“I understand,” Torment said. “Now I understand. He’s been helping you all along. I don’t know why, or how you’ve bound him, but it’s no wonder Ending thinks you’ll be useful—”

“Enough,” the Dragon said. “Alice. Ask.”

Alice stepped forward, satisfied herself that she could remain upright this time, and walked over to Torment. The black wolf looked up at her, blue eyes full of hatred and frustration.

“What happened to my father?”

“What?” Torment gave a pained chuckle. “How should I know—”

“You cannot lie,” the Dragon rumbled. “Not to me. I have known you too long.”

“Esau sent Vespidian to my house to make my father some kind of an offer,” Alice said. “What did he want?”

“He wanted you, of course,” Torment said.

“Why?” Alice asked.

“One of Esau’s agents caught the scent of you. A powerful talent, bound to no master. But someone was protecting you, so he sent that idiot sprite to try to make a deal with your father.”

Alice nodded slowly. That jibed with what she already knew—that Geryon had shielded her and her father from the eyes of other Readers since she’d been born. But—

“And then what? My father left me behind. He took a ship to South America, and it disappeared. What happened?”

“How should I know?”

The Dragon rumbled, a deep, menacing sound, and pressed its claw fractionally deeper into the black wolf’s throat.

“You spied on Esau, of course,” it said. “All of you spy on your masters. You saw what happened that night. You will show her.” The Dragon’s tail curved around to point at the giant mirror in its gaudy frame. “This is a seeing-glass, is it not?”

“A what?” Alice said, looking at it curiously.

“A device for looking at distant places, through the eyes of invisible spirits. It can recall anything its spirits have seen for its master.” The Dragon cocked its head at Torment. “And you said this was your place.”

“All right. All right!” Torment laughed, a nasty damp sound, like a retching cough. “But you may not like what you see.”

“Show me,” Alice said.

Torment’s paw waved, feebly. The surface of the mirror went black except for tiny speckles of light that sparkled like diamond dust. The stars, Alice realized. Patches of deeper darkness resolved into clouds, drifting slowly across the sky. Toward the bottom of the mirror, the darkness was absolute, until a small patch of bright, steady lights drifted into view.

It was a ship, under way at night in a calm sea, cheery navigation lights ablaze. They were too far away to read the name painted on the bow, but Alice could make a pretty good guess.

Chapter Twenty-six: The Gideon, Reprise

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE GIDEON, REPRISE