“I’m bringing my painted stick.” He held up the chimera. “And my this.”
Another howl thundered outside, rattling the panes. Zorn looked out the window.
“They’re here.”
Gertrude proposed using the secret passage.
“Though we can’t use the usual shortcut. It’ll land us right in the middle of the courtyard.”
“What do you want to do, then?” Topher asked. “Walk out the front door?”
“There are other passages. I just don’t know where they are or where they lead.”
“The maps,” Zorn said.
Topher hurried to his desk, withdrew them from a drawer, and spread them out all over the floor. Outside, the snarls and growls of the beasts grew louder. Somebody screamed, high pitched and shrill.
“Here,” Gertrude said, pointing at the Burleigh’s map. “Here’s our room. Here’s where we usually go. And righ
