CHAPTER NINE

Der Erlkönig

"Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?"

("Father, do you not see the Elf King?")

-Line and translation from the poem "Der Erlkönig"by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sarah awoke quite early the next morning, groaning as a beam of sunlight found her face, making her shut her eyes tighter and roll over on the hard ground, trying to avoid the invasive glow. She gave up as she rolled onto a rock, which lay under her hip, making Sarah groan in frustration and pain. It was best that she awoke early, tired though she may be. She was hopelessly lost in the Labyrinth, and had no inclination of how close she may be to the castle. She should have asked the Minotaur last night, but she was not sure if it would have answered her. That might have angered it since it could be considered cheating.

Sarah stood up and stretched, trying to relieve all of her aching muscles. She had not enjoyed sleeping on the ground, but there had been no alternative. At least she had been so exhausted that she had not slept fitfully. That was some small comfort.

She ate an apple and drank from her wineskin as she took stock of what she had in her pack, making sure to pull out her small knife and sticking it in her pocket so that it may be readily available. She should have done that before she had even entered the Labyrinth, but she had been too preoccupied with other thoughts at the time, and it had simply slipped her mind.

Sarah stared at the paths before her, trying to decide which one to take. She attempted to peer through the branches of the trees high above her, trying to make out the position of the sun. Suddenly, a thought struck Sarah. What if directions did not matter in the Labyrinth? If she was trying to head to the south east, where she calculated where the Goblin King's castle was, what if in the Labyrinth, that meant that she was going in the wrong direction? Things were so strange and convoluted in the Labyrinth, that such a thing would not surprise her. Would not the Goblin King expect those in the Labyrinth to use the sun as a compass, and in recompense make it so the orientation of the sun in the sky had nothing to do with the direction that you traveled in the Labyrinth? Sarah was not even sure if the Goblin King was capable of such a feat, but it seemed quite likely, given his status as a royal fae and his untamable ego.

Sarah sighed and decided to let fate choose her way. She pulled her knife from her pocket, closed her eyes and spun in a quick circle, giving the knife a little toss during her spin. She opened her eyes and saw her knife lying in the middle of one of the paths. Sarah decided to take that as a sign. She stuffed her cloak in her pack once more and hefted the bag to her shoulders, walked forward to scoop up her knife, and started walking down the path.

It was nearly midday by Sarah's estimation, though it could have easily been earlier or later than her guess. Perhaps the Goblin King had toyed with that too and it was not midday. Maybe twice the number of hours had passed since she had started walking. She would not put it past the Goblin King to pull such a trick. Sarah cursed and continued on, knocking tree limbs and sticks out of her way, trying to relieve her sour mood.

Just when Sarah thought that things could not get any worse, fate decided to prove her wrong, as fate was wont to do.

Sarah suddenly felt the ground underneath her feet give way, and she fell down, down into darkness, landing with a muffled thump on a pile of something soft and crispy, knocking the wind out of her.

"Ow," groaned Sarah, laying still, trying to catch her breath. She gingerly felt the things that she was laying on, and Sarah discovered that she had fallen into a large pile of fallen leaves. Wincing, Sarah sat up, rubbing her neck, and peered up at the tiny pinprick of light far above her, the hole through which she had so suddenly fallen.

"Oh, that is just not fair," said Sarah aloud, half speaking to herself, and half speaking to whatever spirit of fate or destiny that had dealt her such rotten luck, "It's almost as if you do not want me to have a pleasant journey."

She clambered clumsily from the large pile of leaves, and slung her pack to the ground, digging around in the near-darkness for her lantern and flint. Once it was lit, Sarah raised her lantern high, trying to figure out where she was.

She had fallen into what appeared to be a large underground cavern, complete with dripping stalactites and imposing stalagmites. She could not see the far ends of the cavern, and Sarah hoped beyond hope that there was some kind of exit or ladder or something at the other end of the cavern that would get her back on track, and back to making her way to the Goblin King's castle.

Sarah walked cautiously forward, hyperaware to every little thing, jumping at the sound of water dripping from the stalactites onto the stone floor below. Sarah laughed weakly at her frayed nerves. She was being silly, was she not? Just because it was dark and clammy down here did not mean that she needed to be on her guard, did it? On one hand, she could be overreacting. On the other, however, she could be showing a bit of self-preservation that was greatly needed in these sort of circumstances. Was it not common in stories that the most vile and viscous creatures lived in the darkness underground? Though many things were quite different between her world and the world of the Goblin King, she was sure that this would be one thing that they would have in common, if the Goblin King had any sense at all. He did seem to have a flair for the glitzy and dramatic, and unleashing some terrible beast down here in the blackness would be quite his style.

Sarah walked forward for a few minutes, not seeming to make any headway in crossing to the far side of the cavern. However, just as Sarah was going to try to travel in a different direction to see if that might get her somewhere, something great and black loomed in the darkness. Sarah froze, hardly daring to take in a breath, her heart thumping madly in her breast. Sarah stood deathly still for several long minutes, trying to loose the attention of whatever stood before her. It did not move, and Sarah began to doubt that it was something living that stood before her. She could not hear any noise of anything other than her own breathing and the steady plinking of water.

Sarah's eye suddenly caught a glimpse of something glinting in the blackness. It looked as though something was reflecting back the light from her lantern. Sarah cautiously swung her lantern in a small arc, and the light followed, mirroring Sarah's movements. It was not a creature that stood before her, but a doorway! It was a doorway into another room, and there was something in there that was reflecting light back at her. Perhaps it was a ladder or something that could get her out of the cave!

Sarah gingerly walked forward, relieved to see that the reflection of her lantern was growing larger and larger. She had reached the entrance to another section of the cavern, wherein sat many gleaming objects, each one reflected the lantern light back at her, nearly blinding her with its brightness.

Sarah curiously drew closer to the mysterious objects, reaching out a pale hand to touch whatever they were. Her fingertips met a cool, smooth surface, and she moved her lantern forward to inspect the thing more closely. It was a large mirror, made out of a slab of some kind of mineral or stone. Sarah picked at a piece with her fingernail that looked as if it was flaking off of the larger piece, and inspected it more closely. It was mica, though Sarah had never seen slabs of mica so large or so perfectly reflective as these were. The room was full of the slabs, which stuck vertically out of the ground in an upright manner. The reflections cast by the mirrors were strange, as Sarah could both see herself clearly but also see sort of through the slabs, due to the half-translucent nature of the mica. It was eerie, being able to see yourself reflected, and also see yourself reflected once more in the mica that was behind your mirror.

Sarah wandered deeper into the room, fascinated. The slabs of mica were larger and more closely spaced together the deeper she went into the room, becoming like a sort of mirrored maze.

After wandering for quite some time, the novelty of the mica wore off, and Sarah determined that it would probably be best to turn around and go back to the cavern where she had started, and try to find a way out from there, since the room of mirrors was clearly not leading her anywhere.

Sarah turned around to walk back to the first cavern, and found herself staring at a slab of mica. Sarah jumped, startled by both her sudden reflection and also the appearance of the wall of mica. She had just walked through right there, had she not? How was there suddenly a mirror there now? Sarah turned back around, facing deeper into the room of mica, and her heart sank. The slabs had moved again, without Sarah noticing. Reflective walls of the mineral extended solidly out before her, just as the walls of trees in the Labyrinth above did. Sarah glanced behind her back, and found that the way back to the original cavern was still blocked, just as she had suspected it would still be. The only way she could move was forward.

She was trapped in an underground Labyrinth of mirrors.

The Goblin King was gloating. Not that this was a new thing for him to do lately, but the occasions for him to do so were so rare and in between, that each time he was able to savor the emotion, the Goblin King did so with a relish that was almost sinful.

Being a Goblin King with extraordinary magical prowess was quite useful when influencing the goings on in a magnificently huge and complex Labyrinth from several leagues away. Well, sometimes it was leagues away. Distance did not really have much meaning in the Goblin King's realm.

Of course the Goblin King had known every single thing that had been going on in his Labyrinth since Sarah had set foot in it a day ago. What self-respecting monarch would not keep close tabs on the person who would be either his greatest triumph or his most bitter downfall? (Or perhaps both?)

The Goblin King could not change the Labyrinth at will, but rather, he could influence the consciousness of the Labyrinth to move in a direction or to create obstacles that were in the spirit of his own design. He and the Labyrinth were irrevocably connected, forever and always. It was part of the package of being the Goblin King. He was all seeing and all knowing, and in possession of great and terrible power. He was close to being a god as someone confined to the mortal coil could possibly be.

The Goblin King constantly had a plan, and everything always went according to that plan. That was just how things were done in his kingdom. He always got what ever he wanted in the end.

Watching Sarah struggle through his domain had given the Goblin King a vicious sense of vicarious pleasure. He had not openly laughed, no, he was not so cruel as that, but he had grinned wickedly quite often as he watched what befell his sometimes adversary. He had taken to calling Sarah that in his mind, for that was what she was at the moment, his adversary, the one who could either break or fulfill his curse.

The Goblin King was not quite so confident as he had seemed when taunting Sarah a few days earlier. Yes, he could control the Labyrinth somewhat, and of course he had dominance over the creatures in his kingdom, but that did not equal a sure success. Too many variables were as of yet untamed, the most essential of them was Sarah herself. Humans, inferior though they were to the fae in many respects, were quite good at surprising a person. In the darkest of times, they could find such incredible strength of mind and courage of soul that even a fae such as the Goblin King had to respect such determination. He had not expected Sarah to be a shrinking violet once she was in the Labyrinth, no, he would not have selected her to be his queen if that were the case, but he had not expected her to abandon her beloved human logic so quickly in favor of letting destiny run its course. It was most un-human of her and quite clever indeed. Sarah was learning the rules of his game at such astounding pace that the Goblin King could not help but feel impressed and just a little bit proud of his future companion.

The Goblin King smiled and leaned back on his throne. Things had been going far too pleasantly for Sarah today, far too pleasantly indeed. It was high time for him to throw a wrench into the works. After all, it was his job, was it not? fae and mischievous were practically synonymous, and seeing as he was fae royalty, he had a solemn duty to be at least twice as mischievous as the rest of the fae. Sarah had grown far too comfortable with the Labyrinth as it was, and she was beginning to gain the upper hand, which was most unsatisfactory, in the Goblin King's most humble opinion. It was time to unsettle her, to remind her of where she was. Time to turn the world upside down. The Goblin King laughed for the first time. Let's face it. He was cruel, and nothing could be done about that. No one could change him from being this way. It was in his nature, it was a part of who he was.

He had thrown his heroine into the dark pit and blocked her way of escape. Now to make things a bit more interesting…

The candle flickered in the lantern, and Sarah balked. The light could not go out! All would be lost if it did, for Sarah did not know if she would be able to light it again once she was in the inky darkness. She still had her pack, thankfully, but she had not thought to check that everything had stayed in it or had survived after her fall. Sarah bit back a curse. The top of her pack was open. Surely something had fallen out. Sarah hoped that it was something unnecessary, though virtually everything that she had packed had been of the upmost importance.

Sarah was on edge. Something was toying with her, and she knew not what or whom it was that had altered her way. It was even more unnerving to catch glimpses of things moving out of the corner of your eye, only to turn wildly to see that it was just your own reflection that caused your panic. If Sarah had been on the edge before, now she had plunged over the edge of the precipice and was careening uncontrollably to the base of the cliff with no way to slow down or stop.

Sarah walked, following the straight planes of the path set before her, dreading what would be waiting for her at the end of her route.

Sarah happened to catch a glimpse of her reflection in one of the mirrors and actually looked at herself closely for the first time. Sarah groaned, disheartened. She was thoroughly covered with scratches and a healthy coating of earth. The scratches were presumably the work of those damned pixies that had attacked her, and the dirt probably from sleeping on the ground last night. Her once nicely braided hair was now more loose than bound, and a diverse assortment of leaves, twigs, and things that Sarah did not wish to identify were sticking out of it. She looked as though she was some wild forest woman. Sarah grumbled and started to pick the things out of her hair, keeping up a steady stream of swearing and muttering. She was more upset about being grubby and grimy than she probably would have been under any normal circumstances. Perhaps this was just a sure sign that Sarah was going crazy. The Labyrinth had broken her and she was just insane, that was the only possible explanation.

Sarah laughed at herself, bemused as to why she was so distressed about her looks. Who would see her here? She certainly did not care about how she appeared to the Goblin King, and she doubted that any creature in the Labyrinth would mind her looks either. She was being utterly silly. After she had rid her hair of all of the detritus that had resided there, Sarah braided her hair once more and then tried to brush off most of the dirt on her clothes. She appraised herself once more in the reflective mica. She was still dirty, but at least now she looked a little more like her regular self, which gave her a bit of sorely needed courage, and restored a bit of her ragged pride. Lifting her chin proudly, Sarah walked on, proving to herself and whomever or whatever may be watching that she was not bothered by the Labyrinth, that she was and would remain calm, cool, and collected. She would solve this cruel task set forth by the Goblin King, and she would do so with aplomb and with her dignity intact.

After what seemed like an age, Sarah came to a fork in the endless line of mica mirrors, and her suspicion was confirmed. She was indeed in a Labyrinth of mirrors, her sole source of light was a failing lantern, and she may or may not have lost some of her much needed things. She had no idea how she could get back up to the surface, if this subterranean passage would lead her the same way as the Labyrinth above, or if she was right now moving further and further away from her goal.

She suddenly knew who was responsible for this. This situation had him written all over it.

It was not fair.

Sarah gnashed her teeth and continued forward, trying to forget all sense of direction and to just let instinct guide her along through the clammy shadows. Her reflection stared back at her from all sides, distorted and refracted strangely by the naturally formed mirrors. The reflections made her jumpy. Several times, Sarah would catch movement out of the corner of her eye, only to whirl around and find that it was her own reflection that had spooked her.

The air grew colder as Sarah strode on, and she shivered violently, the damp air adding to the chill. She decided that now would be as good a time as any to stop and take a rest, and to put on her cloak. She sank tiredly to the floor. Sarah had not realized just how exhausted she was.

Sarah sat quietly, wrapped up tightly in the cloak, grateful for its warmth. After moving for so long, it was nice to sit still and rest.

All of a sudden, Sarah's heart stopped, the blood in her veins running cold. Something was moving in the corner of her eye, something that could not possibly be moving right now, that should not be moving. Sarah did not dare to turn to face the direction of the movement, unwilling to acknowledge its existence.

Sarah's reflection was moving of its own free will.

AN: I actually got today's chapter posted at a decent time! 10 points to me! As always, I love hearing what you guys think about the story! Next update will be on Friday!

Disclaimer: Labyrinth and its characters do not belong to me. Quotes from the movie belong to Henson, Froud, and Lucas. Quotes from the book belong to A.C.H. Smith.