Author's Note

I didn't realise it had been a year since I updated this story, but apparently it has, so I apologise for that. I hope this chapter is worth the wait, and that you're all well and as safe as you can be. Wear a mask and wash your hands.

Chapter Five: The Goblin King

Sarah had only been walking along the wall for a few moments before a wave of dizziness overcame her. She leant against the stone and closed her eyes for a few moments, taking a few deep breaths and wondering if the exhaustion of her journey was just getting to her, when she noticed a slight stinging in one of her fingers. She lifted her hand, opening her eyes to see a small scar where the fairy had bit her the previous day. It was rather red.

"Perhaps the water in the pool has irritated it somehow," she mumbled to herself.

Deciding not to worry about it now and instead to focus on the task ahead of her, she took another sip of water before continuing along the wall. The end of her journey was so close now, she could feel it, and that thought kept pushing her on. The meadow eventually came to an end, and she found herself walking between piles of old furniture and random knick-knacks. She made sure to stick as close to the wall as she could, although there were now towers of old chairs, tables and all sorts of things leaning against it. She supposed this was where the inhabitants of the goblin city left the old things they did not want anymore, but it seemed a strange place to have a junkyard.

Turning a corner and carefully ducking a under a coat rack, her heart skipped a beat when she noticed the tall gates wide open before her. Through the gates she could see ramshackle houses and buildings, some of them seemed to be defying gravity, leaning so far over they should be falling, but were not. A bustling array of creatures were rushing around, some of them stopping at market stalls, some of them hurrying between homes, she supposed it must be late afternoon by now, so this would be something like their rush hour. Some of them were most certainly goblins, their short stature, big eyes and long fingers reminiscent of the illustrations in the books she had read about them, some of the others were more like the creatures she had encountered in the Labyrinth, all unique and strange in their own way. Above them all the grand castle towered.

Sarah could not keep the smile from her face. It was even more wonderful than she had imagined.

"It's beautiful," she whispered to herself in awe, stepping through the gates.

She got a few curious looks thrown her way as she walked through the city towards the castle and supposed they must not get many human visitors. It was only a short walk to the castle and she soon found herself walking up the castle steps. Peaked inside the open doors, Sarah saw a large entrance hall with a few hallways branching off it. A few goblins wandered about inside, and two goblins stood either side of the doors, looking as if they were guarding it, although they were yawning, and their armour seemed to be made out of a strange assortment of materials. She was pretty sure one of them was wearing a cooking pot on his head. Perhaps they did not get very many invaders.

"Pardon me," she approached one of them, "but where might I go if I need to talk to the king?"

The goblin blinked at her for a few moments, then scratched his nose and said, "Well, he still be holdin' audiences in the throne room, ain't that right, Tumble?"

The other guard nodded, "S'right, Rumble, you want to be going down the centre hallway, Missy."

"Thank you," she smiled at them both, then made her way into the castle.

It was a sparsely decorated castle, most of the walls and floors left as bare stone, with torches held up on the walls by stone brackets. There were occasionally paintings on the walls, most of them landscapes from the Labyrinth rather than portraits. She thought she saw something move in one of the paintings out of the corner of her eyes, but when she turned to look at it, it was perfectly still.

Walking further on, she began to hear people talking and soon turned a corner to see grand double doors leading into what must be the throne room, judging by the queue of creatures leading up to it. This must be the queue for the audiences, she realised, and joined the back of it. The goblin in front of her was holding a chicken, and a basket of odd multi-coloured eggs.

Noticing her looking, the goblin explained, "Chicken ran into a bad spell, she did, now she keep laying these funny eggs. Weird things keep cracking out of them too, I'm gonna see if the king can get rid of the spell."

Sarah looked at the chicken and noticed it did have a strangely crazed expression about it, it clucked at her and she nervously nodded. "Well, I hope he can do that for you."

The goblin smiled at her, then turned around again as the queue moved forward. It was a short queue, and it was not long before she entered the room. The queue wound around the edge of the room to where it reached the throne at the other end of the room. It was an unconventional throne, a circular shape, draped with dusky purple fabric.

And upon the throne, sat the most beautiful man Sarah had ever seen. And not just any man, the one from her dream, she realised as another wave of dizziness swept over her. She leant against the wall as she took in his appearance, his soft wild hair, pale skin, sharp blue, mismatched eyes, soft pink lips quirked up in a lopsided smirk as he listened to the goblin in front of him ramble on about some kind of dispute involving potatoes. He wore a beautiful blue jacket, with an attached cloak that swept down from his shoulders to the floor, a white billowing shirt tucked into tight blue leggings and black boots, both of which seemed perfectly sculpted to fit his legs. Around his neck hung a strange pendant, something like a triangle, with its two lower points curving downwards, made from some kind of dark silver metal. It was oddly mesmerising, but she managed to tear her gaze away a few moments after she realised she was staring, and looked down at her feet, concentrating on taking careful footsteps as the queue edged along, trying not to let her nerves and the persistent dizziness overwhelm her.

Questions ran through her mind. Why had she dreamed of the king? How had she dreamed of the king before she had met him? She supposed such a thing was possible with magic, but she was unsure why whatever magic was at play in the Labyrinth would use the image of the king himself to try and distract her from her goal.

Eventually it was the turn of goblin with the strange chicken, and she listened absentmindedly as the goblin explained the problem to the king. She braved a look at him, and saw him watching the goblin, slightly amused but nodding along. He did not appear to have looked at her yet, but he must have noticed her appearance in the room. She must surely be an unusual sight.

His solution to the chicken problem was to conjure a crystal orb in his gloved hand, and Sarah let out a small gasp at the display of magic. She had seen many things on her journey, but had yet to see someone use magic themselves, and it was stunning to see. There was a twitch in his lips that hinted that he may have heard her gasp, but other than that he simply leant forward and dropped the crystal over the chicken's head. It cracked like an egg, then dissolved in a shower of glitter. When the cloud of glitter had disappeared, the chicken looked calmer, and fluffed its feathers in a pleased manner.

The Goblin King smiled. "She should be fine now," he stated in a soft, calm voice, and the goblin bowed, thanking the king before rushing along. None of the visitors seemed to have to make any payment for the king's help, and she wondered if it was a duty of his to help them without asking anything in return. She had thought that the king of the goblins might actually be a goblin, nothing in her book had mentioned what he was, now that she thought about it, but she saw now that he was obviously fae, and most of his kind would ask for some kind of tricky payment in return for help. It made her nervous, but Hoggle had said that it was true that if you completed the Labyrinth the king would grant you a wish, and she had done that, so hopefully she would not have to offer any other kind of payment, although she would do so if she had to, for her family.

She realised it was her turn and quickly moved to stand in front of the throne, bowing. She supposed it might have been more proper to curtsey, but she thought she might look a little silly doing that while wearing trousers.

"Your Majesty," she made herself look up at him as she stood up straight from her bow. He was watching her with an expression that she could not quite read, but there was something that might be curiosity in his eyes.

He nodded slightly, speaking again in his soft voice, "Might I know the name of the lady who has made her way so determinedly through my Labyrinth?" She understood how faeries could so easily lure and persuade, with voices like that.

She knew it was unwise to give away her full name, so she simply said, "Sarah, Your Majesty."

He slowly nodded, his hand moving to trace along his jaw, and she swallowed as she watched his graceful fingers. It was quite difficult to concentrate in his presence. "Have you come with a wish, Sarah?"

She took a deep breath and nodded, not letting herself look away from him. "I have, Sire, I have come to wish for a better life for my family."

He gazed at her for a moment, then simply said, "That's rather vague."

She blinked at him in confusion, that was not what she had expected. After a few moments she managed to say, "I don't understand." The smart looking goblin standing next to the throne frowned at her in disapproval and she hastily added, "Your Majesty."

The Goblin King leaned back in his throne. "You will need to be more specific. What do you mean by "a better life"? What exactly am I supposed to do? Have you really thought this through?"

She felt her cheeks warm, frustration making her speak perhaps not as respectfully as she should have done. "Of course I have, I didn't come here just on a whim, and I think you know I wouldn't have got through the Labyrinth if I didn't mean my wish."

He raised his eyebrows at her, but did not say anything, apparently still waiting for her to elaborate on her wish.

She took a calming breath and tried to explain herself. "At the moment, my parents have to spend everything they make from work, just to get by. I want them to be able to afford more, have a house that's big enough for all of us, to be able to get my little brother presents on his birthdays, and medicine when he's ill. I don't want them to have to worry about money all the time."

He considered her for a few moments, then said, "A rather selfless wish, you want nothing for yourself?"

She scrunched her nose, annoyed by his questioning. She let out a sigh and shook her head. "I have had selfish moments in my life, and I do not want to relive then."

"So you make this wish from a feeling of guilt? To make amends for your past selfishness?" He leant forward as he spoke, and she pressed her lips together to prevent herself from making an angry retort. Why was he making such assumptions?

"No." She said firmly, lifting her chin and looking him in the eyes. "Haven't you ever done something for people you cared about simply because you cared for them and wanted to see them happy?"

She realised it was the wrong thing to say the moment she had finished saying it. The goblin standing by the throne stared at her in shock, and the king himself stood up, a flash of fury in his eyes.

She felt a flicker of fear but tried to stand her ground and look up at him, even as the dizziness made another appearance.

She thought she might have heard him growl, and he bared his sharp teeth before he spoke, this time with none of the softness of before, his tone far more harsh. "You dare presume to ask me such a thing? You -," but whatever he said next was lost to her as she swayed, the room swimming out of focus.

She had a growing feeling of dread, this surely was not just normal exhaustion, and she looked up at the king, panicking slightly, and found him surprisingly concerned.

"Are you unwell?" He asked, his voice soft again.

She made to speak but only gasped as the world seemed to spin around her. Arms caught her and she clung to whoever held her, still feeling like she was falling, down and down and down, until everything went dark.