They skidded into the room with the fireplace and the broken table to find Bet had stopped there to ruffle around inside her satchel. She pointed a finger at Evin, then at Jorick, and then at the table.

“You two,” she said. “Shove that against the entryway!”

“Why?” Jorick asked.

“Just do it!” Evin and Bet said in unison.

Evin pushed Marten away from him and ran to the side of the broken table along with Jorick. They shoved and the table creaked across the floor. Bet produced a bottle of dark fluid from her satchel and began dousing the old wood.

“What is that?” Jorick grunted as he pushed. “Some sort of magic potion?”

“It’s ale,” Bet said. “I can cast a fire, but I’m not powerful enough to make it a huge blaze. This will help.”

From the hallway, the howling laughter of the gnolls grew louder, as did their clacking footsteps.

“Shove!” Evin shouted. “Shove!”

Evin and Jorick leaped back just as Bet muttered a word of magic and pointed her wand from the fireplace to the table. Flaming logs in the fireplace floated into the air, hovered for a moment, then flew across the room. One flew so near Evin’s face that he was certain it had singed his eyebrows.

The logs hit the table and the table burst into fire. Evin shielded his face and jumped back.

He could see the gnolls beyond the flames and through a crack in the doorway. They growled at the sight of the fire.

“Evin,” Marten muttered, clutching himself around his middle and rocking back and forth. “We’re going to die … we need … save them. …”

“Shh, shh,” Evin said, grabbing his brother by the shoulders, attempting to make him stop rocking. “We need to run now, all right? We have to move.”

Marten looked at Evin blankly. Evin wanted to cry, wanted to scream. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. His brother always knew what to do, was always levelheaded. But the gnolls had hurt him, changed him, and now the world felt upside and out of sorts and—

“Come on, Evin!” Jorick shouted.

Evin turned to see Bet pull open the door to the left of the fireplace and run through, Jorick at her heels. Evin dragged Marten by the arm and followed as they blindly rushed down the dark hallways.

“Keep moving,” Bet panted as they ran. “Other gnolls are going to take the path to that room through the mines and the slave pens. They’ll be at our heels before we know it.”

“Thanks for the reassurance!” Jorick replied.

They burst from the final hallway at top speed, splashing into the dark, dank water of the natural cave. Water soaked into Evin’s boots and trousers, sloshing between his feet and the leather of his soles. He grasped wildly with his free hand for the cavern wall, pulling his struggling brother behind him.