“My grandmother brought the seed here, from our old home. Through the gate, across the world, and through another portal. The world beyond the world beyond. She gave the seed to my mother, who planted it here. She gave the trees to me when they were only sprouts. They suffered here, with only the stars for light, but I nurtured them and bred this strain.” She shook her head. “Mother told me about the flowers she remembered, back when she was at Grandmother’s knee. No matter what I did, my trees never matched the beauty she told me about, not here. Until now.”

“The tree knows how to make the flower,” Alice said. “It just needed a little push.”

Helga nodded, staring at the huge flower as if hypnotized.

“What happened to your home?” Alice said.

“It froze,” Helga said. “It was always a cold place, but it grew colder, until not even my people could stay. We fled through the portal into the world beyond, and then here when we found it suited us better.”

Alice glanced at Flicker. What was it he said? “The Heartfire began to weaken when they locked away the portals in their books and their libraries.” Could these changes in the worlds be the fault of the Readers? When the portals are locked in books, does it weaken the worlds on the other side? She pictured the Earth, her world, at the center of a vast web. Worlds linked to worlds by portals, spreading outward in an intricate tapestry, all nourished by power flowing from the true reality at the center. And then the doors slamming shut, the portals caught in a trap woven of words and magic, captured in libraries by the Readers and their labyrinthine servants. The lights of the web going out, bit by bit, the fires dimming.

It could be coincidence. Just because it happened to a few worlds doesn’t mean the same thing happens everywhere. She shook her head. Maybe Ending knows something. Or maybe we can get Geryon to tell us the truth, once we’ve caught him.

“Listen,” Helga said, shaking herself out of her reverie. “I am Helga the Ice Flower, and let it never be said that I do not keep my word. But . . . Erdrodr . . .” She hesitated. “The world beyond is dangerous, and she is a foolish child. Is there no way you can leave her here, where she will be safe?”

“She wants a chance to prove herself to you,” Alice said. “I can’t tell her not to go where she thinks she has to.”

“I suppose not.” Helga sighed. “You truly mean to visit the Palace of Glass?”

“I won’t let her come inside with me.”