The white hound's jaws snapped shut on air a heartbeat after Juna hauled Hajin sideways by the collar. Not a growl, a breath or a scrape of claws, only a wind that smelled of cold stone.
"Crack in the wall, left, I can smell the draft," she hissed, dragging him by the sleeve.
"Here," Nyra whispered, already squeezing into the gap.
"Everybody behind me, I'm putting up the wall!" Loccy shouted from the dark, hammer ringing against the floor.
A wall rose across the gallery behind them with a deep thump, sealing the others into a pocket of soup-scent.
"It keeps knocking on my wall, it must be very impolite," she called cheerfully through it, "but it tickles a little."
Ferra bellowed from somewhere on the far side of the wall, "Tell the dog it's not invited to dinner!"
"My heart is going so fast I think it will leave without me," Rumi whispered, clutching her sister's arm.
"Recite the seven kings, Rumi," Didi said, her voice thin but steady, "it always bores me to sleep."
