Evin had spent his life trapped by walls: There was the orphanage, where he was always told he’d never amount to anything, that there was no escaping his life as a pauper. Then the inn in the false reality constructed for him by Sefron that Evin knew wasn’t real, but still felt real. Now, the massive white wall kept him trapped in this land of monsters and magic, where he was expected to die for evil wizards’ entertainment.

He was tired of it. Tired of being told what to do, of being trapped by those who thought they were better than him. He wanted to be in control of his life for once. Suddenly he knew what to do.

Before any of the wizards could react, Evin grabbed Jorick by the arm and dragged the boy behind him.

They reached the metal, rotating globe, but unlike the chimera, no magic cast them back. The wizards Colton and Klem merely watched in horror, did not even attempt to intervene as Evin grasped one of the strips of metal that circumvented the globe and pulled.

“Come on!” Evin shouted at Jorick. “You have to help me!” Evin’s muscles threatened to burst from his skin, but with a screech of metal upon metal, he managed to loosen the piece and tug it from what was apparently a mechanical track.

Nothing seemed to happen—until Evin noticed that the runes on the strips of metal matched up with the surface of the globe. Straining his muscles even harder, Evin pulled his piece and matched the rune on its end with one on the globe—and the piece fell free of the globe, clattering to the floor easily.

Jorick pulled at another piece, and it swiveled easily in his strong grasp—but he couldn’t get it free.

Jumping to Jorick’s side, Evin shouted in his ear, “Push the pieces where I tell you to!”

Jorick nodded. Evin guided him to push piece after piece into position, matching up the runes and allowing more strips to fall free of the globe. As they did, the green light that glowed among the runes disappeared.

There was a great rumbling above Evin’s head. Dust fell from the wall beside him as the giant transparent blocks began to shudder and slowly separate.

Chunks of magic metal fell to the ground at Evin’s feet. The entire keep trembled. Evin’s palms bled from hundreds of tiny cuts, his muscles burned, and his back ached. But he didn’t care. All the confusion and betrayal and anger he’d felt the past few days gave him the strength to go on, to dismantle whatever this device was until finally, it was simply a heap of metal plates and crumbled gears surrounding him up to his knees.

As the last piece of the artifact fell, the trembling stopped.