And he wasn’t, we never saw Maxim again. We waited in front of the entrance to the maze, thinking perhaps he would emerge. Alice and Gaius did some sort of spell to find him, but it turned up nothing – either that or it simply didn’t work, I couldn’t tell.

As the sun rose the next day after a night spent waiting and hoping and then dispairing, Richard declared that he was going to re-enter the Labyrinth.

“Are you mad?” Gaius scrambled to his feet. “We barely got out of there the first time!”

“We can’t leave Maxim in there, he’s one of us.”

Alice got to her feet as well. “Richard, you can’t it’s too late,” she put her hand on his shoulder. “The spell couldn’t find him, he’s gone.”

“You could be wrong, and even if you’re not we can’t leave him there to rot!” Richard shrugged off Alice’s hand and turned towards the Labyrinth. “He wouldn’t leave us.”

Alice and Gaius gave each other a desparate look but it didn’t look like anything was going to stop Richard.

As he approached the entrance though we we’e nearly shocked out of our minds at the sudden appearance of a hooden figure. It literally appeared out of nowhere!

“Leave this place.” The voice that emerged was deep and commanding. “You are not welcome.”

That was enough for me, but Richard was not so easily ordered around, he stared at the figure. “Where is he? Where’s Maxim?” He demanded.

“You shouldn’t have been here, this is a sacred place.”

“Give him back to us, he’s our friend,” Richard’s voice actually shook.

“The one you call Maxim has been taken by the Goddess, she will take care of him now.”

Unsurprisingly, that didn’t make Richard feel any better, his fingers curled into fists. “You mean she killed him?’

“The Goddess does not kill,” the hooded figure replied in a dispassionate matter of fact manner. “Your friend made a mistake, none of you are powerful enough to pass through the Labyrinth. Your eagerness far outpaced your abilities.”

“He’s our friend,” Richard’s voice shook. “Damnit! He’s our friend! We want his body at least!”

“No-one can return from the Labyrinth,” the hooded figure was firm. “I am sorry.”

“You’re not sorry!” Richard’s voice broke and before any of the rest of us could react he raced towards the figure.

But before he got within a few feet of whoever he was suddenly thrown back, landing a good fifty feet away.

“Leave,” although we couldn’t see their face the hooden figure seemed to look at each of us and there was a sense of foreboding descended over us, or at least it over me. I was more than ready to leave the Labyrinth and never, ever come back.

Alice had gone to Richard’s side to make sure he was all right and now Gaius spoke.

“We’ll leave, we... I...we apologise for encroaching upon the labrinyth we did not realise our presence wouldn’t be welome.”

“You know better now,” the figure said, and raising an arm pointed towards the forest. “You have half an hour, do not loiter.”

And in the blink of an eye the figure was gone.

Gaius turned to look at us, and I realised that Richard had his face in hands, his shoulders shaking.

“Let’s go.”

*~*

The ride back to Camelot was a silent, gloomy affair, Richard wouldn’t speak to any of us. Gaius was also in deep silence, thoughftul and every now and then a look of guilt would steal over his face.

Although it had been a couple of days since I’d been in the saddle I was once again in a fair degree of pain, although really I couldn’t compare my discomfort to what mental turmoil the others were going through. I didn’t know what to think, I wished I could say something to ease Gaius’s conscience, what had happened was hardly his fault. It was not as if he had planned this and the rest of the group had willingly gone.

Still...even though I had ony known him for a very short time I kept looking about for Maxim, recalling what he had said, how hopeful he’d been that the Labyrinth would help him, allow him to see something, do something he’d never seen before.

And now he was dead.

I couldn’t help wondering at the fragility of life and the danger that magic presented.

Still magic was hardly the only dangerous thing out there, Christianity had lead many others to their deaths.

I didn’t think that would cheer up Gaius or the rest of the group however, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

As we drew closer and closer to Camelot, black clouds filled the sky and soon enough there was a crack of thunder, a flash of lightning and then the rain began to fall. Soon we were all soaked to skin, which made an unpleasant journey that much worse. It was at least only another hour’s ride, and as we went through the main gate of the lower town, I swore to myself that I would never ride a horse again.

On arriving back at the stables, Alice spoke up. “Who’s going to speak to Maxim’s mother?”

Gaius flinched, I hadn’t considered family, this was not a conversation that anyone would wish to have.

Osric, Roderick, Elric and Ian looked at each other, it was clear nobody wanted to that particular task.

“I’ll do it,” Gaius spoke up, wiping the rain from his face. “It’s my responsiblity.”

“We’ll come with you,” Alice spoke up, looking towards the others. “Won’t we?”

Richard shook his head and spoke for the first time. “I should do it, he’s my cousin, I promised to look after him. It’s I who let Max down.”

Gaius shook his head, moving over to put a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t hold yourself solely responsible for what happened, it’s not fair.”

Richard look as if he were going to object, but he didn’t seem to have strength.

I wasn’t exactly sure if I was included this, but I decide that I probably was, so followed the rest of them, not that I really had anything to say.

I am not very good at such scenes, Maxim’s mother was one of the town bakers and she seemed to have no idea what we had come for, which made it all the more difficult when she greeted the group and let us in.

“Where is Max?” She asked, looking over our shoulders, trying to spot her son.

I don’t really remember what Gaius said to her, or the rest of the group for that matter, instead I watched as his mother’s face paled and her eyes filled with tears and disbelief and then wrenching sobs.

At that was the end of Gaius’s magical group.