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dishes about to collapse. When Oskar reached out to steady himself on the nearest tree, Janner saw with alarm that the old man’s hand was bright with blood. Oskar’s knees buckled, and he crumpled to the ground.
    Podo rushed back to his friend and pulled him to his feet.
    “Janner, make room!” Podo ordered. Janner shoved the bedrolls and supplies from the donkey’s back and with Podo’s help heaved Oskar onto the poor beast. The old man lay on his stomach, draped over the saddle like a game animal freshly killed. His eyelids drooped, and his face was pale and clammy.
    “Tink!” Leeli screamed, and Janner turned to see a new reason to fear. A horned hound burst from the ranks of the charging Fangs and barreled toward them. It wore a collar, and its face and body were decorated with black war paint.
    Tink sat frozen on Nugget’s back.
    “ SHOOT !” Podo roared.
    Tink blinked twice and came back to himself. He drew the bow and loosed the arrow, and the hound collapsed in a burst of leaves.
    Podo didn’t need to give the order to run like mad. Nugget leapt into motion so fast that Tink nearly toppled from his back. Nia ran beside the braying donkey and steadied Oskar, who moaned as he jiggled along.
    The way was difficult. The forest north of Peet’s tree house rose and fell in steepening hills. Now and then they had to skirt around treacherous gullies, dried riverbeds tangled with fallen trees.
    From the top of a long slope, Janner saw the Fangs were no more than an arrow shot away, and two more of their horned hounds sprinted toward the Igibys. Tink loosed another arrow and missed. As he hurried to draw another arrow from the quiver, Peet swooped down from the trees with his talons bared, killed the hounds, and disappeared into the leaves again.
    Janner knew Peet was no match against so many Fangs, but his sudden presence was like a cool wind on a hot day. A Throne Warden of Anniera occupied the space between the Igibys and their enemies.
    Peet’s appearance had a surprising effect on the Fangs as well. Janner couldn’t see much, but he sensed the space between himself and the Fangs increasing. Though they numbered in the hundreds, the Fangs hung back, wary eyes on the branches above.
    Suddenly Janner found himself skidding down a steep bank. Podo had led Nugget into a deep gully and was halfway across the depression, amidst old branches, brown leaves, and rotting tree trunks. The trench stretched a long way in both directions, so they had no choice but to cross it.
    The donkey stopped dead in its tracks on the rim of the slope. Janner pulled at the reins while Nia pushed from behind, but the animal wouldn’t move. Its eyes were fixed on the gully floor, its nostrils expanding and contracting like a beating heart.
    If Janner had not been running in fear for his life, he might have remembered what Pembrick’s
Creaturepedia
had to say about such gullies in Glipwood Forest; he might have thought to warn his family before they scrambled down into the tree-clogged floor. If Janner hadn’t been thinking about the Fangs and trolls snarling through the woods behind him, he would’ve suggested firmly that the Igiby family find a way
around
the gully, even if it added hours and miles to the journey.
    If Peet the Sock Man, so familiar with the dangers of the forest, had been with them and not fending off the Fangs and trolls and horned hounds, he would’ve most emphatically suggested that the Igiby family
not
descend into the hole. 1
    But they did.
    1 . From Pembrick’s
Creaturepedia:
“Avoid the gullies and sinkholes of Glipwood Forest at all costs. It is commonly known that the gargan rockroach sets its trap in such places. But the gargan rockroach lying in wait beneath the leaves and limbs gathered at the bottom of the gully is only one of the dangers to the oblivious gully crawler. The sweet scent emanated by the female gargan rockroach sends some animals into a temperbolic trance and draws them irresistibly to