~Chapter 9~
"Prime Riddle"

We cheered. We were so close now to finishing the maze...but what after that? We didn’t know.

"I for one," remarked Jessie, "Am sick and tired of this Labyrinth. Geez," she muttered after, "I never thought I’d say that."

"I know exactly how you feel," said Dee.

Irish Creme grinned. "Well, come on! For e-mail, and the Labyrinth List!"

Her spirit was, as always, infectious, and we charged through the exit of the maze to the gates of the Goblin City. And we were confronted by a familiar sight...the big, metal sentinel that had greeted Sarah’s party, docile inside the closed gate. But beside him was something new...a large cage. Inside it were several creature comforts, including a writing desk that dominated the space. And there was someone sitting at it. Anakerie!

She looked positively miserable, bent over the desk with a long, quill pen in her hand and a look of great concentration on her face. Occasionally, she would sit up and make remarks under her breath and ugly faces at what she was writing, but she always kept coming back to it and writing more.

We stared at her for a while, fascinated and curious, but the mood was broken as Mr. Riddler suddenly dropped to his knees in front of the cage, startling her.

"Who is this magnificent creature before me?" he cried, his hands over his heart. "Good lady, do but speak your name to me, and I am your slave!"

Anakerie dropped the quill pen and stood up, marching to the side of the cage. "It’s about bloody time you guys got here!" she thundered at us. "Do you know how long I’ve been in here!? Since the oubliette! Jareth has had me locked in here and writing stories for him!" She muttered her next words. "Guess that’s what you get for making fun of the Goblin King’s outfit."

"That was you? And all this time, we thought you just never got the email," marveled Elysian Wynd.

She rolled her eyes at us. "Just get me out of here." Then she glanced down at our stricken friend. "Who’s this nutbar?"

"Your eternal servant," the Riddler sighed.

Anakerie raised one eyebrow and looked up at us quizzically.

"We found him in the Fiery Forest. He was fine until just a few seconds ago," explained Caitlin.

"Hm. Well, anyway, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Okay, okay, hang on," said Rebecca. "We’ll get this cage open in a jiffy." She walked over to the bars and started to look around. "So...where’s the door?"

"There’s *isn’t* one."

"How did he get you in there?" asked Jessie.

Anakerie shrugged. "Beats me. I’m in the dark in the oubliette with you guys, and the next thing I know, Jareth and I are in here."

"Of all the fraggin’ luck," someone sighed.

"Wait, look at this," called Rebecca. We ambled over to where she was standing.

There was a small, squarish metal box attached to the wall that appeared to be connected to something by pipes. Rebecca carefully opened the box, and we saw buttons inside, each with a number on them.

"There’s a puzzle here," she told us. "I think we’re supposed to press some of these buttons, but I don’t know which ones and I don’t know what’ll happen if we do."

Anakerie piped up. "Jareth gave me a message for you guys when you got here, by the way. "You have to prime the pump. But the pump primes backwards."

I gasped in realization and disgust at once. "Blaine’s riddle from The Wastelands! This is unreal! I can’t believe he used this one!!"

"Huh?" quizzed Katrina.

"It’s a Stephen King novel. It was how you got Blaine the Monorail started. You had to press the buttons with prime numbers on them," I replied, glad to know the answer to a riddle for once.

"So who knows their prime numbers?" asked Dreamin’. "We’re not exactly a bunch of math students here."

"Fay is," called someone, and the Listian was pushed forward.

Irish Creme looked at her. "Can you do this one?"

"I guess so." She focused on the buttons and started to talk. "Prime numbers are easy, there’s no trick to it. Let’s see. One, two, five, seven..." She started to push the buttons down under our direction, and they lit up a pale pink as she did so.

"There," she said. "All done."

We looked around. Nothing happened.

"We solved the riddle!" I snapped. "What’s the holdup! Something’s supposed to happen here, right!?"

"Oh, we forgot!! The pump primes backwards," moaned Kitiara.

I shrieked in absolute disgust and horror. "What the devil happens now?!"

As my Creative Writing teacher, Doug, says, when you ask a stupid question, you get a deserving answer. The sentinel came crashing and smashing to life, the familiar ax high above its head. We screamed and ran for cover, but there was none. We were diving out of the ax’s way for our lives.

The sentinel had clattered over to Anakerie’s cage, and the Riddler stood up in front of it.

"I’ll protect you," he told Anakerie.

"That’s wonderful," she said, "But...who’s protecting you?"

The ax came down in a sidearc, frighteningly close to the Riddler. But Anakerie grabbed his shoulder through the bars of her cage and pushed him down. The razorblade edge sheared through the bars cleanly.

"What are we going to do?" cried Heddy.

"I don’t know," admitted Cerridwenn. But Fay was up and running.

"Cover me!" she shouted bravely, and I saw her dash over to the box.

"With what?" we shouted back in unison.

The Riddler got up again, dancing around and trying to attract the sentinel’s attention. It didn’t seem to do much good. The clanking creature was headed for Fay.

"The pump primes backwards," she was saying to herself, pressing buttons. I saw the buttons light up blue this time as she pressed them.

The sentinel was almost to her. Fay was jumping up and down, trying to think.

We kept shouting and trying to get the sentinel to listen to us. It was so close to Fay, too
close. The ax raised up.

Suddenly, I saw Skit Blink run up and grab the sentinel’s leg, making it drag her. It gave a
momentary pause, trying to turn and see what she was up to.

Finnonula and April did the same thing on the other leg, and I saw Dreamin’ get up to do the same. The ax changed position, readying for a swing at the legs.

"Um....um..." Fay kept pushing buttons. "ONE!" she shouted. "That’s it!"

The sentinel stopped, the ax just about to fall on the listians attacking it, and dropped the ax, coming to rest like a toy soldier that had wound down. The top and side of the cage that housed Anakerie lifted up as if by magic, and she stepped out, thrilled to be free.

"This has been one more adventure than I ever wanted to have," I said to no one in particular. "In fact," I ranted on, "this whole experience has been simply dreadful."

"Agreed," said Seona. "So...let’s get that rat who calls himself Jareth!"

We pushed through the gates and started into the Goblin City, our journey drawing to a close...but we were running out of time, and I was sure Jareth had a few more surprises waiting for us in his city.

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