For a moment, no one said a word. Evin trembled. His eyes shot to Bet’s face, afraid that the force of the crystal spear might have sent it right through the old woman and into Bet’s chest after all.

But Bet’s eyes were clear, moving about in fright as she struggled to breathe.

Evin dived to Bet’s side, unlatching first the leather strips that held her wrists and legs in place, then quickly untying the knots that bound her hands and feet. As he did, blood slowly began to seep from Hennea’s body up into the crystal spear, as though her blood was being sucked up through a mosquito’s proboscis. The spear itself rose up through the hole in the center of the grating, the weapon—or whatever it was—longer than the room was tall.

“Is everything—” Jorick started to say.

“Shh,” Evin hissed as he struggled to lift Hennea’s fat body up high enough so that Bet could climb free from beneath its weight. “Bet’s alive, the Swamp Witch isn’t.”

“Oh, thank the gods,” Jorick whispered. “Now can you two untie me?”

With a strained tug, Bet managed to free her leg from beneath the Swamp Witch’s heavy body. The corpse thumped heavily against the metal slab, pulling the crystal spear down farther into the room.

“Is everything all right, my darling?” Sefron called down.

Evin stiffened, ceasing to untie the knot around Jorick’s wrist as he realized that Sefron might find out what had happened, come racing down, cast his killing spells …

“Everything is perfection, sweetheart,” Bet croaked without even looking up from the knots she struggled with at Jorick’s feet. “Just switching to the second child.”

“Ah,” Sefron said. “Figures that little elf girl wouldn’t have that much blood.”

Jorick and Evin gave her a questioning look, and Bet shrugged. “I had many years to practice my Hennea Vudge impression,” she confessed as she freed the ropes from around the boy’s feet. “It always made the scullery maids laugh.”

“That was close,” Jorick whispered when he was finally free.

“Very,” Evin whispered. “Now we have to get out of here.”

Bet nodded, then walked to the pile of weapons and her satchel. As she did, she waved her hand in the air and muttered words of magic. The spell around the weapons dissipated in a cascade of orange sparks.

Bet picked up her satchel, then rifled through it to produce A Practical Guide to Monsters. As Evin and Jorick gathered their weapons, she flipped through its pages before finding what she was looking for. Jorick smiled in relief to find that his previously noodlelike sword had hardened back into its usual form. Whatever spell Sefron had cast over it had faded away.

“Do you know what he’s up to?” Evin asked.