A/N: All righty! At long last I can update again. Many apologies for the month-long wait, and thank you to those of you still with me. I realize this chapter is a bit dull, but I apologize. Unfortunately, I had a lot to get across, and little to do it with, I hope it's not too boring.

I'm posting chapters 7-10 all at once, but with a warning: Only chapter 7 has been beta'd. I've been over them so many times that I don't think there's going to be a huge problem. Maybe a word here or a word there. I'll repost the renovations of 8, 9, and 10 after my poor, wonderful (busy, fantastic, vastly intelligent, and beautiful!) beta, Genesis Grey, survives finals week. I just feel bad taking so much time with these!

So, if you see ANY problems, PLEASE leave a note for me so I can fix them. I always love help on my writing. Can't grow without it!

Formatting notes: I just realized a little while ago that all of my italics and strange symbols to do translate through ff.net's little box of magic. Sooo, I'll be going through and fixing that. This chapter and on will already be appropriately formatted… Eventually, I'll get around to coding them into HTML, and then I'll repost them. Any big fixes I'll let you know about. : ) /…x…/ - Denotes italics.

Enjoy thy reading!


Chapter Seven: Whispers on the Wind

Faryn stared after the owl, realizing that she believed the Goblin King when he said he hadn't made Eric into the monster he was. She believed the man who had taken Eric as ward, who had taken her brother captive, and in whose labyrinth she had nearly died. She believed him, and she would continue to do so unless she found proof otherwise.

He seemed so lonely. The kind of lonely that came with being the most powerful thing in your world, all of your life. Pampered, but beholden to so many things that spoiled wasn't quite the word. The Goblin King seemed unchallenged, and horribly isolated for the omnipotence.

Yet, he had a wicked sense of humor, she noted off-hand to herself. Her shirt and pants had to have been blood drenched. For whatever careless reason was his own, Jareth had caused her to wake clothed in her mother's simple cream dress. Ukee, who had become a given presence to Faryn within hours, played idly with the useless tie at the neck. She nestled comfortably into the excess fabric of the sleeves, avoiding the worst of the mediocre storm with Faryn as a shield.

At a tugging on one much longer sleeve, Faryn blinked in time to not run into the hedge wall in front of her. Without warning, the goblin girl's head thumped against Faryn's chest, nearly knocking her off balance. The goblin looked innocently at her and asked, "Whassit ticking?"

Faryn paused, trying to listen beyond the rain that fell, heavily soaking them both. The rain along her face soothed the tiny healing scrapes and pushed the clumps of hair back. She heard the faint ticking of what sounded like a clock, then something was tugging on her neck. She glanced back at the goblin to find the critter playing with her necklace. The silver clock her mother had given her, as a protection against her father. And against the Goblin King. She chuckled, gently taking the clock from Ukee. "It's not that Ukee, it hasn't…" her voice trailed off as her fingers made her into a liar. The clock was ticking. "Worked since I got it," she finished in a whisper, staring down at the hands.

It was, indeed, working of a sudden. But not as a normal clock might. The timepiece was ticking along merrily, backwards. "Like a countdown," she murmured to herself. The hands put her at six hours and twenty-two minutes to go. "Oh, no," she wailed in dismay. "I've lost half the time and I'm still so far away!"

Wildly, she searched the distance for the now-familiar silhouette of the Goblin King's castle. It was there, to her right, nearer than before. She could make out the individual parapets, and the large windows from this distance. It was still so far.

"No worries, my Faryn," Ukee said gently, putting a forepaw to Faryn's cheek. "I knows a shirtcut frem 'ere to the enchanched ferest."

"Really," the girl exclaimed, delighted.

"Well, shortta. Ya gotsta get outta ther hedges inter ther Wide Tract of Rottenness, first."

"Oh, my," commented Faryn. A Wide Tract of Rottenness didn't sound good at all. "Where is that, then?"

"Just outta ther hedges. My nose never lies."

Faryn nodded, determined as she picked a new path to find an exit through. "Then out of here we go." She sped her pace.

Ukee leapt on to the girl's shoulder, curling her tail around Faryn's neck, and digging her back claws carefully between the threads of the wet dress. Her ears twitched from side to side anxiously while her furred nose flared imperceptibly to catch the scent of the Wide Tract of Rottenness. Absently, the goblin's foreclaws toyed with the hair along Faryn's face, messily braiding it.

Three dead ends and a long spiral later, Faryn squeaked quietly in surprise. From the hedge on her right, a thick green ooze was seeping. With the help of the rain it was running across most of the path and seemed to be spreading. At a light touch from the blue goblin, she remembered herself and edged around it.

"Is justa sweat of ther hedges washern off inna rain," Ukee explained calmly.

"Sweat," Faryn questioned with a grimace. "They're alive.. I mean, like you and me?"

"Oh, yes," the little goblin agreed emphatically.

"Weird," the girl commented with a chuckle.

A short silence later, Ukee asked, "Where my Faryn come from?"

Faryn bit her lip as she considered a response the goblin might understand. "Maine, I guess. My uncle's house."

Ukee nodded as if she understood what a 'Maine' was, but didn't. "What yer do there?"

"I was a college student," she answered, then bit her lip again. "Er, I went to school to learn old and new things and how to do them." Faryn turned down a corridor that led to the left. An awful smell came from it. She was assuming anything called the Wide Tract of Rottenness would smell bad.

"No," the blue goblin insisted loudly. "Thater way!"

"It just keeps curling in on itself, Ukee. We'll never get out that way."

The goblin thumped her paw against Faryn's shoulder lightly. "Just cause it curve on itself don't mean ther way out isn't in ther middle."

Nodding, the girl stepped back on the path she hadn't quite left, continuing down it.

"I wanter'd to go ter shchool, but ther King just made me learner about ther labyrinph," Ukee continued their conversation.

"He doesn't make all new goblins do that," Faryn asked, suddenly curious.

"Oh, no! Most goblins never learn anyfing, unless they be madge-rical somehows. Those go off ter shkool, and the rest just do whatever they want. Unless ther King gives them somefing ter do. Sometimes smart goblins get fostered in other kentries, or learn lots on ther own. Only Groeg and I were taught about ther labyrinph," Ukee explained excitedly. Apparently her knowledge was something she was quite proud of.

Faryn wondered why the Goblin King had treated the little goblin-girl so badly when she'd met them.

"Who's Groeg?"

"He were ther first one ther King taught. Groeg taught me. He had somethern to do with ther Collapse of Gerd Governance, but no one knows what."

"Ther…. The Collapse of Good Governance," Faryn repeated, stumbling over Ukee's impediment.

"Far as I cern tell, it were when lots o' goblins got jealous o' each other. Then ther nixes took over and King Jareth became ther King."

While Ukee had explained, the path had curved sharply. Moments after she finished, it ended, opening into a vast and bleak junkyard, piles of trash towering high. Faryn's mind bucked at the illogic of it. Moments ago, she was walking down the space that the Wide Tract of Rottenness had to exist in. Yet there were no hedges to be seen, except that which stretched straight out for miles on either side of her, and curved away from the junkyard. The other side couldn't be seen, for even in the valleys between mounds of refuse there were more mountainous swells and smoke pillars that rose into a smoggy sky.

"How horrible," she recoiled verbally. It looked terrible, but behind it the castle loomed much closer. Her heart swelled.

Soon she would face the Goblin King and best him. Winning her brother and her freedom. And perhaps, a little bit of respect. Faryn hardly noticed as the rain petered out, and the clouds began to slowly disperse.

"Is't ther Wide Tract of Rottenness. It keep all the discurded thoughts and ermotions and things connected wither them in one place. That way, nofing else is corrupted by ther shaddness of ther lost dream or idea."

"Ah. Where to?"

"Gotta find Agnes. Her sister, Hel'lsiott keeps ther short cut in her hand bag."

Faryn decided that her brain would explode if she thought about it too long, so she just nodded and started toward the heaping piles of junk.

Soon, it became clear that not all of the pillars of smoke were just that. As they passed one, a face shown in it, mouth open wide in the expression of a wail, but soundless. The girl blinked, and decided she was just hungry and seeing things. Moments later, they passed another and she had to ask.

Ukee glanced at her as though she were losing her mind. "I don't see anyfing."

She examined the wailing gusts of smoke from the corner of her eye, daring not to let them realize they had her attention. Ghosts, Faryn thought with a vicious shiver and a nervous glance at the darkening sky. The clouds had begun to leave, but now they rolled in again. Great, heaving, black clouds. She hated ghosts. They were cold and had scarred her as a child. Eric had taken her to a church when she told him at five years old that ghosts couldn't possibly exist. He'd locked her in the bell tower, and she'd never contradicted him since. There had been more wraiths in that tower than she could see in the vast junkyard. She didn't want to see them. Nothing had ever frightened her as much as the soundless open maw of something dead. Faryn had always thought she'd gotten over the fear, yet now it stared her viciously in face proving her wrong.

"Keep talking to me, Ukee. Keep me sane," she petitioned the goblin as she moved them quickly along the tiny, obscure path between hills. She put her head down, concentrating on each step. She didn't want to see any more ghosts.

"Cern I go to college wither my Faryn when yer goes home?"

Faryn laughed, about to tell the goblin that would be silly, because she wasn't going home, when she paused. Her steps continued unaffected as she realized she was about the tell the goblin that would be silly because she wasn't going home. Wasn't going home?

When had she decided that? She heard the quiet din of the little blue goblin talking, but didn't understand a thing she said. The whole time she'd been in the labyrinth, she'd never intended to return home. It hadn't crossed her mind to wonder how she would solve the labyrinth, but she didn't intend to leave it.

Regardless of the awful smells that clogged the air from time to time, it seemed fresher here, and calmed her to breathe it. There had been two attempts on her life - twice as many as she'd face at home - and still more certainly awaited her. The Goblin King had stolen her brother and given aid to her cruel father in his youth. There were wraiths hanging out in open air.

She had never felt as calm here as she had anywhere else.

Faryn was forced to wince as a column of sunlight struck her eyes. Then Ukee tugged on the mangled braid by her ear hard enough to wake her from her reverie.

"Faryn!"

"Yes, I'm here now, Ukee. What is it?"

The goblin pointed straight ahead at a hunched goblin woman that Faryn might have run over, if not for Ukee's interruption. The goblin had a huge bag of odd pieces of junk slung over her back, blending in almost perfectly with the surrounding hills. Her face was oval, and split near the bottom with what Faryn assumed was a mouth. Straggly hair stuck out at odd angles from under a bandanna that had obviously come from one of the piles. One orange eye was larger than the other and she seemed to be scowling at Faryn.

"Well girl, what is it," the goblin demanded impatiently. "I haven't got all day!"

"Agnes?"

"Yes, yes," she shrieked, her voice seeming to have been previously unused. "What do you want?"

"We," Faryn paused, patting Ukee's side affectionately. "That is, I have to return Ukee to the King, and we need to see Hel'lsiott to get there in time." She reeled at how quickly the lies had sprung to her lips. Faryn didn't feel like she could trust this goblin at all.

"Why? What's wrong with the squat brat," Agnes asked, pulling her heavily laden body forward to look closer.

Playing along, Ukee held out her left paw and moaned. "Sprained!"

Agnes grumbled for a while, looking between girl and goblin, then studying Faryn's clothes so closely that she picked up one arm to examine the dress. Faryn stood as still as she could, trying to ooze absolute honesty and confidence.

"All right, then." The goblin turned around, becoming almost lost among the junk. "This way!"

Faryn discovered a yellow lampshade to the right of Agnes' bundle, keeping her eyes on that as they walked. Thankfully, it wasn't far.

"In ya go," Agnes said, pointing at a tent flap Faryn would otherwise have missed.

"Thank you," she praised the goblin honestly. As soon as she touched the tent flap, though, she was frozen in place as memories that were not her own flashed before her eyes like current events.

Another girl, so similar in face with lighter, straight, hair had followed Agnes and gone through this same door. Her mother. She felt the confusion Sarah had gone through seep into her mind, threatening to make her lose hold of her quest. Viciously she fought it back, and she was at last saved by Ukee purring in her ear.

"What is it," Agnes demanded, glaring at her.

"Sarah was here," Faryn responded in a daze, still poised halfway between entering the tent and the junkyard.

Agnes the goblin laughed. "Yea, that's right. The minx almost fell into our trap, too! Silly girl."

Swallowing her rebuke, Faryn pushed into the tent.

Inside was a broken room with yellowed walls. The far wall was almost entirely missing, broken pots and shattered political objectives poured in from outside the wall. Junk littered the floor and what had once been a bed. Against the right wall, a desk sat, with the frame of a shattered mirror suspended on the wall behind it.

At the desk, Hel'lsiott sat. From the back, she looked exactly like Agnes. When she turned to them, though it became clear that she didn't look like Agnes, and she hadn't been sitting.

About a foot shorter than the outside goblin, Hel'lsiott's face was triangular, and her mouth seemed to be just a speck above her chin. She wore a bent breastplate over her tiny frame, and the garbage that covered her back seemed to be a cloak instead of a bag. As soon as the goblin noticed Ukee, she grinned and her tiny mouth became a giant maw that threatened to make her face disappear altogether.

"Ukee," she called delightedly, her voice surprisingly clear and beautiful.

The blue goblin leapt from Faryn's shoulder to the stubby arms of Hel'lsiott, and the two purred at each other. Ukee sprang back onto the girl's shoulder a moment later. The goblin looked at Faryn patiently, expecting something.

"I've got to solve this labyrinth," the brunette entreated. "Do you know how?"

"I'll help you," Hel'lsiott announced, sending Faryn spinning at how quickly that went.

Unable to contain herself, Faryn burst out, "Your voice is so pretty."

If possible, the clay face of Hel'lsiott blushed. "Thank you. I'm told that I was exceptionally beautiful as a human babe, but that my voice enraptured King Jareth. So he let me keep it when he changed me."

"Awww," the girl couldn't help saying, sending everyone in the room into giggles.

A faint noise penetrated the room, sounding an awful lot like Agnes chiding them.

"Quickly," Hel'lsiott pressed. She produced a bag from under her arm, putting it on a shelf that lined the wall. She tugged it open and let go, but it kept opening. Soon, a huge stone cavern stood before them, no hand bag in sight.

"My sister's a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. C'mon." Then Hel'lsiott pushed Faryn and Ukee through, following behind.

As soon as the girl turned around, she found the junkyard goblin holding her handbag, looking up expectantly at them from an opening that only stretched on to more cave-like areas. Ahead of them, the stony walls turned into giant limestone brick walls, and Faryn was very confused. It kept changing.

"Thank you," she stated in a daze.

Hel'lsiott grinned, tucking her hand bag away into obscurity again. She untied something at her throat, and the cloak of junk came clanging down, allowing her to stand up straight. The goblin still barely cleared four feet, but she looked much happier about it. "There we go. That would be too loud, anyway."

"Coming with us," Faryn asked, a bit surprised. It was as her mother had said. Nothing was as it seemed.

"Of course. Can't go back now - Agnes will be very cross with me," Hel'lsiott grinned belying the idea that this upset her. "Best to come with you until she cools down. And anything that ruffles his highness' feathers seems like fun to me!"

Faryn looked at Ukee, who simply nodded and purred. "All right then. Let's go."

Hel'lsiott took the lead, moving much faster than Faryn had expected. The short goblin stopped nearly as quickly as she'd started, hissing in a sharp breath.

Ukee groaned.

Faryn looked between the goblins in bewilderment, then understanding. "We're not supposed to be here, are we?"

Hel'lsiott glanced at the girl in shame. "It's an old spell, that. Probably just wore out. I'm sorry, lass." She took the bag from her garments and made as if to throw it away when Ukee sounded her protest.

"Sh'not yer bag, Helsh'. Is Faryn's labyrinph. Is stronger than yer maj'rick," the blue goblin explained as she crouched on Faryn's shoulder. Ukee resembled a cat more than ever, with her hackles raised and her tail twitching in annoyance. "We just has ter go on."

They swept into motion, walking just short of a run through the darkened cavern.

Faryn looked at her mother's clock, discovering that the Wide Tract and the hedges had eaten another two hours. "Oh, my," she said softly. "Only four left, now."

Ukee patted her hair gently.

"Looks like we'll be out soon," Hel'lsiott called back.

Sure enough, moments later they stepped into the light again. The brilliant orange sky hung languidly above them, clouds of blue passing lazily across it. The walls, brick sandstone of a soft tan colour, professed another extension of the maze-like labyrinth with their infrequent openings and easy curves. The calm stone pathway with its random stairs and mismatched squares made the place seem like the twisted thoughts of some lazy summer afternoon.

The rag-tag group turned the corner and all the gentleness and colour was sucked from the labyrinth.

It stood a good head above Faryn's already impressive five foot, eleven inches of height. It wore jointed plates of some thick metal on it's shoulders and thighs. The boots and gauntlets were jointed as well, and riddled with spikes that were mottled by something dark and dry. Beneath the ragged remains of a billowing red kimono a breast plate gleamed dully in the fading light. Two glowing yellow eyes stared out form a dark recess bellow a tri-horned helmet.

No sooner had they blinked at it, then the goblin guard drew a slow, heavy sweep with the massive spiked blade in it's claws. Clutching Ukee tightly, Faryn fell more than dove backwards, landing on Hel'lsiott with a chorus of surprised squeaks. Faryn rolled off of the goblin and promptly forgot her as she quickly crab-crawled around the corner with Ukee clinging to her stomach.

The goblin's shadow stretched around the corner, preceding it's terrible form. It stopped before entering the pathway. With one leg bent in front, it's side facing them, it turned it's head roboticly and rose both arms to turn the sword, point facing Faryn's nose.

"You shall not pass."


Gonna respond to all my reviewers now… (Ever seven chapters seems like good timing for it…)

JLF - *preens* I'm not-so-secretly very proud of chapter 6. Hence why 11 has taken me so damned long…. I hope this wasn't too much longer! Thank you so much for your constant reviewing, I'm glad you're (or were until I went on hiatus) still interested!

Originalproxy - Oh, that's good to know! It's not seven, as I planned… I edited out two of them, making me only need to get through 11. Which was the problem… Damned Jareth doesn't want his chapter written. *threatens the goblin king some before realizing there isn't cable internet in an oubliette….* So, anywho. Four! And a fifth one as soon as I get it edited…

Icefire - Merci! It's good to know some of the story is surprising. I've read it so many times in the process of writing it that it seems as though it must have been done one hundred times!

Wingsong - Oh, Eric will be much fleshed out as we go along. Believe it or not, this story is the opener to a very twisted series all about him and his serious mental problems… He's not in this much, but his ripples are. Mwahahaha! *hides from Eric*

Aeria Li - *shakey voice* Thank you for reviewing…. *faints from awe* I love your Fury of the Fae!

Winter - I cannot answer your question on the grounds that I may incriminate myself and cause great harm to my person through the wrath of the all-mighty King Jareth…. (But Faryn and Joshua /are/ really cute…)

Lady Fae - Another cliffhanger for you! (If you're still reading….)

JLF… Is such a spiffy author herself, and everyone should go read the two chapters she has of her Robin Hood ficcie, and encourage her to be inspired!