As the dust cleared, Alice could see a group of huge ice women, dressed in furs and leather and carrying enormous axes and bows, in the large, windowless stone chamber beyond the wrecked door. There were at least two dozen of them, and the one in the center, with a pair of ax handles sticking up over her shoulders, bore a distinct resemblance to Erdrodr. Her triple braid, which hung past her waist, was weighted with gold and silver rings. Her broad face was marred by a scar on her lip, which tugged at the corner of her mouth and gave her a perpetual scowl. She was a head taller than Erdrodr, towering several feet above Spike.

Behind the returned hunting party was something Alice had never seen before, a shivering, shifting curtain of light that hung in the air, rippling like a flag on a windy day. Rainbows scattered from its surface, as though it were a prism, but here and there it flattened out and she could glimpse something beyond it. She saw fragments of a blue sky, white clouds, and green foliage. Another world. That’s the wild portal.

It was right there, not thirty feet away. I could get there. If she split into the Swarm, she could flow around the feet of the frost giants, leap through the portal before they could react. They couldn’t stop me. Or she could have Spike clear her a path—she doubted he could fight all of them, but it didn’t have to be for long. I could get there, and—

And she’d leave Flicker and Erdrodr behind. Alice had no idea what the ice giants would do to a fire-sprite they caught sneaking into their fortress, but from Erdrodr’s description of her mother, she couldn’t imagine Flicker getting away with a stern talking-to. And while Erdrodr herself probably wouldn’t be hurt, Alice had given her word to take her along. She kept her part of the bargain. It’s not her fault we happened to run into her mother . . .

Flicker had lowered his spear in the direction of the ice giants. The weapon looked unimaginably puny compared to the massive axes the women were beginning to unsheathe.

Alice let out a long breath and released Spike’s thread, the broken door crashing to the ground as the dinosaur disappeared with a pop. She met Helga’s eye and raised her hands over her head in surrender.

At her side, she heard Flicker sigh.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

HELGA THE ICE FLOWER

FIVE DAYS, ELEVEN hours left. Alice snapped the watch closed.

“Readers are supposed to be practically gods,” Flicker complained. “What kind of a god lets herself get thrown in a cell?”

“The kind who doesn’t want anybody to get hurt,” Alice said. “Especially her friends.”

“The one time I’m on a Reader’s side, and I get you.”