“Stop,” the big cat muttered. “Don’t tell me anything morrre.”

Fifer reached the winged-cheetah statue and pulled short of giving him a hug. “What? Why?”

“Because I worrrk forrr Frrrieda now! You know this.”

“But, Simber, I—” She let out an exasperated breath. “That doesn’t affect our friendship, does it? What are you saying? Did she order you to, like, attack us or something?”

“Fiferrr,” said Simber. His eyes darted uneasily around the shadows of the auditorium. “You need to get out of herrre. You’rrre not safe. Find Aarrron and tell him to leave too. Go to the Island of Shipwrrrecks. You too, Sky—all of you. Life herrre has changed in an instant. And I fearrr it’s neverrr going to be the same again.”

Fifer stared, horrified and mystified by Simber’s words and struck by the heavyheartedness in his voice. “But—”

Just then a scraping sound came from the back wall. A moment later the huge double doors flattened and returned to being a painting. The three of them stared. “What just happened?” asked Sky. “Did Frieda take the drawing down?”

Simber let out an angry roar, then charged toward the painting. He stopped short of slamming into the wall and shouted, “Put that drrrawing back up! Frrrieda! The doorrr!”

But it was to no avail—whoever had taken it down wasn’t actually on the other side of the wall. They were somewhere in the physical mansion, far away. Simber let out another roar, which shook the seats and made the stage curtain tremble. “Come back herrre!” he shouted.

“What’s happening?” Fifer whispered to Sky.

“I don’t know,” said Sky, “but I think someone accidentally locked Simber in here.”

“We’ll get help,” Fifer said to Simber. “Just sit tight. We’ll find the 3-D drawing and put it back up while you… do whatever it is you are supposed to be doing in here.”

Simber let out another angry, bloodcurdling roar.

Fifer covered her ears. “It’s going to be fine!”

“No it isn’t!” shouted Simber. “You don’t underrrstand. She’s done this on purrrpose.” He began pacing behind the back row of seats. “Just… go. Get out of herrre.”

“She— On purpose?” said Fifer. “I’m sorry, Simber—what?”

Simber turned as his angry expression morphed into one of defeat. “I’m surrre of it. Frrrieda locked me in herrre so I wouldn’t join Aarrron’s side—yourrr side. She trrricked me. Earrrlierrr I admitted to herrr that I would have a difficult time harrrming any of the people on Aarrron’s team. So she sent me herrre to see if anyone was hiding. It was a trrrap, don’t you see? And now I’m stuck, unable to do anything. My head mage doesn’t trrrust me.”

“Oh, Simber,” said Sky. “I mean, does that really matter? She’s your head mage, but she’s horrible. Why do you care that she doesn’t trust you?”

“I’m so… conflicted,” Simber moaned. “I was crrreated to serrrve the head mage… but… she’s…” The statue growled angrily again, then said, “This is Aarrron’s fault for handing herrr the rrrobe.” He broke into a gallop along the wall in frustration, even though he knew that wouldn’t solve anything. Finally he skidded to a stop and sank to the floor, giving up. “Please listen to me. Get out of herrre now beforrre she finds you.”