Even if she wasn’t completely convinced that Cavern was on their side, Indira knew their best choice was to trust him. It would have been easy to tie Cavern up and leave him behind. But the more she thought about Joey, the more she realized they were going to need all the help they could get. Having someone with Cavern’s abilities? If it came to a fight, that cave trick might just come in handy. As Gadget removed the antagonist’s bindings, Indira grinned. She didn’t think this was a step in the typical Hero’s Journey.

Cavern flexed his newly freed hands.

Phoenix leaned close to her and whispered, “Are you sure about this?”

Indira shrugged. “Never hurts to have more firepower.”

Cavern actually cracked his neck before grinning at them.

“Tell me. How did you escape the cave? I have always thought that was impossible.”

Indira waved her hammer. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“Magical weapons,” he scoffed. “Protagonists always have unfair power-ups.”

“Seriously?” Indira asked. “You have a magical cave that traps people’s consciousnesses and cuts them off from their bodies and their abilities. Are you really pretending that’s not superpowerful?”

“I only have that ability because I traveled through the darkspring for seven—”

Indira shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You went into the darkspring—whatever that is—and you came out the other side. This isn’t the time for more backstory. There’s someone out there wreaking havoc. Now is the time for action. Let’s get moving.”

It was the middle of the night, but Indira knew they’d be able to follow the road well enough to make up time. She found herself hoping that Joey had stopped somewhere to rest. Did Authors sleep the same way characters did? She’d never thought to ask any of her teachers. As they started, she could hear Squalls whisper a question to their new friend.

“Hey. So, as the resident bad guy in the story, you wouldn’t happen to know how I was supposed to die? Is there some kind of accident? Pirate attack? Maybe a flock of rogue owls? Just wondering if your advisors gave you any extra information….”

But Cavern just shook his head. “We were not given plans. I have only my instincts.”

“Right,” Squalls replied. “Yeah. Makes sense. Sorry to bother you.”

Indira couldn’t help grinning at that. The group continued walking. It didn’t take long for Gadget to prove her usefulness again. She managed to hack into their tutor devices and change some of the operating functions. A few minutes was all it took to coordinate their devices so that now the messages were slightly muted. Notifications kept popping up—most of them instructing Indira to head for the mountains—but they were easier to ignore now.

Phoenix constructed a makeshift torch, lit one end, and handed it to Indira. She thanked him with a smile as they continued to march. The kingswolf did her best to lead the puppies in a ragtag row. Every now and again they’d resort to their designed instincts, going after Allen’s ankles, but for the most part they walked along behind the group on their unsteady little legs.

After a while, Joey’s trail became easy to follow.

About thirty minutes down the road, Cavern pointed to a distant building. It was not one that Indira and her crew had passed. “I stopped here earlier,” he said. “It was a tavern. And it was full of citizens from the neighboring village.”

The building was no longer a tavern. It looked more like a bulge growing out of the earth. The doors were reinforced with steel. There were no windows, or people for that matter.

“It kind of looks like a bunker,” Gadget said. “You know? Like the military uses…”

Indira nodded. “We might want to keep a list of what Joey has summoned. So far we’ve got a pirate ship and a military bunker. Not sure I see the connection, but let’s gather the clues….”

They kept marching. Indira knew everyone must be exhausted, but she could feel it in her gut that they needed to make good time. There was no telling what trouble a rogue Author could cause if no one else knew he’d entered their world. It didn’t take long to find more ominous signs.

Indira was thankful that most of the clues were along the roadside. So far Joey hadn’t stumbled off toward any of the larger villages. She didn’t want to think about what might happen when he encountered more people. That silver lining didn’t make the changes they discovered any less disturbing. They found a military-style barracks, followed by a massive treasure chest that was full of onions. That little detail had Cavern cracking up.

“It’s funny. Because you are expecting gold. But it’s onions. Clever guy.”

Eventually, they stumbled across the same carriage they’d crossed paths with earlier. It stood abandoned in the middle of the road, the driver gone. Indira searched the back of the cart and found it empty. Only a colorful bird remained, fluttering from the roof to the driver’s seat and squawking unintelligibly. The group was trying to figure out what exactly had happened when Gadget’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t you see? It’s got the same mustache! That’s the driver we met on the road. The one who was going to turn us in. Joey magicked him into a parrot!”

Indira squinted. There was a strange curling line right beneath the parrot’s beak. Gadget’s eye for detail was impressive. “Fits the theme,” Indira agreed. “Pirates have parrots.”

The group vowed to help the man—who merely squawked in return. All they could do was keep on moving. The next bend in the road showed off more of Joey’s handiwork. Indira led her crew toward the same monument they’d passed the night before. It seemed like that had happened ages ago. Their crew had been in danger ever since.

The great monument that honored all the characters who’d come before them, all the characters who had crossed the threshold in their own famous stories…

Phoenix whispered, “He destroyed it.”

Destroyed was too small a word. Pieces of stone had scattered in every direction. Joey appeared to have used the monument as target practice. Huge scorch marks overlapped along the center of the road. The famous sword—Excalibur—had been cast aside, warped by the fire. Each of the digital displays had fallen or shattered in what looked like a series of explosions.

Indira was trying to process the destruction when the air around them shivered with movement. There was a bright flash, and Indira turned, her hammer raised.

But it wasn’t Joey.

It was the girl with the pigtails. Last night she’d been a projection. Now she appeared before them as a flesh-and-blood character. She took in the sight of their crew. They all watched as she clutched the little dog tightly to her chest and broke into tears.

Indira finally remembered her name. “Dorothy? Are you okay? What happened?”

Her choking sobs made her first responses difficult to understand, but she kept repeating the same sentence until they understood.

“My Story House,” she gasped. “He destroyed my Story House!”