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    The carpet was thin, a vivid red, like spilled blood. The cabinets had been refurbished to a high standard. Jeremiah noticed because it was something his wife had spent her life doing. She was a carpenter by trade, rare for a woman, especially one as dainty as she was. She had the skill to create really beautiful, ornate pieces, and was commissioned far and wide by people all over the world.
    The guards hadn’t answered his questions, but they were gentle. Jeremiah tried each of the three doors in the room. They were all locked.
    He heard a commotion down the corridor. The set of doors he’d been brought through banged open and a body was tossed inside. A guard gently placed Graham’s jacket on top of the heap, and then vacated.
    Graham didn’t move for a while, preferring to just lay on the floor.
    “Are you all right?” Jeremiah said.
    “Just… leave me alone for a bit,” Graham said.
    He stared into space. Then finally, he sat up. He rubbed at his ankles and wrists. His clothing was wrinkled and scuffed with dirt, but he was in otherwise good shape.
    “How far did you get?” Jeremiah said.
    “Far enough to know there are thousands of these little monsters,” Graham said. “I can’t believe this. I’ve died and gone to Munchkin heaven.”
    He got up and moved to the first two doors. They were locked.
    “I already checked,” Jeremiah said.
    Graham checked the last door anyway.
    “Locked,” he said.
    He pressed his eye to a door crack and peered out. Next he tried the windows, grumbling to himself. Then he looked out of the huge arched windows. They peered down on the town from a great distance. No way they were getting out that way. There was nowhere to run.
    Jeremiah took a seat at one of the large tall-backed dining chairs.
    “We’ll just have to see what they want with us,” he said.
    “How can you be calm at a moment like this?” Graham said.
    “Because there’s no use in getting ourselves all worked up for nothing,” Jeremiah said. “Will you sit down? You’re making me dizzy.”
    But Graham didn’t sit down. He pressed his hands against each of the ornate panels around the room.
    “You’re never going to pull those panels off,” Jeremiah said. “They’re fixed to the wall. It’d be easier to tear the castle down.”
    “Don’t tempt me,” Graham said.
    “Perhaps I should run as fast as I can and leave a defenseless old man to the whims of God-knows-who,” Jeremiah said. “That sounds like a better plan.”
    “Now you’re thinking,” Graham said. “I would have come back for you.”
    “Sure you would,” Jeremiah said. “The moment after you changed your name and moved to Brazil.”
    “Why Brazil?” Graham said. “I prefer Paraguay.”
    He pressed his lips together.
    “Would you have done any differently if the tables were turned?” he said.
    Probably not. But Jeremiah wasn’t about to admit that. Holding guilt over someone could have its uses. It would make Graham think twice about doing it again. But looking at Graham’s nervous disposition, perhaps that was just wishful thinking. He would be off the moment he had the chance.
    “What do you think they want with us?” Graham said.
    “Steak, I shouldn’t wonder,” Jeremiah said.
    “Steak?” Graham said.
    “They’ll go for me first, I suspect,” Jeremiah said. “Use me as some kind of entrée. They’ll certainly fatten you up first. Good, lean meat like you. They wouldn’t waste that.”
    “Thanks for the reassurance,” Graham said.
    “What were you looking for in my drawers, anyway?” Jeremiah said. “My prized matchstick collection?”
    “Nothing,” Graham said. “I wasn’t looking for anything.”
    “A man doesn’t break into an old man’s house to admire the furniture,” Jeremiah said.
    “I didn’t break in,” Graham said.
    “The hole in the wall would beg to differ,” Jeremiah said. “You big city people are all the same. You come to the country and you think because