~Chapter 10~
"Once More, With Feeling"

The Goblin City was eerily silent, but it was as it should be--we expeceted an ambush. We were, unfortunately, correct in that assumption.

"Get them!" cried a voice. A goblin in armor jumped from a rooftop, landing hard on Pyrephox. She screeched and shouted and threw it off, but others were suddenly descending on us.

"What do we do?" yelled Starz.

"Run for it!" Corky called back.

It was a great idea. We ran, heading farther into the Goblin City. The way was amazingly clear. The streets turned and wound, and we followed, hearing the sound of the goblins on our heels. Strangely enough, Jareth didn’t seem to have sent all his forces after us. The contingent was awfully small to make up a goblin army, and I was sure Sarah hadn’t so totally decimated their forces. Truth told, I was a little offended he wasn’t taking us more seriously.

"Hey!" It was Aradia in the front. "What the--?"

She had stopped still, but the rest of us behind her were pushing her forward, until we had passed right through the gates of the Goblin City. THE GATES!?!?

It was true, we had gotten turned around and were now standing outside the gates of the city again. Even the stilled Humongous was out there, just as we’d left him. We whirled around to see the grinning, laughing goblins pushing the doors shut.

"No!!!" we were all shouting, but before we could slip back in, they’d closed the gates.

"That was damned clever," muttered Serena.

"Agreed," answered Cerridwenn. "But how do we get back in?"

"I don’t think we do," said Rebecca.

Irish Creme turned around. "Of course we do. Whyever wouldn’t we?"

"Because that!" Rebecca was pointing at Humongous, who, while we had been talking amongst ourselves, had raised his ax again, about to strike. The huge weapon came down on the ground as Listians scattered.

But one person didn’t move. It was Maedeline. "Forget it!" she was yelling at the top of her lungs, standing her ground in front of the gates. "I’m not doing this again! We already beat you once, remember?!? Well, that’s it!"

The sentinel raised the ax, about to swing down on her.

"Ha! You think that’s gonna make me run? I’m through with running! It’s been one bad dream after another since we got here! I’m through, you hear me? I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!!!!!"

The ax started to fall.

"Oh!!!!!" I screamed, throwing my hands over my eyes. I couldn’t watch.

There was a long, screeching, grinding noise, and when I looked up, Humongous was stuck, his ax buried in one of the gates. He was tugging at it, trying to pull it free. Maedeline was nowhere to be found in the scene.

Humongous kept pulling, and finally, the gate came free of its hinges, and Humongous went falling backwards, into the spikes. The sentinel was finished, this time for good.

We stood there in the ruins of the monster for a while, looking at it in surprise. The silence was broken by a muttering.

Kitiara was frowning deeply at Maed. "I can’t believe you. ‘Mad as hell...’ What were you thinking?"

Maed grinned back at her. "Thanks for saving my life."

"Don’t mention it. Just don’t do it again!"

We went back into the Goblin City, this time, more alert than we’d been before. But the city wasn’t silent. There was a low murmur, like hundreds of quiet voices.

"You guys hear that?" whispered April.

"Yep," replied Afton. "And I don’t like it one bit."

"I’m with you," said Jessie.

The streets were still clear, and we took a few different turns than we had before. We got lucky...this time we went straight to the castle.

It was an impressive structure. It rose up out of the dusty ground of the city like a monster, or a mountain. It was beautiful, in a fierce, strong sort of way. The walls were tall and bright in the fading sunlight of the afternoon, and the towers stretched up and up into the blue Labyrinthine sky. We all had to breathe a sigh of wonder and longing...how many times had we thought of this castle? How many times had we wanted to be there, see it for ourselves? And there we were, no matter what the circumstances of our visitation, and we had to stare, if only for a moment.

That moment ended, however, quite abruptly. Angel started making sounds behind us.

"Uh...um...I...uh..."

"What is it?" asked Heddy, without looking back.

"Please," said a very distinct, british voice. "Would you mind turning around and placing your hands above your heads? It seems you have been captured."

We whirled around, turning to face what must have been every goblin for three hundred miles, standing behind Jareth, who was smiling suavely.

"I really hate you," I muttered, putting my hands up with the rest of the Listians.

"I’m sure you don’t mean that, darling."

The Riddler scowled at him. "This is cheating, Jareth. Bad form."

Jareth shrugged. "It’s really nothing personal. It’s just that I like to win. Don’t take it too hard." He waved his hand and goblins came up, grabbing us and putting us in shackels. "Take them to the dungeon. I wouldn’t worry about how they’re treated, since they should be released after thirteen o’clock, and that’s..." Jareth gave us a nasty grin, "less than two hours away." He chuckled.

We were dragged into the castle, shouting threats at the Goblin King and fighting uselessly against the chains binding us as the goblins pulled us to the dungeon.

I saw Jareth as we passed into the door of the castle, his chuckle turning into a manical laugh. His minions only stared at him.

He sighed. "Well, laugh."

They joined in, and he went on laughing, waving to us.

I knew this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

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