He was breathing, and didn’t seem to have been battered too badly about the head, which dispelled the worst of her fears. His long coat had kept his skin mostly intact, though it had been shredded into strips and rags in the process. The only serious injury she could find was a long gash on his shin from a sharp-edged rock, which was bleeding profusely but didn’t seem too deep. The sum total of Alice’s medical knowledge was that blood was supposed to stay on the inside, but she tore a couple of strips from the tattered greatcoat and tied them into a crude bandage. When she pulled this tight, a hiss of pain escaped from Isaac’s lips, followed by a groan.

‘Isaac?’ she said. ‘Can you hear me?’

‘Are we . . .’ He swallowed, and raised his head a fraction. ‘Are we dead yet?’

‘Not yet.’

He treated her to another long string of foreign curses, and took a deep breath. ‘What were you thinking? It’s a miracle you didn’t crack your head open!’

‘It’s only a miracle you didn’t,’ Alice snapped. ‘I have protection. Besides, I didn’t see any alternatives.’

‘Kind of you to warn me.’

‘There wasn’t time.’ She gave the bandage an extra twist, which made him groan again. ‘Next time I’ll just leave you for the Dragon!’

She got to her feet and stalked away, looking for a way out. They were in a small clear space where a pair of boulders had formed a crude arch, but the big stones were irregular enough in shape that there were plenty of spaces to wriggle between, albeit at the risk of losing a little skin. Alice selected the largest of these gaps, a couple of feet off the ground, and started to climb.

‘Wait!’ Isaac said. ‘Where are you going?’

‘Somebody has to get us out of here, doesn’t she?’ Alice said, with more bravado than she felt. ‘You can just wait here.’

‘Don’t be stupid.’ He sat up, wincing. ‘You can’t—’

‘I can’t do it? I’m at least going to try. You’re welcome to sit around under these rocks until you starve.’

‘You can’t go after it by yourself,’ Isaac finished quietly. ‘We should . . . figure something out.’

‘All right,’ Isaac said, after Alice reluctantly backtracked and sat down cross-legged beside him. ‘Talking to it didn’t work, obviously.’

‘It talked to me,’ Alice said. ‘It might calm down if we leave it alone for a while.’

‘It didn’t say anything I could understand,’ Isaac said. ‘Are you sure you’re not just hearing things?’

‘Of course I’m sure. I’m not in the habit of imagining conversations with giant lizards.’

‘All right, all right.’ Isaac paused. ‘What did it say?’

‘Something about its sister. It thinks she sent us to fight it.’