Chapter: The Runic Knot

The world grew black and still, here there were no pain no body, no life but the slow steady drum of the Labyrinths heart, and the frantic, but gently slowing pulse in her own chest.

Chest, she had a chest, and if she had a chest, she had a body and a head... and if she had a head... Soft light teased her closed eyes, painting warm golden patterns through her mind.

" Wake up little miss, you can rest soon enough, but not yet... not yet.."

"Hoggle?"

Opening her eyes, Sarah groaned as the light turned her vision into liquid gold.

Sitting up slowly, she winced as the movement sent pain searing out of her ripped shoulder, and down her arm and back, as she rubbed at her eyes, clearing them.

Birds chirped above her, perched in the enormous trees that made up the hidden glades massive walls. Light fell in bright shafts illuminating the thick moss carpet, and lush green grass covering the forest floor, setting the trickling brook ablaze like tumbling diamonds, as it wound its way to the mirror like pond in the centre of the glade.

Standing slowly, Sarah gripped her bleeding shoulder tightly with a trembling hand in a vain attempt at stemming the blood, as her eyes searched the empty glade for the dwarf.

" Hoggle? is that you? this is not funny, stop hiding... HOGGLE!"

The birds fell silent at her call, but that only lasted a minute or so, then the choir resumed their hymn.

She was alone, utterly, and completely... Alone.

Shaking her head to clear it, Sarah ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it out of her face, to flow loosely down her back.

She was being silly, and she knew it, she was right where she needed to be, and there was NO reason for Hoggle to be there, he was at the castle, taking care of Jareth... oh good and now she was talking to herself.

The wound beneath her hand throbbed and burned as she wobbled to the small pond, and knelt on the smooth stone at its edge. Looking into the mirror still surface, she winced at the pale shocked face staring back up at her, her eyes looked like a terrified child's, huge and brimming with tears.

Scooping up water with her bloody hand she splashed it into her face, relishing in the sudden stab of cold as it cleared her mind, making the attack feel more distant. Reaching up once more she covered the wound with her cool hand, flinching as the cold made the her ripped muscles spasm and contract.

The world was slowly, but surely becoming fuzzy and strangle numb, stealing the sense of urgency away.

Blinking lazily, Sarah watched as her blood trickled slowly down her arm, to drip onto the smooth white surface, like rain.

Stone... there was something she needed to do to the stone, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what that something had been, and as the waves of fatigue washed over her, it no longer seemed to matter. Wetting her dry lips, Sarah raised her face into the warm spear of gentle sunlight, letting the sound of birds lift her into the gold.

"Sarah! wake up Little miss, don't let them steal this away, come on lass, yer can do this for Jareth, come on."

Hands big, rough and gentle lifted and cradled her face. Pulsing with power, they filled her with strength, pushing the fuzziness away, filling her with purpose, and focus.

Jareth, Ludo, Hoggle, Sir Didymus... The faces of those she loved floated before her, smiling, calling out to her telling her to do what needed doing.

The rune knot...

Letting her hand drop from her shoulder, Sarah whimpered, as she dipped her finger in her own spilled blood and began to draw.

Each line and curve represented an aspect of the labyrinth and its masters, each needed to be precise and prefect.

Biting down on her lower lips, Sarah groaned as the strain of kneeling made her back and shoulder spasm and ache, it hurt but she could not stop, once started the knot had to be drawn in one continuous line.

The world wavered and spun as she pushed through the waves of nausea, while the power began to gather in a vortex of magic and pain, contorting reality into wavering shadows that danced around her erasing the details of everything they touched until all that remained solid were the stone and her hand as she finished the knot, and reached for the crystal...

Oh SWEET LORD! NO... Fears burned the World back into sharp focus as realization dawned on her, she had lost the crystal!

Panic gripped her mind and send her thoughts reeling, the crystal must have been lost in that final moment when Gafael had grabbed her, hope flared maybe it had been sucked down like she had and... Maybe...

Sitting back on her heels, Sarah swayed as the sudden movement reminded her of the amount of blood, she was spilling on the ground. Rubbing her bloody hand across her eyes, she succeeded only in gumming her tired lids firmly together, with the drying liquid, forcing her to ball up the edge of her cloak, to rub her eyes open again.

Exhaustion rippled through her entire frame, as she searched the glade with desperate eye, and only one thought in her mind. Please please please be here, please...

Defeat, deep utter defeat slumped her shoulders, and ripped a whimpering keen from Sarah's lips. This was it, there was no sign of the crystal in the low grass and thick moss.

She had let go! She had failed them and now they would all die because she could not hold onto something that was a part of herself...

A part of herself..

Realisation dawned on her as the words echoed through her quickly fading mind, the magic was a part of her, and to lose hold of it was no more possible than it was to lose hold of her own head.

All she had to do was...

Holding up her hand Sarah sighed and let her magic reach out like Jareth had so painstakingly taught her, calling to the object, willing it to materialise in the palm of her hand.

Darkness licked at edge of her world as she strained, and pulled with her mind. Pain flared, making stars of brilliant white burst in front her eyes, yet Sarah did not relent. Gasping she shook like a wind born leaf... Then as darkness threatened to closed in obscuring her world, she felt it...

It was smooth and heavy in her palm, the power held inside a swirl of both her and Jareth, a potent mix of male and female, mortality and eternity and Life, love and. ..

The crystal slipped from her numb fingers and into the pool with a barely audible splash, as her lips formed the words. "Our hearts to yours, Our blood to thee, we bind you as you bind... us."

The moss felt like silk against her cold skin, her fingers trailing in the cool brook, as the voice of Hoggle whispered." Rest little Queen, and let me carry you home..."