"Charmed," he said, "to meet m'lady in passage."

"How did you get out?" she asked.

"With difficulty," he replied. "They make tricky locks in these parts."

She sighed, clutching her small parcel more closely.

"It appears," she said, "that you have managed the feat just in time for it to prove your undoing. Our enemies are already battering at the main gate. They may even be through it by now."

"So that is what the noise is all about," he said. "In that case, could you direct me to the nearest secret escape passage?"

"I fear that they have all been blocked."

"Pity," he said. "Would it then be impolite of me to inquire whence you are hastening with--Ah! Ah!"

He clutched at his burned fingertips, immediately following an arcane gesture on the Lady Lydia's part when he had reached toward the bundle she bore.

"I am heading for a tower," she stated, "with the hope that I can summon a dragon to bear me away--if there still be any about. They do not take well to strangers, however, so I fear there is nothing for you there. I--I am sorry."

He smiled and nodded.

"Go," he said. "Hurry! I can take care of myself. I always have."

She nodded, he bowed, and she hurried on. Sucking his fingers, Mouseglove turned back in the direction from which he had just come, his plan already formed. He, too, would have to hurry.

As Lydia neared the end of the corridor, the castle began to shake. As she mounted the stair, the window on the landing above her shattered and the rain poured in. As she reached the second floor and moved toward the winding stairway to the tower, an enormous clap of thunder deafened her to the ominous creaking noise within the walls. But, had she heard it, she might still have ventured there.

Partway up the stair, she felt the tower begin to sway. She hesitated. Cracks appeared in the wall. Dust and mortar fell about her. The stairway began to tilt....