But at times, Rector felt that he wasn’t fighting very hard. He was tired and sick. He had just had a meal for the first time in days. He didn’t want to be brutalized into a jail cell, but he didn’t know that that was coming. And he was still strong enough that Rector shuddered to consider how strong he must be when he hadn’t been breathing poisoned air for ages.

Something that size can’t help being strong, he thought. Something that big is dangerous because he outweighs you, not because he outruns you or outthinks you. It was almost funny, now that he looked at it. It stunned him that he’d ever been afraid of him in the first place … at least until a swing of one shoulder knocked him flat onto his back and took the wind right out of his chest.

“Watch yourself,” Angeline said. “He’s stuck, but he’s tough.”

Rector picked himself up. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on top of his thighs. He took a moment to catch his breath and said, “I don’t think he meant that one.”

“I don’t think he did either. Are you hurt?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Then come back to the party. We’re almost there, and he’s almost done fighting.”

Houjin said, “That’s good, right?”

“Yes and no. When he’s too tired to fight, he’s too tired to be bullied along. Let’s get him settled before he faints away altogether. I don’t know if we can carry him.”

By the time they reached the old prison on the hill, the sasquatch was barely able to stand. They’d worn him out with the journey, or so Rector hoped—otherwise, he would spring to life the moment their guard was down and kill them all, that was his personal suspicion. He watched the sasquatch exhaustedly as Angeline guided him into the sturdiest-looking cell. There was still a wall loop made to anchor chains and leg irons, and when the princess gave it a hearty yank, it didn’t budge. She affixed the net thereunto, tying it with careful knots.

When she was certain that the sasquatch would not leap up and murder the lot of them, she stood and put her hands on her hips, eyeing the unhappy creature with victory … but also pity.

“Poor thing,” she said. “I hate leaving him all tied up like this, but what can we do?”

Houjin brought forward the glass mask they’d toted all the way from the underground’s bottommost basement. “We can put this on his head, and see what happens.”

“You think he’ll just let us do that?” Rector asked incredulously.