AN: Sorry my dears for the long delay! It was definitely unintended but apparently my laptop had other plans...It decided to break down twice and then be completely dead for good. Well, we all understand computer trouble I'm sure, but enough of that. All that matters is that I saved all my files and didn't lose any writing! Here's a new chapter for all you wonderful folk! I think it should make up for the delay ;). P.S. I've been sick so I apologise if anything in here doesn't make sense or something odd...heh.

Read on!


Chapter Six: The Lost and the Lonely

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It was a little while later when Sarah heard a knock on the door. She assumed it wasn't him since he didn't seem to find knocking necessary even though it was supposed to be a private room. She huddled by the door and asked who it was.

A deep gravelly voice called out that sounded suspiciously like a goblin. "Lady, His Majesty wants you."

She rolled her eyes. At one point maybe. "What for?"

"Uh...you're supposed to talk to 'im or somethin' but I'm supposed to take you there."

"Not right now," she said. "I'll go when I please."

"He said if you didn't want to I'm to mention 'raven' and you'd come. Whatever that bloomin' means..."

Sarah didn't want to come at his beck and call, but he was right about mentioning that word to change her mind. As much as she wanted to resist, the desire to deal with this problem was greater and who better to help her than a similar being? At least they seemed to be from appearances. She had wondered whether the Goblin King was the only one of his kind in the Underground, but she regretted her curiosity now that a mage appeared that was far worse to answer her question. It would have been better to never know.

"All right then," she sighed. "I'm coming."

But she wasn't sure how to open the door. There weren't any latches or handles or knobs. After staring at it a while trying to discover its secret and cursing the king for hiding riddles and traps still even now, she remembered how it opened the day before when she touched it. So she did it again.

It swung open on slow hinges. Outside, a long-armed goblin with giant feet stood waiting, a leather helmet falling over one of his eyes. He was taller than Greit although he still only reached her waist.

His eyes widened at the sight of her and it wasn't till she cleared her throat that he shook his head and started walking down the hall. Morning light turned it golden. They turned left through a door that she hadn't seen the night before between two of the banners hanging on the wall and into another corridor much like the first but much shorter. Where it ended it opened into a wide space with a few doors to choose from and a hall that went in both directions at the end. What truly amazed her was not the stonemasonry of the castle but what was straight ahead. A single open arch led to a courtyard outside with green lawns and trees, and in the very middle stood a tower of great girth and height, its spire reaching up towards the heavens with almost a midnight blue tint to its roof tiles.

"Is that where we're going?" she asked breathily.

A sudden irrational fear of being locked up in a tower like a princess from a fairytale surged through her, and she came to an abrupt stop. The goblin scowled at her with the one eye she could see.

"No. What'd you stop for? Don't want to keep 'im waiting."

"Of course not," she muttered, but she did keep moving forward even if her dread was growing step by step. She didn't feel ready for another confrontation with the King of the Goblins. He always threw her off balance somehow.

They entered another room. Inside was a tall hearth at the far end, yet more high ceilings, and very basic furnishing much like the throne room. Masculine with touches of the otherworldly.

Although it was morning, the sunlight wasn't yet strong here at these windows so a few spindly candles were lit in a melting cluster on one of the short tables. In the glow of the firelight and meagre touch of sun she looked again on the Goblin King. His defined features were thrown into sharp contrast and his eyes dark. Those arched eyebrows rose a little at the sight of her.

"You summoned me?" said Sarah with a touch of resentment to her tone.

His rigid posture loosened a little, but he still stood tall and proud as he regarded her. "I asked for you to come since I assumed you'd want to know more about the man who attacked you. And, Sarah, don't undermine me in front of my subjects." His lips twisted as with a bad taste.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the goblin was gone. "No one else is even here. What does it matter?"

"Careful Sarah," he said with a sharp tone and piercing eyes as he took a step forward. "You're in my kingdom now and by your own choice. Do not forget it. Here I am king and here I expect you to show respect."

Fear me, love me, do as I say...

She squashed her wandering thoughts and memories. Although she knew it wasn't right to show blatant disrespect to any king of any realm, it was difficult to treat him that way after all that had happened. There was an odd familiarity with someone who spirited away your baby brother, made you fight to get him back, then offered you a place in his kingdom at his side.

As if sensing the turmoil within her, a frown creased his brow. He drew closer while she was distracted until they were only a few feet apart.

"Do you want to know about the Raven Mage or not?" he asked.

As if realising how close he suddenly came, Sarah instinctively backed away. "Yes."

"Then sit."

Although it sounded suspiciously like a command, he gestured to a chair close by with a tall back and no cushion or fabric of any kind. She settled into it with all the grace of a lady and smoothed her skirts while he remained standing.

"Fiachna the Raven Mage is an old...acquaintance...of mine," he began. Two crystals appeared in his hand, and he swirled them around with practised ease. "I don't know why he decided to try and ensnare you, but I can at least guess. You see, we haven't been on friendly terms for quite a while—if ever we were—and it would not surprise me if he sought some sort of vengeance for my sake."

"So you're enemies then. Why me? What do I have to do with your little fairy feud?"

A flash of annoyance sparked in his mismatched eyes when he looked at her, and the crystals whirled even faster in his palm. "We are NOT fairies, girl," he growled. "And do not make light of an enmity so strong. You once thought I didn't take certain circumstances seriously enough with your little brother, but now you do the same with this. You have no idea what you've gotten in the middle of."

The way his voice had dropped and the meaning of his words were all enough to send a reasonable jolt of fear into her heart. If the Goblin King took the situation this solemnly than it really must be terrible.

"But why me?" Her trembling hands clenched fistfuls of her dress. "I don't understand."

The clear balls slowed to a stop in his grasp as he turned away from her. "Ask him that yourself if you want the answer.; although you shouldn't want to see him again. He's known for his cruelty and the dark spirit within him, a being not to be trifled with unless absolutely necessary."

"Yet you did," she murmured.

A sudden thought occurred to her: had she put the Goblin King and the labyrinth and her friends in danger when she cried for his help? Had he really risked so much to save her? If she had put them all at risk she would regret coming back here.

"You said he might attack at any moment unless we came here. Do you think he'll try again?"

"Of course he will. Surrendering or quitting don't even register in his mind. This certainly isn't over and will not be until either of us is dead."

A chill spread through her. "How long has it been like this?"

"More years than you've been alive, my dear," he said with a sneer. "Far more years than that."

"I still don't understand why he decided I was a good playing card against you, but since you refuse to answer that one, I'll let it go. For now. So...how do I stop him?"

The king nearly gaped at her, his mouth parting slightly so the tips of his sharp canines showed. "You? You plan to stop him, do you?"

"Well, I'm the one he came after and you apparently are burdened with me," she said fiercely, "so the sooner he's dealt with the sooner I can go home and be out of your hair. I don't want to stay here. I want to go home. If that means defeating this mage then that's what I have to do. So how do I do it?"

He stared long at her without readable expression. Time flowed past like rushing waters in which she scrambled for something to hold onto but could only see him standing before her. That stare unnerved her more than any of the others because it seemed he was stripping away all defences, masks, and flesh to study her soul laid bare to his keen gaze.

"Brave little Sarah," he said at last. "Always so brave. Unfortunately this situation cannot be resolved by solving my labyrinth or making new friends because this time it really isn't your problem or your doing. It is mine. You see, I would've been involved whether you asked for my help or not. It simply gave me the advantage he was hoping to have."

It was good to hear him admit that it wasn't her doing, but that did not comfort her to know just how awful the complications were. "So I'm just some chess piece now in the middle of a fight," she muttered. "And all I can do is sit around and wait for this Fiachna to make another move?"

"Perhaps. There is no going home, Sarah. At the first opportunity he would capture you and spirit you away to a dark place just like I did your baby brother, but all without being asked of course. Why do you think I brought you here? There is no safer place."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, I really am. But…can't you attack him first? You know, catching him off guard and surprise being the advantage."

"You try to make it all so very simple," he mused. The crystals were now sliding up and down his arm and over his fingertips. "He moves around and doesn't like to call one place home, so it would be rather difficult finding him in all the Underground since he doesn't wish to be found. My crystals cannot show me Fiachna simply because he has made sure they can't spy on him. I am weary of all your questions and will answer no more."

"Are you still angry with me?" she said. "Don't think I've forgotten how you treated me yesterday. You haven't even apologised." And she was tired of pretending it hadn't happened. Their first meeting had not gone very well.

A cloud darkened his countenance. "Haven't I a right to be upset with you? I have not forgotten last we met..."

"Neither have I," she said in a much gentler tone.

"Really? Then why did you have to wish to remember it all so recently?"

Sarah's eyes widened a little, although she had suspected his involvement in some of her dreams. So it had been him flying outside her window that morning and not only her imagination.

"You forgot everything," he said in a dangerously quiet voice.

"That's not true! I never forgot you! Maybe I didn't remember everything you said, but I never forgot you."

His hands clenched into fists, and his jaw tightened.

"Why do you think I made that wish? Why do you think Bran reminded me of you sometimes?" She sat back in her chair and looked down at her lap feeling like she might've revealed a little too much. "I just want to be rid of this mage and go home. I'm sorry if I'm such an inconvenience for you, but I'm not sorry for what happened in the past. Facing you and overcoming my childish selfishness made me who I am today. And you couldn't have expected anything else when you gave me such a choice because Toby was my little brother whether I liked him or not. It wasn't fair, was it? But that's how it is."

"I am not sorry for it either," he murmured, "and how could I remain angry with you when in defeating me you proved my equal?"

Sarah and the Goblin King sat in silence for some time. The confrontation had been unpleasant, but the suffocating tension between them because of old antagonism was gone at last. To her it had felt like something you could almost taste in the air: an old conflict hovering between. It was worth the cost to be rid of it.

"May I go now?" asked Sarah.

"So soon?"

She heard rather than saw the playfulness in the statement since his back was to her. He either hid his true thoughts and emotions extremely well or he really did take the tension between them lightly.

She rose to her feet out of the hard chair. "Why are you helping me after...after what I did?"

His body tensed. His crystals disappeared. All of a sudden it didn't seem like a wise decision to ask such a question. Even though he only had on the same white shirtsleeves and black breeches from the day before without the high-collared imposing mantle, he still gave off an air of perilous eminence. Without much warning, he spun on his heel and stalked towards her. With the chair right behind her there was no escape anywhere, nowhere to flee from his impending wrath.

But he did not strike out at her. He stopped two feet away and stared down at her with an intensity that threatened to burn her skin. She really was tired of her pulse racing out of control so often around him, but he was so close she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. A whole other kind of nervousness tingled along her nerves.

When he raised a gloved hand and she flinched, he shook his head.

"Afraid, Sarah?" His head leaned a breath closer. "We aren't adversaries anymore, you and I. You needn't be afraid."

"I can't trust you," she murmured.

"No," he said as softly. "I suppose you can't. But you'll have to a little if I'm going to protect you from Fiachna."

Being so close to each other gave her a bit of a heady feeling which she couldn't handle much longer. Her legs hit the chair when she tried to move. He smirked and pressed in even nearer. She ended up dropping into the seat again with no other place to go. In an instant he leaned down and placed his hands on the arms of the chair so she was trapped.

"But can I trust you?" said the king.

"What?"

"You defeated my labyrinth and used some rather powerful words last time you were here. You even turned some of my very own subjects against me. Now, it seems the greater question is whether I can trust you or not."

She huffed indignantly, forgetting slightly about the close proximity. "Only because I had to get Toby back!"

"The child you asked me to take."

"Yes, well..."

"I don't wish to have any trouble from you of that kind every time I do something you don't agree with or you change your mind."

Oh. A fine trap he'd laid. His logic was actually sort of sound. And by his smug expression he knew that very well.

"So I'd appreciate you not trying to overturn my kingdom if and when this happens," he said, "or trying to overthrow me in your charming ways." 'Charming' was pronounced with such sardonic undertones.

She shifted uncomfortably. She really wanted a good pair of jeans instead of this dress.

"Is that clear...my fairy?" His pale eyes had taken a quick glance at the offending purple garment as if he found her choice of clothing amusing because it did vaguely resemble something of the small creatures.

A deep blush suffused her entire face. "Yes," she bit out. "Perfectly."

"Good."

He stood and moved away across the room leaving her trembling a little where she sat. A moment later she leaped out of the chair and strode straight for the door without sparing him another glance.

The clearer air of the corridor filled her lungs and intensified the relief flooding through her to be out of that place. She knew he could be dangerous but was starkly reminded that it was for many different reasons. His actions and his words confused her. First he tried to thwart her in the labyrinth, second he asked her to love him, third he disappeared for seven years, fourth he swept in to rescue her from a dark mage, fifth he got angry when they first arrived in the Underground, and then he decided to toy with her emotions.

Only then did she realise he hadn't answered her question.

Sarah turned around to face the door. "Insufferable!" she muttered angrily. As she began stalking away it dawned on her that she wasn't familiar with the castle and didn't even know where she wanted to go. Well, if he was going to let her go wherever she pleased she intended to make the most of it and go exploring.

A thrill of excitement rippled through her. Who wouldn't want to go exploring an ancient castle in the midst of the Goblin City in the Underground world? What treasures or secrets or intrigues might be found! Her spirit of adventure stirred into a burning fire, and she set out with no particular destination in mind.


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