Enchanted Ivy

Up on the arch over the chapel door, she spotted the Chained Dragon. Nestled in the stone greenery, he was the size of a terrier, curved into a backward S with bat wings splayed flat against his back. A thick stone chain was carved around his neck. One of his talons clutched the chain.

Scale for scale, Mom had drawn him exactly. She'd even captured the sad, lonely look in the dragon's puppy- dog eyes. How had Mom remembered this carving so precisely when she couldn't even remember Lily's father's face? Of all the things to remember, why this?

Lily didn't realize she'd stopped walking until Jake burst out, 'You can't be ready to talk to him!'

Both of her eyebrows shot up. So ... the Chained Dragon was another rigged gargoyle, like the Literate Ape. Perhaps Mom's subconscious had given her a clue. 'Why not?' she asked.

'Did Professor Ape tell you about the dragon?' Jake asked. He seemed agitated. 'Anything about his history? You can't talk to him yet!'

She guessed she was meant to approach the dragon much later in the test. Skipping ahead sounded good to her, though. She could finish the test early and then join Grandpa and Mom for P-rade on Saturday as planned. 'What about his history?' she asked.

'I ... I can't tell you.' He clearly wanted to talk. His thoughts played across his face. She watched his forehead crinkle and uncrinkle. His lips started to form words and then pressed together as if he were physically holding back the words as they tried to escape his mouth.

'It's okay,' Lily said. 'You don't have to tell me anything. I'll figure it out.' If she wasn't supposed to talk to the dragon yet, then all the Old Boys had to do was tell the guy running the audio setup not to respond. But maybe, just maybe, they'd slip up and she'd have a shortcut to the end of this ridiculous test.

Lily marched toward the steps of the chapel. The second her foot touched the first step, she saw a stone tongue flick out of the dragon's mouth.

She halted. That had looked very realistic.

Jake caught her arm. 'You don't have to do this,' he said. 'We can return to Professor Ape. Ask him about your next clue. It can't be the dragon. He can't be part of your test.' If she didn't know better, she'd say he was genuinely freaked out by this sculpture. 'He's saved for late in the training. Seniors face him. Not candidates. I haven't spoken to him yet.'

Jake really seemed to believe what he was saying. She hadn't expected him to be such a good actor. The Old Boys must have prepped him well. She was positive now that she was on to something. 'I need to get close,' she said. Like with the Literate Ape, she bet the gargoyle would talk once she was close enough that no one could overhear.

Unlike with the Literate Ape, she didn't see a convenient window above the gargoyle. The ribbon of carvings that included the dragon was recessed within the arch. She'd need to reach it from below, ideally with a ladder.

Climbing the stone steps, she entered the chapel antechamber. She glimpsed the chapel's nave through the inner doors. Rows of wood pews stretched to the distant altar. Stone pillars soared to the vaulted ceiling. Everything was bathed in a soft blue light from hundreds of stained-glass windows. She wondered if Mom would remember this if she saw it. She promised herself to bring Mom here too, after the test was over.

Lily scanned the antechamber for anything resembling a ladder. Beside the open doors to the chapel was a marble staircase with a red velvet rope stretched across it and a sign that read BALCONY CLOSED. Leaning beside it was a black metal folding chair. Good enough, she thought. She fetched the chair and brought it back outside.

'Can you watch for security?' she asked Jake. 'Ward off any paparazzi or whatever?'

'Only if you promise me you won't get too close,' Jake said as she set up the chair underneath the arch. 'You have to be careful.'

'It's stone,' she said. 'I won't hurt it.'

'If you look in danger, I'll knock you off the chair.'

Lily blinked at him. He seemed 100 percent sincere. 'You should win an Oscar,' she told him. He was fully immersed in this role-playing game, treating the gargoyles as if they weren't robots or puppets ... except he had gotten the story mixed up. The Literate Ape had said the gargoyles were the good guys. 'I'll be fine.' She stepped onto the chair.

A foot down from the gargoyle's tail, she looked up into the dragon's mournful eyes. 'Free me,' a voice whispered. His voice was so faint that she rose onto her tiptoes to hear. The stone tongue darted in and out again. 'Free me,' the dragon repeated.

His voice was snakelike. Shivers walked over Lily's skin.

The audio guy had succeeded in making stone sound truly creepy. Kudos to him. She wanted to climb off the chair and put as much distance between her and that voice as possible.

Jake hovered on the steps below her. 'What's he saying? You shouldn't listen to him.'

'I hurt. Oh, I hurt.' The stone chain, she noticed, had been carved to look as if it were biting into the folds of the dragon's neck. It was clever of the Old Boys to use that detail. It made the dragon seem more real. 'Please, I beg of you. Save me.'

'It's stone,' Lily said. 'You're stone.'

'Come closer,' the dragon whispered, 'and I will show you how to free me.'

The Old Boys were testing her. But were they testing her compassion or her resistance to peer pressure? 'I don't know if I'm supposed to do that,' Lily said.

The dragon hissed. 'Free me!'

Just a game, she reminded herself. Just a role-playing fantasy game that some bored privileged kids had cooked up over beer pong. But it was hard to remember that while the dragon's harsh, sad, awful voice shuddered through her. She felt it echo in her bones. Such a sweet little carving shouldn't sound so painful. 'Why are you chained?' she asked.

A harsh, sibilant laugh erupted from the stone sculpture. The sound made her feel as if her guts were churning. 'You came on your own, young one, didn't you? The knights didn't send you to me. How delightful.'

The Literate Ape had mentioned knights too. She wondered who they were. 'The Literate Ape said—'

'He is still here? Fool. He could be free! He has not been shrunk to this unnatural size and bound against his will.' His tongue flicked again, gray as stone but fast as flesh.

'Who did this to you?' she asked.

'That is not the question you came to ask,' he said. He sounded oddly amused.

'I want to know where to find the Ivy Key.'

His stone features slid as smoothly as skin as his expression changed from sad to eager. She shivered and told herself that the Old Boys were wealth personified—they could afford special effects like talking stone and sliding bookshelves. 'And you come to me? How deliciously fascinating.' His voice changed to a command. 'Your name, little one.'

'Lily,' she said. 'Lily Carter.'

'Ahh!' His tail lashed. 'You come to me for answers because the humans lie, lie, and lie. Come closer, Lily Carter, and I will tell you all.'

Hesitating, she glanced down at Jake.

'Lily, what is he saying?' Jake asked. 'You can't trust him.'

'You of all people cannot trust humans,' the dragon said. She realized that Jake hadn't heard anything the dragon had said. His voice was pitched only loud enough for her to hear. 'To you, their truths are only half truths. Their answers, half answers.'

'And you'll give me whole truths?' she asked.

'I can tell you who you are.'

'I know who I am,' she said.

His tongue flicked in and out. 'I can tell you how your father died.'

What the hell did he mean by that? She knew how her father had died: a car accident. 'All I need to know is where to find the Key.' And then she'd finish this test, secure her admission, and tell the Old Boys exactly what she