Secret of the Giants' Staircase by Amy Lynn Green

those friends of yours? Because you’re not leaving without them, and I’m not going into the swamp on my own.”
    Jesse couldn’t resist the urge to tease him. “What, are you afraid?”
    â€œNo,” Owen said, picking up a fruit. He squeezed it slightly, and Jesse could tell it was rotten. “I just don’t like swamps.” He changed the subject abruptly. “Bet I can’t hit that pot?”
    â€œWhat pot?” Jesse asked, looking around.
    â€œThe one in the windowsill. Three stories up, to the right.”
    Jesse looked where Owen was pointing. He could hardly see the pot. “I’ll take that bet.”
    With a mischievous little grin, Owen reached back and threw the rotten fruit so hard that Jesse barely saw it before it sent the pot clattering faintly inside the building.
    â€œYou lost,” Owen informed him, the mischievous grin creeping up again.
    Jesse stood and began to pace. “Great. Wonderful. Good aim. Now, if you want to leave this city alive, help me think of what to do.” He paused. “No. Forget I said that. Let me think of what to do.”
    Something in Owen seemed to sag, but then he shrugged. “Fine.”
    If only one of the others were here with me , Jesse thought. They were always so good at making decisions. Coming up with a plan. I don’t even know where to start.
    And what if they’re not even alive?
    Jesse shook his head, dismissing the thought. Instead, he focused on Owen’s story. “How did a city of four hundred people escape during a siege?”
    â€œYou know, for claiming you’re not crazy, you sure talk to yourself a lot.”
    It was Owen, of course. He had moved on from target practice to balancing on the orchard wall, teetering from side to side as he hopped on one foot.
    â€œGet down from there,” Jesse said half-heartedly. Somehow, he didn’t think Owen would fall. Or if he did, he’d land on his feet.
    â€œDon’t worry, I won’t fall,” Owen said. “Anyway, it’s not very high. Once, I….”
    Jesse didn’t hear the rest of what he said. Instead, he focused on the history of Lidia, letting Owen chatter away in the background.
    â€œTunnels,” Jesse said suddenly.
    â€œNewts,” Owen said. “Fenceposts. Rutabagas. Is this a game? Blurt out random words without explaining why?”
    â€œNo. Listen. Unless they knew how to fly, the Lidians had to use tunnels to get out of the city when the giants put it under siege,” Jesse explained.
    Owen laughed. “I don’t think that would work. You fell into the tar pit. You know what the ground here is like. They’d practically have to swim to get out of there.”
    â€œThen who better than a shipbuilder, trained in keeping out water, to construct the tunnels?” Jesse said triumphantly. “What if the walls that pushed back the sand were real walls…walls with space in between?”
    â€œThen there would be tunnels underneath the city. Why should I care?”
    Jesse knew why he cared. If the Lidians had disappeared through the tunnels, there was a good chance that Parvel, Silas and Rae had too.
    â€œThat might be where the Lidians hid their treasure,” Jesse said, watching Owen carefully.
    â€œI’ll search this side of the city. You can go east,” Owen said cheerfully, jumping down from the wall.
    â€œNo,” Jesse said firmly. “We stay together. Understood?”
    â€œFine,” Owen said, sighing loudly, “if I have to.”
    â€œI should be the one that’s complaining. I have to listen to you and keep you from killing yourself.”
    â€œBut you’re covered in dried tar,” Owen pointed out, “and you smell bad.”
    Jesse just gritted his teeth. By the end of today, the ruins of Lidia might just have a new ghost .

Chapter 10
    Several hours later, Jesse and Owen had found only an abandoned tinker’s