Chapter 30
It took a moment before Ruby realized that the howlers were chained.
Large chains crisscrossed their hairy chests and were attached to their collars. They were leashed to pillars embedded into the ground. It limited their range so that the closest ones could almost reach the path, but not quite.
Ruby backed away toward the flower garden on the other side of the pathway. Gran kept walking, not even looking surprised at the monsters.
“Gran?”
“It’s best to walk fast past them. You don’t want to agitate them too much.”
It would be easier to just to go back the way they’d come. But Gran didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving.
So Ruby raced past the gauntlet of twisted beasts to reach her grandmother.
As she did, she noticed details that she hadn’t seen before. The creat
