Labyrinth by A. C. H. Smith Page B

saw their eyes were mad, with pinprick pupils. Other creatures came screaming from under the roots of trees, and as they approached her she managed to sit up, alarmed by their sinister gaping mouths and crazy eyes.
    Still laughing, she moaned, “Oh, please, please! I must stop.”
    “She can’t stop,” the tree howled, and the whole forest screeched in reply.
    She got to her feet. Her body and mouth were shaking uncontrollably, but her eyes were haggard. “Stop!” she whispered. “Stop!” She staggered back toward the open doorway and collapsed.
    Shrieking hysteria applauded that.
    She raised her head. She could see Ludo just outside the door, and held up her hand for help. He looked very uneasy and wouldn’t come inside the door, but he held his arm out toward her, and nodded his great head in encouragement. Her eyes fixed on him, she dragged herself across the last few yards, until he could bend down, pick her up, take her outside, and shut the door.
    The laughter stopped dead. The breeze in the leaves of the maze outside was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.
    It took her some time to recover. Ludo watched over her anxiously. When she stood up, sniffed, and gave him a small smile, he said, “Ludo — glad.”
    “Sarah — glad,” she answered, and ruffled his head.
    There was nothing for it but to try the other door. She walked across to it, picking up the ring.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, and pushed the ring against the knocker’s lips. He pursed his mouth and resisted her.
    “Oh, come on,” she said, and tried again. The knocker frowned and squeezed his lips together even more tightly.
    Then she had an idea. With her finger and her thumb, she squeezed the knocker’s nose. He held out a while, scowling more and more fiercely, but in the end he had to open his mouth for breath. “Damn!” he gasped.
    In a flash, she had the ring back in his mouth, and knocked on the door.
    He was protesting. “Kgrmpf. Mble. Mble. Mble. Grmfff.”
    “Sorry,” Sarah said. “I had to do it.”
    “That’s all right,” the first knocker told her. “He’s used to it.”
    This door swung open to reveal a forbidding forest. On this side of the wall they were in sunshine, but through the doorway was a dismal and brooding prospect.
    Ludo was growling and trying to draw back, but Sarah was not going in without him this time. “Come on,” she said, and braced herself. “There’s no other way we can go. Except back where we came from, and I’m not doing that.”
    She stepped through the doorway and waited for Ludo to join her. He followed her, reluctantly. The door swung shut of its own accord, with a resounding thud. The echo lasted a long time.
    Sarah shivered. The sky was the color of cast iron, and the forest plants looked shriveled, as though the sun had never shone on them since their first day on earth. She felt terribly dispirited after just a minute in this place, and she looked for Ludo to hearten her. His expression was unhappier than her own.
    “Oh, come on, Ludo,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “Fancy a great thing like you being so scared.”
    Ludo shook his head. “Not — good.”
    She shrugged, with a heavy heart, turned around again, and wondered which way to go. A path ran in front of her into the forest, but how could anyone take it for granted that a path was the way you wanted to go? “I don’t even know which way the castle is,” she said. Again she looked at Ludo, hoping that from his height he would be able to see it, but he had his head sunk resolutely on his chest and took no notice. She tried standing on tiptoe. That was no good.
    Nothing was any good. She felt a tear of despair rim her eye and brushed it irritably away. “There’s nothing to be scared of,” she said, and felt she had to take some initiative, if only to persuade Ludo to buck up.
    She peered up into the branches of a tree. What she did not see, behind her, was that the earth opened up beneath Ludo and