The Mad Apprentice

by Django Wexler

“I don’t . . . I didn’t . . .” Jacob took a step closer. “I didn’t want to do it. You can’t make me say I did. I just wanted . . . I didn’t . . .”

  Alice heard a wet, nasty chuckle, right by her ear.

  “Oh, I see,” Torment said. “How sweet.”

  Alice spun, but there was nothing there. She felt a shiver in the fabric of the labyrinth, and then a shiver in the real world, a tiny tremor running through the stone.

  “No!” Jacob boomed. “I will not be deceived.”

  “What?” Isaac looked stunned.

  “It’s Torment,” Alice hissed. “He’s controlling him somehow.”

  “Sister Alice . . .” Dex began hesitantly.

  Jacob turned away and stalked back through the curtain, like a monarch dismissing his court.

  Isaac went to follow, then looked back at the others.

  “What are you waiting for?” he said. “We have to go after him!”

  “Of course we do.” A bit of grit landed on Alice’s cheek, and she brushed it away. “But we can’t afford to just rush into whatever Torment has planned for us.”

  “No,” said Torment’s disembodied voice. “Please, don’t rush. I’m having a wonderful time.”

  “Sister Alice!” Dex said.

  Alice turned. “What?”

  A small stone bounced off her shoulder and clattered on the polished floor. Dex pointed up, wordlessly. Alice looked, up and farther up, until she was staring right into the face of the giant statue. His blank, steel-gray eyes were staring right at her. Then, as she watched, he blinked. The fingers of one gigantic hand flexed, tearing away from the ceiling with the pings of breaking bolts and the crunch of shattered stone. Dust and flakes of rock began to fall in a steady rain.

  The statue closed his hand into a fist the size of a motorcar. He jerked his other hand free. Then the floor began to shudder, and one giant foot lifted a few inches into the air with a screech of overstressed metal.

  The apprentices stared up at the thing as though mesmerized. It was like watching an avalanche, Alice thought. It was so huge, so heavy, it seemed utterly inevitable. All she could think of was the shadow of those enormous feet falling across her, and the unyielding steel surface coming down—

  Soranna proved to be the quickest thinker among them. She managed to open her mouth to scream.

  “Run!”

  Soranna’s shriek shocked them into motion. All at once Alice was running toward the pillars, with the others beside her, as rocks from the ceiling pelted down all around them.

  Behind them, the steel giant wrenched one foot free, and began tugging on the other.

  “Anyone have any idea what that is?” Alice panted. She grabbed instinctively for the Swarm, hardening her skin.

  “Some kind of . . . animating . . . spirit!” Isaac said.

  “Any idea what to do?”

  “Get to the pillars!”

  “Right!”

  Before they reached the line of columns, the giant had his other foot free. His heavy gold bracelets and anklets rattled as he covered half the distance between them in a single enormous step, bulging steel muscles shifting in his exquisitely carved thighs like rippling quicksilver. One huge hand came down, fingers spread.

  Isaac pointed as he ran, and freezing wind blasted directly into the giant’s face. Shards of ice shattered on his sculpted beard, against his cheeks, even directly in his eyes, but they had as little effect as hailstones against armor plating. Isaac, looking over his shoulder for a moment, lost his footing and nearly stumbled, but Dex grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward, just before the giant’s hand came down with a squeal of metal on stone.

  The apprentices ran into the narrow gallery between the columns and the wall. Moments later, the giant collided with the columns like an animal throwing itself against the bars of a cage. He thrust his hand into the gap between two pillars, trying to reach them, but his bulging musculature was too thick and the arm stuck fast. Huge fingers scrabbled just over Alice’s head, clanging like bells whenever they bashed against each other.

  It was too loud even to shout, but Alice pointed up the row of columns, and they kept running. The giant tugged, but his arm was trapped. Clenching his other hand into a fist, he swung a roundhouse punch at the stone barrier. Metal met rock as though a bomb had gone off, and the pillar vanished in a spreading cloud of pulverized stone.

  The giant grabbed the next pillar around the middle, tearing it clean away from floor and ceiling with horrible splintery crunches. Tossing the remains over his shoulder, he reached out for another.

  “Now what?” Isaac said. The giant was between them and a dash for either the stairs or the front door, and the line of pillars was rapidly being reduced to rubble.

  “I don’t know,” Alice said, trying to think. He’s made of steel. The Swarmers’ beaks would hardly be able to make an impression, and the statue was so heavy she didn’t think even Spike’s strength could topple it. I’m out of acorns, and there’s nothing here for the tree-sprite to work with. The thing could crush rock in his bare hands—even if they somehow managed to collapse the ceiling on him, she was unpleasantly certain he would be able to dig his way out. There has to be something I can do! She tried tugging at the Dragon’s thread, in desperation, but the creature seemed no more inclined to help now than before, and they couldn’t get to the doorway to escape by a fold in the fabric—

  “He is approaching rapidly,” Dex said. She held a silver sword in each hand.

  “I can see that!” Alice snapped.

  “If we scatter,” Dex said calmly, “perhaps only one of us will be squashed. The others might escape.”

  “We have to be able to come up with something better than that,” Isaac said.

  There were only three pillars left between them and the giant. Alice expected to see him grinning in anticipation, but the sculpted face never changed its expression.

  “There has to be something,” Alice said. “I just need time to think—”

  “I’ll draw him away,” Soranna said.

  Alice stared at her.

  “Sister Soranna,” Dex said. “Are you certain—”

  “My master created me to support my partner.” She looked up at the giant as he tore away another column. “I’ll try to keep his attention as long as I can.”

  “Soranna—” Alice said.

  “Don’t argue!”

  “I won’t.” Alice grabbed her shoulder. “Keep him busy, and we’ll think of something.”

  Soranna nodded. As the giant ripped away the second-to-last pillar, she darted out, running between the chunks of falling rock and passing just in front of the huge statue’s toes. The giant turned to follow, letting the ruined pillar fall and catching up to the madly scrambling girl in a single stride. He brought his hand down on her in an open-palmed slap, like a man swatting a fly, and the impact resounding through the floor lifted Alice briefly off her feet and shook more dust and chips of rock from the ceiling.

  Soranna was gone, and for a long moment Alice couldn’t breathe. Dear God. There’d be nothing left but paste . . .

  Then the girl appeared again, stepping directly out of one of the giant’s outstretched fingers and taking off in a different direction. With a metallic screech, the statue moved to follow, turning his back on Alice and the others. Alice let her breath out with a whoosh.

  “Over to the other side!” she hissed. “Hurry!”

  The opposite wall was protected by its own row of pillars, as yet untouched. Alice stumbled into their shadow with Isaac and Dex close on her heels. Across the room, roiling clouds of rock-dust obscured everything except for the giant’s head, but his frantic thrashing indicated that Soranna was still leading him on a wild chase.

  “She can’t keep it up,” Alice muttered. “If she misses the timing even once—”

 
“She is very brave,” Dex said.

  “We could make it up the stairs.” Isaac eyed the big staircase with the curtained doorway at the top. “There’s no way that thing would be able to follow us.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Alice said. “We have to help her!”

  “How? I don’t think anything we have will be any good against that.”

  “We didn’t have anything that would work against the Dragon,” Alice said, not caring if Dex overheard. “I wasn’t about to give up then either.”

  “But there’s nothing here. No trees, no water. Just rocks!”

  “I know!” Alice furrowed her brow. Think, think, think. A ringing crash came from the other side of the room as the giant slammed against the wall. “You said it was an animating spirit. What does that mean?”

  “It means he’s not a giant steel monster,” Isaac said. “He’s a real statue, but he’s possessed by some kind of incorporeal creature.”

  “How do we kill it?”

  “I have no idea. But damaging the statue isn’t going to do it, and I don’t think the Siren will help either.”

  “If damaging the statue doesn’t help, what can we do?”

  Dex cleared her throat. “While Brother Isaac is correct that we may not be able to kill him by damaging the external shell, that doesn’t mean it will not help. He would be very little threat if we could tear him to pieces.”

  “Right,” Alice said. “Right. He’s made of solid steel. How can we damage it?”

  “I doubt my swords would make much of an impression,” Dex said. She looked at Isaac.

  He shifted uncomfortably. “The salamander might be able to melt through. If I summon it, it only gets as hot as a cook-fire, but when I use the power myself I can make it much hotter.” He shook his head. “But it only works by touch. If I try to get close enough to touch that thing, it’ll mash me to jam!”

  “I don’t think he’s very bright,” Alice said. “The way he came after us . . . I have an idea. Dex, I’m going to need your help . . .”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  ALICE AND GOLIATH

  “SORANNA!” ALICE STOOD WITH her hands cupped to her mouth, trying to make herself heard over the rumble of falling stone and the huge booms of the giant’s footsteps. “Soranna! Over here, quick!”

  For a moment Alice thought the statue had finally caught up to the girl. Then Soranna appeared out of the cloud of dust, moving at a clumsy jog. There was blood on her arm, and she looked tired and in pain. Alice waved her closer, and Soranna broke into a desperate sprint.

  Behind her, the giant had heard Alice’s shouts. His blank eyes turned toward the two girls in the middle of the room. A single step brought him close enough to swing a hand down toward them, and Alice ran for it alongside Soranna. The great steel fist slammed into the floor just behind them, sending cracks spidering outward through the stone floor.

  “Over there!” Alice shouted in Soranna’s ear. “Run to the pillars and hide. I’ll take it from here!”

  “But—”

  “Just go!”

  Soranna darted for the temporary safety of the line of pillars where Alice, Dex, and Isaac had taken shelter. Alice herself remained in the open, running back toward the door to the outside. The giant followed, but Alice had eyes only for Dex, who was pressed against the wall by the stairs. Dex waved wildly to Alice, who nodded and changed direction. The statue swung after her, back toward the other side of the hall with its fractured, broken columns.

  Halfway there, Alice skidded to a halt. She could see Dex running back to where Isaac and Soranna were hiding. Something trailed behind her, a thin line of silver light almost invisible in the dust, and Alice traced it back to where it wrapped around the statue’s ankle. She needs more time. If he takes another step now, he’ll just drag her behind him. Alice swallowed hard as the giant loomed above her. I hoped I wouldn’t have to try this . . .

  The statue raised one fist and brought it whistling down. Alice, judging the timing as best she could, yanked hard on the Swarm thread as the huge mass of metal descended, and felt the now-familiar moment of disorientation as her body dissolved into a bouncing pile of swarmers. They scampered away from where she’d been standing as fast as their legs could carry them, opening out from the oncoming fist like an exploding dandelion puff.

  One of them didn’t make it—its legs were tangled in the laces of Alice’s boots, which remained upright where she’d been standing. Why do my shoes always stay behind? Before she could get the swarmer free, the giant’s fist slammed down with enough force to crack the stone floor. Boots and swarmer together were mashed flat, and Alice felt a stab of pain as the little creature died. The rest of the Swarm/girl flowed around the giant’s hand and reconstituted itself into Alice’s body, now barefoot, standing in front of the broken columns just out of the statue’s reach.

  Dex had made it. Alice saw her between the giant’s legs, running around and around the pillars on the other side of the room. Looking up at the giant, Alice put on her cockiest grin and spread her arms.

  “Come on!” she shouted. She had no idea if he understood or not, but it couldn’t hurt. “You big ugly thing, here I am!”

  The statue took a step forward, or tried to. A nearly invisible line of moonlight-stuff ran from the columns at the other end of the room, around the giant’s ankle where Dex had left it, and then back to the pillars. For a moment Alice thought that even this wouldn’t be enough, that the giant was so strong he would tear all the columns apart, or else that Dex’s moonlight strand would break after all. Dex had assured her it was practically indestructible, but . . .

  Then the giant leaned forward. His right foot was in the air, straining against the fine threads but unable to move forward, and his balance was gone. Slowly at first, but with the awful force of a toppling mountain, the enormous statue started to fall.

  Alice danced backward as he came down, arms out to catch himself on his palms. The weight of the impact drove the statue’s hands into the floor in an explosion of flying rock chips and dust, and Alice ducked behind a severed pillar to shield herself. Then, leaning out, she shouted, “Now, Isaac!”

  Isaac was already running toward the giant, his hands glowing red with the power of the salamander. He reached the huge thing’s foot, and paused a moment in concentration. The light from his hands went from red to yellow, then to a furious blue white that shone so brightly it made her eyes water. Through the streaming tears, she saw Isaac plunge his hands against the steel of the giant’s ankle, which shifted like wax under a hot knife and began to glow with a dull red light of its own. Isaac tore at it, pulling out huge handfuls of molten stuff and flinging them aside. In a few moments he had torn the statue’s foot completely away from the leg, and he hurried over to administer the same treatment to the other.

  Hurry! Between the scream of metal on stone and the crack and zing of fragments, Isaac would never hear her, but she willed him to work faster. The giant was pushing himself up, drawing his leg underneath him. Isaac had only gotten halfway through his other ankle when the statue pulled it away from him, leaving him in the middle of a circle of smoking, molten metal. The giant struggled to get his remaining foot underneath him, rising to a crouch—

  And, with a metallic crack like a cannon shot, the weakened ankle snapped under the strain of the statue’s immense weight. The huge thing toppled sideways, hands flailing wildly, and crashed amidst the ruins of the pillars. Alice jogged well clear of its reach, to the base of the stairs, and beckoned the others to join her. Isaac was still surrounded by shimmering waves of heat, and Dex lent her arm to Soranna, who was limping.

  “I don’t think he’s going anywhere now,” Alice said, raising her voice to be heard over the clatter as the giant tried to rise again, only to be thwarted by his maimed legs.

  “Are you all right?” Isaac said. He shook his hands, spattering the gro
und at his feet with molten metal, and then stepped carefully aside before letting the salamander’s power fade away.

  “More or less.” The pain of the swarmer’s death was fading from Alice’s chest, but slowly. “What about you, Soranna?”

  “She was cut by flying rock,” Dex said. “It needs bandaging.”

  “Okay.” Alice looked at the giant, who was scrabbling mindlessly at the floor in an effort to right himself. “Let’s get going.”

  Alice led the way through the curtained doorway, where they found a long corridor of polished stone. They passed a few doorways leading to other corridors, all dark and silent, before Alice caught the scent of growing things and heard the burble of water from up ahead.

  She ducked into the next doorway and found herself in a garden. It was a small room, with black, glassy walls, full of stone planters housing shrubs, flowers, and a central tree so tall its crown scraped the ceiling.

  Alice leaned out and beckoned the others. “In here.”

  A small fountain in one corner fed a wide, shallow pool. Dex helped Soranna to a seat on the side of one of the planters and started examining her leg. She emptied her canteen over the scratches, then underhanded it across the room to Alice, who snatched it out of the air.

  “Think the water’s good to drink?” Alice said to Isaac.

  “Who knows?”

  “Well, if I turn into a frog, you’ll know to be careful.” She frowned, looking around the room. There was only one doorway. “Speaking of which, let’s not get trapped in here.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out.” Isaac headed back to the doorway, while Alice went over to the fountain.

  She cupped her hands and lifted a mouthful of the water, sipping cautiously. It tasted faintly of stone and dust, but seemed safe enough. She waited a few moments for any magical transformations to make themselves felt, and when nothing happened she went ahead and dipped the canteen, watching the bubbles glug up from inside.

  Alice nearly dropped it when a familiar nasty, wet chuckle sounded in her ear. She looked over her shoulder, expecting to find the huge black wolf looming over her, but there was nothing there. When she looked back to the water, though, she could see two blue lights shimmering on the rippling surface, like the reflections of a pair of ice-blue eyes.