“I thought you had chosen your path,” the Dragon said, “and you had picked Ending. If I tried to turn you from it, I would be no better than she was.” It paused. “In truth, I was afraid. I did not know the right thing to do, and so I did nothing. But I did not know that Ending planned to imprison you, as well. If I had . . .”
“I believe you,” Alice said.
“I am sorry,” the Dragon said. “My kind have treated you poorly.”
“You’re willing for me to try to let you out?” Alice said. “We could use your help. But . . . there’s a chance it could go badly.”
“Please,” the Dragon said. “I will take the risk. The time for inaction is over.”
“All right.”
Alice let out a long breath and let go of the black thread. She looked up at Isaac, who was staring at her as though seeing her for the first time.
Now he knows I’m not human. She’d wanted to tell him earlier, but her courage had faltered. I’m the same kind of creature as Ending or Decay. A maze-demon.
He blinked, and cleared his throat. “How long do you think it will take?”
“What?” Alice said.
He gestured down at the book.
“Oh. Not long, I think.”
“And then what? You have a plan?”
She nodded. “An idea, at least.”
His expression was guarded. Alice couldn’t tell if it was disgust she saw there, or pity. She swallowed hard.
“Then let’s get started,” she said.
Alice spent a long time drifting among the threads of the prison-book before she finally touched one of them.
As she’d planned, she applied her power only to the relatively simple part of the spell that actually imprisoned the Dragon. The key was breaking the prisoner out without setting up a catastrophic failure of the spell that would send everything in it tumbling into nothingness. It looked straightforward, but it was more complex than any Writing that Alice had attempted.
Bit by bit, strand by strand, she worked the threads of the prison loose from around the Dragon. It was like untying a very, very complicated knot of spiderwebs without ripping any of the pieces, or trying to get an egg out of its shell without breaking it, and if she failed, the Dragon could disappear forever.
All at once, without any fanfare, she succeeded. The essence of the Dragon, freed of the encumbering net of magic, popped free, and Alice hastily took hold of it and guided it back to reality with her. Even before she opened her eyes, she could feel its presence, a monstrous shape blocking out the light.
It had been a long time since she had seen the Dragon in the flesh. It took up most of the little island, curved around where Alice and Isaac sat, and even so its tail stretched out over the water. White scales reflected the glow of distant fires. It had eight legs spaced along its sinuous, reptilian body, and three eyes on either side of its massive head, shiny black hemispheres that belonged on an insect. Long fangs jutted from either side of its jaw.
In spite of all that—in spite of everything—Alice had never been happier to see an enormous monster. She got to her feet, her limbs aching from spending too long in concentration on the spell, and ran to wrap her arms around the nearest leg. The Dragon’s tail curved across her shoulders, a warm, dry weight, as it had once comforted her in Torment’s treasure room.
Isaac, who hadn’t seen the huge creature since he’d fought it in the prison-book, was standing up very straight. Ashes hid behind his legs, only the tip of his tail peeking out.
“Thank you,” the Dragon said. It was strange for Alice to hear that bass voice through her ears, as ordinary sound, instead of ringing in her mind. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d left me in there, you know.”
“I would have blamed myself,” Alice said. “Besides, like I said, we need your help.”
“With what?” Isaac said. “We’re just going to go through and destroy the Binding, aren’t we?”
“Ending will be waiting,” Alice said. “Decay will have told her that I’ve escaped. She knows what I’ll be trying to do.”
“You think she’s there?” Ashes poked his head out, nodding at the wild portal. “Ready for us?”
Alice nodded. “She’ll try to imprison me again.”
“Then what can we do?” The cat’s fur bristled. “You can’t fight her, Alice. You know that, don’t you? Labyrinthine or not. She’s much stronger than Decay. You remember how she managed to hold off all the others put together when they were attacking Geryon’s library.”
“I know,” Alice said. She turned to the Dragon. “If we go into the Grand Labyrinth, you can open a path to any other labyrinth, can’t you? The way Ending followed me and Ashes.”
The great head nodded. “Unless there is a labyrinthine on the other side trying to keep me out. Then it would be very difficult.”
“All right.” Alice took a long breath and laid out her plan. The boy, the cat, and the Dragon all stared.
“It’s a great risk,” the Dragon said.
“Ending will be distracted,” Alice said. “I’m the one at the center of all her plans. If I’m there, she’ll be focused on me. Isaac, you need to keep your head down and stay out of it. Remember, she won’t kill me. She needs me to keep the Binding going.”
“Remember what Decay told you,” Isaac said. “Just because she won’t kill you doesn’t mean she can’t hurt you.”
“I’ll be careful,” Alice promised. “Ashes, you go with the Dragon.”
“What?” Ashes looked up at the enormous labyrinthine, his ears flattening. “Why?”
“The people back at Geryon’s estate know you. If the Dragon turns up alone, it’ll take them too long to listen. You have to make them understand.”
Ashes sighed. “Very well. If I’m once again to save the day.”
“I know I can count on you.” She looked at Isaac, again trying to read his expression, but his face was closed. “All of you.”
“Of course,” Isaac said. The Dragon rumbled agreement.
“Okay, then.” Alice turned to look at the wavering, shimmering portal, and swallowed. “No percentage in hanging about.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
RETURN TO THE GRAND LABYRINTH
AFTER THE USUAL MOMENT of dislocation, stepping through the portal brought them into a secluded cove, the curtain of light hanging above the beach of the Binding island. Tall cliffs stood behind them, and a little way along, a crude stairway led up to the center of the island. There was, Alice was glad to note, no sign of a black slab like the one Reaper had used. This is going to be bad enough as it is.
“Go,” she told the Dragon. “Quickly. Ending will feel us soon.”
She’d explained what she wanted them to do. Both the Dragon and Ashes seemed dubious, but neither had voiced any objections. Now the tiny gray cat perched, absurdly, on the back of the enormous white monster, clinging between the twin rows of spines that ran down the Dragon’s back.
“We will come as soon as we can,” the Dragon said.
“Riding to the rescue,” Ashes said, clearly getting into his role. “Come! Onward, mighty steed!”
Alice felt the fabric of the labyrinth warp around her, and the two of them were gone. She and Isaac were left alone on the beach.
Isaac turned to the stairs. Alice followed his gaze, and sighed.
“When this is over,” she said, “I’m not walking anywhere for a week.”
“A month,” Isaac amended. “I’m going to lie in bed and make Ashes fetch my meals.”
“I’m going to take two baths every day, just because I can,” Alice said. “With extra bubbles.”
“And I’m going to rub it in with Dex and Michael and Soranna that they missed out,” Isaac said, looking slyly at Alice. “We’ll have to invent a few extra adventures, obviously.”
“Obviously.�
�� She gave him a weak smile. “But first we have to climb these stairs.”
She was tired, Alice realized as they hiked up to the island’s central plateau. There was a soreness in her muscles, but it was more than that. Some reserve, deep inside her, was on the verge of exhaustion. Only a little farther, she told herself. This is the end, one way or another.
Alice kept an eye out for hooded shadows at the top of the cliff, but there was only a narrow path leading inland over rocky ground. Isaac stayed behind her, hands in the pockets of his coat, silent. In the privacy of her own mind, Alice could admit it would have been nice to hold his hand, one more time. Would he even want to hold hands with a labyrinthine, though? She shoved the whole squirming mess of feelings down into her stomach. It’s not going to matter.
There was the ring of boulders, just as she remembered it, each bearing a book leading to the fortress of a now-imprisoned Reader. In the very center was the standing stone, the characters of the Great Binding inscribed deep into the rock. Nothing moved, and Alice felt Isaac take hold of his threads.
“Maybe she’s not as smart as you thought,” he whispered. “Maybe she didn’t realize you were coming here.”
“She’s here,” Alice said wearily. “She just has a flair for the dramatic.” She raised her voice. “You might as well come out, you know!”
“Spoilsport.” Ending’s voice was a soft, velvety purr.
The standing stone wasn’t big enough to conceal her, but she emerged from behind it nonetheless, slinking out of its shadow like it was a gateway to another place. Which it was, of course. Here in the center of the Grand Labyrinth, space was hardly an inconvenience for a labyrinthine. Her smooth, black fur rippled like dark oil as she moved, muscles bunching underneath. Huge yellow eyes like lamplights stared back at Alice, and her yawn showed long, ivory fangs.
“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” Ending said. “But you didn’t disappoint me. You never have, really.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Alice said. “Every other labyrinthine is an enormous version of the animal it was made from, isn’t it? So why aren’t I fifteen feet tall with six eyes?”
Ending laughed, loud and genuine. “That would have made you awfully hard to pass off as ordinary,” she said. “We did our best to restrain the expression of our mother’s physiology.” She paused. “You’ve figured out everything, then?”
“More or less.”
“I thought you might have,” Ending said. “Of course she helped you escape. I should have anticipated that. She is, after all, the First Labyrinthine, and is not to be underestimated. And nor are you, it seems.”
“I do my best.” Alice flicked a glance at Isaac, who had broken away and taken shelter behind one of the boulders. Good. She stepped forward.
“Why go and bother poor Decay?” Ending said. “He’s never been the brightest among us.”
“We had to get away from you,” Alice said with a shrug, not mentioning the Dragon. “It seemed as good a place as any.”
“Don’t think I don’t see your friend hiding there,” Ending said. “If he behaves himself, I’ll take him home with me when we’re done.”
Alice took another step forward, saying nothing.
“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Ending said, moving forward herself. “You knew I would be here, waiting for you. So why come at all? Why not hide? It would at least delay the inevitable.”
Alice gave a wordless shrug.
“Surely you don’t imagine you can defeat me,” Ending purred. “You’re smarter than that.”
Another shrug.
“Sometimes,” Alice said, “all you can do is try.”
The two of them lashed out at the same instant.
Their first conflict was invisible, fought in the fabric of the labyrinth.
Alice threw all of her newfound strength against Ending, trying to twist space to move the labyrinthine away from the Binding stone. Ending, surprised by the onslaught, gave ground at first, and Alice saw the air shimmer. But it soon became clear which of them was stronger. Ashes had been right—Ending was nothing like Decay. Their power collided in waves, strange geometries rippling outward as the fabric of the labyrinth bunched and contorted. But Ending pressed the world flat again, in spite of every effort of Alice’s to fold it, as easily as a grown man overwhelming a child.
All right, Alice thought, already sweating. Something else, then.
She reached for her threads. The Dragon’s obsidian thread was gone now that it was free, an absence that felt as though she’d cut something out of herself, but she ignored that and reached for Spike’s thread instead. She wrapped it around herself tight, feeling her body thicken and change, and started her run forward as soon as all four feet touched the ground. Alice lowered her head, quadruple spikes aimed directly at Ending.
The big cat didn’t stand to receive the charge. Instead she pounced, vaulting lithely over Alice’s horns and landing on her broad, scaled back. The impact pushed Alice off balance, and she staggered sideways a moment and then fell. The big cat lunged for the dinosaur’s throat, fangs spread wide.
Not yet, Alice thought. I’m not finished yet.
She let go of Spike’s thread and grabbed the Swarm’s. Her dinosaur-body exploded, fanning out into a hundred tiny swarmers, quirking and bouncing as they ran in all directions. Ending’s teeth snapped closed on one, and pain shot through Alice as its life was snuffed out. The huge cat pounced on another, trapping it under one front paw. The swarmer struggled, quirking madly, but the labyrinthine increased the pressure steadily until the little creature was squashed and broken against the rocky ground. Alice felt another stab of pain, and hurriedly brought the swarmers back together, across the ring of boulders.
“Must we play this out?” Ending said, padding forward. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Just lock me away forever,” Alice said as she regained her human form.
“A fate you were more than happy to inflict on Geryon,” Ending said, her lips drawing back from long fangs. “Besides, I have a new prison prepared for you. It will be just like going to sleep. You won’t even know what’s happened.”
“And then everyone in the world becomes your toys?”
“That’s the idea, yes,” Ending said.
Alice took a deep breath and wrapped Spike’s thread around herself. She wrapped her arms around the boulder next to her, as far as they would go, and dug her fingers into the bare rock. With a crunching, grinding sound, it shifted, raining dust and small pebbles as she lifted it over her head. Even with Spike’s strength, the effort made her arms tremble, but she managed to take one knee-wobbling step forward and hurl the giant rock directly at Ending.
The huge cat reared up, paws flashing. She hit the boulder with both paws in midair, and Alice’s spirits dropped as the stone was batted away as easily as a stuffed toy. It crashed to the earth, shattering with a crunch, and Ending dropped back to all fours and continued her advance.
“Everything you talked about,” Alice said, backpedaling to the next boulder. “Wanting a partner. All of that was a lie?”
“Of course,” Ending said. “We labyrinthine are at the pinnacle of the world by rights. What would I need with a partner?”
“But—”
“This is getting tiresome.”
Ending bounded forward with shocking speed, a sudden pounce bringing her on top of Alice between blinks. Alice found herself pinned against the rock, one of Ending’s enormous paws resting on her chest with just enough pressure to keep Alice in place.
“You lose,” Ending hissed, her yellow eyes glowing bright.
“I know,” Alice said, struggling to breathe.
The yellow eyes narrowed. “Then why are you smiling?”
“Alice!” Isaac’s shout rang across the ring of boulders, and Alice’s heart lurch
ed.
No! You brave idiot!
“Oh dear,” Ending said. “I hope that isn’t your hope for rescue.”
“No,” Alice said. “This is between us. Leave him out of it.”
“Interesting.” Ending turned her head. “He doesn’t seem to want to give me a choice. Stay put, would you?”
Ending contorted the labyrinth in a way Alice had never seen before. It clung to her wrists and ankles, tiny folds of space that bound her in place, giving her the strong sense that if she tried to pull herself free, she’d tear off her own hands and feet.
“Let her go!” Isaac shouted, charging across the circle.
“This should be entertaining,” Ending purred. “Hit me with your best shot, boy.”
Isaac was already pulling on his threads. Frost shot out from his feet as ice formed in the air around him, blasted directly into Ending’s face by hurricane-force winds. Her fur went from black to gray as snow began to cling to her, and she squinted into the storm. A moment later there was a bright light, which Alice recognized as Isaac’s salamander, and then a blast of scalding-hot steam washed over her and Ending. Alice hurriedly wrapped herself in the Swarm thread to toughen her skin.
Inside the swirling mist, Ending was barely visible, a dark shape turning slowly and emitting a rising growl. Off to the right, light flared again, and a wave of fire washed over the labyrinthine. Ending spun back, snarling, and lashed out with one paw, but Isaac had faded back into the mist. Another blast of flame came from the other direction. Ending’s fur was starting to smoke.
“Clever,” the labyrinthine growled. “I have to admit.” Her tail lashed. “But I don’t need to see you . . .”
The yellow eyes closed. Alice felt Ending’s touch on the fabric of the labyrinth, and realized what was happening a moment too late—the labyrinthine could sense Isaac that way, even if her vision was clouded. She opened her mouth to shout a warning just as Ending pounced. Alice heard a cry, abruptly cut off, and a thud.
She threw her powers against the bonds holding her, unraveling the twisted space that Ending had wrapped her in. It gave way, but frustratingly slowly. By the time she had her arms free, the cloud of steam was dissipating, and Ending’s dark shape was fully visible, slinking back toward her with something dangling from her mouth.
The Fall of the Readers Page 19
