Page 30 of The Guardians of Dreamdark (Windwitch #1)

In the dungeon of Rathersting Castle, Batch Hangnail sat hunched in a corner with his big toes tucked into his nostrils for safekeeping.

He hummed to himself and bided his time.

Tattooed faces peered in at him from time to time through the little window in the door to his cell, and he pretended to take no notice of them.

They brought him food, and he ate it with his napkin at his neck as if he were a guest.

He seemed utterly unperturbed to find himself in a dungeon.

As soon as the guards left him alone, Batch stood, stretched, and ambled to the door. From his satchel, he took the key he’d found in the mud at the bottom of the Magruwen’s well, and he slid it into the lock. It fit. It turned. The door swung open.

Such was the gift of serendipity, and a lifetime of such miracles had left Batch jaded by them. He simply closed the door behind himself and locked it again, then slunk away, singing under his breath.

Where ye going? Where ye been?

Nighttime’s dark, but morning’s grim .

Hurry where ye’re headed, forget all that ye’ve seen .

The past is inescapable, the future’s just a dream ...

He made his way through the subterranean passages, his nose and instincts leading him along the least traveled of them. He met no one. He climbed stairs, turned and turned again, and, like a rat in a maze, he found his way.

Batch always found what he was looking for.

And he always found what he wasn’t looking for, too.

Those were the charms of a scavenger’s life, the unlooked-for pretties.

This time it was a little pedal vehicle with side-by-side seats and a neat red-and-white-striped awning to keep off the rain.

It hadn’t been driven since the chief’s old mum had passed to the Moonlit Gardens decades past, and no one even remembered there was a little door hidden in the yew’s roots that let it out into the world.

Humming, Batch pushed open the door and tramped down the weeds that choked and hid it.

Then he climbed into the surrey and pedaled out.

Once he’d gathered speed, a strange thing happened.

Remnants of a floating glyph the biddy had long ago touched to her surrey awakened, and it began to rise gently into the sky.

Jaded or not, Batch’s eyes gleamed with a wild joy as he threw back his head and said, “Wheeeeee!!!”