CHAPTER TWENTY

When the room was clear, Professor Fauna slowly released the children. They rolled out from underneath the sideboard, stretching their necks and cramped legs. Elliot and Uchenna glanced at the professor. He had scared them, grabbing them like that. But he had been saving them from being spotted by the Schmoke brothers. He had meant well. Maybe he always meant well . . . But then what explained his suspicious behavior whenever the Schmokes came up?

“Why are you standing there gaping at me, children?” Professor Fauna demanded. “Let us save the herensuge!” He strode to the fireplace. Uchenna and Elliot shook themselves and followed. Jersey scrabbled at the inside of his backpack, eager to be let out. The professor grabbed the candelabra and pulled it to the left.

The fireplace groaned and lurched open, revealing a dark passageway behind it.

“I knew I hadn’t misremembered the map,” Elliot said. “I just hadn’t accounted for a cheesy secret passage!”

“Cheesy?” Uchenna laughed. “There’s no such thing as a cheesy secret passage.”

“Come on. Fireplace and candelabra? It’s the kind of thing I used to imagine when I was like five years ol—”

“Children!” Professor Fauna interrupted. “While I find your argument fascinating, it would be wise to continue on our journey before those horrible men come back.”

As they walked through the fireplace, cool, damp air blew past them from deeper in the passage. The only light came from bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The walls were rough, and the floor was covered with gravel and the occasional larger rock. It sloped gently downward. The fireplace began to close behind them.

“I think we’ve left the building and are inside the mountain,” Elliot observed. “This was not on the map.”

“Maybe they’ve got lots of dragons down here,” said Uchenna. “Like the seven-headed one.”

“That wasn’t a real dragon, Uchenna,” the professor reminded her.

“Says you,” she replied.

Professor Fauna led the way deeper into the cave, following the shiny pipes and cables attached to the cavern walls. The tunnel took a hairpin turn so they were going back in the direction they’d come—except deeper and deeper into the earth. Then, the narrow passage opened onto a huge chamber.

The room was bigger than the school cafeteria, and the ceiling was so high that the light from the lightbulbs on the walls didn’t illuminate it. The only thing visible above were the tips of pointy stalactites, which glistened as they dripped water to the cave floor.

In the center of the chamber was a small wooden desk covered in papers. On the nearby wall, a number of machines hummed and dials glowed in the darkness. And in the shadows on the far side of the chamber they saw bars. Steel bars.

The steel bars of a massive cage.

Elliot and Uchenna hesitated, staring across the great chamber. Was there a dragon in that cage? A real dragon? Was it possible? From inside the backpack, Jersey started whimpering.

“Okay,” murmured Uchenna. “Here we go.”

She strode past the desk and into the shadows. The cage loomed larger and larger and larger. How big could it be? It was nearly as big as Mr. Mendizabal’s house. But it appeared to be . . . unoccupied.

“Guys, I don’t think there’s anything in here.”

Jersey was whimpering louder. Elliot and Professor Fauna walked up behind Uchenna. The cage was dark and looming . . . and empty.

“There’s no dragon here,” said Elliot. “You know, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually kind of disappointed not to be face-to-face with a dragon right now.”

Jersey was scratching uncontrollably at the inside of the backpack. “Okay, okay,” Uchenna said. She unzipped the main compartment of it. In a shot, Jersey leaped out and scrambled down to the stone floor.

“Hey! Wait!” Uchenna shouted. But Jersey didn’t wait. He went careening around the side of the cage, his wings speeding his little legs along. Uchenna bolted after him, with Elliot and the professor right behind her.

Jersey ran down the long side of the steel cage until he suddenly came to a claw-and-hoof-scrabbling stop. He stood on the stone floor, his limbs quivering, his little chest heaving. He whined and whimpered and stared at the cage.

“What is it?” Uchenna said. “Jersey, what do you see?”

Elliot grabbed her arm. “That. That’s what he sees.”

Jersey had found the dragon.