I’m just about to go off in search of him when a sharp, discordant sound cuts through the melody of the string quartet. There’s a crescendo, then a drop, a crescendo, then a drop.
An alarm.
The entire ballroom freezes and then suddenly everyone is shouting around me, running for the exit.
A woman, the skirt of her dress clutched in her hands, bolts in front of me.
“Excuse me! What’s happening?”
“It’s the alarm!” she shouts without pausing, and melts into the frenzied crowd.
“I know it’s the alarm,” I mutter and look for a familiar face. “But what does it mean?”
I don’t spot Rook anywhere. None of the council members stick out to me. Darius and the lightsmiths are gone.
Do I stay?
Do I follow the crowd?
There’s a mad rush to the door and people are starting to get antsy, shoving their way through.
Maybe it’ll be easier to find Rook outside. At the very least, it seems like no one wants to be in the ballroom so probably it’s smart to go.
Backtracking, I make my way out the open garden doors to the balcony. There are several staff members spilling out from a service door. I follow them down a set of steps that takes us to a side garden.
“What’s happening?” I ask, trailing behind two women dressed in aubergine long coats.
The girl on the left glances at me over her shoulder, then looks a second time. “Oh! It’s you.”
“Hi. Yes, I’m Dorothy. I don’t know what’s happening and I can’t find my friends.”
“The alarm going off,” the other girl explains, “it means someone is about to enter the city who could pose some kind of danger.”
“Usually, it indicates that someone is just crossing over on the Yellow Brick Road and we’re meant to use caution by getting inside our houses and locking the doors.”
“Does that happen often?”
The girls exchange a look. “More often than you’d think,” the one on the left says.
“Good luck,” the other says before they disappear around back, leaving me alone in the garden.
I glance around, trying to get my bearings. There’s a ton of commotion from around front as people spill from the mansion and search for their carriages.
It’s probably best that I head that way too so I can try to find Rook or Ana. We rode quite a way in the carriage to get here, so walking back to the Red Wander seems out of the question.
I follow the path around a gurgling stone fountain. The cool water mists in the air, wetting my exposed skin. A shiver racks my body.
I’m looking forward to my room at the inn more and more. Of course, I want to get to safety, but there’s also a cozy quilt waiting for me, Toto, and a fireplace and Rook—
My chest grows light at the thought.
I pass by a tall hedgerow.
A rustling on the other side makes me slow.
Was that a footstep on gravel?
Ten feet ahead, there’s a break in the hedge where a wrought-iron archway leads farther into the garden.
