Chapter Five: Portals
Everything seemed to echo in that space; her squelching footsteps, her dripping clothes, the sound of her breath. Sarah took one of the glowing orbs from its sconce in the wall – her lighter was intact but very wet – and held it out in front of her. She had hope it would keep her hands warm, but if was cool to the touch. She moved quickly up the stairs, trying to exercise her way out of chattering teeth.
The risers and railings of the staircase were carved with the faces of terrible beasts, the twisting branches of dead trees, and scenes of stern Fae folk. The treads were slick and shiny and Sarah almost slipped many times. Finally a doorway opened, carved abruptly out of the wall. An impassive stone face carved into the peak of the arch watched Sarah as she slipped through.
She was in a tunnel, rougher hewn than the cave, and sloping gently upwards. The cold orb-light made strange shadows from the rocks.
"Well, a ramp is better than a staircase," Sarah reasoned, "and you had to go through a door eventually."
She advanced upwards, trying to keep track of the minutes as they passed.
"One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. What do I do when I get to sixty Mississippi? Do I start again? I'll forget how many minutes there are. If I just keep going will I have to keep dividing by sixty?"
She kept talking quietly to herself and tried to ignore the scuttling sounds behind her.
"I can't have been rowing for more than three hours. But it took me about an hour to get down that cliff face. And I was climbing that staircase for a while... let's say that plus the time I've been in here is another hour and a half. So that's... almost half my time." She took a deep breath. "Alright, that's ok. I've made it to the castle already. I've definitely almost died more times than in the Labyrinth but I am definitely making better time."
This place had clearly been made by the Fae, not goblins. Had that hill really been on the edge of the Labyrinth as it had always been, or was it somewhere else? Was it the generic 'welcome to fairyland' hill that appeared for all magically transported travellers, or had this ancient-seeming tower and an ocean full of beasts really sprung up in the space of two years?
The tunnel abruptly levelled out and widened, becoming a round chamber with doorway-peppered walls. The doorways were different shapes and sizes, carved with varying degrees of skill and care. Sarah spun around in a circle, looking for some kind of hint or sign. Some had faces carved above them, or strange runes on the threshold. She didn't know if any of them looked right, but many of them certainly looked wrong.
"Hello?" she called softly, against her better judgement. It had worked out alright before, so why not try again?
"Sarah..."
The sound was barely a whisper, full of pain, blowing up from a doorway to her left. A vein of quartz in the shape of a lightning bolt snaked from the ceiling to the top of the doorway, and the architrave was carved with many eyes which swivelled to stare at her. She swallowed, suddenly noticing how dry her throat was.
"Sarah..."
She leaped across the threshold and started to run.
The tunnel floor was rough and she stumbled many times, catching herself on the wall. Her palms and elbows and knees all bled from falling and catching, falling and catching. If the voice was calling her name still, she wouldn't have been able to hear it; her breath was too ragged, her steps too loud.
The floor dropped away suddenly, and Sarah almost fell. She was at the top of another staircase, leading down into rough, round room lit with flaming torches. And there, in the centre, suspended by chains, was a ragged blonde figure who was calling her name.