‘Geryon!’ she said. He could hear her, she was certain. And he’d already spoken once. ‘What do I do?’

‘Kill it,’ Geryon said, inside her skull.

‘What?’ Alice looked down at the creature, pathetic and in pain. ‘I can’t. Not now.’

‘It has not submitted to your will. You must destroy it to escape the prison.’

‘I don’t think it understands.’

‘Whether or not it understands is immaterial,’ Geryon said. He sounded irritated. ‘It is bound, and can choose only submission or destruction.’

‘But I can’t seem to talk to it,’ Alice said. ‘If I could explain things, I wouldn’t have to—’

‘Just because a creature has a human face does not mean it has a human mind,’ Geryon snapped. ‘Submission may be beyond its comprehension. It matters not. Strike.’

‘No,’ Alice said. ‘I’m not going to hurt someone just because it’s more convenient for me!’

‘I do not understand your reluctance,’ Geryon said, getting angry. ‘It is not “someone”. It is not human. What does it matter?’

Alice ignored him. She bent beside the little thing, swarmers shuffling aside to let her through, and put her hand on its shoulder. Its skin was cool to the touch, and smooth as a fresh-grown twig.

‘Listen,’ Alice whispered. ‘I don’t know if you can understand me, but please try. I’m not going to hurt you. Whatever Geryon says, I’m not. But it’s over, you know? You don’t have to fight any more.’

A shudder ran through the huddled thing. Slowly, it began to uncurl, and it turned its head to look up at her. It had a narrow, triangular face, with thin lips and a tiny button nose, but its green eyes were enormous. They flashed and sparkled with a light of their own, like gemstones in the sun, and once again Alice could almost feel what the creature was thinking. Rage, and hatred, and fear, and – satisfaction?

One of the tree-sprite’s hands had scratched out a hole on the dirt, burying itself to the wrist. Between its tiny fingers, Alice could see something pale white and wormlike, twisting and writhing. The very tip of a root.

The willow shuddered back into motion with a thousand creaks and rustles that merged into a triumphant roar. Alice turned in time to see one of the largest branches bend back until it nearly touched the trunk with its tip. It snapped forward like a bow with the tension released, whistling through a wide arc. The end of it caught her in the stomach with the force of a baseball player’s swing, hard enough that it lifted her off the ground entirely and sent her flailing through the air like a tossed rag doll. There was a moment of disorienting flight, and she got a glimpse of the tree trunk looming in front of her, with only time enough to close her eyes and cringe.