Together, she and the kitten ran. They scampered down the steep wall. They romped across the desert, batting playfully at each other. Soon they were at the edge of the diorama, where Mister Sparkles assured Lenora he would run straight to the boy in the blue sweater. The kitten and Lenora nuzzled their noses together before they parted.

Wearily, Lenora went to have her makeup removed. She wasn’t used to running everywhere on all fours and was getting a little sore. When she was back in normal clothes, she returned to the dim, rather dusty hallway. She had to hurry back to Zoology, which she’d left unattended. Just as she reached for the door, she felt a humming on her badge:

LENORA

THIRD APPRENTICE LIBRARIAN

OFFICIAL COURT LIBRARIAN OF THE KINGDOM OF STARPOINT SEVENTEEN

HONORARY QUEEN OF THE PENGUINS

MOOSE PIONEER

MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING OF THE FORCES OF TRUTH AND

LIGHT, WHO HAS FACED THE FORCES OF LIES AND DARKNESS AND PREVAILED

LOST KITTEN PATROL

She admired her badge but also felt bashful about the long list of titles. It was beginning to seem too much like bragging. Perhaps she would ask Malachi for a badge more like the Chief Answerer’s, with words that were simple but summed up everything, something like—

She did not finish the thought, for a trapdoor opened beneath her feet, and she fell through the floor.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Lenora Falls into a Trap

Lenora fell in total darkness, wishing desperately that she had her agile cat body back as the wind whistled past her face. She didn’t have time to think much else before she landed on a pile of something soft.

She had never been in such perfect, inky darkness before. She sat up and felt around herself to see what she had landed on. It felt like a bunch of pillows. Her hand found something small and rectangular. She picked it up, and it rattled in her hands. Turning it over, she realized it was a box, and the middle section could be slid open. She felt inside and discovered it was a box of matches.

She struck one.

She was indeed sitting on a pile of pillows. Beside the pile was a lantern, and beside that was a piece of paper. She looked at the lantern, thinking that she had never used one before, when the heat from the match flame began to burn her fingers. She blew it out and all was darkness once again. She crawled toward the lantern until she could feel it with her hand, then lit another match. This time she looked at the paper. On it was written: Lenora—unscrew lid and light wick.