Gulp.
—THAT IS ALL.
I was alone in a room with Dr. Pravus, again. If a giant were squeezing me in his fist while a dragon got ready to blast me with fire, I would not have felt more terrified than I did looking at that man. It was a fear so paralyzing, so crushing, that I wanted to curl into a ball and close my eyes and pray for the world to end before he discovered I was there.
But I didn’t. I peeked through the books, getting as low as I could, and spied on him. His attention was completely focused on a book that lay open on the table. It was a book I’d seen before, locked up in Dr. Critchlore’s office. The Top Secret Book of Minions. Or it was an exact copy.
I crouched down, wondering what to do. I had to find Professor Zaida. I had to get that book. And I had to make sure Pravus didn’t see me. I was mostly focused on that last one.
I peeked through again, slowly. So slowly. I assumed that Dr. Pravus had a keen sense of movement, like most predators. He examined the book with a gleam of victory, reverently turning pages, his smile widening as he discovered the secrets inside.
Footsteps approached from the far end of the library. I stayed hidden, listening to the uneven steps, coupled with the sound of a struggle. Two people turned down the hallway in front of me, and I caught a glimpse of them—a man and a girl with shimmering hair. Oh no.
“Look what I found sneaking in your new entrance,” the man said. It was the chameleon, I was sure of it, and he held Syke roughly by the arm. “Seemed to pop out of the trees like magic and dropped in right behind our guards.”
“Who is she?”
“She won’t say,” the chameleon said.
Syke was wearing Verduccia’s green knife-sleeved dress. I rummaged in the backpack, looking for something, anything. But none of the dresses seemed like they’d be helpful here: not the Jetpack, or the Slip-n-Slide, or the Side Puncher. I needed something to incapacitate two villains while I saved Syke, and I had nothing.
“Tie her to the banister,” Pravus said. “You remember the plan?”
Please say no, please say no. I need to know the plan.
“Yes.”
“Then take this book and go.”
Go where? To do what? What’s the plan? C’mon, guys, now’s a good time for a chat!
“I remember you now,” Pravus said to Syke. “You’re from Critchlore’s. You play tackle three-ball, and you’re quite good. How many more Critchlore minions are here?”
“Thirty-seven,” Syke said. “We’re on a field trip. Dr. Critchlore is here too. He’ll probably be wondering why you’ve attacked another minion school. That’s against the Directives. You’ll be banished to Skelterdam if you don’t get out of here now.”
Dr. Pravus laughed. “Critchlore is trapped in a field on the far side of the river. We saw his dragon go down, thanks to the defensive measures of the librarians. Your PE teacher won’t be here either; my giant gorillas intercepted him, and the man with the off-road vehicle too. That leaves just the two of us.”
He put on some gloves, watching Syke intently. I edged down my row, to be closer to them. Syke was out of my line of sight, but Pravus stood tall and threatening.
“Perhaps I can squeeze some truth out of you.” He reached down and Syke screamed. Pravus struggled to hold a thrashing Syke, but his face showed nothing but amusement. “Now tell me . . . how did Dr. Critchlore find out about the library? How did he know to stop my takeover? TELL ME!”
“I don’t know.” Syke’s voice sounded raspy and weak.
“Pity.”
Looking at his face, I felt it again—that hand on my throat. I felt the horror that he would squeeze the life out of me without a care. And now he was doing that to Syke.
“Leave her alone,” I said. All of a sudden, I found myself pushing books off the shelf in front of me and crawling through. I don’t remember telling my body to do that.
Pravus turned, releasing his grip. When he did, Syke screamed “Runt, run!”
The full power and evil of Pravus’s attention was on me, and I wanted to run. I shook with how badly I wanted to run. Every nerve ending in my body screamed at me to obey her. But I couldn’t leave Syke sitting on the floor, her hands bound to the banister next to the staircase.
“Another child,” Pravus said. He laughed as he approached me. “I was expecting Dr. Critchlore to send some of his more . . . adequate employees.”
“Where’s Professor Zaida?” I asked.
“The dwarf? Dead, probably,” he said. He lunged toward me, just as he had in Dr. Critchlore’s office, but I was ready for the move, and I rolled under the table, popping up on the other side.
“Runt, listen to me,” Syke said. “I heard screams coming from a room at the end of the hall. Run!”
Pravus had never taken his eyes off me. “Ah, yes,” he said. “I remember you as well. That’s what you do, isn’t it? Run. Like a coward. Don’t listen to your friend. I will go much easier on you if you don’t run. If you do . . . it will be unpleasant.”
My heart pounded so hard I thought I was going to throw up. Pravus pulled out a slim metal tube and blew on one end. A faint, high-pitched whistle came out of it.
“You have a few seconds,” he said. “One of you will tell me how Dr. Critchlore found out about the library. The other will experience pain and terror so magnificent I will almost feel sorry for you.”
I pulled out my medallion and looked at Syke. She was trying to tell me something. She nodded at her hands and made a silent coughing face. She wanted me to make some noise.
Pravus had backtracked around the end of the table and was approaching me again. I reached behind me and knocked a row of books to the floor, trying to stop his advance. I backed up and threw more books in his path. I kept throwing books, and he calmly stepped over them.
“I’ll tell you,” I said, my hands up in surrender. The truth was, Dr. Critchlore didn’t find out about the library, and it had been his dumb luck that he blocked Pravus’s takeover, but I didn’t want Pravus to know that. I thought about Uncle Ludwig, and how he asked questions and then answered them himself, just to prove how smart he was, so I decided to see if that would work here.
“I’ll tell you,” I repeated. “But I’m surprised you don’t know. Dr. Critchlore always tells us how clever you are.”
He scowled and then closed a fist in anger. “It was my henchman Waverley,” he said, nodding. I felt my eyes widen, shocked that my tactic had worked. “Of course,” he said, taking my reaction as confirmation of his guess. “Waverley was careless, which is why I staged that little scene at the Evil Overlord Council. People knew he was talking to me. I had to make it look like he was only loyal to Tankotto. But Critchlore figured it out, didn’t he?”
Probably not.
“Thank you for the information. Your cowardice has saved your life. The girl will not be so fortunate.”
Pravus turned around and saw only severed ropes next to the railing. As soon as his attention was off me, I turned and ran . . .
. . . right into a wall of Girl Explorers.
“You’ll pay for this,” Pravus said. “The girl too. You have a few seconds before my minions rip the skin off your body and reduce you to bones.”
I laughed. I don’t know why—maybe I was hysterical with fear. It wasn’t the reaction Pravus had been expecting. He bristled at my laugh. Clearly he was used to intimidating people.
“Go ahead. Keep laughing,” he said. He pulled a blue handkerchief out of his pocket and draped it over the desk lamp. I knew what he was doing. The blue light would cut through the beasts’ glamours and reveal their true selves. He wanted me to see their monster forms. He wanted to see me in complete terror. What he didn’t know was that I could already see through them, just by touching my medallion.
“You told me that knowledge is power,” I said. “But that wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.”
He walked toward me, eyes blazing with hatred.
I stood my ground. “I think you don’t know something really important here.” I wasn’t going to back down now. It felt good, not backing away. Stupid good. Or maybe just stupid.
“Good-bye, you insignificant nothing. I will leave here listening to your screams echoing in this magnificent library, which now belongs to me.”
He smirked as he pointed behind me, expecting me to melt into a quivering, terror-filled lump. I was surrounded by the whole frightening pack of them, with their strange, hairy bodies; powerful hind legs; and long arms dragging to the ground. Claws and teeth that looked sharper than any knife I’d ever seen. Even their horns were sharpened to a point.
“Not so smug now, are you?”