The Palace of Glass (25 page)

“A good effort,” the creature buzzed. “I knew you were smarter than the others.”

The thing got to its feet. More than that, Alice realized as she backed up toward the table and the second bench. It was
growing
. Soon it was close to Mr. Black's size, limbs thickening, chest widening. What was left of its disguise split and fell away, leaving only darkness.

No,
Alice thought,
not
just
darkness.
There was something else there, a web of silver threaded through the black, very fine and very faint. It caught the light
as the
thing moved, gleaming now and then like stars twinkling in an overcast sky.

“But not smart enough to know better,” the thing said. “Not smart enough to realize that when you open a door to put something
in
a prison, you might let something
out.
”

She grabbed the second bench and swung it in a roundhouse arc. The creature held out one arm to block, and the wood shattered against it. There was a horrible static buzz that might have been laughter.

Alice dropped the amputated stump of the bench, turned, and ran after the
others.

THE OUROBOREAN

S
HE TUGGED ON
THE
fabric of the labyrinth to catch up with the others, then pulled all five of them across the library, leaving the Garret-thing behind. Something was wrong with the labyrinth itself, though—it was flattening, growing still wherever the creature walked, as though it were being stapled to a board. The effect was spreading fast.
Ending said the labyrinth was being damaged by something.

“What
is
that thing?” Isaac said as they came to a halt at an intersection. Up ahead was the wild part of the library, with its random clusters of bookshelves and portal-books.

“I have never heard of its like,” Dex said. She was
breathing hard. “The caryatid armor can be broken, but I have never seen it . . .
melt
.”

A prison,
Alice thought.
The Infinite Prison.
That
thing
had been inside all along. Someone had trapped it, and hidden it away in the Palace of Glass.
And I let it out.

“I've never seen a creature disappear that way,” Isaac said. “As if it was
absorbing
them.”

“It was.” Ashes hopped down from a shelf in a puff of dust. “Alice, are you all right?”

She blinked. “I think so. I feel a little drained.”

“Jen won't wake up,” Michael said. His voice was calm, but Alice could hear the urgency underneath.

“Drained is about right,” Ashes said. “If it got one of her creatures, it took a lot of her energy along the link. She'll wake up okay, if we get out of here.”

“How do
you
suddenly know so much about it?” Isaac said.

“I talked to Mother,” Ashes said. “At no small personal risk, let me tell you, because the fur is flying over there. But that thing . . .” He huddled in on himself, ears flattened, tail sweeping back and forth in the dust. “It's called the Ouroborean.”

“
The
Ouroborean?” Alice said. “Like there's only one of it?”

“Exactly. It's not a creature, not like you or me or anything on the other side of a portal. It's more like a living spell, or a walking book. The Readers
made
it, a long time ago, in the time before the libraries and the labyrinthine. It's a weapon. And then they had the good sense never to use it, which if you know anything about Readers should already be terrifying.”

“Why
wouldn't
they use it?” Michael said. He'd sat down with Jen's head in his lap.

“Because once it gets started, it can't be stopped,” the cat said. “It
eats
magic, uses it to make itself stronger. It'll devour anything you can throw at it, and anything it finds in the library. It just keeps going and going until there's nothing left. What's the point of a weapon that devours all the treasure you were hoping to steal?”

“What's it doing
here
?” Isaac said.

“I brought it here,” Alice said, her voice flat and dead. “I went looking for something I shouldn't have, and I brought it back with me and let it out. This is my fault.”

“No wonder the Readers are so scared,” Isaac said.

“The Most Favored must have known what happened,” Dex said. “She sent us here to lock it back up again.”

“No,” Ashes said. “Even the old Readers couldn't manage that, not on a few hours' notice. Mother thinks the
spell they gave you was a
shield,
something that would block off the library entirely when you activated it, cut off all the portals. The Ouroborean would be trapped here.”

“Along with all of us?” Isaac said.

Ashes nodded.

“Of course,” Alice said. “You—we—are expendable.”

“I . . .” Dex's unflappable cheer cracked, just for a moment, and there was something lost and scared behind it. “I don't know. The Most Favored . . . she wouldn't . . .”

“Master Vin wouldn't just send us to die,” Michael said.

“My master would,” Isaac snapped. “And yours would too. That's what apprentices are
for
. You don't get to be an old Reader by taking risks.”

“Ashes, what do we
do
?” Alice asked. “How do we stop that thing?”

“You don't,” Ashes said. “I'm sorry. Once it's activated, the Ouroborean will keep going until it runs out of magic to absorb. You can slash it, crush it, smash it, whatever you want, but it won't stop. It's a spell that
feeds itself
.”

Guilt tightened her chest. “There has to be
something
! If it devours all the books in the library—all the portals—”
Flicker told me it was locking the portals in books that started his world's decline. What would happen if they
were destroyed entirely?
“It's not just the library that's at stake. Every world connected to it is in danger.”

“The Readers will stop it eventually, but not soon enough for anyone here. Mother said the only thing you can do is get out of the way. Take the first portal you can find, and keep running until you get to another one.” Ashes lowered his head miserably. “I'm sorry.”

“But—what about Ending?” Alice said. “She's trapped here, isn't she?”

The cat looked at the floor and said nothing. Everyone was silent.

Pyros told me to stay away from the prison. So did Helga. But I had to have revenge, and now everyone else is going to suffer for it.
Guilt and anger warred inside her.
The Readers collect “tribute” and say they provide protection, but they don't dare risk themselves. They'll sacrifice their apprentices without a second thought just to protect themselves. They
made
the Ouroborean.
She had a sudden image of the old Readers as vast monsters, squatting over the landscape of a thousand worlds, devouring them to feed their appetite for power and their paranoia.
“His magic is based on cruelty and death.” Ending told me that, but I never really understood it.

Revenge on Geryon wasn't enough. It would never have
been enough.
Because it's not just about Geryon. He hurt
me,
but the old Readers are hurting
everyone
. Someone has to stop them. Someone has to take responsibility.

Starting now.

“I have to fix this. I'm not running,” Alice said.

“I know,” Isaac said.

“What?” Alice blinked. “What do you mean, you know?”

“You wouldn't give up in Esau's fortress,” he said. “I can't imagine you doing it here.”

“But this is all my fault,” Alice said. “I let the Ouroborean loose. None of you would be in danger if it wasn't for me!”

“We have all made mistakes,” Dex said, her cheery smile restored. “What's important is how we deal with them. I will of course be at your side, Sister Alice.”

“So will I,” Isaac said.

“I'll help,” Michael said nervously. “If I can. But I have to take care of Jen.”

“But—” Alice stopped. In Esau's fortress, she'd tried to argue with them when they'd chosen to stay with her. It hadn't worked then, and she couldn't see it working now.

“Okay,” she said. “I've got . . .
kind
of a plan.”

“I still think I should be the bait instead of the messenger,” Isaac muttered.

“You haven't got any protection like Spike,” Alice said. “We'll be careful, don't worry. Ashes, you'll show him the way?”

The cat's tail swished nervously. “This doesn't strike me as the best idea. What if nobody's there?”

Then at least one of us will be safe.
“They'll be there. Just hurry.”

“I should be doing more,” Michael said. His glasses were slightly askew, and his neat hair was ruffled. “I could stay here with you.”

“You get Jen somewhere safe first,” Alice said. “We'll need you in the end.”

She straightened up and looked at Dex, who gave a broad grin and nodded. “Sister Alice is correct,” she said. “We will need everyone to do their part, if this is going to work.”

Reluctantly, Isaac and Michael took up the still-unconscious Jen and lifted her between them. Ashes led the way toward the rear of the library, in among the portal-books.

Alice could feel the Ouroborean draining the power out of the fabric of the labyrinth. It seemed to be able to
sense them too, because it was coming toward them as straight as an arrow.

“Okay,” Alice said. “We need to buy as much time as we can. Just don't let it get close to you.”

“I understand.” Dex held out a long silver spear, featureless as a giant toothpick. “I will make as many as I am able.”

Alice took the spear. She'd last used Dex's moon-stuff when she'd confronted Torment. It was fantastically light, hard, and wickedly sharp. The Ouroborean absorbed summoned creatures and shrugged off magical effects, but physical impacts seemed to slow it down. Between Spike's strength and Dex's weapons, she hoped they could keep it away for long enough for Isaac to return.

“Here it comes,” Alice said. The labyrinth fabric seized up around her.

The Ouroborean ambled around the corner. It had its arms out, running its fingers along the shelves on either side, and Alice could see tiny sparks of magic flowing out of the books and into the creature's black-and-silver body.

“Hello, Alice,” it called, voice mocking beneath the static.

She hefted the spear, drew back, and threw, pulling
Spike's thread as tight as it would go. The weapon sang through the air, fast as a bullet, and hit the Ouroborean in the chest. It sank deep, and the creature staggered backward.

Dex was already handing Alice another spear, and she threw again, before the creature could recover. This time she hit the Ouroborean in the shoulder, spinning it into a bookshelf, which wobbled dangerously at the impact. The third spear sank into its stomach, and the fourth caught it in the arm and continued on to embed itself in the wood, pinning the thing in place.

Alice hurled the fifth spear, but the creature had recovered from its surprise. The Ouroborean raised its hand, the spear impaling it through the palm, point stopping bare inches from its blank, eyeless face. Then, all five spears dissolved, liquefying and flowing into the creature's black skin. They left no wounds behind. Dex grunted.

“Continue to struggle, by all means,” the Ouroborean said. “It is in your nature, clearly.”

“How do you know what's in my nature?” Alice said as Dex panted for breath.

“Time and distance mean nothing on the other side of the mirror,” the Ouroborean said. “I learned a great
deal about you when you visited the Palace of Glass, Alice Creighton.”

“You all right?” Alice said to Dex, taking a step backward.

“I believe so.” Dex's first step was a little unsteady, but she recovered quickly.