The wind roared in my ears as I Globbered my way toward the dungeon, but even that couldn’t drown out the ominous crackle of Jah Beryge giving way and plunging into the sea below. The dungeon was relatively close to the entrance platform, but most of the floors between me and it had already collapsed, forcing me to get creative.

 

I made myself stay calm as I globbed onto a chunk of floor that was still stubbornly remaining upright, and let Globber yoink me toward it. If I wanted to get through this—especially with Aesop still breathing—I had to keep a level head and think. Whatever happened to me or my family would come later. For now, every ounce of concentration I had available needed to be on keeping myself moving forwards and not downwards.

 

Gravel rained down on me, and I realized the ledge I’d globbed onto was finally coming free. Maybe I needed to go on a diet—no, no! Focus! Flipping myself upside down even as I zipped toward it, I charged my shoes with magic. The ledge came free just before I reached it, and my momentum when I collided with it was enough to flip it over so that I was facing upwards. I released my magic, launching myself higher into the air and blasting the ledge downwards. As I rose, I scanned my surroundings, chose a pillar that jutted up from a section of floor that hadn’t collapsed yet, and flung Globber toward it.

 

Nearly there. The cracks hadn’t reached the dungeon yet, thank the whoopee cushion in the sky, but it wouldn’t be long. I could see the weird upside down tower thing extending from the bottom of the nearby platform, and my heart skipped a beat with fear. I would have to do this quickly. Very quickly. If the dungeon fell while Aesop and I were still in it, there wouldn’t be anything close enough for us to glob on to to escape.

 

So, move faster! I yelled at myself in my head.

 

Coming to the last pillar, I globbed onto it and pulled out Prinkle—or maybe it was Prunkle—and charged him up. I fired, then charged and fired again, sending myself spinning around the pillar, drawing Globber taut. Then, just when he reached the limit of his stretchiness, I holstered Prunkle—or maybe it was Prinkle—and grabbed hold with both hands. The world became a blur as Globber retracted, and it felt like my face was going to peel away from my skull, but then I was flying across Jah Beryge at an unbelievable speed. It took a couple of seconds before my eyes could focus again—that move was like going on the Tilt-A-Whirl of the gods—but when they did, I immediately realized that I was going to overshoot my target. Pulling out Prinkle—I’m tired of doing this joke—I charged him up as quickly as I could, then fired him off at an angle both behind and above me, changing my course in midair so that I would come down closer to the dungeon’s entrance.

 

I swooped down on the rapidly disappearing floor, then cast Globber out behind me. He globbed on to the white marble, his stretchy resistance slowing me down, and as soon as my feet touched the ground I detached him and set off at a sprint. I kicked the door open and took off down the stairs five at a time.

 

“Aesop!” I yelled when I reached the bottom, dashing down the dimly lit corridor. “Tell me you’re okay, you bite-sized butthead!”

 

Ahead of me, just under the rumble of collapsing architecture, I heard a startled voice ask, “Henry?”

 

I skidded to a halt in front of the cell I had left him in the day before, and sighed in relief when I saw him alive and well—or, at least, as well as could be expected given the circumstances. I knew Opisthia wouldn’t have just let him starve to death down here, and it had only been one day, but when you have luck as bad as mine you learn pretty quickly to assume the worst in just about every situation.

 

“What the hell is going on out there?” he demanded, running forward to grab the bars.

 

“The whole place is coming down,” I answered, drawing Prunkle. “We don’t have much time. Get back!”

 

He retreated to the back of his cell, and I charged up my Prankles can. My muscles ached, and the feeling only grew worse as I sapped even more of my own energy to power the attack. I forced myself to ignore it, though. As long as I had enough energy to put one foot in front of another, I had to keep doing so until Aesop was out of danger. Saying a silent prayer that the cells weren’t enchanted, I fired. The old iron lock shattered beneath the spring snake, and I kicked the door open.

 

“Let’s go!” I yelled, already sprinting back toward the stairway.

 

“I knew you wouldn’t just leave me here!” Aesop said, cackling as he followed me. We started the looping climb back upwards. “I didn’t expect you to bring the whole house down just to get me out, though. You’re about as subtle as an exploding refrigerator, but you’ve got style, Henry!”

 

“I didn’t do this for you!” I said, my mouth moving before I realized what was coming out of it.

 

I heard him stop, and against my better judgement, I stopped too.

 

“You…” he said slowly, his face a mask of wounded betrayal. “You’re not breaking me out?”

 

“I’m trying to save your life, you idiot!” I snapped.

 

To my disbelief, he actually took a step backwards.

 

“So you were telling the truth,” he whispered. “You really aren’t my friend anymore!”

 

“Do we have to do this right now?” I demanded, waving at the wall. “If you hadn’t noticed, this place is literally collapsing on top of us!”

 

As if to prove my point, there was a deafening CRACK, and the floor lurched beneath my feet. Sunlight began to stream into the tower, growing brighter as the bottom half of the dungeon broke free and began to plunge down toward the ocean. Moving quickly, I grabbed Aesop by the front of his shirt just as the floor fell out from beneath his feet, then flung Globber further up. We fell for a few feet, with Aesop screaming like a little girl, before boinging back up to safety—but it wasn’t going to stay safe for long.

 

“Go, go, go!” I yelled, shoving Aesop in front of me as more and more of the stairway began to crumble into rubble behind us. Round and round we went, gasping for breath with every step. How many loops did it take to get from one end of the stairs to the other? I hadn’t counted, and I kicked myself for it now. That left me with no idea where we were in the stairway. We might be almost at the top, or we might just as easily not even be halfway—

 

I spotted the door and sprang forward, tackling Aesop and rolling out onto what remained of the platform outside just as the last step vanished. I chanced a look back, and my eyes widened when I saw the entire dungeon, a building roughly the size of a football field, tumbling end over end before landing in the Sea Betwixt hard enough that the splash reached almost all the way to Jah Beryge. I turned away, feeling uncharacteristically queasy—and then that queasiness turned into outright nausea.

 

Jah Beryge was gone.

 

Okay, that was a little overdramatic. But not much. It looked like most of the destruction had occurred on this side. In the distance, I could see the buildings that were most closely connected to the giant pillar, like the sleeping quarters, the Vault of Vulgar Humor, and the Kaleidoscopic Chamber, had hardly been touched. But the dining hall, the Hall of Reverie, and the Court of Dueling Wits had been wiped out as if they'd never existed.

 

Aesop and I stood on a small chunk of floor about ten feet long and six feet wide. It looked stable, at least for the moment, but that wasn't much comfort because it was the only piece of architecture between us and the entrance platform. I could see Jade, still standing on the bridge I'd left her and Ethan on. As soon as she saw me, she started waving frantically, but without her magic there was nothing she could do to help us.

 

To my surprise, there were a few jagged pieces of the entrance platform clinging stubbornly to their perch as well. And my front door was still there! If I could just get back over there…

 

Oh, right. I had promised Opisthia I wouldn't do that.

 

Not that it mattered. There was a ledge with a chunk of pillar still protruding from it that would have been the perfect place to glob on to, but it was too far away for Globber to reach by, like, three dozen yards. This time, there was nothing for me to do my slingshot trick on. My heart sank into my stomach. Was that it, then? Was this where my story finally ended? I closed my eyes, feeling myself begin to sink into despair.

 

No.

 

My eyes snapped back open. I was Henry freaking Rider. I was the Hunter. And most importantly, like McGus always told me, I was too stupid to die. Even if there was no way out of this mess, I wasn't going to just sit here and suck my thumb until the end came. By the fiery depths of Uncle Junk’s expired seafood gumbo, I was going to meet Death halfway and greet him with a headbutt!

 

An idea came to me. It was a bad idea, but you know what I say about bad ideas. I drew Prinkle and Prunkle, loaded a spring-snake into each of them, and then set them upside down on the floor.

 

“Grab on to me!” I said. Aesop jumped, like he'd forgotten I was there, but did as I told him. Climbing onto my back, he wrapped his arms and legs around me like a little redheaded backpack. His face was so pale with terror that his freckles glowed like hundreds of little traffic lights. I stepped up on top of Prinkle and Prunkle.

 

“I'm sorry about this, guys,” I said with a pang of real sadness. “I won't let your sacrifice be in vain!”

 

“Wait, what?” Aesop demanded.

 

“Just hold on tight, and don't let go!”

 

I started pouring magic into the cans through my feet. This probably wasn't going to work, and when it didn't, Aesop would go down with me. That was the worst part about all this. I was still mad at the backstabbing little twerp, but that didn't mean I wanted him dead! Well, not much, anyway. But I wasn't going to just leave him here either, and once I did this, there would be no going back to get him. Already, I could see cracks inching their way across our little platform. In another minute or so, it wouldn't even be here anymore.

 

Focusing my attention on the task at hand, I locked eyes on my destination—and released my magic!

 

BOING!

 

Aesop screamed directly into my ear as we shot through the air, catapulted out over the void by the pair of spring-snakes. Prinkle and Prunkle were left behind. I took a moment to salute them—they may not have been alive, but they were my friends every bit as much as Ethan and Jade were—and then readied Globber. I waited, counting down the seconds. This had to be perfect. I fixed my eyes on my goal, threw Globber with all my might…

 

And he globbed onto the pillar just above the ledge!

 

“Yes!” I cried in delight as we fell for a few feet, and then boinged back upwards. I touched down on the tiny platform, terrified that it would immediately collapse beneath my feet, but it held steady.

 

The pillar, however, did not.

 

I realized what was happening just in time to throw Aesop off my back. He hit the ground and slid across the slick marble surface, coming alarmingly close to the edge. With a yelp, though, he dug his nails into the stone and managed to come to a stop just in time.

 

A split second later, the pillar crashed down on top of me.

 

Pain lanced through my lower body, turning my vision white, and I cried out in agony. When I could see again, I craned my neck around as far as I could. The sight wasn't pretty. Both my legs were trapped firmly beneath the fallen pillar. One of them hurt, but I could tell it was still intact. The other…wasn't.

 

CRACK!

 

I looked down to see cracks forming in the floor below me. With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I frantically began to push against the pillar, but even broken as it was, it must have weighed at least a ton. When that didn't work, I tried crawling out from under it, but the wave of pain that shot through me quickly convinced me that was a lost cause too.

 

“Aesop!” I yelled, my voice cracking from the strain. “Help me!”

 

Aesop had gotten to his feet, and was looking the other way. Following his gaze, I realized he was staring at my door. Every inch of floor that had been connected to it had fallen away, but it still hovered in midair right where it had always been. It stood open, but it was nearly twenty feet away from us. Way farther than Aesop could jump with his dinky little leprechaun legs.

 

“Hurry!” I said again, and he finally turned to look at me. The cracks continued to spread beneath us. “We don't have much time!”

 

He hesitated, looking toward the Vault of Vulgar Humor.

 

“Aesop, I can’t do this alone!”

 

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then dashed over to me, dropping to his knees.

 

“Thank you!” I said, tears running down my cheeks. “Hurry! If you can…”

 

My voice trailed off as he slipped Globber off my wrist.

 

“Aesop?” I asked, staring at him in horror. “What are you doing?”

 

Standing back up, he fastened the sticky hand around his own arm. Then he looked down, giving me such a hateful look that I felt it down in my soul.

 

“Why don't you ask one of your friends to help you?” he snapped, his voice acidic, before whirling around and flinging Globber out across the gap. Globber globbed onto the wall just inside my door, and yoinked Aesop in after him.

 

I could only stare in horror as he turned around one last time, only to grab the door and slam it behind him.

 

“Aesop…” I whispered. He had left me for dead. He had abandoned me!

 

Just like you abandoned him, the cynical voice in my head whispered.

 

I just stared at the floating door, too stunned to move. It wasn't like there was anything I could do besides wait and hope it didn’t hurt too much when I hit the ground. There was nothing but water below me, but at this height, it would be like landing on solid concrete. I could hear Jade and Ethan—who had finally woken up—shouting to me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at them.

 

Beneath me, the ledge crumbled to pieces, and I closed my eyes as I went plummeting down, down, down…

 

“I AM NOT A BAD BOY!”

 

My eyes snapped open again just as a blazing bolt of light came rocketing out of nowhere. It fell right alongside me, as bright and as fast as a shooting star. I had to shield my eyes, but I didn’t need them to recognize that deep, booming voice.

 

“George?” I exclaimed.

 

“HURRY HENRY GRAB ON TO ME BECAUSE YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND AND I LOVE YOU AND IT WOULD MAKE ME SAD IF YOU DIED!”

 

I hesitated, conflicted. George was trying to save my life, but he was the reason I was in this situation in the…

 

Wait, what the chicken noodle smoothie was wrong with me? I grabbed hold of his stick, and he curved smoothly around to carry us back upwards. A few seconds later, he was setting me down on the bridge with Ethan and Jade, laying me on my back surprisingly gently.

 

“Are you okay?” Ethan asked. “That pillar—”

 

“My leg is about seven and a half different kinds of screwed up,” I said, resisting the urge to look at it. The pain made me want to throw up, but it wasn’t the first broken bone I’d dealt with, and I doubted it would be the last. I turned to look at George, who was hovering a couple inches above the ground. “But I’m alive.”

 

“THEN,” the obsidian horse said, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, “I AM A GOOD BOY?”

 

Somehow, despite the pain I was in—both physically and emotionally—I managed to smile.

 

“Yes,” I said. “You’re a good boy.”