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The door Sarah chose was the correct one. In the Labyrinth, however, the correct choice is not always a good one. As she stepped through the door, the floor opened up beneath her feet.
Sarah fell down and down a narrow chute. She barely had time to be frightened before she felt a hand grab her. thank heavens she thought. Then she looked around and noticed that there were thousands of hands - all growing out of the walls.
Sarah was too frightened to scream.
‘Up or down?’ the hands asked her. ‘Up or down?’
‘Down,’ she finally managed to say.
She was passed from one hand to another until they finally lowered her into a small, dark cell. A door clanged shut over her head. There seemed to be no way out.
But Hoggle was there, and there was a way out.
‘I knew you were going to get into trouble as soon as I saw you,’ he said grumpily. ‘The Labyrinth is too dangerous. I’ll show you how to get back.’
‘I won’t go back,’ Sarah replied. ‘I’ve got to find Toby, and I’ve come too far to give up now. She took a bracelet from her wrist. ‘Here, you can have this if you help me.’
Hoggle shook his head. But he took the bracelet.
Sarah had only eight hours left in which to rescue her brother, but now she had Hoggle’s help.
This displeased Jareth, who had been watching Sarah’s progress from his castle. He wrapped himself in his cloak and appeared before them.
‘I promise you,’ he warned Hoggle and pointing angrily at Sarah. ‘If you help her, I will suspend you head first over the Bog of Eternal Stench!’
What made this threat so terrible was that the Bog of Eternal Stench smelled a thousand times worse than anything imaginable. What’s more, if you touched any part of it, you would smell that way too - forever.
Hoggle was more afraid of the Bog than of anything else in the Labyrinth. Yet, in a secret place in his heart, he liked defying Jareth. He was also beginning to grow fond of Sarah.
‘I’m only leading her out of here, your highness!’ he lied.
But Jareth had already disappeared.
Sarah and Hoggle were wandering in a maze of hedges when a terrible moan came from behind one of the bushes. Hoggle, who knew the terrors of the Labyrinth, ran off. Sarah went over to the bushes. She found a frightful scene.
A huge beast was hanging upside down from a tree, being tormented by three little goblins.
Sarah didn’t have the heart to leave him. She waited until the goblins had run off. Then she untied the ropes that bound him.
‘Ludo … friend.’ The beast smiled at Sarah adoringly, and she gently patted his nose.
‘Do you know the way to the centre of the Labyrinth?’ she asked him.
‘Ludo … lost,’ Ludo replied sadly.
Sarah sighed. Around her, the rustling of leaves sounded like hissing voices.
S - s - s- six hours, they seemed to say. Only s - s - s - six hours left.
Two doors stood nearby. Sarah chose the one that led into a dimly lit forest. Giant, twisted trees had grown there forever, trees that reached higher than Sarah could see.
‘Not … good,’ Ludo said, looking nervously around him.
Sarah laughed. ‘Imagine a great thing like you being frightened! I’m sure it’s perfectly safe here. anyway, if you’re afraid, it’s a good sign. Things are not always what they seem in this place.’
In this case, they were
Ludo suddenly let out a small squeak. Then there was silence.
‘Ludo?’ Sarah looked around, but Ludo had vanished. She searched everywhere for him, but it seemed as though the earth had opened up and simply swallowed him whole.
Again, Sarah was alone.
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