The chimera’s lion head roared. Its dragon head opened and spat out a small stream of flames that arced past Evin’s head. It crashed against the dirt wall of the burrow behind him. Evin jumped back.

“Only I will ask questions, munthrek,” the chimera hissed.

Evin backed away. “Yes, sir. Of course.”

“Now,” the chimera’s dragon head said as it angled back down to look at Bet. “Tell me, kosj vaecaesin wizard: Where are your masters?”

Bet’s body shook with terror, but she tightened her face and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do,” Evin said. The chimera’s heads shot to look at him, and he held up as his hands. “Sorry, sir. Sorry to interrupt again. But … yes you do, Bet. I’ve been getting back memories, and I know that these villagers aren’t real. Jorick and I were put in this wall for some reason, weren’t we? Given false memories?”

Closing her eyes, Bet sighed. Her body began to cease trembling.

“I can’t believe this,” she said. “You have made an alliance with the very monster that stole your family from you, all because of some delusions brought on when you hit your head? This is all crazy. All of it.”

“Not so,” the chimera hissed. “Because I know that I have been trapped within this wall for centuries by your masters. These munthreks have now been imprisoned here as well, then tricked into believing the caged clockwork constructs are their families. We now share a common foe: you.” The chimera opened his lion jaws wide and lowered his face so that his sharp teeth grazed the girl’s chin and forehead. “Now tell me,” he said with his dragon head, “where are your masters?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bet said quietly. “I’m just a wizard’s apprentice who made a trek to visit the Tower of Sorcery in Curston.”

Evin paced back and forth. Beyond the chimera, he saw the quiet, soulless audience of the fake villagers watching.

“I know you’re lying,” Evin said. “And I can prove it. Chimera, sir? Could you tear apart one of the villagers?”

Jorick had stayed silent throughout the exchange, watching with wary eyes. But at Evin’s words, his eyes filled with terror. “What? No! Wait, I—”

Evin reached out and grabbed his friend’s shoulder, looking him deep in the eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes darting between the chimera and the eerily silent villagers. “We can’t just … I don’t … I don’t know.”

But Jorick’s protests were too late. The chimera had already stepped off Bet’s chest and prowled to the nearest cage. As it swiped at the cage’s lock, Evin looked down to see Bet reaching for her wand.