Before they reached the line of columns, the giant had his other foot free. His heavy gold bracelets and anklets rattled as he covered half the distance between them in a single enormous step, bulging steel muscles shifting in his exquisitely carved thighs like rippling quicksilver. One huge hand came down, fingers spread.

Isaac pointed as he ran, and freezing wind blasted directly into the giant’s face. Shards of ice shattered on his sculpted beard, against his cheeks, even directly in his eyes, but they had as little effect as hailstones against armor plating. Isaac, looking over his shoulder for a moment, lost his footing and nearly stumbled, but Dex grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward, just before the giant’s hand came down with a squeal of metal on stone.

The apprentices ran into the narrow gallery between the columns and the wall. Moments later, the giant collided with the columns like an animal throwing itself against the bars of a cage. He thrust his hand into the gap between two pillars, trying to reach them, but his bulging musculature was too thick and the arm stuck fast. Huge fingers scrabbled just over Alice’s head, clanging like bells whenever they bashed against each other.

It was too loud even to shout, but Alice pointed up the row of columns, and they kept running. The giant tugged, but his arm was trapped. Clenching his other hand into a fist, he swung a roundhouse punch at the stone barrier. Metal met rock as though a bomb had gone off, and the pillar vanished in a spreading cloud of pulverized stone.

The giant grabbed the next pillar around the middle, tearing it clean away from floor and ceiling with horrible splintery crunches. Tossing the remains over his shoulder, he reached out for another.

“Now what?” Isaac said. The giant was between them and a dash for either the stairs or the front door, and the line of pillars was rapidly being reduced to rubble.

“I don’t know,” Alice said, trying to think. He’s made of steel. The Swarmers’ beaks would hardly be able to make an impression, and the statue was so heavy she didn’t think even Spike’s strength could topple it. I’m out of acorns, and there’s nothing here for the tree-sprite to work with. The thing could crush rock in his bare hands—even if they somehow managed to collapse the ceiling on him, she was unpleasantly certain he would be able to dig his way out. There has to be something I can do! She tried tugging at the Dragon’s thread, in desperation, but the creature seemed no more inclined to help now than before, and they couldn’t get to the doorway to escape by a fold in the fabric—

“He is approaching rapidly,” Dex said. She held a silver sword in each hand.

“I can see that!” Alice snapped.