Then, side by side, were a boy and a girl Alice didn’t recognize. The boy was black, with short hair and round metal glasses that gave him an owlish look. His prim impression was reinforced by his clothes, which were gray and sober, a bit like the suits Alice’s father used to wear. The girl, in contrast, wore shorts and a floppy, oversized shirt, and her skinny white legs were grimy and covered in scabs. Her hair was such a bright red that it reminded Alice of Flicker. She guessed both of these newcomers were a little younger than she, perhaps ten or eleven.

Last of all was a taller figure, wearing a long, dark cloak. Isaac’s breath hissed.

“Is that Garret?” he whispered.

“Garret’s dead,” Alice said. It did look a little like Garret, but it was hard to tell in the shifting shadows.

“Are you sure? I was too busy running away to be certain.”

“That whale-thing ate him,” Alice said. “Just before it smashed the bridge.”

“Maybe his master fished him out again.”

Ellen turned her head, and the light of her halo caught the tall figure’s face. It was definitely Garret, with his long, animated features and theatrical silk cloak billowing out behind him. Shadows clung to his feet, boiling in the light like water on a hot skillet.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Isaac said as the intruders approached.

“Garret doesn’t change anything,” Alice muttered. “We still have the same choices.”

“I’ll be right here,” Isaac said. “In case something happens.”

“Me too,” Ashes said, from somewhere in the vicinity of the floor.

Alice straightened up, squared her shoulders, and pulled on the devilfish thread. Her hands started to glow an eerie green, enough to light up her face. When Ellen was perhaps ten yards away, Alice stepped out from behind the shelves, hands raised.

The party of apprentices came to a halt at once. Ellen squinted, then dimmed the light from her halo.

“Alice?” she said. “Is that you?”

“Hello, Ellen,” Alice said. “Hi, Dex.”

“Sister Alice!” Dex said. “The auguries informed me we would be seeing one another again, although I must admit I did not anticipate the circumstances.”

“I wondered when you’d show yourself,” Garret drawled, pushing his way to the front of the group. Ellen, Alice noticed, stayed close by his side. “It’s good to see you, Alice.”

“You too,” Alice said. “I’m a little surprised.”

“That I’m not dead, you mean?” Garret grinned impishly. “I surprise even myself sometimes.”

Something crossed Ellen’s face, a flicker of remembered pain. She and Garret had been close, and Alice wondered how long she’d believed he’d been killed in Esau’s fortress.

“I don’t think you’ve met Michael and Jennifer,” Garret said, waving at the two newcomers. “This is Alice, Geryon’s apprentice. She’s going to give herself up like a good girl.”