She reached out for the unraveling fabric of the labyrinth and folded a long path, from the throne room to the portal-book. Cold air from the outside gusted in through the doorway. Then she glanced back at the dais, where Jacob had fallen. There was something there now, a glittering pyramid of ice.

Isaac followed her gaze. “I sealed him in,” he said. “It should last for a while. When our masters clean this place out, I’ll make sure they bring him back to me. He deserves that.”

Alice swallowed and nodded. She led the way, out the door and across the fortress by a trick of folded space, back to where they’d begun.

Chapter Twenty-eight: Homecoming

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

HOMECOMING

FOR A MOMENT the throne room, via an eye-twisting doorway, led directly out to the long, lonely bridge on the edge of the fortress. When they were all through, Alice let go of the fabric, and they were once again on the small, circular platform where they’d first come in. On the stone pedestal sat the portal-book leading back to the cavern of front doors, right where they’d left it.

It was colder out here than it had been in the keep, and Alice hugged herself against the wind that whistled and moaned up from the abyss. The four apprentices walked over to the book and looked down at it solemnly.

“Are you going to be all right, Soranna?” Alice said. The thought had been nagging at her. “You said your master would be angry with you if you allowed yourself to be polluted with ‘impure ideas.’”

Soranna gave a tiny smile. “I think I will be fine. I realize now that she has more need of me than I once believed. I am the last of my cohort, after all.” She shrugged. “When she asks what happened, I will simply tell her what she wants to hear.”

“Thank you, Sister Soranna,” Dex said. “We would not have made it without you.”

Alice hesitated. “I guess this is good-bye, then.”

“It is.” Soranna nodded to Isaac, and accepted a hug from Dex. “But I think I will see you again.”

“I hope so,” Alice said.

Soranna looked down, but her smile broadened. She turned away and flipped the book open. Between blinks, she was gone. The pages of the portal-book crackled with light for a moment, and it snapped shut with a thump.

“As for myself,” Dex said, “I am also confident I will see you again, Sister Alice and Brother Isaac. I will consult the auguries and discover when that will be, and await the day with considerable enthusiasm.”

“Thank you,” Alice said. “For everything.”

Dex smiled and gave a jaunty wave. She stepped up to the book, and a moment later she too was gone.

Alice looked sidelong at Isaac. His face, always thin, was now practically gaunt.

“Are you all right?” she ventured.

“No,” Isaac whispered. “I’m not. Are you?”