Everything made sense now. He could remember why the wall had been put there. Long ago, all the kingdoms in the area—including his kingdom, Dristoll—were under constant siege by monsters of all kinds. And so the people made a pact with an order of wizards—Sefron’s order. The wizards would round up all of the monsters that plagued the countryside. Some people wanted the monsters exterminated, but the wizards refused. Their leader, a good wizard, would not allow it. Instead he vowed that his order of wizards would watch over the trapped monsters. To prevent any would-be villain from releasing the monsters, the order worked with gnome engineers to create a device that would lock up the magic keeping the wall standing. With the device in place, only someone of non-magical means could dismantle the wall—but no non-magical person could gain access to the keep without a wizard escort, and of course no wizard could teleport them in without being questioned by the many other wizards in the keep. It seemed like a foolproof plan.

Except Evin had just burst into the keep from the sky, on the back of a chimera who ambushed the wizards, keeping those at bay who might have been able to stop his actions. With his memories and mind clouded by Sefron’s magic, he’d dismantled the device, thinking that he’d be saving future kids from death.

Evin looked back. Jorick still stood by the pile of dismantled metal, shell-shocked. The two of them had just broken apart the one thing keeping all of the murderous monsters from running free.

He’d just helped condemn who knew how many others to die.

To the left and right of the keep, Evin could see the remnants of the wall. Giant stone blocks now hovered, slowly rising into the sky and revealing giant gaps. A small band of gnolls tentatively approached the wall. They cackled then climbed past the blocks and raced to the lands beyond. Griffons and harpies soared above his head, diving through the gaps to freedom.

“I thank you, wizard,” the chimera said from behind Evin. “Your plan was perfect. And now, I shall go.” The creature roared. Evin turned to see the chimera racing at him, and he ducked just in time. The monster leaped off the edge of the balcony, unfurled his wings, and soared into the sky.

“What is this?” Bet screamed. “What is going on?”

Sefron lifted one hand to his chin and stroked his black goatee. “My dear girl,” he said, “you can’t figure it out even with your full memories returned?”

Hands shaking, she looked up at him with eyes that shimmered with tears. “I trusted you,” she said.

“Betilivatis,” he said. “We wizards were trapped by this dome, just as the monsters within were trapped.”