‘I—’ she had time to say, before he was on top of her. He grabbed her arms, one in each hand, and her belated attempt to escape barely moved his fingers. When he was satisfied she was caught, he transferred both her wrists to one huge hand, pulling her arms up over her head.

‘I knew my basement was infested with vermin,’ Mr Black said. ‘But this one is a bit larger than the others.’

‘I thought—’ Alice tried again.

‘I bet I know what you thought. You thought, I’m Geryon’s new favourite, let’s go amuse myself at the expense of poor stupid Mr Black, who doesn’t know up from down. Is that what you thought?’

‘No,’ Alice said. ‘I was just—’

She stopped, partly because she couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t tip off Mr Black there was someone else in the room, but mostly because he tugged her wrists upward, forcing Alice to stretch and then to stand on tiptoes.

‘You were “just”,’ Mr Black parroted. ‘I’m sure. And I’m sure you thought, worst comes to worst, what’s Mr Black going to do? Give me a paddling?’ He snarled. ‘If that’s what you think, you don’t know Mr Black.’

He raised her, slowly, until her feet scrabbled at the dusty floor and then kicked helplessly in the air. Dangling like a shot hare from his one-handed grip, she felt her hands going numb, and her shoulders felt like they were about to tear from their sockets. She fumbled in the back of her mind for the thread that led to the Swarm, but every time she almost had it, she caught Mr Black’s eyes and it slipped from her mental grasp.

‘When I tell you what I’m going to do, you’ll piss your drawers,’ Mr Black said. ‘And once we’re done, well, you’d be surprised how hot that furnace can get. Hot enough that when Geryon comes looking, I’ll just give him a little shrug, you see, and there won’t be anything to tell him different. You won’t be the first, not by a long way.’ He gave a savage grin, showing huge teeth, and then exhaled a puff of awful-tasting smoke into Alice’s face. ‘But before that, we’re going to—’

Someone started to sing.

The music filled the room, snatching her out of her sluggish body like the gentle hand of a benevolent god. It went on for aeons, an eternity, and she wanted nothing more than to lie back and glory in it. It suffused her, soaking in through her pores and bursting out again. The whole universe spun around her and danced to that glorious voice.