Jorick cast a worried glance at Bet. “Do you think he’s all right?” He helped Evin sit down. “Maybe you should rest here for a while longer. Bet and I will wait.”

“All right,” Evin said weakly. He felt too dizzy to argue.

Jorick and Bet huddled together and peered at A Practical Guide to Monsters. Evin could not take his eyes off of Bet. He knew something was wrong. He just couldn’t quite remember what. He had this deep feeling that before he’d been knocked out, he’d seen something, remembered something that didn’t fit with all that he’d experienced the past few days. All he knew for certain was that at this time the day before last, he was full of excitement at the prospect of a grand, heroic adventure, and that the night before, he’d felt a crushing sadness at the sight of the captured villagers and his brother.

Now, after the chase with the gnolls, something had shifted. He wasn’t excited anymore, nor was he sad. He had brief flashes of memories that didn’t seem to belong to him.

And he was certain that Bet knew something about it.

Chapter Twenty

After a few more minutes, Evin finally felt ready to stand and Bet cast her tracking spell. The glowing trail of blue sand meandered east, leading them toward grassy hill lands that Evin could see towering in the distance.

“It makes sense,” Jorick said to Bet. “The Practical Guide did say that chimeras live in hilly regions, after all.”

“Ah!” Bet replied. “Well aren’t you just a little scholar?”

Jorick patted her on the back. “Not everyone can be as smart as I am, it’s true.”

They both laughed.

Evin wished he felt like laughing too. Perhaps if he could forget the nagging suspicions. Jorick slowed his pace to let Evin catch up with him. Bet parted her long hair behind her pointed ears and looked back at them, offering a smile before walking ahead. As she walked, the glowing blue sand rose up from the grassy plain and disappeared inside her satchel.

“You know,” Jorick whispered to Evin as they hiked, “you were right. I just needed to give her a chance.”

“Hmm?” Evin said, shaking off thoughts of dilapidated houses, glowing gears, and a shadow with yellow eyes.

“Bet,” Jorick said. “She’s not so bad after all. She’s still sort of mysterious, but I did get her age out of her. Can you believe that she’s turning seventy-four this spring?” Jorick threw his hands in the air and laughed. “Isn’t that crazy? She’s the best looking seventy-four-year-old I’ve ever seen, but I guess that’s an elf thing. Don’t they live for a long time and age slowly?”

Evin opened his mouth to respond, but Jorick continued to ramble.