The Fall of the Readers Read online

  “Don’t remind me.” Alice worked her jaw, where an echo of the devilfish’s pain still lingered in her teeth. “It’s not something I’m eager to repeat.”

  Soranna brushed her hair back from her eyes. Her expression had taken on that peculiar intensity that made Alice uncomfortable, and Alice realized she’d only cemented her status as a hero in the girl’s eyes. She sighed and flopped back to the deck.

  “Was all the food washed overboard?” she said. “I’m hungry enough to eat some of those gulls.”

  It turned out that they were not quite reduced to eating gulls. A bag of apples had lodged at the rail, and Soranna had kept hold of a basket full of dried meat, which had not suffered terribly for the immersion. Cyan, yipping happily, provided fresh water.

  Flicker was still huddled under the tarpaulin, insisting he was fine but not coming out. Ashes, however, had emerged, looking so utterly pathetic that Alice had to stifle a giggle. He glanced up, as though daring her to comment, and shook himself violently.

  “I don’t care if she is my mother and she is a labyrinthine,” he said. “She is not going to get away with this. Sending me here to this . . . this disaster.”

  “We’re alive,” Alice said, chewing slightly damp jerky. “That’s something.”

  “There’s alive and then there’s alive,” Ashes said. “You naked apes can always take your silly clothes off. What am I supposed to do?” He licked his fur and shuddered. “And I taste of salt.”

  “There’s plenty of fresh water, if you want to wash off,” Alice said.

  “I have been washed quite enough for one day!”

  Grumbling, the cat settled down, licking himself thoroughly and muttering about the taste. Alice tore off some jerky for him, which he gobbled without a word of thanks.

  By the time they’d gotten settled, the sun was nearly down, and the apprentices agreed that it wouldn’t be wise to begin exploring the Grand Labyrinth in the dark. It didn’t feel to Alice like an entire day had passed, but time was always tricky when moving through other worlds, and she was tired enough to sleep for a week. They stripped out of as much of their clothing as modesty allowed, draping it over Cyan’s rail to dry. Fortunately, the interior of the labyrinth was much warmer than the outside, even after sunset. Cyan pulled up in the lee of one of the larger islands, and Alice tied Dex’s rope around a rock.

  The stars came out as the sky darkened, first one by one and then in the thousands. Alice remembered the sky over Flicker’s home, spinning fast enough to make her dizzy. Here on Earth, the stars seemed stationary, but she had an echo of the same feeling, the sense that she could fall up into the endless black. The Milky Way was a cloudy ribbon of light, stretching from horizon to horizon.

  “Alice?” Michael said. He was lying closest to her.

  “Mmm?” Alice said.

  “I just . . . I don’t know if I thanked you. For helping Jen when she got hurt. I watched what happened, but you did something about it without hesitation.”

  “It was what needed to be done,” Alice said.

  “It was the same just now. I knew we were in trouble, but you—you just jumped in.” He sighed. “I wish I knew how to do that. I always start thinking about what might go wrong.”

  “Sometimes I think I ought to be a little more careful,” Alice said. Like when I opened The Infinite Prison and let the Ouroborean out. “But when there’s no time, you just have to go with what feels right. I know you can do that. You figured out the right way to handle Cyan quickly enough. And you convinced Jen not to fight me, when we met the first time.”

  “That was easy.” Michael sighed. “I don’t like fighting. Jen tells me I’m a coward.”

  “You’re not a coward, I can say that much,” Alice said. “We have a lot of power, as Readers. Sometimes doing the right thing means using it to defend people.” Alice thought back to her passage through Erdrodr’s fortress, the temptation she’d felt to simply smash the ice giants aside. “Sometimes it means not fighting, even when we might want to.”

  “That . . . makes sense,” Michael said. “Thank you, Alice.”

  When he didn’t speak again, Alice closed her eyes. When did I become the one who hands out wise advice? For that matter, where did I get any wise advice? Some things just seemed . . . obvious. Maybe that’s wisdom, seeing things that are obvious. She let out a long breath and dropped into exhausted slumber.

  Dawn woke her, and she found Flicker huddled over a metal bowl, picking bits from a weak flame and slurping them off his fingers.

  “Feeling better?” Alice said.

  “A bit.” Flicker’s voice was grim, with the low crackle of a bonfire in it somewhere. His hair was still mostly dark, though it had regained a little warmth. “That’s not an experience I’m eager to repeat.”

  “I hope we won’t have to,” Alice said. “Things certainly seem more congenial in here.”

  He looked up at her, then glanced away. “I heard you saved us. Again.”

  She shrugged. “I’m the only one who can turn into a fish.”

  “I . . .” Flicker looked down at his bowl of flames, then shook his head. “Never mind.”

  Ashes was still asleep, curled in a tight ball beside Flicker, but the other apprentices were getting up. Alice’s underclothes were still a bit damp, but the things she’d hung on the rail were mostly dry, though grimy and stiff with salt. She pulled them on, wincing a little at the soreness in her muscles.

  “That was refreshing,” Dex said, munching on an apple. “But I feel we’d better be about our business, Sister Alice.”

  Alice nodded. “No telling how long it will take to get through.” If it was more than another day or so, they really would be eating seagulls. “Dex, get us untied. Michael, you’re in charge of steering Cyan. I’ll try to keep you pointed in the right direction. Soranna, Flicker, keep watch and shout if anything comes at us, or you notice anything strange. We’ve got the Veils to look out for, and who knows what else.”

  “Aye, aye, sir!” said Michael, grinning. Alice assumed this was more pirate talk.

  When Michael stroked his ears, Cyan eased out from behind the island and into the wider channel, keeping well away from the rocks on either side. Alice closed her eyes and let the fabric of the labyrinth slip slowly through her mental grasp. As Ending had predicted, she couldn’t exert much force on it, but she could at least sense its structure, and gently feel her way ahead to determine the path forward.

  Michael steered Cyan in accordance with Alice’s vague directions, veering around islands and passing between rock formations and beds of seaweed. Gulls watched them, taking off in squawking flocks when they came too close. Ashes, who had woken up and resumed his place on Alice’s shoulder, watched the birds with narrow-eyed interest.

  “I wouldn’t try it,” Alice said. “They’re bigger than you are.”

  “They’re all wing,” he said dismissively. “Believe me. Large birds are the natural prey of the cat.”

  “Maybe once they’ve been roasted and carved,” Alice said. Ashes snorted.

  “What’s that?” Flicker said, pointing over the rail.

  They all turned to look. A large, flat island supported three piles of rocks, each about as high as Alice’s waist. They looked like cairns, or bits of a tumbled-down stone wall, but they were all unmistakably moving. One rock would slide off the top, then another came down on top of it, and so on, like a continuous avalanche. One particular rounded rock always remained at the center of each pile, and two glassy protrusions on its surface looked disturbingly like eyes. They turned to follow the boat until it passed around another island and out of sight.

  “Are they alive?” Soranna said.

  Flicker nodded. “In my people’s old world there were many rock-creatures. Even rock-sprites, though we haven’t had any contact with them in a long time.”

  “The
re’s another one,” Soranna said, and sure enough, a pile of stone watched them with glassy eyes from the shade of a scrappy tree. Now that she knew what to look for, Alice saw them everywhere, ambling around their islands with a rolling gait or simply turning in place to watch the boat go by.

  “They don’t look big enough to be threatening,” she said, after a while. “But I’m happy to leave them alone if they leave me alone.”

  “A sound plan,” Dex said.

  An hour or so later, the path came to a dead end. They were hemmed in on both sides by tall, craggy rock formations. Just ahead was an island much larger than the others, big enough that it had a pebbly beach at the foot of a substantial cliff.

  “Now what?” Michael said, bringing Cyan to a halt.

  Alice prodded the fabric of the Grand Labyrinth. This was definitely the right way to go, she could feel it. All the paths through the labyrinth led to this point.

  “I think we get out and walk,” Alice said. “This must be the first Veil, and it blocks the way forward.”

  “So it’ll be some kind of test?” Soranna said.

  “Or more like a gateway, with guards?” Flicker said.

  “We’ll find out,” Alice said. “Michael, put us on shore.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE FIRST VEIL

  CYAN OBLIGINGLY PULLED ASHORE, allowing everyone to disembark without getting wet. Then the boat collapsed in on itself, shrinking back down to an excited fox-creature. A half-bag of apples and the remaining baskets of supplies were left at their feet.

  The sand was much rougher than the Azure Sea beach. Ashes continued to ride Alice’s shoulder, looking suspiciously at the gentle surf. Flicker hoisted the sack of apples over his shoulder with a grin, clearly relieved to be back on land. Cyan ran in eager circles around Michael and yipped.

  “Shhh,” Michael admonished him. “Someone might be waiting for us.”

  “If there are guards, we won’t take them by surprise in any case,” Alice said.

  “At least the way forward seems obvious,” Dex said.

  That was true enough. The beach was a semicircle carved out of the base of a sheer cliff. A crack in the rock just wide enough for a person led off the beach and into the island’s interior.

  “I’ll go first,” Soranna said, then glanced nervously at Alice for approval. “If there’s anything there, I can duck back into the rocks.”

  “Good idea,” Alice said. One of Soranna’s creatures allowed her to become briefly intangible and run through solid objects.

  Soranna grinned, like a dog given a pat on the head, and moved into the crack. A few minutes later she reappeared and waved the others in.

  When she reached the end of the crack, Alice shoved her way out and into a wide, circular space, about the size of a baseball field. The cliff surrounded it on all sides, but another crack in the rock wall was visible directly opposite where they’d come in. In between, the ground was flat and sandy, broken by pillars of weather-worn stone at regular intervals. Soranna waited with her back to one of those pillars, waving frantically.

  A larger pile of rocks stood in the center of the circle. At first, Alice thought it was simply a mound of boulders, but the large round stone at its center swiveled, grinding and puffing dust, until two glassy knobs like eyes were visible. The thing drew itself up, boulders scraping and crunching against one another. It was much larger than the little piles they’d glimpsed from the water, easily four times Alice’s height, and each of its boulders was bigger than she was.

  One of the boulders, at the edge of the pile, began to spin. It moved slowly at first, but picked up speed, until it was a blur of motion. Alice understood what was happening just a moment before the creature let the boulder fall.

  “Take cover!” she shouted. The apprentices scrambled toward the pillars.

  The spinning boulder hit the ground and shot forward as though it had been blasted out of a cannon. It hit the cliff with an ear-splitting crunch and bounded high into the air. Even before it landed, a second boulder shot toward them. This one slammed into the pillar they were taking shelter behind, and Alice felt it shake. Dust sifted down all around them.

  “This isn’t going to hold long!” Michael said, looking up at the pillar.

  “If we split up,” Dex said, “we might be able to get around it—”

  “That sounds like a great way for somebody to get squashed,” Alice said. “Let me handle this.”

  “Wait, Sister Alice!”

  Alice spun out from behind the pillar, feeling Ashes spring from her shoulder. She ran away from the others, and the rock creature rotated to follow her, another boulder spinning faster and faster. Those it had hurled had rejoined the rumbling, crunching pile that was the creature’s body. So we can’t run it out of ammunition. But let’s try this.

  She wrapped the dinosaur’s thread around herself for power, and added the Swarm thread for toughness. Then she skidded to a halt in the open space between two pillars, facing the creature. Its gleaming eyes fixed on her, and it let the boulder fly.

  Alice raised her arms and dug in her heels. If she could stop the boulder, then it wouldn’t return to the creature. She had an image of herself catching it, like a football player. It was only as it came at her, trailing a cloud of flying grit, that she realized the problem with her plan.

  It wasn’t a matter of strength, it was a matter of mass. The boulder had a great deal more of it than Alice did. Spike’s power didn’t help her if she had no way to apply it—she couldn’t push on the boulder once it had torn her from her footing.

  All this went through her mind in the split second before impact. Alice had time to close her eyes.

  This, she thought, is going to hurt.

  She was right, though mercifully it didn’t hurt for very long.

  Alice opened her eyes and saw sunny blue sky, streaked with wisps of shredded clouds. After a moment, Dex’s face came into view, her dark, poofy ponytail eclipsing the sun.

  “Sister Alice?” she said. “How do you feel?”

  “Like something very heavy landed on me,” Alice managed.

  “Drink this.” Dex held out a canteen and poured a stream of water into Alice’s mouth. “None of your bones are broken, I think. Your Swarm is quite amazing, and Sister Soranna has applied her healing salve.”

  One of Soranna’s bound creatures could create a thick cream that quickly healed wounds, Alice recalled. They’d used it in Esau’s fortress.

  “Thanks,” Alice croaked. “Is everyone all right?”

  Dex nodded. “Sister Soranna drew the creature’s attention, while the rest of us retrieved you and retreated. We are back on the beach.”

  Alice could hear Cyan yipping somewhere nearby. She groaned, propped herself on her elbows, and sat up with a good deal of effort. Soranna, Michael, and Flicker sat nearby, watching her. Ashes padded over and rubbed against her shoulder, and she petted him absentmindedly. Her clothes were scraped and torn, but Dex was right; the Swarm had protected her from more serious injury even after she’d been knocked unconscious by the collision.

  “You’re sure you’re all right?” Soranna said anxiously. “That was quite an impact.”

  “I think so,” Alice said. “My head’s a bit fuzzy.”

  “The boulder lifted you and slammed you against the cliff,” Michael said, adjusting his glasses. “I thought we were going to find you smashed flat.”

  “Sister Alice,” Dex said. “You know I have a great deal of respect for you. But there is something I feel I must say.”

  “Hmm?” Alice looked at her blearily. “What’s wrong?”

  “Your behavior on this occasion was, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid.” Dex frowned. “Please think harder about your safety in the future.”

  “Thinking about my safety isn’t what I’m here for,” Alice said. �
�Remember?”

  “Dex is right. There’s risks and there’s risks,” Michael said.

  “No need to badger her,” Soranna said. “Just because it was a little . . . unwise.”

  “It was more than that,” Dex said insistently. “Sister Alice, please. We are here to help you, not to hold you back. You cannot solve every problem on your own.”

  “I . . .” Alice stopped, looking down at her hands. “I wanted to get it over with before anybody got hurt.”

  “We all agreed to this journey,” Flicker said gently. “We all accepted the risk. You don’t have to protect us.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Ashes muttered. “I didn’t agree to anything.”

  “Flicker’s right,” Soranna said, ignoring the cat. “You don’t have to shoulder everything.”

  “But I’m supposed to be the leader here, aren’t I?” Alice said. “That means keeping everyone safe.”

  “It means making the best decisions you can,” Dex said. “That’s not the same thing.”

  Alice nodded slowly. “I . . . I thought I was best suited to deal with it. I’m the strongest of us, I think.”

  “Matching strength against strength is not always a good idea,” Dex said. “Recall the steel giant in Esau’s fortress.”

  Alice remembered the huge steel hand coming down on top of Soranna, hard enough to crack marble. The girl had turned intangible just in time. She swallowed and nodded again.

  “Okay,” she said. “So how are we going to get through?”

  A quarter of an hour later, her head was pounding. She gulped from the canteen.

  “It’s too far just to run for it,” she said. “Even if Soranna can distract the thing, we have no way of knowing if it will stay distracted.”

  “But we don’t have anything that can hurt it,” Michael said. “Not if it’s solid rock.”