Chapter: Of Shadows and Blood
They walked through the open halls in uneasy silence, save from the steady rhythm of Sarah's hard soled leather boots.
Sarah's face was a mask off determination, as she gripped the ruby crystal, in her leather clad hand. This was it, the labyrinth's very survival rested on her shoulders, the lives of every, denizen of the realm were about to pass into her untried hands.
Casting a quick glance up at the expressionless profile floating beside her, she swallowed down a wave of unease. Gafael was strictly speaking a handsome man, with a strong profile, and a thick fall of silver white hair, which had been pulled back from his face, bringing the clean lines of his cheekbones and ridiculously sharp jawline into painful focus.
Thick white eyelashes, fluttered like owl wings, every time he blinked, yet despite the movement, he still looked like a drowned man staring up through thick ice.
"So what are you? are you a fey or what?"
The sudden question startled him, making him blink slowly, as he smiled down at her, turning those pale dead eyes down at her." What do you think your highness? how does your human eyes perceive me?"
His voice, was low and strangely hoarse, as if he was speaking despite being strangled.
She didn't quite understand it yet, but the sound made her somehow sad, as if she had just witnessed something cruel she couldn't prevent.
Shaking the feeling she focused on the open halls built from golden sandstone, stretching out in front of her.
" Hmm I don't know, your eyes makes me think about some kind of dead man, but hell I don't know..."
"you are closer than you would think, my lady.. I am indeed of the eternal realm, I was, when I still drew mortal breath, a warrior of the Emerald Isles, and though my passing wrest my memory from me, I know that I have once had some renown, or else my mistress would have let me pass to the eternal rest unnoticed. But as it were she chose me, and I became a wraith."
Stopping dead in her tracks, Sarah gaped in open-mouthed astonishment as the solid shadow continued a few more steps before noticing her absence, turning to look at her: "Your Highness?"
" Are you serious? did she hold you back from your eternal rest to take you as a consort? Did you even have a choice in this?"
Puzzlement filled his white eyes with a discomforting warmth and life, as he grinned widely. "Oh of course I did, as I lay dying I pleaded with the goddess of death to be granted eternal life, to be taken to her halls, and not go to the mist of oblivion. If I had not wanted to be her consort I could simply have let myself slip... "
His eyes flickered to his left, as two knee-high Goblins raced past the doorway they had stopped in front of, in hot pursuit of two terrified chickens.
"But this is not important, your highness, please time grows short. Soon it will be too late."
" Yeah Yeah you are right, I'm procrastinating... Get me to the glade, and let's do this.."
The Goblin castle, was far bigger than Sarah had imagined as a child, or been given opportunity to see as Oberon had carried a bleeding Jareth to his rooms.
Long hallways stretched out along its perimeter, with portals and doors leading into vast rooms with every kind of furnishing, or new seemingly endless hallways, adorned with rich tapestries, huge paintings or simply naked sandstone.
But the pair didn't stop to savour the soft breezes as they passed huge windows and open doors opening the castle to small intimate courtyards and huge endless gardens.
It was a dead wind that swept against them, billowing Sarah's skirt and cloak out behind her, like the wings of some black bird, as they exited the enormous double doors.
Stopping on the wide stairs Sarah watched the undulating mist, as it's massive tendrils crept over the outer wall, as if tasting the magic within. Black shapes towered over the labyrinth as the mist rose up to block out the golden orb of the sun.
" oh god what is that?"
" You are right to call them gods my lady, thought there are more than one, it is the forgotten elder gods, abandoned when the veil was born, they hunger for the magic from which they are banned, and if the mist swallows the labyrinth then they will devour all."
" Oookay I see your point, so where is the glade?"
Nodding Gafael, simple glided down the steps as a wicked looking longsword with a serrated black blade, appeared in his left hand.
" Come my lady, and stay close, this part of the labyrinth is still feral and I fear that the vanning strength of its king has done nothing to bring it to heel."
" Okay, so what do I do if we are attacked? "
"You run..."
. . . . .
There was no sound but the gravel crunching under her boots, as they traveled through the darkening pathways. Shuddering against the encroaching cold winds Sarah pulled the surprisingly warm cloak tighter around her.
Gafael had been nothing but silent tension since they had entered the Labyrinth, his wide shoulders set with determination, as he had pulled the hood back over his head, all but vanishing from sight as he passed through the thick shadows.
The walls seemed to breathe fear and a savage energy, that made Sarah's hair stand on end, as she tried to avoid stepping on any of the tiny creatures scurrying around her feet.
"My lady? "
Startled Sarah stopped dead in her tracks as Gafael's dead eyes appeared suddenly mere centimetres from her face.
" God Gafael, you almost scared me to death, don't do that! !"
Pressing her free hand against her wildly pounding heart, Sarah used the movement to take two steps back, bringing herself out of his private sphere, only to find her back pressed against the slimy slick and crumbling stone wall of a dead-end.
"Gafael? "
His eyes were slowly bleeding into a cloudy crimson, as a cruel smile spread onto his face, sniffing the air, he licked his full lips and rasped. " Hmm your blood will stave off the final death with such sweet strength, My queen has been truly generous to grant me such a boon, and I shall not fail her."
Time slowed to a crawl as his black blade speared through the air, aimed at her heart, with a sibilant hiss.
All thoughts vanished as Sarah just reacted, twisting right, she kicked out, feeling her leg pass through the darkness where she had expected to meet a solid leg. Stunned Sarah stumbled through the wraith pushing his sword away, as she almost lost her balance.
Catching herself against the overgrown wall, she didn't stop her momentum but used it as she launched herself down the dimly lit corridor at a dead run.
Mindless terror nibbled at her heels as Sarah threw herself right at the first junction, racing ahead of the merciless pounding of her heart.
Cold foreign thoughts enveloped her mind, like the mists of the veil.
He was going to kill her, he was going to run that wicked blade through her, before sinking those teeth into her flesh and drinking her soul through her blood as he watched her life drain from her eyes.
Desperate tears blurred her vision, yet she could not slow down, she... Turning left, she clutched the crystal in white knuckled fingers, she had to protect it, had to hold on, if she dropped it, it would be death for all she held dear. Images of Ludo and Sir Didymus, danced around her pulling her left and right at different junctions, pulling her towards...
It was like having a bucket of icy water and live bugs poured over her head, as a cold dead hand landed heavily on her left shoulder, jerking her to a hold and forcing her to her knees with jarring force.
" No.. "
This couldn't be it, she couldn't fail like this.
Frigid fingers squeezed her shoulder, making her bones creak, and scream as he forced her to face him.
Running his free hand through her hair, Gafael gripped it, and used it as a handle to force her head back, leaving her no choice but to look him straight in the face, as he exposed her slender neck.
OH GOD HIS FACE!
Gone was the pale perfection, staring in open mouthed horror at the blacken ruin snarling down at her, Sarah wanted nothing more than to get away from the sickening stench that enveloped the fire ravaged being.
His face was charred skin and seared bones peaking through crumbling flesh, his milky white eyes had become pools of bloody flames, that seared into Sarah's soul and made her gasp in terror.
"Scream for me mortal... scream as you die... "
Dagger fangs descended as his jaws gaped impossibly high.
No, this was not how she died... not now, not ever. She had too much to live form too many lives depending on her. No just...no...
Slamming her hands against the cold stone of the Labyrinth wall, Sarah felt the responding and comforting familiar thrumming of it's soul. Latching on she instinctively thrust her power into the stone below her imbuing the vanning Labyrinth with strength, whispering "save me " as the claws of the wraith pierced leather and cloth ripping at her soft flesh below, drawing blood as the stone dissolved below her, sucking her down like quicksand.