Leaf spread the blueprint on the table and Cranberry leaned over it with a gasp of awe.

“You did it,” Grove said. “Leaf! This is amazing.”

“You’re crazy brave, kid,” said Thyme.

It had taken him months of stolen moments to copy the blueprint, carefully penciling in every detail he could while his heart pounded and every noise sounded like Master Trout returning.

“This is really the mountain dragons’ palace?” Mushroom said skeptically. “How do we know? What the heck is this?” He pointed to a smudge in the top left corner. “And over here … ‘prison’? That doesn’t look like a prison. It looks like a bunch of columns.”

“I just copied it,” Leaf said. “We’ll have to trust that whoever made it — and all the people who added notes to it — knew what they were doing.”

Mushroom snorted, but everyone else nodded.

“This changes everything, Leaf,” Rowan said. “It was risky, but it means our plan might actually work now.”

He smiled up at her. Even though he was a tall fifteen-year-old, she was still taller than him. “I did it for Wren,” he said.

Sadness and something else flickered in her expression, and she looked away quickly.

“I don’t know,” Mushroom grumbled. “If this is even remotely correct, it means our plan is more stupid than it was before. Look at all the levels! Where do they even keep their treasure?”

“According to the notes, most of it is here,” Leaf said, pointing to a pair of rooms near the center of the palace. “But we don’t know how old this map is, or whether the dragons have moved it by now.”

“Great.” Mushroom rolled his eyes. “So we’re going to sneak into a palace full of dragons based on a kid’s scribbled copy of an ancient, unreliable drawing that might be a total fantasy.”

“Heck, yeah, I’ll do it,” Thyme volunteered. “I’m not scared.” He winked cheekily at his brother, which even Leaf could guess was a bad idea.

Mushroom scowled and stalked out of the room, muttering to himself.

“Thank you, Leaf,” Grove said, putting one hand on Leaf’s shoulder. “Go back to the dragonmancers. We’ll study this and decide what to do.”

*  *  *

Two days later, Rowan appeared at the gate of Master Trout’s garden in the middle of the day. This never happened, and Leaf had also never seen her face do what it was doing, which was something like trying not to freak out and something like falling apart and something like she was about to stab someone, all at the same time.

“Um,” he said, glancing down the row of beans at the other apprentice, who was out of earshot (he hoped), working on the flower beds near the house. “Hi?”

“Leaf,” Rowan whispered, clutching the gate posts and crouching down to talk through the slats. “We have a problem.”

Leaf deliberately spilled his basket of beans next to the fence and knelt to pick them up. “What’s wrong?” he whispered back. Master Trout was inside the house, but could be spying on them through one of the dusty curtains.

Rowan rubbed her fingers together nervously. “The map,” she said. “The blueprint, whatever. It’s gone.”

Now Leaf knocked over his basket for real. “What?” he cried. “What do you mean? Did you tear it? Can’t we fix it?”

“No, it’s really gone,” she said. “I mean vanished. Like … stolen.”

“By who?” Leaf’s body felt chilled, like icy fish scales were trailing over his skin. “The dragonmancers? Did they find out what I did?”

Rowan shook her head. “It was well hidden. It had to be one of us.” She hesitated. “And the only one missing … is Mushroom.”

“Missing?” Leaf echoed. Something bad was happening, but he didn’t understand it. Why would Mushroom steal the map they were all going to use together? Where was he?

“We think he’s gone to the dragons’ palace on his own,” she said. “So he can use the map to steal the treasure for himself.”

“Mushroom?” Leaf said. “But he’ll definitely mess it up! Especially by himself!”

“I know!” Rowan said.

“What do we do?” Leaf asked. “How far away is the dragon palace? Does he have a big head start? Can we catch up to him?”

“Catch up to who?” a nasal voice interrupted them.

Rowan winced, then looked over her shoulder as Leaf slowly got to his feet. The other two dragonmancers had snuck up on them and were now standing on the path behind Leaf’s sister.

The female dragonmancer, Crow, was tall and gaunt, with brittle hair in a gray toadstool-like shape around her head and wrinkles of disapproval permanently scored around her mouth. She always spoke as though she was the only person in the room whose opinion mattered. She also had a habit of repeating the last thing she’d said again more loudly, as if to stick it firmly in people’s minds.

The other one was Gorge, a man with a lizard’s face, terrible skin, and slick hair who couldn’t muster a natural smile to save his life. His perpetual expression was sly, insecure, and malevolently gleeful at the same time, as though he knew full well that everyone he met wanted to punch him but couldn’t because of his power.

“Yes, children,” he said. “Who were you talking about?”

“No one,” Leaf answered at the same time as Rowan said, “A friend.”

“He went hunting,” Rowan added quickly. “Alone, and he’s kind of clumsy, so we’re just worried about him. No big deal.”

“It is a terrible, terrible idea to lie to a dragonmancer,” Crow said. “TERRIBLE. I’m sure you will not make that mistake, apprentice.” She turned a sharp eye on Leaf. “And while you frantically decide how much to tell me, I will generously mention that we heard you say dragons’ palace, so please, don’t leave that part out. Do NOT leave it out.”

Leaf knew that she was giving them a chance, and a second lie would have bad consequences. But he didn’t know how much they’d heard. Did they know about the map? He had to risk some of the truth … but maybe not all of it.

“We think our friend Mushroom has gone to the dragons’ palace,” he admitted hesitantly. “He — he’s always talking about stealing treasure and we think m-maybe he’s gone to try.”

“Even though we’ve forbidden it?” Gorge demanded. “What a doomed idiot.”

Crow’s eyebrows sank down and together and she sucked in air between her teeth. “This could be a disaster,” she hissed.

“I know,” Rowan said. “He’ll probably get eaten —”

“Much worse than that,” Crow interrupted. “If the dragons catch him, they could decide to punish the entire village for his crime. We could all be on fire by this time tomorrow! ON FIRE!”

“Perhaps,” Gorge said slyly, “someone could do something about this.”

“We can stop him,” Rowan said. “We’ll leave now and catch him before he gets to the palace.”

Leaf wondered what she was thinking behind that determined, helpful face. What would they really do if and when they caught Mushroom and got the map back? He had a feeling Rowan, Grove, and Thyme would still want to sneak into the palace. But was Crow right about what would happen to the village? Not if I kill the dragons first, his heart whispered.

“It’s been a long time since you or I had any new dragon treasure,” Gorge said in his slithering voice, sliding his hands together. “So many useless, weak apprentices. So prone to getting eaten before they can achieve their goals.”

Treasure smuggler, Wren whispered scornfully in Leaf’s head. That’s what they really want. More treasure, more power. They don’t care about the village.

Did they once send apprentices to steal treasure? Leaf wondered back. Is that why no apprentice has lived long enough to join the ranks of the dragonmancers?

“That’s truuuuue,” Crow said slowly. “It would be very enriching for everyone if certain parties returned with dragon treasure and shared it with the correct people. But if the expedition were unsuccessful … that would be such a shame. Such a shame.”

“Indeed,” said Gorge. “If our intrepid explorers snuck off to the dragon palace but did not return with treasure …”

“I imagine the dragons would require a sacrifice,” Crow said. “A big, big sacrifice.”

“Wait,” said Leaf. “So you do want us to steal treasure? Even though you forbade it?”

Hypocrisy from a dragonmancer? Wren muttered. I’m shocked. SHOCKED.

“Shhh,” said Crow. “Your friend set this in motion. This is all his fault. These are the consequences. I only see one happy ending here.”

“We can catch Mushroom if you give us a chance,” Rowan said quickly. “Before he even gets to the palace.”

“No, no, no,” said Gorge. “If you’re going all that way, someone should go into the palace, steal something, and bring it back to us. Otherwise, I’m afraid something terrible will happen.”

“Indeed. They want a stranger this time,” Crow said in an eerie voice. Her eyes were unfocused, as though another story was unfolding in a mirror of the world between her and Leaf and Rowan. “Yes. They want an outsider who brought danger to the village. Someone with too many questions. I sense this person draws the dragons’ wrath … their WRATH.”

She’s talking about Grove, Leaf realized. But surely she doesn’t mean . . she can’t mean what it sounds like.

“What do you mean by a sacrifice?” Leaf asked. “Some of his goats?”

“Has it been that long since our last one?” Crow murmured, reaching a skeletal finger to trail down Leaf’s cheek. He squelched his shudder and held himself rigidly still. “I remember it like it was yesterday … I know you remember, don’t you, dear?” she said to Rowan.

“We can stop Mushroom,” Rowan said, talking over her last words. “And we can bring you treasure. Let us go after him and we’ll make it happen.”

“Hmmm,” Gorge said. “I think we need our sacrifice standing by, just in case.” He beckoned to Leaf’s fellow apprentice, who had been watching from the flower beds while trying very hard to look as though he hadn’t noticed the other dragonmancers. Tadpole approached nervously, glancing between the four of them.

“Go find young Grove for me,” Gorge said. “Take him to the dragonmancers’ council hut and make sure he stays there to wait for us. Bring a few men from the village guard if you think you’ll need help. We’ll be there soon.”

“Yes, sir,” Tadpole said, bowing a few hundred times before hurrying away.

“You don’t have to do this!” Rowan said desperately.

“We didn’t have to,” Crow corrected her. “But thanks to young Mushroom’s greed, now we do. Grove will stay with us. All you have to do is follow your friend and return with some treasure, and everyone will be so happy. Ever ever so happy.”

Rowan looked as though she’d been snared in a spiderweb as Crow and Gorge turned to walk away.

“We have to go now,” Rowan said to Leaf, glancing up and down the quiet path. “Do you need anything from in there?” She nodded at the house.

Leaf wished he could run in, grab the map off the wall, and escape, but he might as well wish for a flying carpet to the dragons’ palace. “Nothing,” he said, swinging himself over the fence. “Give me a sword and I’m ready.”

He was not planning on coming back to Trout’s house. Whatever happened at the palace, whether he killed ten dragons or only one, he wasn’t going to come moseying back to the drudgery of being a dragonmancer’s apprentice afterward. His life as a dragonslayer was about to begin.

They took the long way through the woods to avoid any townspeople. When they arrived at the schoolhouse, Cranberry and Thyme were standing outside it, looking confused.

“Rowan!” Cranberry said as they ran up to her. “A group of villagers just came and took Grove away — we don’t know why. Wait, you do — what’s happened?” she added, seeing the look on Rowan’s face.

“Crow and Gorge found out that Mushroom is on his way to steal treasure,” Rowan said. “We have to follow him and come back with treasure for them, or they’re going to sacrifice Grove.”

The horror and enormity of that exploded in Leaf’s head. He’d been trying so hard to convince himself that he’d misunderstood, that none of this could be happening, that Crow and Gorge had been talking about stealing more of Grove’s goats instead.

“Do you really think that’s what she meant?” Leaf cried. “No one would let them do that! We don’t sacrifice people to the dragons!”

“Of course we don’t,” Cranberry said, but Rowan looked physically sick, like she really believed the dragonmancers were capable of such a thing.

“All I know for sure is they took Grove,” she said. “And I know he isn’t safe until we get back here and pay them off.”

“Then let’s go,” Leaf said. Whatever the dragonmancers meant, whether Rowan was right or not, they still had to catch Mushroom and get the map back. “Cranberry, I need a sword.”

Cranberry led the way to their secret stash of weapons and handed him a sheathed sword, which he buckled around his back. Two more daggers went into his boots, and then he was off and sprinting through the forest ahead of everyone else.

He knew they would follow him, even though he was ten years younger than they all were. One upside of putting himself in danger to copy the map was that now it was kind of etched in his brain. He didn’t like the idea of relying on his memory, but he was pretty sure it was all there: every careful line and each tiny note, painstakingly redrawn. He also knew that the dragon palace was north of the village, near the source of the river, so following the river would make logical sense. But he wasn’t sure whether Mushroom would think of it. Doing the smart, logical thing was clearly not Mushroom’s strong suit.

They traveled north all the rest of that day and half the night, only stopping because Thyme finally fell over and said he couldn’t go any farther without some sleep. Leaf offered to take the first watch and spent most of it climbing to the highest spots around them, looking for any sign of a campfire that might be Mushroom. But there was nothing. No sign of him anywhere.

The same was true on the second day, and the third. They climbed along the ridges of the mountains, keeping the river in sight, with the peaks slashing sharply in the sky above them like dragon claws. Dragons the color of flames flew overhead day and night, bursting through the clouds or swooping suddenly over the next peak and sending them all diving for cover.

They found remains of campfires and once a discarded fishing net, but none of them looked new enough to be Mushroom’s. He was nowhere to be found.

On the fourth morning, they came out of a long stretch of trees onto a section of boulders, and there it was at last: the palace of the mountain dragons.

Leaf had been full of wild energy for most of the trip, running on adrenaline and destiny. But as they all squashed themselves into the shadow of a boulder and lay down to stare out at the palace, for the first time he felt a glimmer of fear.

It was so enormous. He’d kind of known that from the scale of the blueprint, but he hadn’t really absorbed it before. The palace looked like it had swept down from the sky and eaten most of the mountain. Towers seemed to grow out of the gray-black rocks; every ledge was an entrance to the caves and halls carved out of the mountainside. Even from their vantage point, they could feel the crackling heat and smell the trails of smoke that hung in the air like clouds.

And something that wasn’t in the blueprint: The palace was swarming with dragons.

Leaf had never imagined there were so many dragons in the world. From his vantage point, he was pretty sure he could see more dragons than there were people in all of Talisman. This was more than a village; this was a city of dragons.

Dragons crawled over the mountain, building new parts of the palace or repairing collapsed towers. Dragons flew from ledge to ledge; dragons soared in from afar to drop bodies of other dragons in the smoking ravine along one side of the palace. Dragons sat on the highest points of the castle walls, spreading their wings to sun themselves.

How could there be so many dragons in one place?

Despite all his strength and skill, Leaf felt as small as an ant. An ant who dreamed of killing a whole city of dragons.

He spotted the prison that had been in the blueprint — the tall columns set off to the side, around some kind of arena. He could see more dragon wings glittering from the top of each column, and a sort of web between them all. He wasn’t quite sure how a prison like that could hold dragons — but that was one of those mysteries he was perfectly happy to leave unsolved.

“Yeesh,” Thyme whispered beside him.

“I know,” Cranberry whispered from Leaf’s other side. “Like, couldn’t you be a little more impressive, dragons?”

Rowan snorted a nervous laugh. “Do you remember the ways in?” she asked Leaf.

Leaf took a deep breath, calling the blueprint back into his mind. There weren’t a lot of entrances at ground level, since dragons usually arrived from the sky. They would have to climb half the mountain — with dragons flying all around them — to get to the lowest entry point, which was where a trash chute let out from the palace above. The note beside it had said, Not an ideal option.

It might be easier (and less smelly) to go in through the prison arena, which had a low entrance … but was also in full view of all the dragon prisoners and any passing guards.

He studied the palace, mapping it onto the blueprint in his mind. If the prison was there and those two towers were there, then the trash chute hole should be …

Leaf reached over Cranberry and grabbed Rowan’s arm. “Look!” he whispered frantically.

She raised herself onto her elbows and cupped her hands around her eyes.

Not far below the hole, a small shape was making his way up the side of the mountain. His gray clothing blended in with the rocks and smoke, and he was inching upward at a snail’s pace, creeping from shadow to shadow. Leaf wasn’t sure if that was Mushroom being cautious, or Mushroom being slow and tired.

“Oh no,” Thyme whispered.

“He must have stolen the map a whole day before we noticed,” Cranberry said. “He had more of a head start than we thought.”

“What do we do now?” Leaf asked. “It’s too late to stop him, isn’t it?”

Rowan didn’t answer. They watched in silence as the figure climbed higher and higher, and then finally, with agonizing slowness, pulled himself into the trash chute and vanished into the dark interior of the palace.

“I guess now we wait and see,” Rowan said finally. “Either he’ll come out alive or he won’t.”

“And if he does,” Thyme said, “he might need our help to get away safely.”

Leaf didn’t say it, but he knew everyone must be thinking the same thing: There was no way a human could walk into that palace and come out alive. The map might help him, but the odds were far in the dragons’ favor.

That didn’t mean Leaf wouldn’t try. He wished he had the map, but he was going into that dragon palace, one way or another. This was something he had to do.

He would take at least one dragon life for Wren’s, even if it meant certain death.