—back on the avenue, near where she’d begun. The domed keep rose up in front of her. Her little fruit tree, already wilting slightly, was the only landmark on the endless walkway.

Torment. Alice gritted her teeth. There was another scream, distant now, and she started running again, down a curving bridge that turned into a helical staircase. She descended for what felt like an age, but when she neared the bottom, she saw that it joined up with the same broad avenue, just where she’d started. Alice growled and turned around, running up the stairs at a dangerous speed, but after a single turn around the spiral, she stumbled out onto the flat stones in front of her tree, panting for breath.

Labyrinth. For the first time, she really understood what that meant. She thought of Vespidian, who’d fled from her into the dark reaches of the library, and felt a sliver of pity for the vile little sprite. She pictured Ending playing with him, like a cat with a half-dead mouse. Except now, I’m the mouse.

The keep was ahead of her, once again, closer than ever.

He is playing with me, Alice realized. If he wanted her to go to the keep, he could have simply sent her there. He’s made that clear enough. The labyrinthine wanted her to give up, to acknowledge his power and go there of her own accord. To surrender.

This is my labyrinth. Here am I everywhere and nowhere. I am the walls, the stairs, the floors, and the sky. Who are you, Reader, to let me do anything?!

“I won’t do it!” Alice kicked the wilting tree in frustration. Somewhere, close by, Isaac and the others were in danger, but she couldn’t get to them, couldn’t do anything to help.

A low sound drifted through the air. Alice recognized Torment’s soft, wet chuckle. She wanted to scream. She set off at a run, not caring that she didn’t know where she was going, down one walkway and up another. A stairway led up, and she took it, but when she saw it was bringing her back to the keep, she jumped off to land on a nearby bridge between two towers. Her boot slipped, and for a moment she teetered on the brink, arms windmilling wildly, before she managed to push herself forward and fall painfully hard against the unforgiving stones of the walkway.

“I won’t do it,” she said, tasting blood from a split lip. Another scream drifted across the fortress. “I won’t.”

She sat up, shaking, and was unsurprised to find that the bridge now led directly to the keep. Alice turned resolutely away from it. Ahead of her was another tower, but there was no doorway, just a blank wall of solid stone. Alice, her body humming with rage and frustration, ran straight at it with an angry shout. She braced for a painful impact.