The hawk came around for another pass. This time, Alice pulled hard on the Swarm thread, toughening her skin, and borrowed Spike’s superhuman strength. She stood her ground, letting the bird’s claws scrape at her neck and shoulders. They tore great rents in her shirt, but couldn’t pierce her skin, and the moment of surprise this created gave her the opportunity to grab the creature by the throat and jam it against a bookshelf. Its talon flailed against Alice’s arm, and its wings flapped madly, but it was no match for the dinosaur’s strength.

“Avia!” Jen said.

“Let go of the bird’s thread,” Alice said. “And we can talk. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Jen looked over her shoulder at Michael. “You’re not going to help?”

The boy adjusted his glasses and frowned. “If she wants to talk, we should talk. I can’t see the harm.”

“Hmph.”

The hawk vanished with a pop, and Alice let her own threads go. Jen stalked across the aisle from Michael and leaned against the shelf, crossing her arms. Alice approached, keeping one eye on the girl in case she showed a sudden desire to resume the fight.

“I’m Alice,” she said, holding out her hand. “You’re Michael, I hear?”

Michael shook hands cautiously and nodded. “And this is Jennifer.”

“We know who you are,” Jen said. “Master told us you’d been corrupted by the prisoner.”

“Your master has gotten something wrong,” Alice said. “I don’t think there is a prisoner. Did he give you anything to do here, specifically?”

“To stay with the others, mostly,” Michael said.

“And to make sure they didn’t try to take anything,” Jen said sulkily. “Ellen had the real responsibility.”

The same mission, more or less, that Alice had been given in the group that went to find Jacob in Esau’s fortress. That makes things easier.

“I don’t want to fight,” Alice said. “Not against other apprentices. You know as well as I do that none of us chose to be here.”

“But you said you wouldn’t surrender,” Jen said uncertainly. “So what are you going to do?”

“I have a few ideas,” Alice said. “But all I really want is to get everyone to sit down and talk about this. Do you think we could do that?”

“What’s the point?” Jen said. “Either you’re going to give up, or you’re going to fight us. Why drag it out?”

“Jen,” Michael said. “Remember what Master Vin told you?”

Jen pursed her lips and flushed, looking at the floor. “That I should listen to you,” she muttered, “instead of letting my temper run away with me.”