Alice didn’t intend to give them the chance to regain their courage. Spike was still fighting beside Isaac, but she unwrapped the Swarm from her own body and summoned as many swarmers as she could. Black balls of fur popped into existence around her and tumbled to the ground like fuzzy hailstones, bouncing a few times before righting themselves and gathering into a single, amorphous mass of sharp-beaked bodies. At her command, they flowed toward the pack of wolves from behind, launching themselves at the legs and ankles of the beasts like tiny lancers. Wolves howled and shrieked, and the swarmers’ tongues darted out to lick up the blood from their wounds.

From behind her, she heard a whoomph like a gaslight igniting, and she felt a sudden wash of heat. She turned to find a vaguely humanoid figure made of a mass of living flame standing between Isaac and the wolves. The salamander reached out a hand and stroked one of the beasts on the flank, and it burst into flames as though it had been soaked in gasoline.

But more wolves were coming, drifting silently through the alleys between the statues. Alice sent Spike charging at one that poked its head out, forcing it to duck quickly back between the stone soldiers.

“Isaac!” Alice shouted. “Back up! We need to make a circle!”

Isaac had his arms spread wide, raining ice down on one pack of wolves while his salamander chased another back, but he looked over his shoulder and gave a quick nod. He started to back up, and Alice had Spike charge the wolves between her and Dex, clearing a brief path through the mass of beasts. Soranna stood back-to-back with Dex, a long spear made of Dex’s moon-stuff in her hands, while Dex herself had changed completely. Alice guessed she’d transformed into the caryatid—she looked like a statue, with dark granite skin, silver armor to match her twin swords, and eyes that blazed with light. The wolves kept trying to circle around her blades, but she lashed out whenever they came in range, and several already bore big, ugly cuts.

“Coming up behind you, Dex!” Alice said, not wanting to sneak up on the girl and get a sword in the face for her trouble. She followed her dinosaur, deploying the Swarm to push the wolves long enough that Isaac could come after her.