“Of course.” There was a hitch in Isaac’s voice. “Of course I did.”

“I don’t . . . I didn’t . . .” Jacob took a step closer. “I didn’t want to do it. You can’t make me say I did. I just wanted . . . I didn’t . . .”

Alice heard a wet, nasty chuckle, right by her ear.

“Oh, I see,” Torment said. “How sweet.”

Alice spun, but there was nothing there. She felt a shiver in the fabric of the labyrinth, and then a shiver in the real world, a tiny tremor running through the stone.

“No!” Jacob boomed. “I will not be deceived.”

“What?” Isaac looked stunned.

“It’s Torment,” Alice hissed. “He’s controlling him somehow.”

“Sister Alice . . .” Dex began hesitantly.

Jacob turned away and stalked back through the curtain, like a monarch dismissing his court.

Isaac went to follow, then looked back at the others.

“What are you waiting for?” he said. “We have to go after him!”

“Of course we do.” A bit of grit landed on Alice’s cheek, and she brushed it away. “But we can’t afford to just rush into whatever Torment has planned for us.”

“No,” said Torment’s disembodied voice. “Please, don’t rush. I’m having a wonderful time.”

“Sister Alice!” Dex said.

Alice turned. “What?”

A small stone bounced off her shoulder and clattered on the polished floor. Dex pointed up, wordlessly. Alice looked, up and farther up, until she was staring right into the face of the giant statue. His blank, steel-gray eyes were staring right at her. Then, as she watched, he blinked. The fingers of one gigantic hand flexed, tearing away from the ceiling with the pings of breaking bolts and the crunch of shattered stone. Dust and flakes of rock began to fall in a steady rain.

The statue closed his hand into a fist the size of a motorcar. He jerked his other hand free. Then the floor began to shudder, and one giant foot lifted a few inches into the air with a screech of overstressed metal.

The apprentices stared up at the thing as though mesmerized. It was like watching an avalanche, Alice thought. It was so huge, so heavy, it seemed utterly inevitable. All she could think of was the shadow of those enormous feet falling across her, and the unyielding steel surface coming down—

Soranna proved to be the quickest thinker among them. She managed to open her mouth to scream.

“Run!”

Soranna’s shriek shocked them into motion. All at once Alice was running toward the pillars, with the others beside her, as rocks from the ceiling pelted down all around them.

Behind them, the steel giant wrenched one foot free, and began tugging on the other.

“Anyone have any idea what that is?” Alice panted. She grabbed instinctively for the Swarm, hardening her skin.

“Some kind of . . . animating . . . spirit!” Isaac said.

“Any idea what to do?”

“Get to the pillars!”

“Right!”