The world spun as I tumbled, limbs flailing while I slid helplessly down the steps into the waiting darkness below. After who knows how long, my stomach finally hit the ground with a dull thud and a strangled ‘oof.’

Everything ached. My muscles protested as I slowly pushed myself to my feet, wincing at the dull throb in my lower back. But, y’know…that’s just what happens when you fall down four flights of stairs, I guess.

Groaning, I brushed a layer of dust off my clothes. It was an absolute miracle nothing was broken. Though, I figured I might owe that little fact to the peculiar way some of the steps had shifted or pulled apart to keep me from hitting the ground too hard. The soft, disembodied laughter that echoed each time it happened left little doubt that Kita was behind it.

“Thanks,” I mumbled to the walls. “Even if you got me into this mess in the first place.”

“Correction, you got yourself into your own mess,” Kita giggled. “I just let you do it—and then made it a little more interesting.”

“Interesting is a funny way of saying almost getting me killed,” I muttered under my breath.

“I wasn’t ever going to let it come to thaaaaaaat,” Kita purred. “These hallways can go on forever if I want them to. But I made sure you found the door, didn’t I? Because I really mean it, Naughty-Naughty-Naughty Niko. You’re my favorite.”

As her voice faded in my ears, I at last took in the chamber around me. 

The ceiling sloped upward, formed from thick slabs of stone. The heat in the room was oppressive, clinging to my skin like a wet blanket, and sending beads of sweat rolling down my temple. I wiped my brow, but it did little to relieve the stifling warmth.

The source of the heat was impossible to miss: a massive boiler that dominated the center of the room. It was an ungainly, bulbous thing, cobbled together from patched sheets of iron that seemed ready to burst at the seams. Piles of coal lay scattered around its base, the floor beneath them slick with soot. The boiler almost felt as if it were alive, metal tubes snaking out from its core like the legs of some monstrous spider, belching smoke that curled through the air.

But the strangest thing of all was the cage that surrounded it, a twisted tangle of metal, locking both the boiler and something else within. The hatch to the boiler hung open, flames roaring inside. Their fiery glow silhouetted a figure as he bent over to toss in a few more coals. 

“‘Ello!” came a gravelly voice, thick with a Cockney accent. “Come on over, luv. I won’t bite, cross me heart.”

The figure finished off the sentence with a bone chilling laugh that echoed off the walls (something I wasn’t entirely sure helped his case). But… I mean, it wasn’t like he could hurt me from inside a cage. So I took a deep breath and approached the bars. 

At last, the figure turned around, the fire painting his face in flickering orange light. He appeared to be a young man, though it was hard to tell beneath the layers of grime that caked his skin. His shoulder-length hair hung in tangled clumps, so matted with dirt that I couldn't tell if it was blond or black. His eyes were bright red, glowing just like the coals behind him. His skin, where it wasn’t obscured by dirt, was a pale olive green, a color that looked as though it belonged more to the depths of a swamp than to any human being.

My eyes went wide. “You’re a goblin?”

The caged creature snickered. “Yeah, I s'pose you’ve ‘eard all them stories ‘bout us munchin’ on kids. What’s the matter, little’un, you scared?”

I swallowed hard. The answer was obviously yes. I raked through my mind, trying to remember any mention of this guy in the books. I think I could faintly remember a line or two about him in book one. A throwaway character, it seemed. 

I gritted my teeth, trying to put on a brave face. “I’m not scared.”

The goblin clearly didn’t buy it, but he simply shrugged. “Not like you need to be.”

I blinked. “But don’t goblins eat people?” 

“Most do, but not me, luv! Look!” The goblin opened his mouth wide, pointing to the worn down stubs of his teeth. “They ground me teeth down when they nabbed me, so I can’t eat meat no more. Don’t want you thinkin’ I’m dangerous or nuffin’. ‘Cause if you think I’m dangerous, you’ll scarper. And, truth be told, no one’s come down here to see me in ages. I’m dead lonely down ‘ere, I am.” He extended a grubby hand through the bars. “Me name’s Salamander, by the way. But you, little mate, can call me Sal.”

I knew it was probably against my interest to shake the hand of a mysterious, child-eating creature who was currently locked up in a cage. But I couldn’t help the knot that formed in chest from his story. If anyone understood what it was like to be lonely, it was me. 

So I took his hand. “Niko.”

As we shook, a tear rolled down Sal’s cheek, clearing a streak through the grime. 

My breath caught. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Sal sniffled, wiping his eyes on the ratty shreds of the coat he wore. “It’s just… no one's touched me hand in decades.”

He shook his head wildly, as if trying to clear it. When his glowing red eyes met mine once more, a grin spread across his face. “Want to hear how I got meself in this silly ol’ mess?”

“Uh… sure?”

“Above us is the forest where all us goblins reside. When the school was first built, we realized fresh meat was just a hop, skip, and a jump away, and couldn’t resist a bit of a raid, now could we? So when the first lot of delicious lil’ children moved into Draconia, we barged in. But unfortunately, we got caught in the act.” Sal gave me a cheeky wink. “And why didn’t they kill me along with the others? Well, I might not look it now with me all grimy and such, but I’m a right big shot among the goblins, I am. Because, I’m, well… a prince.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

Sal laughed. “I know, I know, luv. I looked waaaaay handsomer before sitting in a cage for centuries. They keep me ‘ere as leverage to make sure no goblins ever raid the school again. If we try another invasion, they’ll do me in. So, I’ve been stuck here for ages, muckin’ about with the boiler, heatin’ the school for the very same kiddos I tried to munch on.”

My expression softened, feeling bad for him. Though, I would’ve felt considerably more bad for him if he hadn’t wound up here because he was trying to eat children.

Sal cocked his head at an angle that would have resulted in a broken neck if he’d been human. “So, what’s brought you down ‘ere, little’un?”

“Oh, I was kinda searching for something,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “It’s called the Wand of Illusions.”

“Wand o’ Illusions?” Sal repeated. Then he ducked behind a pile of coal and fished out an object. “You mean this?”

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

Clutched in Sal’s grimy fingers was a wand crafted from ebony, its surface a deep black. Snakes made from silver spiraled up the wood, the delicate metal catching the flickering glow from the boiler. The vines looped and twisted around a cluster of green crystals perched at the wand’s tip. The crystals gleamed like frost-kissed leaves, their surfaces refracting the firelight into fractured rainbows that danced across Sal’s face. 

“How did you get that?” I gasped. 

“They gave me a bunch of harmless trinkets to keep me occupied when they locked me down ‘ere,” Sal said. “Amulets, puzzle boxes, bits and bobs that might as well be toys. Anything to keep me noggin’ from crackin’ with boredom. ‘Cause if me mind snaps, I can’t work the boiler no more.”

Sal twirled the wand. “Don’t use this one much. And since you’ve been a proper sweetie pie, you’re the only one I’d be willin’ to part with it for…” He let the wand come to a stop, pointed directly at me. “But only for a price, o’course.” 

I swallowed hard, praying he wasn’t going to ask to eat my leg or something. “What is it?”

“Well, I’m right lonely down ‘ere,” Sal said. “All I ask is that you pop by now and then and give this sad lil’ goblin some company.”

I offered him a smile. “I’d be more than happy to.”

“I’ll never forget this!” Sal grinned widely, revealing every dull knob of his teeth as he reached through the bars and set the wand in my hands. “You’ve made a right mate today, little Niko.”