Alice looked at Isaac. He shrugged, and held out a hand to help Dex up. With his assistance, she hopped through the doorway, and Isaac went through after her. Alice, not sure what to expect, followed close behind.

She felt something pass across her skin, not quite solid, like a thick, dry fog. On the other side, she was greeted by a low, warm light and the sharp smell of spices, with an undercurrent of cooking meat. She could hear fat sizzling over a fire, reminding her how long it had been since that last quasi-apple. Her mouth watered.

As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, she found herself standing with the others inside a vast tent made of purple silk, the size of a tennis court. Oil lamps, small brass ones with curved handles right out of the Arabian Nights, hung from the tent poles and provided a friendly glow.

In the center of the tent was a rectangular table, which positively groaned under a mass of food and drink. Tall glass pitchers stood between trays of sliced meat, soft grilled vegetables, and platters of fruit and cheese. Everything looked as though it had been laid out only the moment before they’d stepped through, and steam still rose from a fire-blackened roast that had been carved to reveal its tender pink interior.

“We’ll be safe here,” Soranna said. “My master said this place isn’t a book-world. It’s more like a kind of solid mirage.”

“It’s not real?” Alice said.

“It looks real,” Isaac said. He was staring at the roast. “It smells real.”

“It’s real,” Soranna said, “but it only exists in a kind of . . . gap. There’s no time here, not real time. When we go back outside, everything will be just the way we left it.”

“You’re sure?” Isaac said. “I’ve never heard of a world where time works differently.”

“That’s what my master told me,” Soranna said. “And he brought me here once before. It only lasts as long as the power from the gem can sustain it, which he said would be about eight hours.”

“But we can eat while we’re here,” Alice said. “Nothing strange will happen?”

“I don’t think so,” Soranna said.

Alice looked at Isaac, who shrugged.

“Good enough for me,” he said. And, as if that had been a pre-arranged signal, the four of them attacked the laden table like starving dogs.