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Shattered	By : TarnishedArmour Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 7713 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Based upon the work of Jim Henson; specifically Labyrinth, copyright 1986 by Jim Henson & associated parties. I do not own or have legal rights to Labyrinth, etc., or make any profit from them. *Individual disclaimers for other works in

Chapter List
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Sarah walked along the path before her, the thought of sleeping in the woods not troubling her at all. She had learned much in her time here, and one of those things was that travellers were to remain unmolested. She had forgotten that the rules regarding runners were somewhat different.
She prepared a camp, carefully adhering to the instructions she'd received so long ago from Redok. Then, curling up on her soft packs, she fell asleep.
Sarah woke suddenly. She wasn't sure why. Something was wrong. Making as little noise as possible, Sarah slid into her armour and belted on her sword and daggers. There was something dangerous in these woods, not like the werewolf had been several weeks ago. This was different. This was hunting.
Creeping out of her camp, Sarah began to track the danger, gently using her magic to guide her without working spells that might be felt. Moving as silently as she could, Sarah moved between the trees, sliding her feet instead of picking them up. She saw a group in front of a campfire, something not usually found in the woods. Tasting the air with her magic, she could feel that they were magicusers, but she couldn't feel any workings from them. It was strange. Wrong.
Sarah retreated back to her camp and was determined to wait until the sun was well up to leave her concealed camp. She dozed lightly, but did not allow herself to fall into a deep sleep.
In the morning light, Sarah broke camp, letting her pack rest on one shoulder, just in case she needed to drop it and fight. Or run. The latter didn't appeal to her, but she knew her limits. Grim-faced and wary, Sarah headed out into the woods again, navigating along the almost-invisible path by sheer luck.
Close to noon, she heard something behind her. She stepped from the path and watched carefully. Nothing came into her view. Again, she moved out onto the path and kept her senses open. Again, she heard something behind her. This time, she stepped off the past and cast a light air-based spell that would make it sound like she was still on the track through the trees. Her ruse worked.
As she walked slowly from tree to tree on the side of the path, the one she'd heard behind her moved up more quickly. It looked like one of the people she'd seen at the campfire, but she couldn't be certain. Sarah let him pass her and stayed off the path until he was out of sight. She stepped back on the path and heard another noise, this time coming from her left.
Whipping around, Sarah saw a flash of someone ducking behind a tree. More sounds, more figures that didn't quite show through the greenish light and shadows. Some from the sides of the paths, more behind her. And she'd let one get ahead of her.
Damn.
She'd have to run for it and hope she didn't get cornered by too many. What was it Redok had said? Few dangers lurk in the labyrinth for legitimate citizens, but outkingdom work was not as kind. More than once, he had regaled her with tales of how to run and track and fight when needed. Drawing on all the things he'd told her, now she began to see his warnings about the shaking moments and the need to remain clear-headed. She tamped down the fear and adrenaline that was flooding her body and mind and focused as much as she could on the task before her.
To finish this run, she had to get free of these people. She could not let them impede her progress on her path to become Jareth's Queen.
She hadn't let angry villagers, horny trees, cave-ins, unruly magic, or herself stop her so far. Damned if she'd let a group of bandits that shouldn't even be in the woods.
Seemingly uninterested in the people around her, Sarah trudged on up the path. Only when two got close to her on the right side of the path did she give any indication that she knew they were out there. The left had more people, behind her was pretty well out of the question, but the right side of the path she'd only counted two trackers.
She took a step, then turned on the ball of her foot and sprinted into the trees where the two men were hiding. Without warning, she attacked, using daggers in the small space between the trees.
One man went down with a gaping hole in his throat, but the second managed to grab her arm and deflect the strike she'd aimed at him. On her off hand. The dagger lodged in bone and Sarah had to release it and turn to fight off this man. He had not been expecting her to attack, and was not ready to defend, either. He'd been lucky.
Sarah feinted with her first dagger toward his eyes and he shied back, loosening his grip enough that she ripped her arm free. The second move was the most important. Sarah whipped her dagger down and sliced open his abdomen, digging deep with the blade.
Unlike Sarah, the man wasn't wearing armour. His guts spilled from the slit in his belly in a rush of blood and stench. Sarah skipped backwards, keeping an eye on the man as he choked out a small scream and fell to the ground. Wiping the blade on her breeches, she began to run again, hoping two dead was a discouraging result of the ambush, not motivation for revenge.
***
"Sire," came the slow, rhythmic accents of the head priest of the blood sect. The proper address came out of the old man's mouth 'sigh-ah'. "De girl, she has come to de wood. We hunt." Girl sounded like 'guul'.
"Very well," Jareth replied. "You didn't come here to leave it at that, did you?"
"No, Sire. De girl kill two men. She fast," the smile the old man gave Jareth was one that showed his appreciation of the girl's fight and fire. "She be strong one dis time, Sire."
"She is," Jareth said, not looking away from the old man's black, black eyes. "And you shall see how deep and resilient that strength can be."
"My pleasure, Sire," the man said, bowing out of the room. The word 'ple-zhah' had a sinister sound that Jareth appreciated, even as he hated the thought of it applied to Sarah. His Sarah.
Jareth closed his eyes, alone in his office. He remembered all too well how good the old man was at his job. A small head butted against his leg, a soft purr floating up from the ground.
"So, you've come to keep me company?" Jareth mused, looking at the cat who had jumped into his lap.
The cat just smiled up at the king, then demanded more scratches behind the ears.
"Keep watch, little ones. Keep watch."
Without looking up at the man scratching his ears, the cat winked. Other small, furry bodies came from nooks and crannies where, legitimately, there should be no cats.
Palace cats were unusual creatures in a realm filled with the fantastic. The chose to go their own ways, leaving all and sundry alone. Most of the time. Now, their prince needed them, and so they came to sit beside him, to comfort him as the memories racked his thoughts and slender, graceful frame.
Such a pity he was not truly a cat.
***
Sarah ran. She was being chased now, openly. None came close enough to try her blades, but they didn't have to. Time and numbers were on their side. Sarah was running blind on territory they knew, and they were herding her. Turning her to go where they wanted her to go. With a curse, Sarah noticed one of the group was out further than the others. She added a burst of speed and cut left suddenly. Slashing as she ran past, she injured the man's leg badly enough that he couldn't continue the chase. She didn't dare look back, but if she had, she would have seen one of the group stop to assist the fallen hunter, and two more appear from thin air to take their places.
Sarah, temporarily free of the group, decided she had no choice. She dropped her pack from her shoulder to her left hand and slung it deep into the woods. A faint charm followed it, so she could find it later.
If there was a later.
Lighter by that much weight and still strong enough to keep running, Sarah bolted deeper into the woods, away from where her pursuers wanted her to go. Logic dictated that where they did not want her was to her advantage.
She was partially correct.
***
Karen listened to Toby talking about his time with Robert. She smiled up at Tatiana, realizing the good seeing his father had done for her son. Still, there was something there that bothered her. A sense of foreboding came over her whenever she thought of Robert and the next trip Toby was scheduled to take to see his father.
"Tante Tati," she asked the nurse quietly, "what do you think of Robert?"
"Good man, now that he's not confused by family. Not a bad man originally, just overwrought by the changes in his life that he couldn't control." Tatiana looked at Karen closely as Toby dressed for bed. "Why?"
"I just get the feeling that something's wrong. No, more that something will be wrong." Karen shook her head. "Maybe I'm just being…difficult."
"It's possible," Tatiana replied dryly. "You sure ain't the easiest person in this pile of rock. Now, you need to get on to dinner, and this little man needs a goodnight kiss and to get tucked in. He's plumb tuckered out."
Karen smiled and went over to give Toby hugs and kisses goodnight. She stayed for the bedtime story to start, Tatiana told the history of the realm as a series of stories for him, and headed to the dining room to meet the usual group.
When she walked into the room, she was surprised to see cats lounging on every available surface, including the chairs and Jareth's lap. There was even a cat draped across the back of his chair, mysterious eyes taking in the king, the dancer, and the king's lover.
Uneasy for reasons she didn't want to contemplate, Karen pulled on her best center-stage smile and worked her own brand of magic charm.
***
Sarah panted. It was getting dark and there was no one around her. Not that she could see. She'd slid down into a ravine of sorts, lots of rock and a trickle of water. She now had the unenviable choice of run through the water or crawl over the rocks.
Damn, but she should have cut right!
Taking just enough time to catch her breath, Sarah sheathed her dagger and sword and started climbing. She could be quieter on the rocks.
Not far behind her, the runners followed. She had eluded them for a short time, yes, but she was in worse places than she knew. Three followed her across the rocks, the rest went to wait at the entrance of the ravine, where she would ultimately have to come out of it.
Sarah saw the length of the ravine in front of her and cursed to herself. She was going to be trapped if she didn't get out of this damned cut soon. Pausing at the crest of one large boulder, she stayed low and looked about. Nothing, nothing, nothing but rocks. There. A small series of step-stones over to the other side of the ravine. And on the other side…yes. A wall craggy enough for her to climb.
Again, she thanked Redok for his sometimes brutal lessons and made her way down the treacherous boulder to the stepping stones. She crossed quick as a cat, then jumped up to the rocky "shore". In short order, she was climbing a thin, chimney-like crevice in the rockface. She didn't realize it, but the shadows hid her from her pursuers. While she climbed, they passed her by. When she reached the top of the opposite side of the ravine, they were close to the entrance.
Not looking back, never looking back, Sarah walked slowly to catch her breath and put space between herself and the ravine. It was almost nightfall, and she didn't dare try a light.
"Where is she?" demanded one man, the leader of the hunt.
"She didn't come this way?" asked the woman who had chased with the other two men.
"No. Did you lose her in the ravine?" The leader was not happy. The girl had already run far longer than anyone had expected, and he'd lost six of his best team in the chase. The six that had replaced them were…neophytes at best.
"That's not…possible. The ravine has only one entrance and exit. It's really a high box-canyon." This from another hunter, one waiting at the entrance.
The leader cursed. "Go back. All of you. You three," he pointed to the three who had already run the ravine, "stay here and keep watch for her. Maybe she just lay low among the rocks. The rest of you, fan out. We search in all ways."
Nodding and extending their magic with their senses, the remaining nine followed their leader into the darkening ravine. They would search until sunup, but find no trace of her.
Sarah looked around her. She didn't fell anyone pursuing her now. She was exhausted. Carefully searching among the trees, she found a huge old oak that had an odd inverted v in the trunk. There were old stories near her home in New Hampshire about kids hiding in trees like this. Stumbling into the tree, Sarah hoped it wasn't some sort of trap. With a tiny tendril of magic, she created an earth-based illusion that the tree had no such cavity in it. Damning her haste in tossing her pack-she knew she'd had no choice, but it was still irritating-she went without the second meal that day.
Worse, she had no water.
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Shattered