Lena grinned. “Librarians: now in convenient travel size.” She downed her own potion, and soon stood level with me once more. “So you don’t think someone’s going to notice a pair of animated Barbie dolls scampering over the debris?”

“We’re not done yet.” I flipped to chapter four of the book. As I performed yet another act of magic, a distant whisper raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

“Tut, tut, child! Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”

“What’s wrong?” Lena raised her bokken, each one now roughly the size of a toothpick.

“Nothing. I’m fine.” I pulled out a small cake, doing my best to block out the voices.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people.”

I closed the book and jammed it back into my pocket.

“You’re sweating,” said Lena.

The first line had come from the Duchess. The second was Alice herself. Alice in Wonderland tended to sneak into your head faster than most books. I had a theory that the surreal, at times psychedelic nature of the story thinned the boundaries between reality and fantasy, lending itself to libriomancy. But the same ease with which I reached into Wonderland made it that much simpler for Wonderland to whisper back.

I slowed my breathing and focused on my surroundings: the foul smell of human waste, the mechanical pounding of the equipment outside, the crease in Lena’s brow as she watched me. The more I anchored myself in this world, the easier it became to shut out those voices . . . for now.

“I’m all right,” I said quietly. “Here, have some cake.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing serious, as long as I’m careful.”

“You’re doomed,” she said. Her tone was playful, but worry wrinkled her brow and the corners of her eyes.

I ripped the cake in half, stuffing part into my mouth. Every bite shrank me further. I kept eating until I was roughly two inches high.

“Not bad,” said Lena as she ate. “I’m more of a cheesecake girl, myself.”

Smudge crawled down to the floor and studied us, his eight dark eyes taking in our newly diminished size. We were all roughly the same height now, but Smudge significantly outmassed us.

Lena peeked out the door. “Making our way through all that is going to take time.”

I grimaced. “It would if we were walking.”

Lena looked from me to Smudge and back again. “You’re joking.”