Chapter Eight: Wisdom
The Goblin King vanished himself back to the oubliette and leaned against a wall. The candle stubs had gone out since he'd left, and the door had been moved to the wall opposite where he was standing. Through his spine, he could just barely feel the bricks vibrating. He closed his mismatched eyes and took a deep breath. "I'll find her," he whispered to the Labyrinth. "I'll trap her again...or something." I should have just finished it before, when she was weak, he thought to himself as he pushed off the wall and went to the door on the other side of the room. Now I'm the who'll be weak. This is not going to be easy. The Goblin King opened the door and stuck his head out to check down either direction of the tunnel beyond. But it has to be done.
***
"Are you sure you don't want to lead the way?" Jeremy asked as he made a decision and turned left at an intersection of tall green hedges.
"I'm not sure of anything right now," Sarah admitted wearily. Her mind had been chasing itself in circles trying to figure out what was going on. She'd tried looking into the crystal again twice as they walked, but each time it filled with darkness. I don't know what it means, she thought in frustration, it's like I'm getting a busy signal. Something must be blocking the magic.
"Hey! Look!" Jeremy trotted forward, right up to a wrinkled old man with a tall oddly-shaped hat, snoring gently and sitting on an elevated chair in the middle of a square space in the hedge maze.
"The Wiseman!" Sarah yelped, following Jeremy quickly.
The Wiseman snorted and woke up, jostling the hat. "Huh?" The Wiseman grunted, "what's that?"
"Hey! Hey!" The hat squawked. "That's the Goblin Queen! How are things, your majesty?"
The Wiseman cleared his throat. "I was just getting to that."
Sarah smiled at her friends. "Hello, it's really good to see you."
"You know them?" Jeremy's stare bounced from the Wiseman to Sarah and back again.
"Yes, we met the first time I came through the Labyrinth," she explained briefly before turning back to the Wiseman, "listen, I'm really glad we stumbled into you, because I need your help."
"Very well, my lady," the Wiseman bowed his head slightly, "how may we be of service?"
Sarah launched into her explanation, speaking clearly, but too quickly for anyone to interrupt. "I lost my powers earlier when I came to help Jeremy, but I'm pretty sure that's because I broke the rules by trying to just vanish him straight to the castle instead of making him wander all the way through the Labyrinth. I apologized to the Labyrinth and I think it gave me back my powers, but whenever I try to look into my crystal and see Jareth, it just fills up with darkness. I'm afraid something might be blocking the magic, but I have no idea what, or how, or why." She took a deep breath and waited.
"Aye carumba!" The bird-hat crowed. "That is a problem!"
"Will you be quiet?" The Wiseman grumbled at thing on his head.
"Okay, fine, I can see you don't want my advice."
The Wiseman cleared his throat again. "Every choice has a consequence, and sometimes the consequences have consequences. We do not always see the results of our choices and their consequences, but always those results will come back to us."
"You break the rules," the hat added with a nod, "you pay the price."
Sarah's fists clenched. "Well maybe I wouldn't break the rules if they weren't so cruel!" She managed to keep her voice low and level, but she couldn't stop it from quivering. "You can't just go around granting every wish someone makes! Not everyone means it when they say 'I wish'! I mean, really, who means to wish their own child away? And what's so wrong with trying to help someone through the Labyrinth?"
"Sometimes," the Wiseman suggested before the hat could get a word in, "to love is to be cruel."
Sarah threw her arms up and stomped away from the Wiseman, shouting, "what is that supposed to mean? How can love have anything to with being cruel? It's not fair! None of this is fair, and I am so sick and tired of all these stupid rules that are cruel and pointless, and when I get back to castle, I am going to give Jareth a very big piece of my mi-" the square of ground beneath her feet broke and crashed away into darkness, taking Sarah with it. Her scream followed behind her.
"Sarah!" Jeremy ran to the space where she had just been standing and watched, wide-eyed as the ground knitted itself back together. "Sarah?" He prodded the patch of ground with a toe. Then he stood on it. Then he jumped on it.
"It's no use," the hat told him from where it sat on the Wiseman's head. "The Labyrinth wanted her. It won't take you."
"But..." Jeremy stared at the ground between his feet. "She's my step-daughter."
"Oh!" The hat crowed, "so you're family! That's fantastic! Will you be at the wedding?"
Jeremy shook his head and walked back up to the Wiseman, who was now snoring quietly. "Look, I need to get Brian back, and help Sarah if I can. Can you help me at all?"
The hat looked down at the Wiseman. "I don't think he heard you."
"I wasn't asking him." Jeremy glared at the hat. "I was asking you."
The hat stared at him for a minute, processing this. "No one's ever asked me what I think before."
Jeremy sighed. "Well I'm asking you now. Is there anything I can do for Sarah? And how do I get to the castle beyond the goblin city?"
"Hmmm," the bird hummed thoughtfully, "well, the Goblin Queen has lived here for a few years now, so don't worry about her. She can handle herself. As for the castle, ummm, what's the old man always saying? Oh! I remember!" The bird puffed up its feathers, and announced in as mystical a tone as it could manage, "Sometimes, the way back is actually the way forward." Its feathers flattened and it returned to using its high-pitched voice, "Or something like that. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Either you'll find the castle or you won't, and that's about the size of it." The bird held out its little collection box. "Please leave a contribution before you go!"
Jeremy sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his yellow hair. "Yeah, thanks. I guess I just have to keep going then." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins. "Here." He dropped his change into the box and then headed off back into the hedge maze.
