“That’s one of Alice’s!” Isaac bent down to grab the swarmer. The little creature’s natural instinct was to evade, but Alice clamped down and forced it to sit quietly still while Isaac lifted it and placed it on his open palm, level with his face. Seen through the swarmer’s eyes, it was uncomfortably like being picked up by a giant. “Alice? Can you hear me?”

Alice opened her real mouth to reply, paused, and said a rude word. The swarmer couldn’t talk—its long, sharp beak couldn’t handle the sounds of human speech. Hurriedly, she made it waggle its beak up and down vigorously, in a passable imitation of a nod.

“You can?”

She made the swarmer nod again, then hop up and down in irritation. She could feel Torment closing in, and she redoubled her grip on the tenuous connection.

“But this thing can’t speak.”

The swarmer shook itself rapidly back and forth, like a wet dog. Alice desperately wanted to ask Isaac whether he’d seen Ellen, and if he could find somewhere safe to stay while she came to find him, but all she could do was play twenty questions.

“Are you all right?”

She made the swarmer nod, then hop to the side of Isaac’s hand and point at the ground with its beak, looking up at Isaac several times to make sure he got the message. He looked puzzled.

“Down? You’re down?” Shake.

“Brother Isaac,” Dex said, looking over her shoulder. “More of those things are coming. We need to move.”

“Stone? Bridge?” Shakeshakeshake. “Alice, I don’t understand! Ow!”

The swarmer had nipped his arm, drawing a bright bead of blood. It smeared its beak until it was crimson—Alice had to suppress its natural instinct to lick the stuff up—and hopped from his hand back to the ground. There, with Alice’s careful direction, it began to paint a message onto the stone.

Torment was trying harder. Alice felt like someone trying to write a note with the wrong hand while a much stronger person pried her hand away from the pen. She managed one letter, two, three, before the blood dried and the swarmer’s beak could only scratch impotently at the ground. Isaac was staring.

“S-T-A. Stand? Stab?” He pressed one hand to where it had poked him. “Star?” He blinked as the swarmer went into a paroxysm of shaking.

“Brother Isaac!” Dex said, tugging on his sleeve.

“Stay?” Isaac said. “You want me to stay here!”

Alice made the swarmer nod so violently it almost fell over. Isaac pointed to the tower up ahead.

“We’ll be in there. We need to take shelter from these things.”

The swarmer nodded again. Alice felt her grip on the fabric slipping.

“But I’ll wait for you.” Isaac shook his head. “Alice, I’m sorry. I should have—”