‘Splendid.’ Geryon stepped aside and waved her in, shutting the door behind her. ‘I’m sorry I had to treat you so roughly. Finding an agent of one of my enemies in my own library was a considerable shock to me, as you might imagine.’

‘Your enemies, sir?’ Alice said. ‘I thought you said Anaxomander was a friend.’

He chuckled. ‘I’m afraid that when you reach my age, child, the line between friends and foes becomes a little blurred. I have no quarrel with Anaxomander at the moment, certainly, but that doesn’t mean he would hesitate to strike me should the opportunity present itself and he saw a profit in it. That’s the way of things, with Readers. The only path to true friendship is endless vigilance.’

‘I see.’ Alice hesitated. She was strongly tempted to tell what she knew about Mr Black, regardless of Ashes’ warning, but she managed to hold back. I can always tell him later. Instead she said, ‘What about Isaac?’

‘The boy? What about him?’

‘What will happen to him?’

‘Oh, I’ll send him home eventually. His master and I will work out some sort of bargain.’ Geryon’s face darkened momentarily. ‘Not before he tells me how he got into my library, of course.’

Alice swallowed. ‘And . . . me?’

‘You?’ Geryon pointed to the door to his sitting room, where two armchairs sat facing each other beside a hearth. There was a rich, warm scent of leather and old wood that reminded her of her father’s office back in New York. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re not upset with me?’

‘Oh! No, of course not.’ He gestured for her to sit, and took the opposite chair himself. ‘You couldn’t have known what the boy was up to. I imagine he spun you some fantastic story. Consider it a lesson – being a Reader means learning whom to trust, and unfortunately the answer is often “no one”. No, as a matter of fact, you are progressing more quickly than I anticipated!’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Alice said carefully.

‘That’s why I’ve called you here today,’ Geryon said. ‘The time has come for your second trial.’

‘Trial?’ Alice hesitated. ‘I thought you said I hadn’t done anything wrong.’

‘Trial as in task or labour,’ Geryon said. ‘For a Reader, it means entering a prison-book and binding the creature within it to your will. You have succeeded at the first trial, with the Swarm, and the first is always the most dangerous for a new Reader. Now, with that power behind you, you will confront another. And eventually a third, and so on, until your power is sufficient to bind anything you wish.’

‘Oh.’ Alice looked around the study. ‘Now?’