Isaac grimaced, but said nothing. Alice led the way out onto the bridge, with Dex and Soranna close behind. Isaac brought up the rear, keeping a wary lookout over his shoulder.

Chapter Twenty-one: The Giant’s Playground

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE GIANT’S PLAYGROUND

“THERE!” ISAAC SAID.

Alice followed his pointing finger. Something was moving on a nearby bridge, paralleling their route to the dome. It kept to the shadows, but she got a glimpse of a long, low shape, with dark fur rippling along its flanks. When it turned to look at them, the lantern light made its yellow eyes glow like a pair of headlamps.

“They’re definitely following us,” Isaac said.

“I have seen them as well,” Dex said.

“They’re escorts,” Alice muttered. “I think they’re making sure we don’t leave the path.”

Alice wished she didn’t feel like a fly accepting an invitation from a spider. Or a rabbit from a wolf. She grit her teeth. If it comes to that, we’ll show him we aren’t just a pack of rabbits.

A pair of enormous stone doors were set into the wall at the end of the avenue. Alice strode out ahead of the others and pushed on one of them, expecting to have to use Spike’s power to shift it, but to her surprise the stone moved easily under her hand. The big door swung inward without even a whisper of sound, revealing an enormous chamber beyond.

It was the sort of room that medieval kings had built to impress their subjects, and Alice supposed it must serve much the same purpose here. Everything was on a grand scale, from the rows of massive pillars by the walls to the mountainous staircase at the rear leading up to a curtained doorway. Torches were bracketed to the stone at regular intervals, and their light glittered off gold fittings encrusting every surface: banded around the pillars like the rings of giants, edging the steps, even in elaborate designs inlaid into the smooth, polished floor.

Most decorated of all was the statue, which stood in the middle of the room as a gaudy centerpiece. It went all the way to the ceiling, at least fifty feet overhead, and depicted a huge, muscular, bearded man, wearing only a loincloth, his hands pressed flat against the vaulted ceiling as though he were another pillar. He was made entirely of polished steel, and every curve of his muscles gleamed in the torchlight. Heavy gold chains hung around the man’s neck, and bracelets adorned his wrists and ankles, each a broad hoop of gold or silver that Alice could easily have stepped through. His eyes looked directly down at the entrance, and his expression was thoughtful, as though he were deciding whether to crush the insects below under his sandaled feet.