“There’s another girl around here somewhere,” Ellen said. “But I barely got a look at her before she ran off.”

“I’m not surprised, with you shining that searchlight around,” Garret said. “Anybody would be frightened.”

Ellen scowled. The light—which emanated from thin air a foot above her head—rippled and brightened, as if in response to her anger. “That’s hardly my fault. She startled me.”

“I’ll find her.” Garret raised a hand, and wisps of shadow started to gather around him.

Ellen rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, sneak up behind her. I’m sure that will help.”

The shadows paused. “You’re not still sore that I caught you last time?”

“Of course not.” Ellen sniffed. “And you did not catch me.”

“Oh, come on. You must have jumped five feet!”

“It’s a perfectly rational reaction when you’re waiting in some nasty bog and you hear something moving behind you.”

“And you screamed.”

“I did not—”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Alice said. “Which way did she go?”

The two older apprentices paused their argument to look at her. Ellen pointed, and Alice nodded curtly and brushed past them. Dex caught her eye and flashed a grin where the other two couldn’t see.

Their bickering resumed behind her as Alice walked out into the darkness. She pulled gently on the devilfish thread, summoning the soft green glow, and walked slowly around the ring of boulders. Aside from the rocks, the cave wall was smooth, and there didn’t seem to be anywhere to hide.

“Hello?” Alice said. “I’m sorry if they scared you. We’re not going to hurt you, I promise.” She paused to look behind one of the rocks, and found nothing. “Hello? Are you there?”

A flash of motion caught her eye. Alice looked around in time to see a small girl take a long step away from the cave wall and gasp for air, as though she’d just broken the surface after a long swim underwater. She hadn’t been there a moment before, Alice was certain.

She was a tiny, frail-looking thing, a few inches shorter than Alice and painfully thin. Everything she wore was made of leather, a vest and short pants that didn’t reach her knees, so haphazardly stitched that Alice wondered if she’d made the clothes herself. Her mouse-brown hair was pinned up on the right, but the other side she let fall in a long, straight curtain that touched her shoulder and obscured that half of her face.

Alice forced herself to remain still. The whole of the girl’s tiny body vibrated with tension, ready to turn and flee.

“Hello,” Alice said, in the most reassuring voice she could manage. “It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you.”