A/N: The formatting should be a little better on this chapter. Still learning my way around the system. Thanks muchly for your patience! -PC
The words reverberated in the room, and a moment later, Hoggle and Didymus stepped out of the mirror.
"Good day, my lady." Didymus bowed over her hand.
"Are you ready, Sarah?" Hoggle asked. "We got in to see Jareth last night and he told us he'd try to talk to you…"
"He did…"
"Good. Then I guess you know what to do when we get to the palace?"
"I…I think so."
"Sir Hoggle, we should be on our way," Didymus urged. "There is no time to waste."
"Right." Hoggle rummaged in his jewel pouch, and came out with a crystal ball like Jareth's. Seeing the surprised look on Sarah's face, he explained. "We got it from the King, last night. You can't go the same way we do; he had to put a spell in the crystal in order to bring you to the Underground, since he can't bring you himself."
Didymus opened her bedroom window, and Hoggle threw the crystal out the window. For a moment, nothing happened…then slowly, blooming outward from the crystal like a flower, was the landscape of the Underground. The Labyrinth surrounded the castle, just like she remembered, but the city appeared busier than she'd seen it…
"Come on," Hoggle urged. "The spell won't last long."
They helped her step through the window, and onto the dusty, ochre ground that she remembered from her first visit. She turned, and with no surprise, saw that her bedroom had disappeared, and that all she saw was more of the Underground land.
Hoggle took her hand, starting to pull her along. "We've gotta hurry."
"What is all that?" she asked, pointing towards the city, even as the dwarf tugged her down the hill.
"Hamel's army," Hoggle answered.
"Foul ruffians," Didymus was muttering. "If I ever cross blades with them again, I'll…"
"Ssssh!" Hoggle whispered. "We're going to have to sneak back into the Labyrinth."
"Isn't there an easier way?"
Hoggle shook his head at Sarah's question. "All the easy ways are patrolled by Hamel's army. Even though it's the rules, he doesn't want Jareth to be able to contact a Champion, or get that Champion to the palace."
"Wait a minute – what rules? How do you know about this whole Champion thing, whatever it is?"
Hoggle urgently waved her silent. "All we know is what Jareth told us last night," he whispered. "It's the rules; he gets a Champion, and he's picked you. So now we've got to get you to the palace so that he can tell you everything. Lucky for us, Jareth is still in control of the Labyrinth, which means that nothing's changed…which means that I still know all the shortcuts, including some that Hamel hasn't found yet. So, assuming we can get in, it's a piece of cake."
"What about the getting in part?"
"Eh…" Hoggle looked uncomfortable. "That's not so easy. There's only one way to open the gates, and I don't think we can get that close."
They were concealed behind a combination of rubble and bushes, and all four were peering out at the main gates of the Labyrinth.
"Doesn't the King have ways in?"
"Magic ways," said Hoggle, with a shake of his head. "No good to us."
"Wait a minute…" Sarah leaned out, trying to get a better look. "Are those gates…stone?"
"Yeah, why?" In the next instant, Hoggle grasped what she was saying. "Of course! But then how's Ludo going to get inside with us?"
"You really think they'll try and stop him, with rocks rolling all over?"
"Good point," the dwarf muttered. "Okay – Ludo, can you call the rocks, and then call the gates open?"
"Sure," the monster mumbled.
"This does kind of wreck the element of surprise," Sarah pointed out. "Not that I've got any better ideas…"
"We'll go fast," Hoggle promised. "The route I'm going to take us on is one of the shortest in the whole Labyrinth. It'll take barely fifteen minutes. Hamel will hardly know we're here."
"And if what the King said is right, when we get to the castle, subtlety isn't a worry," Sarah added. "All right, let's do it."
A moment later, Ludo stood up, and began issuing the telltale moans from his throat. The guards wheeled around where they stood, yelling in surprise, and then in fear, as giant boulders began to rumble across the plain in front of the gates.
Ludo moaned again, and the gates began to swing open. Hoggle grabbed Sarah's hand. "C'mon!" he yelled. "We can't waste any time!"
They sprinted across the field, Didymus riding on Ludo's shoulder, and were through the gates in seconds. Even as they cleared the great doors, Ludo was already moaning to shut them, and they clapped shut just as his tail passed through.
The party stopped to catch their breath once the gates were shut. "Good plan," Sarah panted, her hands on her knees.
"Thanks," Hoggle wheezed.
Once everyone had rested a moment, Hoggle led them at a fast walk down the outside corridor of the Labyrinth.
"Isn't there a route that would take us straight to the castle?" Sarah asked, as Hoggle led them left at yet another fork.
"Yeah, but we don't want to go that way. Like I said, Hamel knows all the easy ways. We're stuck with the harder ones."
"Oh, yeah."
They stopped at a dead end, and Hoggle began knocking on the bricks of the wall, listening intently after each knock. He quickly found what he was looking for, and rapped three times on one brick. There was a sound of gears grinding, the crumble of dust falling, and the entire wall slid back, revealing a dark, long corridor.
"This is it!" Hoggle grinned, motioning them in. "Don't worry about the light; the torches go on when you walk in."
Once Ludo was in, bringing up the rear, the wall began sliding shut again. Hoggle took the lead, as before. "You wanna know the best thing about this way through the Labyrinth, Sarah?" he asked happily.
"Sure."
"You can only use this way if you're going to the castle on a mission from the King! So Hamel might find it, but he won't be able to use it."
"That's…great, Hoggle." Sarah didn't exactly see what good that was going to do them at the moment, but a little extra information never hurt…
As Hoggle had promised, the trip took about ten minutes. The corridor was long and winding, but straight on, so there was no danger of getting lost. Finally, they reached a wall: a dead end.
Hoggle brushed cobwebs off a lever to the left side of the wall, and gave it a firm pull. As before, gears ground and dust fell as the wall slid back. They exited quickly, the wall shutting behind them.
Almost immediately, Hoggle motioned for quiet, then pressed himself flat against one of the Labyrinth's walls, inching towards the corner. Sarah and Ludo, with Didymus riding, followed his example. The four of them peered around the wall.
They were at the edge of the Labyrinth, standing on a long, dirt road that led directly through the Goblin City and up to the castle gates. The road was full of marching soldiers, and a group of at least ten guarded the gates.
"Now what?" Sarah whispered.
"Uh…tell you the truth, I'm kind of out of ideas…" Hoggle mumbled.
"Should we just make a run for it?" she wondered.
"I fear there are too many of them, my Lady," Didymus said mournfully. "We would not stand a chance of victory. What exactly is it that thou must do?"
"He just said that when I get to the gates, to say that I'm the King's Champion." Hoggle grumbled. "It might work better to say it now, so you can get to the gates in the first place."
Sarah paused, struck by the thought. Would that work? "No," she said finally. "We can't do that."
"Well, why not?"
"Because…because, that's the way it's done," she said softly, with a nostalgic smile.
"Aye," said Didymus, after a pause. "Thou must declare thyself his Champion at the gates of the castle. That is the way it is done, verily. And so that is the way you must do it."
Hoggle grumbled again. "Seems like we can never do it the sensible way, we have to do it "the way it's done"."
"Wait a minute…" Sarah was looking at one of the houses, and specifically, the pile of old, dirty blankets lying in the trash heap next to it. "Do they have…beggars…in the Underground?"
"Alms…alms, for the poor…"
The four of them shuffled along, wrapped in the dirty blankets from the trash pile. Sarah was hoping that the stink alone would keep anyone that was too curious away, and judging by the reactions of several of the soldiers, it seemed to be working.
They were almost at the gates. Just a few more feet…
"Halt!"
Of course.
"What business have you at the palace, old beggars?"
One of the soldiers at the gates was pointing something very long and sharp-looking at Hoggle, who was in the lead. His voice emerged as a creak from deep within the blankets.
"We come to beg alms from His Majesty King Hamel, sir…"
"His Majesty has no time for beggars. Go back to the city, filth!"
Hoggle made as if to shuffle back, then in one movement, knocked the soldier's weapon aside and threw off his hood. "Is this close enough?" he yelled. "Hurry, Sarah!"
Sarah tossed off her blankets as well, and charged through the soldiers, coming to stand directly before the gates. Taking a deep breath, she yelled as loudly as she could:
"King Hamel! Hear me! I am Sarah, of the Upper World, and I have come to Champion His Majesty, King Jareth of the Underground!"
