The guilds, however, had not seen a chimera move in hundreds of years, and they had just seen the last unicorn unravel in front of them.

They panicked.

Tillers’ thorny vines suddenly raced up the columns while Forgers unsheathed their many types of weapons. Meanwhile, the hair on Claire’s neck rose as Spinners pulled at the static electricity in their heavy woolen vests. Metal clanged. Wood snapped. Whips cracked.

Chaos reigned.

It was impossible to tell who was doing what, who was fighting whom, and why. Was that a Tiller of Greenwood or a Tiller Royalist? Were those Forgers looking to escape or were they stalking the Spinners? And still, the only Gemmers Claire spotted aside from herself were Jasper and Estelle. What had happened to Stonehaven?

The horse reared, screaming its fright, before slamming down right where Sophie was—or had been. In the confusion, Sophie had disappeared. Her chains, however, lay on the dais.

Sophie. Claire had to get to Sophie!

Claire thrust her hand into her pocket and pulled out the budding pencil. But she didn’t know what to do with it. In the roaring, scattered, terrified crowd, no one knew who their enemy was and who was their friend.

“Claire!” someone shouted. A woman’s voice.

Claire whirled around and saw a massive lion chimera barreling toward her, Aunt Nadia’s gray head peering over its ears. The mayor of Woven Root gave a sharp tug on its copper mane, and the chimera immediately clanged to a stop.

“Claire,” Nadia repeated. She leaned down and gripped Claire’s hand with her own. “You’re safe!” She gave Claire’s hand a quick squeeze, then let go. Auntly duties fulfilled, she asked, “Where’s the crown?”

“The tines were up there—” Claire gestured at the dais. “On a broken pillar!”

Nadia nodded sharply. “Get out of here!” she said, leaning forward against the chimera’s neck to dodge a spinning dagger. “Go to Greenwood. We’ve planted Camouflora around it. You’ll be safe there!” With that, the mayor dug her heels into the copper sides, and the lion chimera—which Claire had already thought was pretty fast—turned into a copper blur as Nadia charged toward the front.

Grit and dust trickled down from the ceiling, and a few stone blocks clattered near her feet. Claire looked up. The ruins were old, and one wayward Exploding Mulberry could make the entire structure collapse. More gravel fell in front of her, and this time, Claire realized that when the pebbles hit the ground, they didn’t stop moving. They jumped and wiggled, like kernels in a frying pan. Frowning, she reached down to pick one up, but as her hand neared the earth, she yanked it back.

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.