“Geryon’s off on his trip,” the cat said, slinking into her room and winding himself around Alice’s ankles. “Mother says she’s got something important she wants to talk to you about.”

“What is it?”

“Who knows?” Ashes yawned, showing his tiny white teeth. “Nobody tells me anything. But she said to bring a coat.”

CHAPTER FIVE

MAKING YOUR OWN CHANCES

FOR ONCE, ALICE didn’t have to sneak off to meet Ending. She simply announced to Mr. Wurms that she was on Geryon’s business, and the scholar accepted it with a grumble.

The whole estate felt different with the master away, as though a sound she’d never noticed had suddenly stopped. Everything still worked—the servants brought her breakfast and cleaned her room while she was out—but there was a feeling of living on borrowed time. Geryon’s power suffused the Library, keeping its magic running day and night. Without that wellspring of energy, everything was winding down, and sooner or later it would stop.

Alice had taken Ending’s advice and dressed warm, in a fur-lined leather jacket, leather gloves, and thick trousers. It had been over eight months since she’d left her father’s house, and many of the clothes she’d arrived with were either worn out or too small now. Fortunately, new additions to her wardrobe regularly materialized in the hallway outside her room. It was related to the invisible servants, she assumed—she couldn’t imagine Geryon picking out clothes for a thirteen-year-old girl—but however the process worked, it had thoughtfully provided warmer garb as the days had grown cold.

Once she passed through the bronze door of the library, the air became warm and slightly stuffy, and she folded her coat over her arm. She chose a direction at random, and the first corner she turned brought her face-to-face with Ending.

“I hope you slept well.” Ending’s voice was a deep rumble.

“Well enough,” Alice said irritably. Remnants of the dream still clung to her, like a spiderweb she couldn’t quite brush off. “You heard about Geryon, I assume?”

“Of course. I felt him leave last night.” Ending bared her teeth. “He told me I am to obey you in his stead.”

Alice smiled weakly, then shook her head. “Listen. Isaac told me something, while we were fighting the wasps. He overheard Anaxomander planning a conference of the old Readers, to investigate what happened at Esau’s fortress. What if Geryon finds out what really happened?”

“A conference.” Ending’s eyes narrowed. “The death of one of their own is the only thing that could stir the old Readers from their complacency.”

“They could find the magic mirror, couldn’t they?”