As soon as they had left the dining room, Jasper led them away from the other monks. “We’ve got to go unlock the board game and tiger closet,” he said. “That’s where they’re keeping Drgnan Pghlik.”
They walked carefully through the monastery, up hallways and stairs.
Lily was amazed by what she saw. She loved how ancient and mysterious everything was. She felt a thrill when she saw the old paintings on the walls, obscured by years of smoke: pictures of the beginning of the world or its end, the cracking of the globe; acts of heroism and generosity from previous ages played out in crowns of gold and coats of satin on mountaintops and forests. There were paintings of the huts of hermits and the courts of kings.
She wanted to spend a lifetime learning about them, about all of their secret meanings. Why did one saint bake bread made of sand, while another was covered with grasshoppers? Each picture had its secret story. As they rushed past them, Lily wanted to pause and study them all.
But there was no time.
Carefully Jasper led them up a final twisting staircase. The door at the top was latched. Slowly he drew up the latch and pressed with his fingertips so the door swung inward.
It was a recreation room. There was a Ping-Pong table, as well as stacks of other entertainments: a toboggan, the monastery’s water-polo net, a croquet set, and so on. At the far end of the room was a closet door with a key in the keyhole. A sound of growling, like a wild beast with the taste of monk-flesh on its tongue, came from the closet.
A mobster guard was posted to the room. He was asleep, curled up on the air-hockey table. He had his thumb in his mouth.
Carefully Jasper, Katie, and Lily crept across the floor. The mobster snored.
The imprisoned tiger made an answering growl.
Jasper hoped that Drgnan Pghlik was still uneaten, at least most of him.
Lily couldn’t stop staring at the gangster. He had a gun. A real gun. He probably had killed people before, except he would call it “bumping them off” or “zotzing” or “croakin’ ’em good.”
Lily knew that you should never stare at anyone when you don’t want them to see you. Even if you have never been exposed to the sacred fires of Vbngoom, there is some weird way that people can feel it when you stare at them, even if they can’t see you. Lily knew this, and didn’t want to alert the mobster, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away because she was so frightened of him.
Meanwhile the Boy Technonaut was standing by the board game and tiger closet. He reached out and very gently turned the key in the lock.
The door swung open.
There was Drgnan Pghlik with his eyes closed. He looked completely calm, although his head was in the tiger’s mouth, with the animal’s fangs pressing into his cheek and neck.
The boy opened his eyes with a snap. He saw Jasper, and his face lit up with joy.
Jasper, Lily, and Katie put their fingers over their lips to shush him.
He reached out and grabbed Jasper’s hand in a hearty shake. It jiggled the tiger.
Nrrrgarha, seeing the open door, let Drgnan go. Drgnan sprang out of the closet. Jasper stepped into the closet, over the tiger, and scanned the games quickly.
Drgnan looked at him quizzically. Jasper held up the ray gun for Drgnan to see, and opened its battery compartment. Drgnan nodded, checked to see that the ray gun required triple-A batteries, and then pulled out a toy robot from the stack of games.
Jasper turned the robot over to find the battery pack. Its eyes lit up. In a loud recorded voice like a gravel-grinder, it bellowed, “Have no fear! Gau-Grza to the Rescue!”
And with that, the gangster sat up.