“Ten dragons? How many Beasts can a Lore Keeper bond with?” Barclay asked.

“There’s not actually a limit,” Viola answered. “But the stronger they are and the more you have, the harder it will be for you to control them and their Lore.”

“Well, I’m plenty strong,” Abel said, puffing out his chest. “I’ll collect twenty Beasts. No—fifty! One hundred!”

Ethel rolled her eyes. “Says the boy who once tried to bond with a regular rat.”

“It had an abnormally long tail!” Abel shot back. “It looked like a Rattle!”

“How many Beasts do you have now?” Barclay asked.

“We just have one each, but don’t ask what they are,” said Abel. “We’re keeping it secret. We’ll need the element of surprise to pull ahead in the Exhibition.”

At this, several of Ethel’s figurines were inexplicably swept off the table and to the floor. Ethel hurriedly bent down to pick them up, casting an irritated look, not to Abel but behind him. Except there was nothing here.

Barclay glanced at Viola, who knitted her brow.

“Do you also collect Beast things?” Barclay asked Abel. “Is that what your cards are?”

A look of horror crossed his face at the comparison.

“I collect champion cards! They’re very different.” He rummaged for his deck in his pocket and then spread the cards across the table. “These are different competitors in Dooling. It’s a sport where Lore Keepers fight alongside their Beasts. The tournament is hosted in the Jungle every year—”

“A sport?” Barclay repeated, aghast. That was exactly the barbaric behavior he expected from Lore Keepers.

“Barclay doesn’t know much about Beasts,” Viola said, shooting him a warning look to be polite.

The twins’ eyes widened. “What do you do for fun?”

“I… I like books.”

“Oh great,” Abel mumbled, looking between the three of them. “I’m outnumbered.”

Ethel, meanwhile, clapped her hands in delight. “What are you reading, Viola?”

Viola lifted up the cover of A Traveler’s Log, which depicted a giant lamprey the size of a sea monster with electricity running through its body. Barclay couldn’t see what page she was on, but judging from how closely she’d been studying it, he guessed it had to do with Gravaldor.

“That’s one of my favorite books!” cooed Ethel. “I’ve read it at least ten—”

“She used to sleep with it,” said Abel, sounding bored. “Like a pillow.”

“At least I never cried when my champion card of Clifton Langer got a bend in it.”

“That—that was one time! And his Griffin’s fire Lore lets him rain fire from the sky! He’s a local hero. Besides, I don’t see how you can still like that book when—”

“Conley Murdock was a genius, though!”

Indeed, Viola was now reading it so closely she didn’t notice Mitzi biting her earlobe.

“What’s so great about him?” Barclay asked.

Ethel looked astounded. “He once swam into the mouth of a Hookshark to treat its toothache! He rode a Pterodragyn! And he’s cataloged more information on Beasts than any other Lore Keeper alive—over one thousand species.”