Alice found her mouth hanging open for a moment as she realized the sheer depths of Isaac’s stupidity. When he’d said ‘Run!’ she’d assumed that he had some sort of a plan, that he was going to get away from the awful thing himself with one of his bound creatures. Now it dawned on her that he’d had no idea what he was doing, and he’d told her to escape out of some kind of misplaced chivalrous impulse.

‘Idiot, idiot, idiot,’ Alice muttered. If she hadn’t been running, she could have helped. She fought down a flush of shame in her cheeks; from an outsider’s point of view, it would look very much like she’d taken off at the first sign of danger and left him to fend for himself. I assumed he was being sensible. How was I supposed to know he was so stupid?

The creature frog-marched Isaac through the door, and Alice considered her options. She had to rescue him, obviously. It would serve him right if he got his head bitten off, but that wouldn’t get her any closer to the book they’d come to find. And he did help me with Mr Black. But if the creatures were going to eat him – and, judging by the fate of the lizard, they liked their meat raw – she didn’t have much time.

She realized she still had the Swarm thread in her mental grip, which meant that her swarmer was still in place in the pile of kindling. Hurriedly she slipped back into its senses, and saw that all three of the creatures were now clustered excitedly around Isaac, who was backed against their table. The little one was hopping from one foot to the other in excitement, while the purple one leaned over him and ran his long, thin tongue over his teeth.

‘A human,’ he said. ‘A real, live, human. I must say, Mah-Li, you never cease to surprise me.’

‘Serendipity, Sah-To,’ said the green one, who Alice guessed was Mah-Li. ‘He was hiding just outside the cottage. Probably lost, poor thing.’

‘Can’t have been lost for too long,’ said Sah-To. ‘He’s plenty plump.’ He leaned closer.

‘Careful,’ said Mah-Li. ‘He has a little magic.’

‘Even better. It adds to the flavour.’ Sah-To straightened up. ‘You don’t think he’s a Reader, do you?’

‘If he is, he’s a pretty feeble one,’ Mah-Li said.

‘Fair enough. Let’s get him out of that nasty coat.’

Isaac jerked, but Sah-To held his arms securely. Mah-Li pulled his trench coat down from his shoulders with thin, delicate fingers.

‘There’s another one too,’ Sah-To said. ‘She ran away, but she can’t have got far. I’ll track her down when we’re done with this one.’

‘Better and better,’ Mah-Li said. ‘You hear that, Van-Si? We’re going to have a feast.’