“She told me to reassure them,” Alice said. “But something else is happening. I think she was talking to the other labyrinthine.”

“This lot doesn’t look happy,” Ashes said.

That seemed to be the case, inasmuch as Alice could read their expressions. In the front row, an older woman wearing a dress made entirely out of bones and wire stood with her arms crossed and her jaw set. Beside her, a very old hunchbacked man leaned on a stick, while the glowing mushrooms that sprouted from his back flashed angry-looking colors. The girl beside him didn’t look older than ten, sporting a red-and-white-spotted mushroom cap in place of hair, but she seemed equally worried.

“And I just . . . talk to them?” Alice whispered.

“You’re the Reader’s apprentice,” Ashes said.

Not if the Reader has any say in the matter. Alice suppressed a hysterical giggle. She walked, stiff-legged, out to the front of the crowd and raised her hands for silence. The chattering creatures quieted down, more or less, except for the clockwork spider, who couldn’t seem to help her clanking and steaming.

“Um,” Alice said. “Hi. I’m Alice, Geryon’s apprentice—”

“What in the name of Ushbar is going on?” said the bone woman. “Someone lit off enough power to wake the dead. Where’s the Reader?”

“He’s—” Alice’s eyes found Mr. Black, who was staring at her suspiciously. A number of other creatures burst out with “Yeah!” and “What happened?” and Alice had to raise her voice.

“Geryon has vanished,” she said. “He was investigating a book, and there was some kind of accident.”

The spider-thing extended a small screen, composed of a grid of tiny spinning paddles, black on one side and white on the other. These whirled madly for a moment before settling down to form black text on white. ACCIDENT = FALSE. PROBABILITY: ENEMY ACTION.

“She’s right,” the melting woman said in a gloopy voice. “If Geryon’s disappeared, it’s probably some trick of one of the other Readers.”

“It doesn’t matter why he’s gone,” the bone woman said. “What are we going to do? The others will find out soon enough, and then it will be open season for anyone under Geryon’s protection.”

“I’m sure Geryon will be back soon—” Alice said.

“Really?” the bone woman snapped. “I’m not. If Anaxomander or someone has got him, he’s in for a rough time.”

“Regardless,” Alice said, trying to regain some control over the situation. “The others can’t know that he’s gone, not for sure. They’ll move cautiously. And I’ll work to make sure they don’t find out—”

“You?” sang the lion-crocodile-man in a beautiful bass baritone. “What are you going to do?”

PROBABILITY: APPRENTICE INADEQUATE, the spider’s screen displayed. INFERENCE: SITUATION DESPERATE.

“We’re doomed,” one of the sprites said, turning wildly in a circle as though excited at the prospect. “Doomed! Doomed!”