Alia decided that she accepted all of this so easily because things happened this way in fantasy stories. If things did not happen this way, there would be no fantasy stories. Then, halfway through dinner, she thought of another question that should have been bothering her. She brought it up over dessert.
"You keep saying that things must be done a certain way to follow the prophecy. Just what is this prophecy exactly?"
Tieran reclined in his chair at the opposite end of the table. "The prophecy seems to have originated centuries ago in the Labyrinth and was, for some reason, recorded in an ancient tongue not commonly in use even then. When translated it runs:
Another will come to the castle beyond the Labyrinth, beyond the Goblin City,
Who will not pass the Labyrinth
And yet, will pass through trials,
Seeing what others cannot –
The stone that is not as it seems.
Another will come,
To take back what is needed, what is stolen,
That which is not as it seems,
The dream, the circle, the orb, the aliment,
For the life of one who is dear.
It sounds much better in the original tongue, but that is the basic meaning. I interpreted it to mean you." He started ticking off points of correspondence. "In one of the languages of your world your name means 'another' and Cara's means 'dear.' Did you know that?"
Alia nodded, "Yes, my mother was a history buff. It's a long story. I don't know the story behind Cara's name."
"You saw the stone," Tieran continued. "You need the peaches – what it means by dream, orb, and aliment.
"It seems to say that you do not go through the Labyrinth, but you do go through trials. You will see on the map later that you will need to go through these mountains we are in and a small desert – the trials, I believe." He leaned forward in his chair.
"The line 'To take back what is needed, what is stolen,' could mean that you take something that was stolen before. But, nothing has been stolen from you and nothing has been stolen here in the Underground. I think, therefore, that it means you will steal the peaches – instead of writing politely for them. Unfortunately."
"How do we know it wasn't something from somewhere else that was stolen?"
"We do not. We must use what we think we have deciphered and hope things work themselves right in the end." He gestured to Alia's plate. "Are you finished? Shall we go look at the map?"
They walked to the library on the other side of the house. Alia could see faint moonlight reflecting off the pale stone of the colonnade outside the library's tall windows. Tieran took a long roll out of a cabinet and spread it on an oversized table nearby. As he weighted it down at the corners, Alia walked over to the table. She puzzled over the unintelligible place names.
"Come around to this side of the table. You are looking at it upside down," Tieran suggested.
Alia walked around the table to look at the map the right way up, but remained illiterate. Now that she looked at them longer, she noticed that the artist had written the labels in the same runic script she had seen briefly in the movie.
"We are here." Tieran pointed to a spot in a range of mountains on the map. "The Labyrinth is here." He pointed to an area some distance to the north of the mountains. What seemed to be a painstakingly precise drawing of a maze covered the area, but after a second look it blurred. She tried looking at it more closely, but still it distorted and shifted.
Tieran watched her. "You will give yourself a headache if you try to look at it for very long. The movement makes it difficult for your eyes to focus."
"You mean it really is moving?"
"Yes, the map updates itself continuously."
"The whole map?"
"Yes. Only Labyrinth changes fast enough to notice."
"Amazing. That would come in handy."
"Knowing where you are going does you no good if it has moved by the time you get there. In any case, you will not need a map for the Labyrinth. As you can see, the castle is on this side of the Labyrinth and the Goblin City. What you will need to do is travel through these mountains and forests and across this small desert to the castle."
"Over the mountains and through the woods to Jareth's house I go," Alia recited in a singsong voice. "What is this line here?" She pointed near the castle.
"That is the cliff the castle sits on. Unless we can find another way, I am afraid you will need to climb it."
"I fervently hope we find another way. I've never gone rock climbing in my life. What about the desert?"
"There is an oasis, here. I will try to direct you toward it. You also should be able to carry enough water with you to make it across in two nights."
"How am I going to get back out without Jareth catching me? Assuming he doesn't catch me in the act?"
"You could come back the same way. Or I could transport you with magic, but doing that would alert Jareth. That is why you are traveling on foot and why I cannot go with you. He would feel the magic and, by general agreement, we do not enter others' lands without permission. I will only be able to transport you back if he does not prevent it in some way."
"What about keeping in contact with me? You said you were going to do that. What will we use? Radios? Smoke signals?"
"No, that will be a low, constant level of magic. It will blend in with the natural background levels of magic and he will not notice it."
"That's convenient. I hope you're right. I don't see how I'll make it back on foot, though. He would be able to catch up too easily. What is the rest of the map?"
"Other lands in the Underground. Many of the lands you read about in your stories are in the Underground. It is the land of your fantasies and fairy tales."
Alia yawned despite her interest.
"You should go to bed if you are going to leave tomorrow. Do you remember the way to your room?"
"I think so."
"I will see you tomorrow morning, then. I have a few things to finish yet. Good night."
Alia left Tieran in the library and found her way back to her room. She found a nightgown in the wardrobe and continued looking at the clothes, trying to find things suitable for the journey now that she had some idea of what she would encounter. She could not think of anything that would work everywhere. Alia gave up for the night, changed and went to bed.
.....
...he must rescue the Prince...he sees the scaffold, tries to climb to the top of the skeleton structure...something prevents him from reaching the top, from pulling himself over the edge...the Enemies could be anywhere...he sees the stack of thin metallic disks within his reach and desperately grabs them before the enemy removes them...the disks are crucial...he must have all of them...the sharp edges of the individual disks bite into his fingers and palm...one hand is not enough to hold him on the platform and he begins to fall...magic cannot save him...he falls awkwardly, but lands on his feet on the hard packed ground, turns and runs from the enemy...she runs along the chain link fence through the soft, sandy, orange dirt...it drags at her feet...she sinks in up to her ankles and higher...it sucks at her feet and legs, slowing her down more the faster she tries to run from the Enemy...
He rolled over wildly, throwing off the covers, and nearly fell out of the bed. He caught himself and lay near the edge of the bed breathing heavily. He had had another one of those dreams that he had been having for weeks now – for so long that there was a familiarity about them.
But now, after weeks of essentially the same dream over and over, this one had changed. Instead of waking up falling or running as had happened most times before, there was the young woman. He ran his hands through his hair in perplexity. Where did she come from?
He called for a goblin to bring him something to drink. He received not even a snore in response. Sitting up and looking around, he could see no goblin anywhere in the room.
"Damn, another one gone. One of the more intelligent ones, too."
Disclaimers, credits, and trivia:
Labyrinth, etc. belongs to the Jim Henson Company.
That map that changes? That really isn't mine. I originally borrowed that idea from a book called Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony. Only, in the book, it isn't a map but a tapestry hanging on the wall playing history back for a character who watches it like television. And of course nowadays there's the Marauder's Map from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, but this was before I'd read that.