It was odd, the things you took for granted, Alice thought. She had a hard time imagining what it would be like to grow up without pencils, for example. Or spending her whole life underground, never seeing the sky. And knowing that every few years one of your friends or family was going to be taken away to be trapped in a book, and never, ever set free . . .

She shook her head. What Flicker had said, about protecting his tribe from the other Readers, had needled her. She was loath to admit it, but if it came to an actual fight, she wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance against Geryon or any one of his peers. She’d watched the battle between him and Esau in the magic mirror, and it had been like a war between ancient gods. Even if she could trick Geryon, capture him, then what would she do when someone like Esau came for the fire-sprites? For that matter, how many other groups is he “protecting”? How would I even find them all?

“Can I ask you something?” Alice said, leaning against the side of the boat and trailing one hand in the water. The fish she’d seen earlier darted about, agitated in the turtle’s wake.

“Of course,” Erdrodr said, not looking up from her sketch.

“You said you’d heard stories about Readers. What kind of stories?”

“It’s . . .” Erdrodr looked up at Alice, then back down at her drawing. “They are just stories. I know most of them are not true.”

“It’s all right. Tell me.”

“Readers are . . .” The giant sighed. “Not evil, I think, but not good, either. Capricious, above all else. Powerful. Figures to be appeased, or bargained with at great peril. To make a deal with a Reader is to risk your very essence out of desperation.”

Like we would say “a deal with the devil.” It wasn’t every day you found out you played the role of the ultimate villain in someone else’s fairy tales. “Had any of you ever met a Reader?”

Erdrodr shook her head. “We negotiated, a few times, with creatures who claimed to represent some Reader or other. They barter with us. And when the nations meet, there’s always someone whose cousin’s cousin has seen something incredible.” She shrugged. “I never placed much credence in any of it.”

“You don’t seem afraid of me,” Alice said.

“Why should I be?” Erdrodr held her drawing at arm’s length, looking from it to the turtle and back. “You risked yourself for me, when you didn’t have to.”

“Thanks,” Alice said.

“For what?”

“Never mind.” The sun was setting, and Alice had to shade her eyes, but a tall shape up ahead was casting a three-pronged shadow across the water. “I think we’re nearly there.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE PALACE OF GLASS

“THANK YOU, ESTEVIUS,” Alice said as they unhitched the turtle from the boat.