“There’s a stairwell,” Fifer said, easing over to the hole Thisbe had broken through and looking down into it. “Do you see it? Can you make it over there?”

“Yeah,” said Thisbe. “I’ll meet you on the steps. Be careful so you don’t break through again. Elongate your body and slide.”

“Stay in the stairwell—I’ll come down to help you.”

Using their elbows to pull them along, they each crawled carefully across the sagging floor and made it to the center tower stairwell, which looked solid, as it was made of stone and iron. Fifer got up shakily, then sat again and slid slowly down the steps one at a time to the next level. She found Thisbe, whose ankle was puffing up. “I can’t put any weight on it,” Thisbe said, trying to hold back the tears of pain. “Do you have any of Henry’s medicine?”

“If it didn’t fall into the sea, I do.” Fifer rummaged through her robe pockets with her uninjured hand, laying out all of her remaining components on the stone step in front of them. It was a pitiful amount. Two send spells. A handful of scatterclips that had snagged the inside of her pocket. And two highlighters. She reached inside her vest and pulled out a thin metal box with a hinged lid. She winced and handed it to Thisbe. “This should have something in it that’ll help with the pain and swelling.”

Thisbe opened it and studied its contents, then selected the proper capsule containing magical herbs from Henry’s garden. She returned the medical kit to Fifer, then swallowed her pill and washed it down with a swig from her canteen. She held it out to Fifer. “I’m glad we brought water this time,” Thisbe said with a pained smile. The two had fought about canteens not too long ago.

“I haven’t gone anywhere without one since our first quest,” said Fifer. “I think it’s because I was so traumatized.” She swallowed a capsule too, and then tried standing again by propping herself up against the tower wall. But her back was too sore to let it touch anything. She just wanted to lie down on her stomach and make the pain go away. “Where are we?”

Thisbe slid next to Fifer. “I have no idea. But this is definitely not any part of the castle that I’ve ever seen.”

“I don’t think it’s the castle at all,” said Fifer. “The construction is very different. There’s no way we would have fallen through that—the floors are made of stone.”