“Jeg er en liten tekanne, kort og kraftig! Her er håndtaket mitt, her er tuten min! Når jeg får dampet opp, hør meg rope: tips meg, og hell meg ut!”

 

My Norwegian death metal rang up and down the hallway, just like it did every morning. It went on for over a minute, transitioning from grungy, incomprehensible vocals to deep, thumping bass guitar before someone finally switched it off.

 

“Henry?” Ethan's voice came from the hall. “Henry, where are…”

 

The door creaked open, and he saw me sitting cross-legged on my parents’ bed.

 

“Oh,” he said quietly.

 

I looked up at him, wincing a little at the sudden light.

 

“Did you sleep at all last night?” He asked, worried.

 

I nodded. “A little, but every time I closed my eyes…”

 

“I know,” he said. “Are you going to be able to do the next Trial like this?”

 

Fighting back a yawn, I stood up and made for the door. “I don’t have a choice.”

 

I took a long pull from my inhaler and headed downstairs. The smell of cooking reached my nose, and I looked into the kitchen to see Jade standing in front of the stove, wearing an apron and holding a spatula.

 

“Morning!” she said, trying—and failing—to sound chipper. “I made omelets!”

 

I did my best to fight back the wave of bitter disappointment. Jade didn’t deserve that. Not when she was just trying to help. But the sight of her standing where Dad was supposed to stand, wearing his favorite floral print apron, was almost more than I could stand.

 

“No time! We’ve got to move!” I said, doing my best not to breathe in through my nose. If I did, the smell of food might prove to be more tempting than I could—

 

My traitorous stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten anything besides the spoonful of Cocobutts I’d had the morning before. I glanced back at Jade, who raised an eyebrow.

 

“Sit,” she ordered me, pointing at the table with her spatula.

 

Reluctantly, I sat down, trying not to look at the front door. Was it breakfast time for Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Teddy too? Somehow, I doubted that was a priority for Ichabod. If he was bothering to feed them at all, it was probably some gross, watery gruel that they had to choke down just to have something in their bellies. Just thinking about it made my face turn blue with anger, and my appetite vanished like a—

 

Jade set a plate piled high with cheesy eggy goodness in front of me, and my self-control melted under the waterfall of saliva that flooded my mouth. Before I even realized I was doing anything, I had picked up my fork.

 

“All right, fine,” I whispered. “One omelet.”

 

And by one omelet, I of course meant five omelets. They weren’t as good as Dad’s, but that wasn’t Jade’s fault, and it meant more to me than I could have ever gotten across that she just kept piling them onto my plate without me having to say a word.

 

I fought back a wave of tears, trying my best not to sniffle into my breakfast.

 

I have the best friends in the world, I thought.

 

Friends…

 

Aesop, I thought, the food suddenly turning sour inside my stomach. I’d done my best not to think about what had happened last night. I would have to think of some way to make up with him—after my family was safe and sound.

 

Fifteen minutes later, I set my fork down, feeling a lot better than I had expected to feel. I looked over at Jade, who was whispering something to Ethan by the stove.

 

“Thank you,” I said softly.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Ethan said with a smirk. Walking over, he clapped me encouragingly on the shoulder. “I’ve lived with you long enough to know you can barely walk in a straight line when you’re hungry, much less plot an elaborate rescue mission.”

 

I giggled a little, even though it didn’t reach my eyes. “Guilty as charged.”

 

With that, feeling like the world was maybe a little bit brighter than it had been before, I led the way to the front door and back to Jah Beryge. I touched Splatsy as we passed between dimensions, her familiar wood-and-rubber texture on my hip comforting me just the slightest bit. Even if I had nothing else, as long as I had her, I would never be completely helpless.

 

To my surprise, Opisthia was already there waiting for us. He hadn’t changed, not that I would have expected a puppet to change much, but the monk holding him had. This one wore the same tie-dyed robe, but he was shorter and thinner than the paunchy guy Opisthia had been perched on the day before.

 

“WELCOME BACK, RIDER OF HENRIES!” he declared in his booming voice, which I was coming to realize was his default setting. “HAVE YOU PREPARED YOURSELF FOR WHAT IS TO COME?”

 

I waited a few seconds for the ringing in my ears to subside, then nodded. “I’m ready to take the next Trial.”

 

“VERY WELL! THEN FOLLOW ME!”

 

The thin monk turned and made his way through Jah Beryge, with me, Ethan, and Jade following behind him. I expected him to lead us back to the Court of Dueling Wits, but instead he made for a spiral staircase that extended straight upwards above the entrance platform…and upwards, and upwards, and upwards.

 

“Whose idea was it to build a place like this in the sky,” Ethan asked, “and not include any elevators?”

 

“What is an elevator?” Opisthia asked.

 

By the time we reached the top, all three of us were sweating and panting, and I was doing my best to keep from spewing the breakfast Jade had worked so hard on down onto the heads of the monks below. Opisthia didn’t seem the least bit put out by the climb—but then again, all he had inside his chest was somebody’s hand. I doubted it was possible for him to be out of breath.

 

“BEHOLD, THE HALL OF REVERIE!” Opisthia roared, gesturing with his entire body toward a new building, hundreds of feet above the entrance platform. “HERE, THE—”

 

Before he could finish, a decrepit old klaon appeared. Moving quickly despite his age, he pinched the fingers of one hand over Opisthia’s mouth, holding it closed, and raised the finger of the other hand to his lips.

 

“Ssssshhhhh!” he hissed before releasing the puppet.

 

“Ah, yes, sorry about that.” Opisthia turned back to us. “The Hall of Reverie keeps a complete record of klaon history throughout the ages, stretching all the way back to when we first came to Earth.”

 

Even though he was still fighting to catch his breath, Ethan perked up at that the way he always did when he smelled forbidden knowledge. “Wait, when you came to Earth? What does that—”

 

Before he could finish, a series of loud thuds came from below us, and I turned around to see the fat monk from yesterday come rushing up the stairs.

 

“Ah, there you are,” said Opisthia, and I got the feeling that if he’d been able to move his arms, he would be putting his hands on his hips. “How do you explain this tardiness?”

 

The fat monk glanced at me, then shook his head. I still couldn’t see beneath his hood, and I didn’t really try. I had more important things to worry about.

 

“Very well,” Opisthia said, turning to the thin monk who was holding him. “You are dismissed.”

 

The thin monk bowed his head subserviently, and held out the arm that had Opisthia on it. The fat monk took him and placed him on his own hand. The thin monk sprinted down the stairs, and fatty took up position in front of the Hall of Reverie.

 

“Now, as I was saying,” Opisthia went on, gesturing toward the old klaon. “This is Brother Fossilicious, the oldest member of our order.”

 

“That,” Brother Fossilicious said, raising a finger, “is not quite true.”

 

“Fine.” Opisthia moved his head in a rolling-his-eyes kind of way. “He is the oldest living member of our order, since I am just a soul inhabiting a puppet. In any case, he will be the one administering your second Trial.”

 

“Please, come inside,” Brother Fossilicious said, giving us a creaky bow and waving for us to enter. Stepping through the door, I was completely unsurprised to find that the Hall of Reverie was a library. Wooden bookshelves stood all around us, more than thirty feet tall, making a maze of words and paper I’m pretty sure was actually a maze. As Brother Fossilicious led us further in, I tried to keep track of all the turns we made, but it only took about thirty seconds and one impossible U-turn to realize that I was completely lost.

 

“Yes, indeed,” Brother Fossilicious was saying, “no archive on Earth, in any dimension, has a deeper or more comprehensive record of klaon history than the Hall of Reverie. Our records stretch all the way back to 407 AD, when—”

 

“When klaons first came to Earth?” Ethan asked, gently pushing past me to walk alongside the ancient librarian.

 

“Yes!” Brother Fossilicious seemed thrilled to have someone to share his knowledge with. The Hall of Reverie, as far as I could tell, was abandoned except for him. “You see, the klaons who discovered Earth were the same ones who went on to form the Jocular Brotherhood of Zanni.”

 

“So, you have the most extensive knowledge,” Ethan finished for him, “because you were actually there?”

 

“Well, not me specifically,” Brother Fossilicious admitted. “None of the original settlers are left, except for Father Opisthia.”

 

“So, where did you come from?” Ethan asked.

 

I tried to be annoyed that Ethan was getting so excited about this while my family was still in danger, but I couldn’t. His insatiable curiosity for anything and everything magical was part of what made him Ethan, and as such was part of the reason I loved him.

 

Brother Fossilicious hesitated, then glanced back at Opisthia. The puppet shook his head.

 

“That information,” the puppet said quickly, “is only for members of the Brotherhood, I’m afraid.”

 

Oh, salamander sandwiches, I thought. Opisthia probably thought that would be enough to get Ethan out of his glued-on hair about this. Little did he know, he’d just said the magic words to make the adorable dweeb absolutely obsessed with this. Sure enough, when I looked at Ethan again, his eyes were wide and he had a look of hunger on his face that was comparable to a maiam looking at…well, Ethan.

 

“So, I’m going to fight someone in here?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation back onto safer grounds before we passed the point of no return—assuming we weren’t there already. “Doesn’t exactly look like the place for it.”

 

“Not exactly, young Hunter!” Brother Fossilicious exclaimed just as we reached what I assumed to be the center of the Hall of Reverie. Here, the shelves suddenly stopped, creating a space roughly the same size as the Court of Dueling Wits. In the center was a long table made of dark wood, with a massively thick book at the far end, which Brother Fossilicious sat down in front of. “Brute strength is only one of the skills the Hunter must possess. The second Trial will test your wits and creativity.”

 

I shared a look with Ethan and Jade, and we all sat down at the other end of the table.

 

“You are permitted to bring two companions with you on this Trial,” Brother Fossilicious said. He eyed my friends. “Is that why you have brought them?”

 

Something about the look in his eyes sent a chill down my spine. “Will they be in any—”

 

“Yes,” Ethan interrupted me, “that’s exactly why we’re here!”

 

“Very well.” Brother Fossilicious gave the book a push, and it slid all the way down the table to where we were sitting. “When you are ready, look within to begin the second Trial of the First Hunter’s Hammer!”

 

I held up my hand to tell the others to keep their distance. I still didn’t know what was going on, but this book clearly had something to do with the Trial. That made it dangerous. I hated the idea of dragging my friends into danger with me, especially now of all times, but it looked like we were past the point of backing out.

 

Moving slowly, I pulled the book closer and looked at the cover.

 

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “I know this book!”

 

“What is it?” Jade asked, leaning forward in her seat.

 

“It’s a Big Tops and Boogeymen rule book!” I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the familiar cover art. Reaching out, I flipped open the cover and looked at Brother Fossilicious. “So, what, are we just going to play—”

 

A blinding light erupted from the book. I tried to recoil from it, but found that I couldn’t. It was like I was stuck to…no, like I was being pulled into the book!

 

The same thing was happening to Jade and Ethan I realized. Jade’s hair was being sucked toward the book like that one time I’d gotten mine stuck in the vacuum cleaner, and Ethan was bracing himself against the table to resist the pull. The air was whirling around us, creating a tornado with the rule book at its base.

 

Keeping one hand on the table, I reached the other toward the book. Maybe if I closed it, this would all—

 

My other hand slipped, and I went somersaulting into the book itself. Then I was falling through a tunnel of light. Words flashed past me too fast to read. If I craned my neck, I could see Ethan and Jade plummeting behind me, all three of us claimed by the book.

 

And high above us, I saw the book’s cover slowly rise, and then begin to fall. With a deafening BOOM, it slammed closed, trapping us inside.

 

Everything went dark.

​​​​​​​​​​​​

NEXT CHAPTER: 9/27/2025