Seeing her confusion, he explained. "Things are not what they seem in this place. You can't trust your own eyes half the time, and you can't take anything for granted."

"I don't really understand," Serena said thoughtfully.

He nodded at the wall opposite them. "Do you see that wall?"

"Yes," Serena said, looking at it. It seemed like just an ordinary stretch of wall, but if the worm thought it would help…

"Well, it's not a wall. You just try walking through it." He smiled. "That's the easiest way."

Serena climbed to her feet, then glanced back at him. "Are you sure? That's not even the right direction—the castle is behind us…"

"Go on and try it then," the worm chuckled; then he paused. "Wait—you're going toward the castle?"

Serena didn't hear; she was frowning in thought as she approached the wall. It still seemed quite ordinary, and very, very solid. Hesitantly, she put out her hands.

She felt only air.

"Wow!" She dropped her hands and turned, grinning to face the worm. "Thank you! I don't know if I could have found this on my own."

The worm nodded; then he sighed. "I suppose you'll be off, then? Everyone's in such a hurry when they pass here…"

The girl glanced over her shoulder and bit her lip, then shook her head. "No. I'm not in any rush."

The worm beamed. "Well, then, come inside and have a nice cup of tea, will you?"

"Oh—no, thank you," she said. It didn't seem polite, somehow, to point out her size relative to his own when he was so determinedly ignoring it. But she doubted that she could fit more than one finger through his doorway. Seeking a change of subject, she asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm William," he told her. "William the Worm." He smiled. "And who are you?"

"Serena." She returned the smile, and came back to sit by him.

"Well, it's a pleasure, Serena. Everyone's in such a rush when they pass here; I think you're the first to have introduced yourself in, oh, four hundred years. I'm not sure exactly. Time gets a bit funny sometimes, here in the Labyrinth."

"Really…" Serena's eyes danced. "You seem to know a lot about this place… would you mind telling me a little more?"