Please re-read the last four paragraphs of chapter 2; i've changed some things so that the next chapters can be understood.~Thank you.
Sarah had brought several amenities with her in hopes that the Labyrinth would not wreak havoc on her battery operated electronic items. Her alarm/cd/radio was her most prized possession and when it signaled for her to awake she felt like just three hours of sleep would not be enough to get her thru what was about to come.
She had no choice. Many things in the days to come would have to be enough or everyone would suffer because of her failure, where was Jareth. Sarah headed to the window to call upon Hoggle to ensure that everything was coming along as planned.
"Sarah, we's have a problem." Sarah heaved a heavy sigh and sat on the throne room steps, "Better tell me all the problems first before we make the final preparations." Hoggle sat next to Sarah and proceeded to tell her how the dungeons were now absolutely full with members from the enemy camp. Apparently while Sarah and Hoggle were having meetings with the Labyrinth inhabitants Sir Didymus and Ludo had found and captured more trespassers. Didymus was out patrolling again and Ludo was resting but the dungeon was now full.
"Hoggle, let Ludo rest for a bit longer but call upon Paza, I'm going to need his help first." Sarah headed towards the closet that was to the right side of the throne and began to change into her armor. Sarah had turned the information of full dungeons over in her mind repeatedly and the only logical conclusion was that at an appointed time the prisoners would mount an escape from the dungeon and overrun the castle from the inside while the kingdom battled the oncoming invaders. Well they were in for a rude surprise because she was not going to let this happen.
Hoggle knocked on the throne room doors before entering to ensure Sarah was ready. Once he received his response he opened the doors so Paza could enter. "Paza. I call upon you and your brethren first because of problem that has arisen in my plans." Paza sat upon the floor in front of Sarah and tilted his head as he tossed his head asking her to continue. "The dungeons are full of enemy soldiers we have taken captive because they were trespassing on Labyrinth land but I need them out of the castle so that they don't try to escape when the battle begins." Paza huffed his nostrils and rose. He walked away from Sarah and headed towards the window. Hoggle and Sarah were confused by his actions and shrugged their shoulders. "Paza I know you understand what I am telling you so far but do you know what I am going to ask you next." Paza kept staring out the window before he responded with a true voice. "If we are going into battle together we best be honest with each other." Sarah stood from her seat and Hoggle ran to stand before Sarah with his scabbard pulled, "We've been tricked." "My brethren and I have never had a need to inform anyone that we are able to speak. For generations we have lived in peace in our lands but when we began to be hunted we did not get the chance to voice our objections. We were being slaughtered in vast numbers and fleeing was our only chance of survival. By the time we came across the Labyrinth we trusted no one and so we never informed its king that we could speak. But now you, a woman who is not only not native to this kingdom but to this existence has chosen to do everything within her to ensure the safety of so many we have made a choice. We will not only assist you with this fight but we will be part of this fight." Paza walked away from the window towards Sarah, "All that we ask is to see your true face." Hoggle kept whispering no and pushing Sarah back but Sarah stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Hoggle I must." Sarah lifted the helmet of her face and showed Paza here true self. "My brethren and I have one collective mind. What anyone of us sees or experiences it is shared by all. By showing me who you are and sharing with me what your plans are they are all aware and we will follow your lead." Sarah stumbled back and accidently sat upon Jareth's throne but she was too overwhelmed by the possibilities to care. This, this was working out so much better than she could ever had hoped for with ideas forming in her mind about how the battle would go and where she could send and divide her forces.
"Sarah?" Sarah looked up from her reverie and smiled at Hoggle, "Hoggle bring me the maps and tell the house goblins that Paza and his brethren are to be trusted implicitly." Hoggle was about to protest but when he saw the light in Sarah's eyes he rushed to do her bidding. What had been at some point a battle for simple survival had now turned into a war that they could now win and most importantly ensure that everyone in the Labyrinth would be safe.
Hoggle ordered the nearest goblins to drag the maps and the table back into the throne room and placed next to the mirror pool. So far the fairies had not communicated with Sarah but they were soon due and best not to obstruct Sarah's view of what they came across at the enemy camp.
Sarah removed her gloves and belt from her armor and headed towards the table and beckoned for Paza to follow her. "As you can see this is a crude map of what the Labyrinth looks like. To the north are the mountains. We don't anticipate an attack from that end but just in case I dispatched five sets of Fire Gangs to monitor the situation. I sent them with a special communication device so that I could see and hear what is happening with them and since I haven't seen anything in the pool I am think that that border is okay. That still leaves me with about fifteen more sets of them. They have all moved to the center of the forest so that I can locate and dispatch them easily to wherever I may need them. My plan is now to send three sets to the east and three sets to the west. The six sets will go with me to the front of the battle field and the remaining sets will go into your lands Paza." Paza looked at sorry with a questioning glare. "Paza you have two pools of water in your valley that provides fresh drinkable water for you and your brethren. My plan is to have Ludo call upon the rocks and drain one of the pools. I will place all the prisoners in the empty pool until this battle is over at which time I will then return them to their lands with stipulations of course. I will ensure that this pool is deep enough to ensure that they are unable to climb out and that the walls are jagged enough to prevent escape.
"Who will watch the prisoners?" "That is where the remaining Fire gangs come into play. Very few inhabitants have come across something like them and when I tell them that they can have a party but that they can only do it around the pit so that they can be seen by the prisoners it will be enough to not only keep the prisoners watched but the prisoners will be too scared to attempt anything." Paza was about to ask but Sarah saw his perplexed look and smiled in response, "Fire Gangs love party's but a very special quality they possess is that they can detach and reattach their body parts. With the heat and the wild party the Fire Gangs tend to throw the prisoners will think that they are in an oubliette suffering from nightmares. Nightmares without an end." Paza huffed, "I've had to run for my life but what you are suggesting is torture. I don't know if I can be a part of it." Sarah was flabbergasted by his response. Of all the creatures she would think that Paza and his brethren would be the first to agree after all the suffering that had endured at the hands of those around them. "You may not agree with my methods but answer me this, what do you think they would do to you if we gave them a chance. I am not asking you to do much less or more than what is needed in order to ensure the survival of all those who dwell here." Paza paused to collect his thoughts and nodded his head, "We are sorry we will do as you order."
Sarah knew things would not always run smoothly but as long as all her hurdles were this small then this engagement would be brief. "Hoggle order the several goblins outside to remove the water from the moon fountain outside and bring it in here cased in barrels. Then I want them to take the fountain apart and take the stones to the Bog of Eternal Stench." Hoggle hesitated to follow Sarah's orders he still didn't feel comfortable leaving her with the Stallions leader and voiced his concern, "Sarah are's you sure?" Sarah smiled kindly at Hoggle's show of concern and nodded, "Yes. On your way out wake up Ludo and send him in here. His part is about to begin." As Hoggle walked out of the room Sarah walked back to the throne and put on her helmet and sword. "Paza how many of your brethren are on the premises?" "There are only five of us, why?"
Sarah waited for Ludo to enter before he answered Paza, "Ludo are you rested?" Ludo sat by the throne room doors, "Ludo tired. Ludo sleep." Ludo was about to lay his head back against the door but Sarah rushed to his side as best she could in the armor. "Ludo. Please listen to me I need you to help me and I promise you tomorrow morning you can sleep and rest all you want, I promise but right now. Right this moment and for several more I need you, please." Ludo turned to Sarah and gave her his happiest and simplest smile, Sarah needed him and Sarah promised him not only that she would let him rest but to make all the noise and confusion go away. Ludo nodded and stood to follow Sarah where ever she wanted him to go. Sarah smiled and put on her helmet as she turned to Paza.
"Paza inform the collective that they are about to get a lot of noise. To go to the west pool and whatever they hear and see to not get spooked I am going to have Ludo create the pit." Sarah took Ludo's hand and led him to the north balcony so he could call upon the rocks so they could move and ensure that the water at the east side pool would fall into a special cave and as such be brought back up again after today's events. The noise that emanated from Ludo's body was such a strong and loud bellow that Sarah was afraid she was going to go deaf. She covered her ears with her hands and stepped back from Ludo while the rocks did his bidding. When Ludo stopped he turned to Sarah and nodded, "Water safe." "Thank you Ludo. Now to the basement."
As Sarah was walking out the throne room with Ludo beside her and Paza following the goblins were rolling in the barrels of water. Sarah saw Skrit among the goblins and pulled him aside, "Skrit tell Hoggle to come to the dungeons and bring with him the archers like him and I discussed." Skrit nodded and began running to find Hoggle outside.
Upon reaching the dungeons Sarah could now see why everyone was so concerned, the cells were overflowing with trespassers. Sarah made sure that Ludo had an unobstructed view of the northern low level unfinished corridor. "Ludo, down there is where I want you to tell the rocks to make the tunnel to reach the now empty pool." This time Ludo's request to the rocks was a low warble. Ludo would be calling upon so many rocks and from deep within the ground.
Sarah turned when he heard Hoggle enter and everyone was mesmerized as the unfinished corridor began to take shape of a very dark and gloomy tunnel. Hoggle gave the cell keys to Skrit and he ran to open the cell closest to the now forming northern corridor. The cells opened from above and the door was lowered to the ground to ensure the safety of the guards.
Sarah directed the archers to point their arrows at the now quivering soldiers. "Listen to me!!! You will leave this cell and walk into that tunnel. You will follow it until you come to the light at the end of the tunnel." One of the prisoners shoved his way from the back to the front to confront the speaker, "How do we know that you won't kill us."
Sarah walked to the archer nearest her and took his bow and arrow. "When engaged in combat, the vanquishing of thine enemy can be the warrior's only concern..." After stating this Sarah let the arrow fly and hit the speaker thru what she assumed was his knee. "Either you go into the tunnel and take him with you or every cell will be opened one by one and my archers will kill every single one of you in it." The prisoners carried their fellow prisoner and began walking towards the tunnel.
Sarah gave the bow and arrow back to the archer and walked towards the nearest torch and threw it at the prisoners. "Whoever is going to lead, take this torch to guide your way." As prisoners took the offered torch and began to shuffle much too slowly towards the tunnel Sarah walked back to the dungeon entrance and spoke with Paza, "They are moving too slowly. Call the rest and have them come down here. I will need you to chase them into the tunnel." Paza nodded his head in understanding and Sarah began to tap the archers and point upwards. They were all going to move to levels up and leave Skrit and the Stallions below so they could provide proper motivation to the prisoners.
Paza and the rest of the Stallions stood by the dungeon entrance hidden in the shadows waiting for Sarah's signal. So far they had been able to empty two of the twelve cells and at this rate it would take the rest of the day. Sarah had Hoggle order his fastest archer to retrieve several of her special colored balls from the armory in order to begin a more motivated exodus from the dungeons. It would all be in the timing and if she timed this wrong then all their plans would be for not.
Upon the archers return she handed the balls to ten other archers who pointed them towards the back of the ten remaining full cells. She set fire to the string attached and ordered them to fire. At that moment Skrit began to run and unlock the remaining cells by the time he had unlocked three cells the balls had impacted and burst into fire. The prisoners having been deprived of light for so long began to panic and run towards the front of the cells. Skrit ran faster and unlocked the remaining cells so the prisoners wouldn't crush themselves upon the gates.
At that moment Sarah had the archers launch the remaining balls to the level directly below them; this was the signal Paza had been waiting for as they ran out of the dungeon entrance. Some of the prisoners had been trying to climb up to escape the fire but when they saw the Stallions and the fire above them they began to run into the tunnel.
It was all over before Paza and his troupe made it to the lower level. Ludo stopped his warble and the tunnel collapsed in on itself ensuring that the prisoners could not return thru that passage.
Sarah leaned against the wall and almost sat on the floor from exhaustion but she couldn't afford that luxury there were miles to go before she could sleep.