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Chapter Twenty Three

My heart was hammering in my throat and my hands were shaking, making it hard to operate the Escher Cube without warping myself into the Andromeda Galaxy or something. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times McGus had drilled it into my thick skull that I should never, ever use the Cube without giving it my full attention, but can you blame me? Opisthia was being uncharacteristically tight-lipped—not that he had any lips, but you know what I mean—about what was going on. All I knew was that something had happened back at Jah Beryge, and that one of my friends was involved. The puppet said we needed to get back as quickly as possible, but I would have done that even if he’d suggested we stop at Wombo World for a Toxic Sludgee on our way back.

I knew my friends, and I knew the roles everyone played in our little group. I was the spunky, loveable troublemaker, Ethan was the unassuming geek whose nerdy exterior hid a layer of pure hotness that was a mile thick, and Jade was the quiet, shy, but always dependable friend who secretly had enough firepower in her fingertips to blow up the entire freaking planet. Between the three of us, I was clearly the one most suited to causing problems, as evidenced by…well, my entire life. But since I had the airtight alibi of not having been there when the whatever-it-was happened, I could safely assume that I wasn’t the one being locked up. Jade was out too. She may have been discovering new ways to explore her freedom without using magic, but rules had been such an inseparable part of her very existence for so long that even now she wouldn’t willingly break them without an extremely good reason.

That left Ethan. The one nobody would expect much from at a glance, but who held more potential than any human I had ever met. From the nuclear stockpile of laughter he had built up inside him, to his burgeoning magical powers, to his endless thirst for knowledge about the world I had dragged him into almost a year ago, he was the only person I knew who truly deserved to be called one-in-a-million. That was why I had fallen in love with him.

But tonight, it was his immutable sense of loyalty that had me scared. He knew how terrified I was that something was going to happen to my family. What if, with Opisthia gone, he had decided that now was his chance to undermine the Trials and get his hands on the First Hunter’s Hammer for me? Granted, doing stupid things was almost entirely in my wheelhouse, but these were exactly the kind of circumstances that would push someone like him to do something like that.

With a flash, Opisthia and I reappeared back in my house. I didn’t know where Jah Beryge was—if it even was anywhere—so the best I could do was warp us to where I knew we could find a doorway leading there. Fatty immediately reached for my front door, but I beat him there, dropping the Cube on the hallway table before throwing the door wide open and storming into the weird in-between realm that the Brotherhood of Zanni called home.

Mustard on watermelon, Ethan Griggs, I thought, half angrily and half terrified, if you’ve gone and gotten yourself thrown in klaon jail, I’ll—

I stopped short when I saw who was waiting for me at the door.

“Jade?” I asked, then did a double take at who was right beside her. “Ethan?”

“We’re sorry!” Ethan said, his skin almost as pale as mine. “We had no idea!”

“We didn’t even know he was here,” Jade added, looking like she was on the verge of tears. “If we had, we would have done something to stop him!”

“The first we heard about it was when they caught him!” Ethan went on. “They say he was—”

“Guys!” I interrupted him, holding up my hands. “Slow down. What happened while I was gone?”

Ethan and Jade both stared at me, and then shared a wide eyed look with each other that only made my heart sink even deeper into my stomach.

“Opisthia didn’t tell you?” Jade finally asked.

“TELL ME WHAT…” I stopped, closing my eyes and forcing myself to take a deep breath. When I was reasonably certain I wasn’t going to explode at them again, I said, “Guys, this is not the day to be vague with me. Someone needs to tell me what happened, and they need to tell me right now!”

Somehow managing to turn even paler, Ethan opened his mouth—but then stopped when I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. I craned my neck around to see Fatty standing behind me, with Opisthia perched on the end of his arm.

“I think,” the puppet said in a strange mix of consolation and stern coldness, “that it will be easier to just show you.”

Without another word of explanation, he turned and made his way across the entry platform. I glanced at Ethan and Jade again, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that neither of them were going to say another word, so I had no choice but to follow the hulking, multicolored monk. Moving with the speed of familiarity, he led us across one bridge, then another. We passed through the dining hall, which was now deserted except for a lone klaon who was mopping puddles of spilled lacstarb off the floor, and then down a spiral staircase that, unlike every other one I’d seen since coming here, was walled in. It felt like I was descending a tower that I had somehow entered from the top. There were no windows, and the only light came from a series of torches that jutted from the walls every dozen feet or so.

“It has been nearly a century since we’ve last had to make use of the dungeons,” Opisthia said, his deep voice echoing through the narrow stone corridor. “Not since the KFMR movement in the 1800’s.”

“KFMR?” I asked, more to distract myself than from any real desire to know. “What was that?”

“Klaons For Maiam Rights,” he answered wryly. “A misguided bunch who got it into their heads that maiams were klaons just like the rest of us, and should be treated as such. Their intentions were good, but in the end they were still responsible for a large number of klaons becoming maiams, and the human casualties that followed. Those who were left, we kept here for the rest of their lives. Once the last of them passed away, I had hoped that perhaps we would never need to use the dungeons ever again. Alas, if wishes were giggles no klaon would ever go hungry again.”

Almost a full minute after we’d started the descent, we finally reached the bottom. A lone klaon whose tie-dyed robe was colored darker than the others stood guard, a spear in one hand. When he saw Fatty and Opisthia, he nodded and let us pass. None of us spoke as we ventured down the hallway, the only sound being the echoing of our footsteps. My heart was jackhammering inside my chest again. The suspense was going to turn my blue hair white if I didn’t get some answers soon. If this wasn’t about Ethan, and it wasn’t about Jade, then what was it about?

They found out what you were doing, the annoyingly logical voice whispered in my ear. This is a trap. Once they get you far enough in here that you can’t escape, they’re going to push you into a cell and throw away the key!

I tried not to listen to it, but that proved harder than I’d expected when Fatty stopped in front of a solid iron door and produced a ring of keys from his pocket. He inserted it into the lock, turned it, and with a hair-raising squeal of rusty hinges, pushed the door open. It was too dark to see what was inside, but I thought I could make out something shifting in the darkness. I glanced at Opisthia, and he looked expectantly back at me but said nothing. He clearly wanted me to go inside and see what was waiting in there for myself. If this was a trap, then that would be the perfect opportunity to spring it.

Well, I guess I can’t pretend I wouldn’t deserve it, I thought glumly, and stepped inside. Pulling out my phone, I turned on the flashlight app—and gasped in horror when I saw what was waiting for me.

“Aesop?” I exclaimed.

“Henry!” he exclaimed right back, leaping to his feet. “Thank God it's you! You have to get me out of here!”

I spun to face Opisthia. “What happened?”

“He was caught trying to pick the lock on the First Hunter’s Hammer’s gate,” the puppet answered. “Apparently, it occurred shortly after you and I left. He ran once he realized he'd been discovered, and nearly managed to escape, but Sister Swoosh was able to head him off at the doorway.”

Aesop shook his head frantically. “I just wanted to—”

I glared at him, and he shut up.

“What happens now?” I asked, then swallowed. “Are you going to…”

“The Jocular Brotherhood of Zanni only kills maiams,” Opisthia said firmly. “But a crime of this magnitude can not be overlooked. If he had managed to carry out his task, it would have put the entire world in danger.”

“You mean…” Ethan said, his voice hoarse.

Opisthia nodded. “We must keep him here for the rest of his life.”

I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth. It felt like an ice-cold hand was wrapping around my heart and wringing it for every drop of pain it could get.

“Henry—” Aesop tried to say again, but I silenced him with an upraised hand.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked quietly.

“No.”

I turned away from him, my eyes squeezed shut. The seconds crept by, each one feeling like an hour. My mind was racing. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be! I had faced more disasters than I could count since I'd become the Hunter, especially over the past year, and there had always been a solution. It might not always have tied up every loose end with a nice, pretty bow, but there had been a way out.

But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn't find it this time. I could always break him out. That would be easier done than said, in fact. One whack from Splatsy to take out Fatty, and we could all make a run for the door. Without someone's arm to ride on, what could Opisthia do? Would he even be able to yell for help without someone's hand inside his head?

But if I did that, I would be giving up on my family. There was no way Opisthia would let me have his hammer then, and Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Teddy would…

“Can we talk to him for a minute?” I asked. “Alone?”

Opisthia hesitated, then nodded. Fatty, clearly not happy with the situation, reluctantly retreated down the corridor to give us some privacy.

“All right,” Aesop whispered as soon as they were out of sight. “We need to hurry. Security is a lot tighter than around here than I—”

“DAMN IT, AESOP!”

Aesop looked at me, stunned, as my voice echoed through the dungeon. Even Ethan and Jade were staring like they suddenly didn't recognize me. I didn't care. My face was turning blue with anger, but all I could see was red. It took all of my self-control to keep from punching Aesop on his stupid freckled face. If he hadn't looked so scared and defenseless, I might have done it anyway.

I lowered my voice. “What did you think you were doing?”

“I was trying to get the hammer for you,” he answered, as if it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

“They’re already going to give me the hammer!” I hissed.

“Yeah, after you’ve wasted three days jumping through hoops for them! I was going to steal it right out from under their big red noses.” He curled his lip at Ethan. “Then, when you got your parents back a day early, maybe you'd finally figure out who your real friends are!”

My mouth fell open, and I stared at him in disbelief.

“That's why you did this?” I whispered, the corner of my eye twitching. “Because you wanted to prove you're better than Ethan?”

“I just—”

“You put my family's lives at risk over a stupid, petty grudge?”

Aesop paused, then gave Jade a pleading look. “Jade, tell Henry to be reasonable here!”

“Henry isn't the one being unreasonable,” Jade replied, her voice colder than I had ever heard it before. “Do you have any idea how close you just came to ruining everything?”

“That's not—”

“They know we're friends!” I interrupted him, throwing my hands up in the air. “We came in together on the first day! What are they going to think now that they've caught you trying to steal from them? What if they decide I can't be trusted? They'll never give me the hammer, Ichabod will kill my family, and it'll be all your fault!”

Aesop stared at me, horrified, for a few seconds as the full weight of what he'd gotten himself into finally dawned on him.

“Okay, all right,” he said, a trace of desperation entering his voice. “I'm sorry, okay? I messed up, but I'll make it up to you. But first you've got to get me out of here!”

I clenched my fist, blue-heated fury rising up inside me…and I stepped back into the corridor and swung the cell door closed.

“Henry?” Aesop asked, his eyes widening in horror as the gap grew smaller and smaller. “Henry!”

The only response was the squeal of the hinges.

“Henry, we've been friends since we were little!” he yelled. “Don't throw that all away over this! Remember the good times we had! The pranks we pulled! Henry, I'm sorry! Please don't leave me—”

“Goodbye, Aesop,” I shut the door and turned my back on him.

Nobody spoke as I led the way back up the corridor. We found Fatty and Opisthia waiting for us at the base of the stairs, and the puppet gave me a sympathetic look.

“I'm sorry,” he said softly. “But we can't allow a crime like this to go unpunished just because he’s your friend.”

I paused for a moment, then shook my head and began the trek upwards.

“He’s not my friend.”

NEXT CHAPTER 12/17/25