Ronan passed beneath the fence and through a gap in the first wall of the maze, squeezing between an overturned chest freezer and the empty shell of a washing machine, before he saw his first homunculus up close. It streaked past his hiding place, moving like a bald, gray monkey. It had a stout little torso; short, thin legs with large flat feet; and long thin arms with large hands. It ran hunched forward, balancing on its fists as much as its feet. One of those fists was clenched around the tied end of a burlap sack that bounced along in its wake. The contents clanked and rattled against the stony, uneven path.
It ran away from the center of the maze toward the junkyard’s wide-open gravel parking lot. Ronan waited until the little monster was almost out of sight, then followed.
He
