As she passed by, something moved behind the bars, pushing through the narrow space and reaching out for her. It was an arm, thin and sickly looking, with grubby skin and long, filthy nails broken into splinters at the ends. The fingers groped blindly, trying to get a hold of Alice, and the nails scrabbled at her sleeve. Alice very nearly took a step backward to get away from the thing, only remembering just in time that “backward” was off the stairs and over a long drop. Instead she batted the thing away and hurried onward.

More arms were emerging from their tiny fixtures, like horrible insects coming out of their cocoons. They came in every variety and skin color, men, women, and small, pathetic children. It was as if an army of prisoners were locked away on the other side of the wall, blind and mute but desperate to grab whatever they could. Alice pushed them aside where she had to, tearing out of their grip whenever they clawed for a hold. They grabbed at her clothes, her pouches, her hair; broken fingernails left long scratches on the back of her hands, and she pulled the Swarm thread more tightly to harden her skin. The temperature rose as she went, as if she were climbing inside a giant oven, and her face was soon sheathed in sweat.

When she came level with the sullen red globe, she could see a small rectangular shape hanging suspended inside, turning slowly as if dangling from invisible wires. It was a book; all of a sudden she understood where she was. It was a piece of another world that had leaked out of a book, like the jungle in Geryon’s library. Esau clearly used his towers like Geryon used clusters of shelves. But what’s inside that book, if this is what leaks through? Alice decided she didn’t ever want to find out.

A few more turns of the staircase, dodging eager claws all the while, and she saw that she was nearing the roof. An opening at the top of the stairs showed a circle of blessedly cool and distant sky. Alice ducked under a huge, hairy arm that looked like it belonged to a circus strongman, sprinted the last few steps, and emerged onto the broad circular roof in time to hear another shrill scream.

It was answered by a new sound, an awful wet grinding, like someone crushing a raw steak in a vise. When Alice raised her hand to shed the devilfish’s light on what was happening, she let out an involuntary shriek of surprise.