all stayed behind the barrier, their little group would surely die. But maybe he could engage the beast and allow the others to escape. Maybe he was enough. At the very least, he could buy them a little time before the earl returned.

Just as Ian grabbed the broken handle, there was a tremendous crash that shook the walls of the tower and sent him backward several paces. A howl echoed up from the bottom of the stairwell and made him tremble in fear. The beast had found them.

Ian moved to the wall opposite the fort where the others hid. He could see Carl’s wide eyes peering out at him through a crack between the benches. He gave his new friend a nod and turned to face the thud … thud … thud of paws hitting the stone staircase, making their way up toward the circular room.

Ian braced himself against the wall as far away from the wooden fort as the room would allow. He stood bravely, holding the axe handle like a cricket bat. The beast would surely kill him, but he was determined to get a few good licks in while he could. “I’m going to distract him!” he yelled at the group hiding in the fort. “You lot, run for your lives as soon as its back is turned!”

“Ian Wigby!” Madam Dimbleby shouted sternly. “You get yourself back behind this barricade immediately!” But a low and angry growl echoed up the staircase, overpowering Madam’s voice and filling the circular room with an icy fear.

The hair on Ian’s neck and arms stood straight and his heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. He saw the paw first as it came up the last step, then the snout, then the red eyes, then the whole giant horrible head. Ian quivered as the rest of the massive beast came into view and the weapon in his hands became slick with sweat. The creature was enormous; at the shoulder the thing was as tall as Ian. Its fur was as dark as coal, and its hackles were matted in greasy clumps. Drool dripped from its fangs while it regarded Ian and his axe handle, and something akin to an evil grin seemed to cross its wicked features.

“You may win,” Ian yelled, puffing his chest out at the horrible creature in a show of bravado he certainly didn’t feel, “but I’ll not go down without a fight!”

The beast snorted, then tilted its snout in the air and sniffed a few times. Ian wondered what it could be sniffing for. He was right there in front of it, after all. So he was surprised when the beast ignored him and turned its ugly head toward the stack of desks and chairs that Theo, Carl, and Madam were hiding behind.

“Oi!” Ian yelled, trying to call the beast’s attention as he waved the axe handle above his head. “Over here, you smelly cur!”

But the creature continued to pay him no heed, turning away as if Ian were a pesky fly not worth bothering about, and taking a step toward the barricade.

Ian heard Theo gasp, and saw her blond hair through a crack in the pile of desks. The beast let out a howl that reverberated off the walls of the room and nearly made Ian drop his handle to cover his ears. The sound was terrifying. Theo screamed and the beast bent low, prepared to pounce directly onto the benches and desks.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Ian cried, racing forward with his handle raised above his head, and bringing it down as hard as he could on the beast’s left flank. There was a yelp before the beast whirled around with lightning speed, swiping at Ian, who was sent flying backward through the air and landed with a hard thud against the wall.

The air was knocked out of him, and he shook his head, trying to clear it from the smack he’d taken. He willed his eyes to focus as the beast turned its full attention on him, loping over, ready to finish him off. Ian’s hands reflexively reached out to his sides, and amazingly, his left hand settled on the axe handle. He brought it up a second before the beast’s jaws were about to close on his throat, and it bit the handle instead. Ian was jerked up as the beast snarled and shook the wood back and forth, but somehow he managed to hold on. He knew that if