~Chapter 3~
"In the Name of the King"

The corridor was quiet and still, our footfalls echoing in the space. We hadn't gone through any of the entrances, even though we'd had no trouble finding them. It took us a while to admit it to ourselves, but what we were really doing was looking for that worm.

"I don't get it," Jess told us finally. "We made the right! Where's the worm?" She kicked at a puddle of glitter with her Doc Martens, sending up a silver spray.

Skit Blink agreed. "Yeah, that's the part I wanted to see."

"Maybe there isn't one anymore," Maed said thoughtfully. "Maybe that's changed-"

"Are you lookin for me?"

We whirled around. One of my all-time favorite Labyrinth characters was on the stone behind us, smiling cheerfully.

"Cor, I never did see so many of you at once," he went on. "I don't know why anyone would want to wish themself to this place."

"Me either," I muttered, giving Jessie a pointed look. She shrugged back apologetically.

"Well, now we know where we are," said Dreamin', "so we should be able to figure out where we're going."

"Or not," Rebecca answered. "Tell me something," she asked the worm, pointing at the wall behind her. "If I go left, where will it take me?"

The worm shook his head, or whatever passed for one. It was more like a side-to-side body wiggle. "You should never go down that way. That way--"

I was satisfied. "There, you see? We're on the right track now."

We called thank-yous over our shoulders as we went through the hidden entrance, making the famed left that Sarah should have in the movie. I heard the worm calling something after us; by then, I was turning the corner and catching up to the rest of the list in the sandstone maze, looking at a myriad of twists and turns. I stepped forward, but Aradia grabbed my hand, pulling me back.

"What is it?" I said, looking at her, puzzled.

She pointed down. "Look at the stones."

Letters were marked on all of the stones on the ground, A to Z, and the majority of us had seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you haven't, there's a scene where good old Indy has to cross a pathway with stones marked with letters, spelling out the name of God. The penalty for stepping on the wrong letter is a long fall. No one made a move.

"Do you think it works that way?" asked Shannon. "Do we have to spell his name?"

"How vain," cried Mortelle, rolling her hazel eyes. "I just don't believe it. Making us walk on his name...there's so many of us. We'd have to go single file the whole way! It'll take hours!"

I checked my watch. Twelve and a half hours and counting.

"We can do it, we'll just have to take some time. I mean, Sarah made it through even after Jareth cut down her time, and we still have over twelve hours," said Dreamin'.

"We don't even know if that's how it works," Ruby reminded us. "What if it's not?"

"One way to test it," said Angel.

We all turned to Jessie.

"What?" she demanded. She tilted her head at us, taking off her shades. "Hey, I'm not going out there! Forget it."

"Oh, but you are," Cerridwenn said. "Sorry, kiddo. Looks like you're our next contestent on 'Pay the Piper'."

"Yeah. Just remember this next time you get a hankering to wish us all away," I added.

Grumbling, she shrugged off her blazer, tied it around her waist, and stood in front of the letters on the stones. Cautiously, she put one foot up, her antique-looking boot poking out into the sunlight from the shadow we stood in. She took a deep breath, shifted her weight and landed hard on a J.

Nothing happened. She turned back and beamed at us. "Ta-da!"

I can't tell you I was too terribly surprised when the floor under us all gave way, and we went tumbling down a slide, Jessie falling last. I do recall thinking the phrase: "Confidence is the feeling you get just before you truly understand the problem."

The slide stopped abrubtly at a cold hard floor, darkness all around. I heard a clanging sound, and I knew we had gotten into an oubliette.

"I thought this was only after Alph and Ralph," Mitz protested. "What's the deal?"

"'Labyrinth's full of 'em.' That's what Hoggle said," Starz, one of the newbies, told us as she lit a match.

I heard a little clinking sound, and turned to see a crystal rolling on the floor behind us in the dim match light. "Oh, no," I groaned.

"Oh, yes." The crystal bounced up with a perfect disregard for the laws of nature, and landed in Jareth's gloved palm. He played with it, rolling it back and forth. I have to admit, it was much better than in the movie. I daresay Jareth had a bit more talent in that area than Michael Moshen. "You couldn't even get past the second puzzle. My, my."

I stood up. "What happened? We knew how to solve the puzzle. Where'd we go wrong?!"

"That's even beyoned taking too much for granted. Why in the Underground would I use a puzzle where you have to walk all over my name?"

"Oh," moaned Elysian Wind. "The answer was to *not* step on his name!"

"Brilliant," Jareth said dryly. "Your clever minds never cease to astound me."

"Bugger off," snapped Seona. "We need to figure out how to get out of here."

Jareth smiled. "And all the luck in the world to you. But I've taken the liberty of removing any of those useful little doors. A little thought to keep you company, there." He vanished, and the match went out.

I smacked my forehead. "I feel so dumb! I don't think I'm much good at this maze thing."

Starz found a candle and got it lit, and we started looking around for something useful. It was just a hole, just like it had been before, except no Hoggle and no door.

"It's not so bad," Katrina said to me. "We'll figure somthing out. We got in, didn't we?"

"Pure freaking luck," I answered darkly. "I don't think there's a way out."

"So far there's not," said Aradia. "But Jareth wouldn't just say 'oh well, poor Listians, didn't make it' and forget about us."

Shannon chuckled. "I'd have to agree. That's just not like the old boy. There's got to be some way out. He changed the whole Labyrinth for us. Would he really let us give up after our first failure? No way. He's got to show us how clever he is."

"There's no door," Heddy was saying, tapping her foot on the floor. "How did Hoggle do it in the movie?"

"He picked it up off the floor, you know that," Ruby told her. "Why?"

Heddy was staring at the wall. "So...it was just a piece of wood, remember? What else can you make a door with?"

The lightbulb came on in nearly everyone's mind. "We need something to put over the wall," said Dreamin' clapping her hands.

"Yep. It's too bad we don't have anything," I told her.

"Ah-ha! That's where you're wrong." Skit Blink grinned and tugged Jessie's blazer off.

"Hey! This is way too much abuse for one day," she protested. "I like that blazer."

"All the more reason to donate it to our cause," said Skit Blink, still grinning. She put the blazer up against the wall. "Look under it," she invited.

I pulled up one corner of it, and was shocked to see the big stone heads from the movie. I let the corner drop, unable to keep the huge smile off my face. "We're outta here."

"So who's going to hold it and hang around in the oulbliette while you guys go get that rat who calls himself Jareth, hmmmm?" queried Elysian Wind. "Not I."

"We won't need to," Skit Blink answered, taking her hands off the jacket. It hung there like it had been nailed up.

We went through one and a time, and when the last Listian ducked through, we started picking past the heads

"I loved that blazer," Jessie muttered, giving it one backwards glance.

The first head began his speech about being ware, but Angel held up her hand. "Not a single one of us is in the mood. Don't even think about it."

We found ourselves in the long hall where the Cleaners had come through. It was as creepy as that first corridor inside the Labyrinth had been. Our every breath echoed.

"That was a great idea, Heddy," Katrina congratulated her.

"Thanks. When you got right down to it, it was a piece of cake."

I heard them before I saw them. The Cleaners. They barrelled down the hall towards us, just a flash of light in the distance, growing bigger and louder. Some of us screamed, some just stood there in total and utter disbelief. But in three seconds, we were all running.

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