Disclaimer: I do not own Jareth, Sarah, the Labyrinth, or anything else from the movie.
I rolled over on my back and peeked through my eyelids. Koren was still sitting on my bed, looking startled. "Koren?" I asked sleepily.
She shook herself. "Elien, how do you feel?"
I stretched. "Better," I said. "What's up?" I thought for a second. "Who healed me?"
She closed her eyes. "It's a very long story. Here's the important points: our mom was posessed by a demon, got married on Earth, had a baby who was Toby, the demon transferred from her to Toby and his half sister Sarah, then used Sarah to knock big pieces out of the Labyrinth, and is going to come for us to try to take us too, and then use us for something. We have to get out, to hide."
"What? Where?"
"The Minotaur's Labyrinth. The Bog of Eternal Stench. The forest we grew up in. It doesn't matter, we just have to avoid the places Sarah created. If we can."
I nodded and tried shakily to stand. Koren took my arm and draped it over her shoulders. "Come on, I'll help you," she said.
We went out of the room, onto the tower's staircase where I'd been hurt. The stairs were broken and twisted, so that it was more like a rocky hill than a staircase. A rocky hill where the stones were still loose, so that a misstep would sent the stone you'd stepped on falling. Koren tested every stone before she put her weight on it, or let me put my weight on it.
We rounded a turn and came to a place where the wall had fallen out. We both stopped and stared, appalled.
I could see the goblin city-or what was left of it. Most of the buildings had fallen down-goblins aren't the best of all possible builders, and the Labyrinth doesn't get many earthquakes. Jareth wouldn't allow it, under normal circumstances.
The streets were disrupted. They looked like ocean waves, with the ground below them thrusting up into the air or dipping into the ground. That is, the streets that weren't choked with rubble. Some goblins were digging others up out of the rubble. Others lay, hurt, in the streets.
"They need our help!" I said. "Koren, we have to get down there. I'm a healer, you're a healer-we can help!"
"No, Elien. We have to save ourselves. We have to hide. If the demon finds us, it could well do worse to this place."
"But-"
Koren started walking down the stairs, pulling me along with her. After a minute, I let go. I managed to walk down the stair by myself, a step behind Koren.
Then Koren slipped. She fell, and rolled down a few steps. I started to hurry down to her, realized what a bad idea that was, and slowly picked my way down the steps.
She stared up at me. "Elien. I'm okay, but I don't think I can walk. Go down to the throne room, get Jareth, and have him fetch me."
"Koren"
"Just go."
I squeezed her hand, let go, and continued down the stairs, into Jareth's throne room.
We came down into Jareth's throne room. Jareth stood there, and turned to me. "Elien."
"Jareth! Koren fell down on the stairs, and she's hurt. She says she's okay, but she can't really walk."
Jareth blinked, produced a crystal, and threw it into a corner of the room. A pallet materialized, with my sister laying on it.
"Jareth, I know what did this," Koren said. "A demon. A demon that has possessed our mother for a lot of years took control of Sarah and Toby, and apparently it's coming for us, too."
He blinked. "A demon." He looked around. "That makes sense. Not much else could use Sarah this fast."
"What are you going to do?"
"Are you sure it's going to go after you? Both of you?"
"Pretty sure. At the moment it's inhabiting our half brother and controlling our stepsister. We think it's going to go for us for our power. Mother said that it had been planning on controlling us for a long time."
"Then you'd better split up, to slow it down and buy us some time to figure out how to fight it. One of you should take off, into the Labyrinth, and the other should come with me. I need to get my people to safety."
Koren blinked. "Where is safety'?"
"Magdalene's maze. It's built on entirely different principles than the Labyrinth. I don't think the demon can affect it."
I shivered. "Magdalene's maze. That place doesn't make any sense to me."
"It's never killed anyone, it's stable as anything can be, and if I'm careful, nobody will get lost. One of you had better go away now."
I nodded, turned, and walked towards the door.
"Elien," he said.
I turned back to him.
"Take care of yourself." I nodded and walked out, into the city.
The temptation to stop and help was overwhelming. All around me, goblins lay injured in the wreckage. I gritted my teeth and kept going.
Then I came upon Ludo. He sat on the ground, a gash in his chest. He seemed to be trying to roar-but it clearly pained him. I stopped. Goblins were goblins-but this was Ludo. I'd grown up in his house. I couldn't abandon him. I stepped towards him and placed my hands on his side, near the gash. "Hold still," I directed. I concentrated. I wasn't a trained healer-but Koren and I both had healing powers, and we'd figured out how to use them as children. I concentrated.
Ludo bellowed in pain, but he knew better than to fight; he'd seen me heal people before. I opened my eyes and staggered. Ludo was healed-badly. He had a scar on his side, instead of fur; but he wasn't bleeding, and he wasn't hurting.
Ludo stood up and roared. The rocks started moving, rolling off of the half-buried goblins. I turned and started walking out of the city again. I'd helped Ludo; he would be more use here than me.
After a few minutes of walking, I arrived at a gate out of the City. It was a small northern gate, not the one Sarah had gone through; I hoped that it would lead to a place she hadn't created.
I was in luck-the gate led to a forest, thick with oaks. I smiled. It had taken much less damage in the earthquake than the castle. I walked through it, relaxing. Fae had always had strong ties to oak trees; among them, I felt safe. I dropped, lying on the thick moss, and yawned. I was very tired
Then I heard a scream. I jerked up, and ran through the forest, towards it. The forest changed around me, becoming wilder. Swampier.
Then a dozen orange things jumped out at me. I screamed and threw my hands above my head. They knocked me over.
I looked at the creatures more closely. They were Fireys. Which Sarah had created.
Which meant that I was probably in a part of the Labyrinth she had created.
I turned my head. A woman with brown hair, carrying a baby in a sling on her chest, held a little goblin in her arms. The goblin was screaming. She let go of it, and it fled, deep into the forest.
Sarah stood up and walked towards me. "Elien," she said.
I scrambled to my feet. "Come here," she demanded.
I turned and ran. "Elien!" she shouted, chasing me. "Don't fight me, join me! It's what you were born to do!"
The ground dropped under me, and I fell into a tunnel. I stared both ways frantically, then raced down one.
Faces carved into the rocks began to talk to me. "Beware, beware." "Go back now." "Turn, for this way leads to certain destruction." I ignored them and kept going.
I ran straight into an Oubliette. I slammed the door behind me, then leaned against it, panting. Sarah slammed into the door behind me. "Elien, open this door!" she demanded.
"No!" I yelled.
"Elien, you were born to serve me. I seduced your father all those years ago to get you and your sister, and I'm certainly not giving you or her up now."
I closed my eyes. I was terrible at combat magic, but there had to be something I could do. Fire. It was my only chance. I concentrated, conjuring a fire into the corridor behind me.
"Is that all you can manage, little girl?" Sarah asked. She didn't sound hurt. At all. I didn't answer. I tried to remember something, anything, of the magic I knew. Jareth would have been able to deal with her-but Jareth had several centuries more practice using magic than me and was tied directly to the Labyrinth; he could draw on its power at need. Jareth? I called silently. Koren?
Calling for help, child? the demon asked pitilessly. I heard a creak, and a door on the other side of the Oubliette opened. Sarah stepped through. I tried to open the door behind me, and got stuck. I looked at it. Stone had lapped over its edges. I turned back.
Sarah jumped on me, knocking me to the floor. We rolled over and over it, her clinging to me tenaciously, me kicking and punching to get her off. I slammed into a few walls.
Then I felt myself going limp. I screamed mentally at my muscles to move, but I couldn't. My body was no longer under my control.
I stood up. Magdalene's maze? I heard the demon wonder. Then I will go there to fetch Koren.
Leave my sister alone! I screamed.
I don't think so, the demon replied.
I turned and walked out of the Oubliette, Sarah close behind me.