Casey grumbled and handed Toto over to the merchant. “He likes salt and vinegar chip crumbs and he likes to be petted every hour or so. If you ignore him, he’ll get irritable and depressed.”

“Don’t worry, sweet cheeks,” said the merchant. “This rat and I are going to have a grand time, aren’t we chap?”

The gerbil climbed up onto the merchant’s shoulders and sat there slumped and depressed. He waved its tiny claws to Casey.

Max and the merchant then exchanged the money and he got the ward-breaking knife.

“I’ll see ya in a few days,” said the merchant. “I want that knife back more than I want this rat, ya hear?”

The two friends then left the market.

They walked along for a bit and then Max looked over his shoulder.

“Has anyone been following us?” asked Max.

“Doesn’t look like it,” said Casey.

Good. They could immediately get to work on their plan.

69

In one of the leafy suburbs of the tower-zone was a loose sewer grate.

Max pulled it up, revealing a ladder into the sewer down below.

“Pee-yew,” said Casey, holding her nose.

A horrible stench of the city’s sewage wafted up from the dark shadowy hole. There were the rusting handles of a built-in ladder used by hydroelectric or sanitation city workers to get down to the lower levels of the sewer. Of course, Max and Casey weren’t there to inspect the sewage levels or the inner workings of the city’s refuse system. They had other plans.

Max grabbed the handles and started his descent into the darkness of the sewer.

He entered a dimly lit passageway with a small concrete footpath alongside a river of sewage.

The shadow of a rat scurried in the distance.

“Spiders!” shouted Casey when she landed on the sewer platform after him. “Ugh, it’s icky down here!”

Max looked up and down the passageway. It was dark and smelly in these sewers and he couldn’t be certain about what else lurked below the tower-zone.

Drip!

Both Casey and Max jumped in fright from the sudden drop of water from the ceiling hitting the river of sewage.

“Alright,” said Casey. “Let’s hurry and get out of this sewer. I don’t want to stay down here any longer than I have to.”

“Amen to that,” said Max.

He oriented himself based on where they’d entered up top and figured that taking the left passage would head in the direction of the wall that separated the tower-zone and the outer-rim.

They headed deeper into the shadows of the sewer.

After about thirty minutes of walking down the winding path of the city’s subterranean passages, Max took a step and smacked head first into an invisible wall.

“Ow!” he shouted.

“It looks like we found the magic ward we were worried about,” sighed Casey.

Max took a step back and placed his hand forward.