‘Where are we going?’ Alice had to move quickly to keep the cat in view. The library shelves loomed up on either side, dark and cave-like in the inadequate glow of the candle.

‘To see someone who may able to help you find what you want to know,’ Ashes said. ‘If you’re polite.’

Chapter Seven: Isaac

CHAPTER SEVEN

ISAAC

‘Follow me very closely,’ Ashes said. ‘If we get separated, you’ll never find your way back out again.’

‘Emma taught me a trick for that,’ Alice said, trying to assert a modicum of independence. ‘You just need to follow the glass arrows in the ceiling.’

The cat snorted. ‘You can follow them, all right. Where they’ll lead you is something else entirely.’

They’d been walking for at least a quarter of an hour. Alice had removed her remaining slipper – wearing only one made her walk with a limp – and her feet were now coated with library dust. Ashes never hesitated when he came to an intersection, so she assumed he knew where he was going. But the shelves all looked alike, and she wondered briefly if he was leading her in circles for a laugh. That couldn’t be, though. When she looked behind her, her footprints in the dust were clear even in the dim light of the candle, and the dust ahead of them was always pristine and undisturbed.

Then the character of the library started to change. Instead of neat alleys, the bookshelves stood in tight little groups, enclosing small spaces almost like little rooms. In these interior spaces, Alice glimpsed things that were not bookshelves – statues, suits of armour, even what looked very much like a living tree. There were flashes of movement too, and shadows that were definitely un-feline dancing on the floor.

Ashes’ formerly confident steps took on a decidedly cautious air as they wove through the clusters of shelving. At times he would suddenly stop, tasting the air while his ears twitched, as though listening to a distant noise Alice couldn’t hear. Once, without explanation, he backtracked and led her in a circle, giving wide berth to an apparently empty passage. When she tried to ask why, all she got was a peremptory shush.

By the time they arrived at their destination, Alice felt like she’d walked for miles. Their path had to have been a twisting one, she thought, because the library building simply couldn’t be that large. They’d never even come in sight of one of the outer walls.

Ashes stopped at a particular group of shelves, five heavy wooden things arranged in a pentagon with only slim gaps between them. As they’d penetrated deeper into the library, the books themselves had grown fewer and fewer, and these shelves were entirely empty. Dust lay so thick on them that they seemed to have been there for centuries.

‘All right,’ Ashes said. ‘Wait here. I won’t be long.’

‘But you said—’