‘You turned up in my kitchen,’ Alice said. ‘Four days later, my father was dead.’

‘I didn’t have anything to do with that!’ Vespidian protested. ‘I was only delivering a message.’

‘A message for who? Who are you working for, and where can I find them?’

‘I can’t tell you that,’ he said, sounding offended. ‘Do you have any idea what he’d do to me?’

‘Fair enough.’ Alice stepped forward.

There was a copper band hanging loosely around Vespidian’s left ankle. It looked out of place, and Mr Black had confirmed her suspicion. This was the charm that gave him the run of the library, protecting him from Ending’s near-omniscient oversight. His eyes stayed fixed on Alice and she put her hand up and grabbed it.

‘Wait,’ he said. ‘What are you doing? That’s nothing important, I don’t know what you—’

Alice pulled the charm free. It was a tawdry little thing, just a ring of beaten copper with some words inscribed on the inner face. But Vespidian’s eyes instantly went wide with panic.

‘Give that back.’ His voice had gone high and shrill. ‘Please. Put it back on.’

‘Answer my questions.’

‘I can’t! You don’t know—’

‘You’re right. I don’t know what your master will do to you.’ Alice tapped the copper band against her palm. ‘I don’t know what Ending will do to you, either. Which do you think would be worse?’

‘I don’t . . . You don’t know what you’re doing. Please.’

‘Tell me.’

The fairy’s mouth worked silently for a moment, then words burst out of him like a dam breaking. ‘Esau! My master is Esau-of-the-Waters.’

‘What did he want with me and my father?’

‘To take you as his apprentice, the same as Geryon. We knew the others were watching you, so we couldn’t just snatch you. I tried to persuade your father to give you up.’

‘There has to be more to it than that. Father went off to try and protect me, somehow. What happened to him? What happened to the Gideon?’

‘I don’t know!’ the fairy wailed. ‘All I did was make the offer!’

‘Who would know?’

‘Only the master would know for certain.’ Vespidian strained against the vines. ‘Please, put it back on. It’s not too late . . .’

‘Oh, yessss.’ Ending’s voice rumbled around the tiny forest. ‘It’s far too late.’

She moved through the underbrush like a living shadow, black fur rippling momentarily in the light from Alice’s lantern before slipping back into darkness. Only her eyes were always visible, yellow and shining.

‘I’m sorry!’ Vespidian yelled. ‘That’s all I know! Please, girl, let me go—’

Alice willed the vines to release their grip. Vespidian wriggled free and buzzed into the air, zipping around the tree and away from Ending, gibbering madly all the while. He found a gap between bookshelves, pressed himself into it, and was gone.