“When you challenged Mother, I thought you were going to fight her,” Erdrodr said, very quietly. “That’s what the Readers do in all the stories, they fight. I thought the whole thing was going to end up teaching me some horrible lesson, where I got what I’d always wanted but only because you’d killed my mother, and I would learn to appreciate what I had only after I’d lost it, and . . . you know. The kind of thing that happens in stories.” She sniffed. “Thank you for not hurting her. I know she and I don’t get along all the time, but . . .”

“Yeah.” Alice thought about warm afternoons lying in Central Park, and found tears stinging the corners of her eyes. “I know.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

TURTLES ARE JERKS

THEY GOT AN early start the next morning, and by noon they were in sight of the river. It was a big one, as wide as the Hudson in New York City, curving calm and flat through the grasslands. Alice, Flicker, and Erdrodr turned right, staying close to the bank, and made their way upstream. Soon, distant mountains darkened the horizon.

The river, Alice discovered before long, was inhabited. Big hummocky shapes broke the surface at regular intervals, moving upstream or down at a rapid clip. They were partially transparent, and swirls and whorls of color were embedded inside them, like Venetian blown glass. Each one was a different color, from deep blue to soft green or even pale pink.

She might have thought they were small islands, moving under their own power, but one of them stopped and rose a bit higher out of the water, revealing a small, gnarled head that looked them over with black, unblinking eyes, and four huge flippers sculled gently through the water, holding it in place against the current.

“It’s so pretty!” Erdrodr said, reaching for her sketch pad.

“Naturally,” said the turtle in a deep, gravelly voice. “You, however, are ugly. And foolish, I don’t wonder.”

“What?” Erdrodr said, blinking in confusion.

“You can talk?” Alice said.

“That should be obvious to any right-thinking creature,” the turtle said. “But as you are a little ape, I clearly should have expected less. Also, your nose is crooked.”

“It is not crooked!” Alice said.

“Is so,” the turtle said. “And your hair is stringy and frankly unappetizing. Really, each of you is a less impressive specimen than the last.”

“Did you stop here just to insult us?” Flicker said.

“Yes,” the turtle said, submerging again and swimming off.

“What was that?” Alice said, rubbing her nose.

Flicker shrugged.

“Your nose isn’t very crooked,” Erdrodr said.

The next turtle that passed by commented on their shabby state of dress and the shocking lack of proper accessories, while the one after that criticized their manners and breeding. After that, by common consent, they shifted their path some distance away from the river, sticking to the higher ground.