The Labyrinth Sequel

Chapter 5

"Don't worry too much about him, Sarah," Hoggle tries to comfort me, "He will be fine as long as we figure out how to fix this. After all, we are here now, and it shouldn't take us too long to solve this old puzzle, right?"

He is trying to be reassuring, but my whole body feels numb. I wonder how long it will take before he disappears, and how long it will take for the whole place to disappear... Ludo puts a hand on my back, and I lean into him.

"Don't worry... Sawah..." He says.

"I know. Let's just.... focus on getting the King back so we can fix this, okay?" I say, trying to hide my sadness with a smile.

We walk up the steps leading to the throne room, only to find that it is empty. Hoggle runs up and looks around the throne, and I  wander around the room trying to figure out where they could have gone. There is no way they could have disappeared already....

"Toby!" I call throughout the room.

"Are you crazy? If they hear you they will take him and run off!" Hoggle cries.

"Toby, it's Sarah, answer me!" I scream.

There is a sudden flapping of wings and we all stand still for a moment. A large white own enters the room through the one doorway that I remember leads to the stairs of confusion. It perches on the arm of the throne and looks at us.

"Oh, don't tell me that's..." Hoggle trails off as the owl turns its eyes on him.

When he is quiet, the owl turns to Ludo, and then to me. For a moment our eyes meet, and neither of us will turn away. Then, slowly, the owl looks away and takes off back through the doorway.

"Come on guys, follow him!" I yell, chasing after him.

Through to door I find myself in the stair cases from hell again. But this time, the Kingly owl is flying just ahead of me, leaving enough room for me to follow closely without catching him. I dash up and down and upside down on the stair cases until my foot hits open air and I fall through a hidden doorway, landing on my but with gasp in another room.

When I look around I see that I am in a large library, filled with hundreds of books. But most of the books have been piled on the large table in the middle, and at the end of the table sits Toby, still in his costume. 

"Toby!" I cry, jumping to my feet and running to him.

"Sarah, you came to get me!" He cries launching himself into my arms.

"They didn't hurt you did they Toby?" I ask, pulling back to look him up and down for injuries.

"No, they took good care of me Sarah. I am going to teach them how to read!" He cries, throwing his hands up with glee.

I look over at the Goblins who are staring blankly at the book in front of them, clearly not getting anything out of Toby's lessons. The owl King sits on the edge of the chair, looking absolutely amused by the lack of smarts in the room.

"Why do you need to teach the Goblin's how to read?" I ask.

"They want to read the books to bring back their King!" He says, leading me over to the table.

"The way to bring him back is in here?" I asked, picking up a book and shaking it in one of the Goblin's face.

"Who knows?" One of them shrugs.

"But this is the only place they could be," says another.

"Well, Toby can't help you with that, he's only four and he doesn't know how to read. But I do know how to read, and I will help you, but you have to let me take Toby home first, where it is safe. Then I'll help figure this out."