‘Come here.’ It was hard to hear over the sound of the Dragon, so she tugged on his hand as well. Before he could start squirming, Alice wrapped herself around him in a bear hug, gripping her own wrist behind the small of his back, her head alongside his. He smelled musty and old, like the library – probably the coat – and she could feel the trip-hammer beat of his heart pressed against hers.

‘Alice?’ he squeaked, right in her ear. ‘What are you—’

‘Just hold still!’

The Dragon had turned, slewing to a halt in a spray of bouncing boulders and rock fragments, gathering all eight legs underneath itself for a lunge. Alice tightened her grip on Isaac, lifted him an inch off the ground, and took a tottering step backwards over the edge of the boulder.

Chapter Twenty-six: Hunted

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

HUNTED

It wasn’t so much a fall as a descent, caroming off one rock after another. Alice did her best to control it, and to keep her body between Isaac’s unprotected form and unforgiving stone. She caught her head a couple of nasty cracks, which in her Swarm-charged state made it rebound like a tennis ball but produced surprisingly little pain. Sharp edges and spires of rock snatched and cut at her as they fell, and more than once she heard the sound of tearing fabric, but her rubbery skin remained unbroken.

She just had time to wonder if there was solid ground underneath all these rocks before she landed on something broad and flat, rump-first. Isaac sprawled bonelessly in her grip. A small cascade of pebbles and dirt she’d dislodged on her way down showered all around them, raining into Alice’s hair and forcing her to keep her eyes shut.

Far overhead, she could hear the Dragon moving. Rocks shifted and ground against one another, but nothing nearby moved. After a moment, the noises diminished, moving away, and Alice let out a long breath. She released Isaac, letting him slip to the ground beside her, and brushed the dirt from her eyes.

It wasn’t completely dark in the fissure. Enough light filtered through the cracks and crevices up above to provide a shadowy twilight, with an occasional brilliant spot where a lucky beam of sunlight made it the whole way unmolested. Alice gave her eyes a moment to adjust and looked herself over. Her clothes were a mess of rips and tears, but other than that she seemed to be more or less all right. She breathed a silent thanks to the Swarm and the protection its rubber-ball body provided. Then, dreading what she would find, she looked at Isaac.