The Fall of the Readers Page 14

  “I helped her, didn’t I?” He hung his head miserably. “You heard what she said. I was only there because my presence was like an anchor that helped her get to the island. And it turns out I’ve been helping her prepare you for this all along. I was the one who brought you into this library in the first place!” His ears lay flat. “If you want to hate me, I can’t blame you.”

  “Oh, Ashes,” Alice said, for a moment struggling to find her voice.

  “Ending brought him back here afterward. He told me some of what happened,” Isaac said. “That you and the others were . . . gone. And he gave me enough warning that we were able to get most of the injured and children to safety.”

  “You didn’t know what Ending was up to, Ashes. Not really,” Alice said. She was certain of this. Ending would never have shared her plan with one of her children. “You just wanted to help me.” She bent over, so they were face-to-face. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

  He blinked, yellow eyes on hers. Then, tentatively, he leaned forward, and his tiny pink tongue licked the end of Alice’s nose. Alice laughed and snatched him up, feeling him start to purr even as he began complaining.

  “You’re filthy,” he said. “Ugh. What have you been doing?”

  “Running,” Alice said. “And swimming, and sleeping in ditches.”

  “Well, you smell like it, anyway.”

  “I was going to ask,” Alice said to Isaac, “how you were managing in the labyrinth without me.”

  Isaac nodded at Ashes. “He’s been leading me, for the most part.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Alice looked down at Ashes. “If Ending finds out . . .”

  “I thought you would have wanted me to,” Ashes said grumpily. “Besides, Ending isn’t paying as close attention as she used to. She and her siblings are already fighting over the boundaries, where the labyrinths are going to meet. They’re dividing up the world between them.”

  “Ending’s labyrinth is really growing?” Isaac said.

  “It’s already reached the city,” Alice said grimly. “I passed through on my way here. Most of the people have run away. They think everyone’s gone mad.”

  “I don’t blame them,” Isaac said. “How could they be prepared for this?”

  “Can they do it?” Alice asked Ashes. “Cover the entire world?”

  Ashes nodded, ears flattening again. “The more powerful they are, the bigger their labyrinth gets. The bigger it gets, the more powerful they become. It was only the Readers that kept them in check.”

  There was a long pause.

  “So what do we do?” Isaac said, into the silence.

  “We have to stop them,” Alice said.

  “I knew you would say that,” Isaac said, resigned. “We could run away into a book, go live with Pyros—” He caught her eye. “No. I suppose not.”

  “I did this,” Alice said. “I set them free. This is my responsibility.”

  “You couldn’t have known—”

  Alice cut him off. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not about guilt, it’s about solutions. Like after I trapped Geryon. I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, but I do know I need to clean up the mess I’ve made.”

  “All right,” Isaac said. “How do we do it?”

  “When I was in the void”—the thought still made her shiver—“I spoke to the prisoner. The creature that’s imprisoned under the Great Binding. She calls herself the First. If we let her out, she says she can banish the labyrinthine forever.”

  Isaac’s eyes narrowed. “You believe it? Something that both the Readers and the labyrinthine wanted locked up?”

  “I believe it because they want it locked up. Ending waited for centuries to spring her trap, because she had to be sure of maintaining the Great Binding. The First is the one thing that really scares her. And . . .” She had a hard time putting the feeling into words, the strange familiarity, even kindness she felt from the First. “Yes. I believe it. And I certainly can’t think of any other options.”

  “So we let the First out, and hope for the best.”

  Alice nodded. “Right. To do that we need to get back to the island at the center of the Grand Labyrinth, so I can get my hands on the binding.”

  “Get back?” Ashes said, and gave a yowling groan. “Please don’t tell me we’re going on another boat trip.”

  “It wouldn’t work,” Alice said. “With the labyrinthine against us, we’d never get through the Grand Labyrinth that way.”

  “It seems like we’re stuck, then,” Isaac said with a frown.

  “I think there might be another way to get there. Call it a hunch,” Alice said. “But there’s only one person I can think of who might know what it is.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  RETURN TO THE INFINITE PRISON

  THE SUN WAS SETTING, throwing long shadows from every rock and tree. The lawn looked like pictures Alice had seen from the Great War. The grass was ripped up in long furrows from the eye beams of the sunhawks, punctuated by broad craters where they’d focused their attention. Recent rain had churned the exposed earth to mud, which squelched wetly between her toes.

  “Are you sure you want to come with us?” Alice said to Ashes, who had resumed his usual place on her shoulder. “If Ending catches you, she’ll . . .” She trailed off, not sure what Ending would do, but certain it would not be pleasant.

  “I’m sure,” Ashes said. “You might need my help, after all.”

  “We will,” Alice said.

  The labyrinth had spread here, too, engulfing the house itself. The back door led into the kitchen, as usual, but one of the kitchen’s doors led to the third floor, and another opened onto a city street Alice didn’t recognize. She peeked into what had been the storeroom stairwell and found it led to an aisle of toppled bookshelves.

  “Stay close,” she told Isaac. “This is going to be a little tricky.”

  Once again, she wished she could simply grab hold of the fabric of the labyrinth and twist it to her will. But Ending, even if she was distracted, could feel that kind of interference. Instead, Alice gently ran her mental grip along the fabric, searching for a path that went where she wanted. She led the way out the door that went to the third floor, then along a corridor that shifted with every twist and turn they took. Isaac kept his hand on her arm, and she eventually slipped her hand into his, their interlaced fingers giving her a warm feeling.

  “Wait,” she said, pausing in front of a doorway.

  “It’s through here?” Isaac said.

  “No, but it’s my old room.” The room on the other side was, anyway, even if the doorway was one that had originally led to a broom closet. “There’s some things I might need.”

  She opened the door. Her room was a mess, with daylight visible through a distant hole in the roof. Subsequent wind and rain had left Alice’s familiar bed and desk damp and smelling of mold. Her nose wrinkled.

  “You never showed me your room,” Isaac said, stepping in behind her. “There’s not much here.”

  “I never needed much,” she said.

  A few books on the desk were bloated with damp. She nudged open her trunk with one toe and rummaged. She had some spare clothes and underthings, and an old set of boots she could still just about squeeze into. There was an old pack, too, and she threw everything inside, along with some other spares—canteen, knife, a roll of linen bandages. I wish I had time to make more acorns.

  “Are these your rabbits?” Isaac gave the stuffed animals on the windowsill a poke. They were waterlogged, too, and had slumped into a bedraggled, almost resentful posture. “They’re . . . cute.”

  “They’re from my old house,” Alice said. She looked at them for a moment, then shook her head. “They were just about the only things they let me bring.”

  “Sorry.” Isaac patted one of them on the head. It squelched. �
��Do you want to bring them along?”

  Something about that made her smile, the way he made the offer even knowing it was patently ridiculous. “They can stay and keep watch,” she said. “I don’t think I’m ever coming back here.”

  They picked their way through some of the more damaged parts of the house, and eventually reached what had been Geryon’s suite, where all signs of the sunhawks’ attack stopped. The wards he’d set around these rooms would keep them standing, Alice was certain, even if the rest of the house had burned to the ground.

  A short corridor inside led to several doors. One went to Geryon’s bedroom, another to the study where she’d trapped him. At the end of the hall was the practice room, where she’d first learned to grasp the threads of magic and summon the Swarm. And off to one side was a heavy, solid-looking door that led to the vault.

  Alice opened it carefully, preparing to step through into someplace else entirely, but the vault was just as she remembered it, a set of chests in a wide variety of sizes and shapes on shelves set into one wall. And a low table against the other wall where Alice herself had placed a pair of books, a heavy tome and a thin volume bound in red, which now contained the two halves of a spell. The larger book was labeled The Infinite Prison.

  “Are you going to need my help?” Isaac said, looking nervously at the book.

  Alice shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’ve done this before. I can talk to him, but he can’t do anything to me.”

  “What if he won’t tell you anything?”

  “He will. He knows I’m his only chance at ever getting out of there.”

  Isaac frowned. “Are you planning to let him out?”

  Alice didn’t reply. She looked at Ashes, who sighed and jumped down from her shoulder to the table. Then she took a deep breath and laid one finger on the book’s cover.

  Instantly, the world around her was replaced with velvety darkness. In front of her, and all around her as well, was Geryon—an army of him, mirrored endlessly into the infinite distance, all identical and moving as one. He looked just as she remembered, his clothes scuffed and shabby, his face all sagging jowls and fantastic sideburns. But his eyes had changed. They went wide at the sight of her, and there was a desperation in them she’d never seen before.

  “Alice!” He stepped forward, and an infinity of reflections stepped with him. “You’re back. Are you—”

  He paused, and mastered himself with obvious effort. Alice thought about her time in the void, and felt a touch of sympathy. This place was not much better, as eternal prisons went, although at least Geryon still had a body. She was impressed at how quickly he reconstructed his haughty, imperious demeanor, with only a trace of fear visible at the edges.

  “What are you doing here?” he said, affecting a bored tone. “Have you repented of your disastrous plan?”

  “I need your help,” Alice admitted.

  “Of course you do, you foolish girl. You were in over your head the moment you arrived here.” He extended a hand. “Let me out. We can discuss things.”

  Alice wondered if she’d ever been naive enough to take that at face value. “Tell me what I need to know, and I’ll consider it.”

  “Don’t be stupid. This whole mess can still be rectified, you know. What’s happened out there? Have the others—”

  “It’s not your concern right now,” Alice snapped. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to discuss the situation with Geryon in part because she wasn’t eager to admit he’d been right. I should never have trusted Ending. “Are you going to answer my question or not?”

  His mouth worked silently for a moment, sideburns twitching. Finally he said, gruffly, “What is this question?”

  “I need to get to the island that holds the Great Binding,” Alice said. “I can’t go in through the Grand Labyrinth.”

  “The Readers’ portal there requires a collective agreement to activate—”

  “I can’t get that either.” Alice leaned forward. “But there must be another way. Why put the binding on a desolate island in the first place, unless it was because there was a portal nearby?” I hope, I hope. There has to be a way.

  Geryon’s eyes narrowed. “Why? What could you need there?”

  “As I said, it’s not your concern.”

  “It’s my concern if it means you’re going to destroy the world!” Geryon said. “The Great Binding is not to be trifled with. The prisoner—”

  “Are you going to tell me,” Alice grated, “or not? I don’t have time to argue with you.”

  “Assuming I know something, why should I tell you?”

  “If you tell me,” Alice said, “I’ll let you out.”

  There was a long pause. Geryon tried to keep his expression calm, but his hands were trembling.

  “You’re lying,” he said.

  “I’m not.”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  Alice shrugged. “What have you got to lose?”

  There was another moment of resistance, and then Geryon’s shoulders slumped. He looked, suddenly, very old indeed.

  “You’re right,” he said. “There’s a natural portal. But it may not be of much use.”

  “Where is it?”

  “In Greece.” He closed his eyes. “In the hills north of Athens, there’s a cave. Look for a mountain with three tall, narrow peaks, and head to the west of its base. You’ll be able to sense it when you get close.” He shook his head. “The humans once thought the cave led into the afterlife. After the Grand Labyrinth was constructed, we placed a guardian there to prevent anyone from wandering in.”

  “I feel like I know that story,” Alice said. “And on the other side?”

  “There’s a natural portal to the island. But no one has used it in thousands of years. Things may be very different.”

  “I’ll manage,” Alice said. “Thank you.”

  “Let me out.” He’d dropped the mask entirely now. When he opened his eyes, they were full of naked hunger. “Please. You don’t know what it’s like.”

  “I do,” Alice said quietly. “And I will, I promise.” She hesitated, and then added, “Eventually.”

  Geryon’s scream of rage and pain, abruptly cut off, still echoed in her ears when she blinked and returned to the real world. She took a half step backward, and Isaac put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Everything all right?” he said.

  She nodded. “I have what we need.”

  “What did you tell Geryon?” Ashes said from the table.

  “The truth,” she said. “I’m going to let him out of there, as soon as I can figure out how to do it safely. No one should be imprisoned forever, even him.”

  “So where are we going next?” Isaac said.

  “Greece, I think. But we have a stop to make first.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  VELNEBS SOME WITH ENCOUNTER ODD AN

  CAN I SAY THAT I don’t like this idea?” Isaac said as Alice walked to the other side of the vault. “My master’s labyrinthine was never friendly to me, even before. If Decay finds us there—”

  “I don’t feel very good about it either,” Ashes muttered. “Not that anyone listens to me.”

  “He’ll probably try to kill us,” Alice said. She picked a thin book off the shelf and brought it back to the table. “But we’re going to need the Dragon’s help when we get to the Grand Labyrinth.”

  “Neither of us has ever been able to summon the Dragon,” Isaac said. Alice felt tension along the Dragon’s thread they shared as Isaac’s mental grip touched it. “It takes too much power.”

  “I may be able to do something about that,” Alice said. “But I need the Dragon book to do it.” She shook her head. “Hopefully Decay will be as busy as Ending is, feuding with the others. If not we’ll . . . think of something.”

  “J
ust like we’ll figure out a way to get halfway around the world?” Ashes said.

  “One thing at a time,” Alice said. “First we retrieve the Dragon.”

  “For a reason you won’t explain,” Isaac said.

  “Not yet, anyway,” Alice said. “Not until I’m sure that I’m right.” At the sight of his expression, she smiled. “You were the one who stole the book in the first place.”

  “I suppose I was.” He sighed. “All right. Let’s go.”

  Isaac took her hand again, and Ashes jumped up on her shoulder. Alice flipped the book on the table in front of them, read the words as they swirled into comprehensibility, and found herself standing in utter darkness. She took hold of the devilfish thread and pulled it around her, so that her hands began to glow an eerie green, lighting the room.

  They were in the “cave of front doors,” with connections to every Reader’s fortress. She and Isaac were standing in front of a large boulder, part of a circle of similar rocks that ran all the way around a large cavern. Each boulder bore either the name of a Reader or a scratched-out mess where one had been, long ago.

  So much had started here. This was where she’d first met Dex, Ellen, and Garret, and coaxed the timid Soranna out of the darkness, before venturing into Esau’s fortress together. Now Ellen and Garret were dead, and Soranna and Dex were locked away outside of space itself. Isaac and I are the only ones left of that original group. Alice took a deep breath. I will get them out.

  “Stay here a moment,” Alice said, depositing Ashes on the floor.

  “What? Why?” Isaac said.

  “So I can put on clean clothes,” Alice said patiently. “I didn’t want to risk changing in a place where Ending might turn up at any moment.” Here, at least, they were far from any labyrinth.

  “Oh.” Isaac scratched his cheek and looked away, embarrassed. “I’ll just wait here, then?”

  “Just a minute.”

  Alice went around the back of the boulder, pulled off the now-ragged things Nancy had given her, and changed back into the outfit she’d retrieved from her room. It was a little small, but it felt good to be wearing something clean again, even if she herself still needed a bath. Swimming as the devilfish doesn’t seem to clean me off much. Her hair hung in stringy, uneven clumps, and she ran her fingers through it and sighed before tying it back out of the way.