CHAPTER THIRTY

RETURN TO THE GRAND LABYRINTH

AFTER THE USUAL MOMENT of dislocation, stepping through the portal brought them into a secluded cove, the curtain of light hanging above the beach of the Binding island. Tall cliffs stood behind them, and a little way along, a crude stairway led up to the center of the island. There was, Alice was glad to note, no sign of a black slab like the one Reaper had used. This is going to be bad enough as it is.

“Go,” she told the Dragon. “Quickly. Ending will feel us soon.”

She’d explained what she wanted them to do. Both the Dragon and Ashes seemed dubious, but neither had voiced any objections. Now the tiny gray cat perched, absurdly, on the back of the enormous white monster, clinging between the twin rows of spines that ran down the Dragon’s back.

“We will come as soon as we can,” the Dragon said.

“Riding to the rescue,” Ashes said, clearly getting into his role. “Come! Onward, mighty steed!”

Alice felt the fabric of the labyrinth warp around her, and the two of them were gone. She and Isaac were left alone on the beach.

Isaac turned to the stairs. Alice followed his gaze, and sighed.

“When this is over,” she said, “I’m not walking anywhere for a week.”

“A month,” Isaac amended. “I’m going to lie in bed and make Ashes fetch my meals.”

“I’m going to take two baths every day, just because I can,” Alice said. “With extra bubbles.”

“And I’m going to rub it in with Dex and Michael and Soranna that they missed out,” Isaac said, looking slyly at Alice. “We’ll have to invent a few extra adventures, obviously.”

“Obviously.” She gave him a weak smile. “But first we have to climb these stairs.”

She was tired, Alice realized as they hiked up to the island’s central plateau. There was a soreness in her muscles, but it was more than that. Some reserve, deep inside her, was on the verge of exhaustion. Only a little farther, she told herself. This is the end, one way or another.

Alice kept an eye out for hooded shadows at the top of the cliff, but there was only a narrow path leading inland over rocky ground. Isaac stayed behind her, hands in the pockets of his coat, silent. In the privacy of her own mind, Alice could admit it would have been nice to hold his hand, one more time. Would he even want to hold hands with a labyrinthine, though? She shoved the whole squirming mess of feelings down into her stomach. It’s not going to matter.

There was the ring of boulders, just as she remembered it, each bearing a book leading to the fortress of a now-imprisoned Reader. In the very center was the standing stone, the characters of the Great Binding inscribed deep into the rock. Nothing moved, and Alice felt Isaac take hold of his threads.

“Maybe she’s not as smart as you thought,” he whispered. “Maybe she didn’t realize you were coming here.”

“She’s here,” Alice said wearily. “She just has a flair for the dramatic.” She raised her voice. “You might as well come out, you know!”

“Spoilsport.” Ending’s voice was a soft, velvety purr.

The standing stone wasn’t big enough to conceal her, but she emerged from behind it nonetheless, slinking out of its shadow like it was a gateway to another place. Which it was, of course. Here in the center of the Grand Labyrinth, space was hardly an inconvenience for a labyrinthine. Her smooth, black fur rippled like dark oil as she moved, muscles bunching underneath. Huge yellow eyes like lamplights stared back at Alice, and her yawn showed long, ivory fangs.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” Ending said. “But you didn’t disappoint me. You never have, really.”

“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Alice said. “Every other labyrinthine is an enormous version of the animal it was made from, isn’t it? So why aren’t I fifteen feet tall with six eyes?”

Ending laughed, loud and genuine. “That would have made you awfully hard to pass off as ordinary,” she said. “We did our best to restrain the expression of our mother’s physiology.” She paused. “You’ve figured out everything, then?”

“More or less.”

“I thought you might have,” Ending said. “Of course she helped you escape. I should have anticipated that. She is, after all, the First Labyrinthine, and is not to be underestimated. And nor are you, it seems.”

“I do my best.” Alice flicked a glance at Isaac, who had broken away and taken shelter behind one of the boulders. Good. She stepped forward.

“Why go and bother poor Decay?” Ending said. “He’s never been the brightest among us.”

“We had to get away from you,” Alice said with a shrug, not mentioning the Dragon. “It seemed as good a place as any.”

“Don’t think I don’t see your friend hiding there,” Ending said. “If he behaves himself, I’ll take him home with me when we’re done.”

Alice took another step forward, saying nothing.

“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Ending said, moving forward herself. “You knew I would be here, waiting for you. So why come at all? Why not hide? It would at least delay the inevitable.”

Alice gave a wordless shrug.

“Surely you don’t imagine you can defeat me,” Ending purred. “You’re smarter than that.”

Another shrug.

“Sometimes,” Alice said, “all you can do is try.”

The two of them lashed out at the same instant.

Their first conflict was invisible, fought in the fabric of the labyrinth.

Alice threw all of her newfound strength against Ending, trying to twist space to move the labyrinthine away from the Binding stone. Ending, surprised by the onslaught, gave ground at first, and Alice saw the air shimmer. But it soon became clear which of them was stronger. Ashes had been right—Ending was nothing like Decay. Their power collided in waves, strange geometries rippling outward as the fabric of the labyrinth bunched and contorted. But Ending pressed the world flat again, in spite of every effort of Alice’s to fold it, as easily as a grown man overwhelming a child.

All right, Alice thought, already sweating. Something else, then.

She reached for her threads. The Dragon’s obsidian thread was gone now that it was free, an absence that felt as though she’d cut something out of herself, but she ignored that and reached for Spike’s thread instead. She wrapped it around herself tight, feeling her body thicken and change, and started her run forward as soon as all four feet touched the ground. Alice lowered her head, quadruple spikes aimed directly at Ending.

The big cat didn’t stand to receive the charge. Instead she pounced, vaulting lithely over Alice’s horns and landing on her broad, scaled back. The impact pushed Alice off balance, and she staggered sideways a moment and then fell. The big cat lunged for the dinosaur’s throat, fangs spread wide.

Not yet, Alice thought. I’m not finished yet.

She let go of Spike’s thread and grabbed the Swarm’s. Her dinosaur-body exploded, fanning out into a hundred tiny swarmers, quirking and bouncing as they ran in all directions. Ending’s teeth snapped closed on one, and pain shot through Alice as its life was snuffed out. The huge cat pounced on another, trapping it under one front paw. The swarmer struggled, quirking madly, but the labyrinthine increased the pressure steadily until the little creature was squashed and broken against the rocky ground. Alice felt another stab of pain, and hurriedly brought the swarmers back together, across the ring of boulders.

“Must we play this out?” Ending said, padding forward. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Just lock me away forever,” Alice said as she regained her human form.

“A fate you were more than happy to inflict on Geryon,” Ending said, her lips drawing back from long fangs. “Besides, I have a new prison prepared for you. It will be just like going to sleep. You won’t even know what’s happened.”

“And then everyone in the world becomes your toys?”

“That’s the idea, yes,” Ending said.

Alice took a deep breath and wrapped Spike’s thread around herself. She wrapped her arms around the boulder next to her, as far as they would go, and dug her fingers into the bare rock. With a crunching, grinding sound, it shifted, raining dust and small pebbles as she lifted it over her head. Even with Spike’s strength, the effort made her arms tremble, but she managed to take one knee-wobbling step forward and hurl the giant rock directly at Ending.

The huge cat reared up, paws flashing. She hit the boulder with both paws in midair, and Alice’s spirits dropped as the stone was batted away as easily as a stuffed toy. It crashed to the earth, shattering with a crunch, and Ending dropped back to all fours and continued her advance.

“Everything you talked about,” Alice said, backpedaling to the next boulder. “Wanting a partner. All of that was a lie?”

“Of course,” Ending said. “We labyrinthine are at the pinnacle of the world by rights. What would I need with a partner?”

“But—”

“This is getting tiresome.”

Ending bounded forward with shocking speed, a sudden pounce bringing her on top of Alice between blinks. Alice found herself pinned against the rock, one of Ending’s enormous paws resting on her chest with just enough pressure to keep Alice in place.

“You lose,” Ending hissed, her yellow eyes glowing bright.

“I know,” Alice said, struggling to breathe.

The yellow eyes narrowed. “Then why are you smiling?”

“Alice!” Isaac’s shout rang across the ring of boulders, and Alice’s heart lurched.

No! You brave idiot!

“Oh dear,” Ending said. “I hope that isn’t your hope for rescue.”

“No,” Alice said. “This is between us. Leave him out of it.”

“Interesting.” Ending turned her head. “He doesn’t seem to want to give me a choice. Stay put, would you?”

Ending contorted the labyrinth in a way Alice had never seen before. It clung to her wrists and ankles, tiny folds of space that bound her in place, giving her the strong sense that if she tried to pull herself free, she’d tear off her own hands and feet.

“Let her go!” Isaac shouted, charging across the circle.

“This should be entertaining,” Ending purred. “Hit me with your best shot, boy.”

Isaac was already pulling on his threads. Frost shot out from his feet as ice formed in the air around him, blasted directly into Ending’s face by hurricane-force winds. Her fur went from black to gray as snow began to cling to her, and she squinted into the storm. A moment later there was a bright light, which Alice recognized as Isaac’s salamander, and then a blast of scalding-hot steam washed over her and Ending. Alice hurriedly wrapped herself in the Swarm thread to toughen her skin.

Inside the swirling mist, Ending was barely visible, a dark shape turning slowly and emitting a rising growl. Off to the right, light flared again, and a wave of fire washed over the labyrinthine. Ending spun back, snarling, and lashed out with one paw, but Isaac had faded back into the mist. Another blast of flame came from the other direction. Ending’s fur was starting to smoke.

“Clever,” the labyrinthine growled. “I have to admit.” Her tail lashed. “But I don’t need to see you . . .”

The yellow eyes closed. Alice felt Ending’s touch on the fabric of the labyrinth, and realized what was happening a moment too late—the labyrinthine could sense Isaac that way, even if her vision was clouded. She opened her mouth to shout a warning just as Ending pounced. Alice heard a cry, abruptly cut off, and a thud.

She threw her powers against the bonds holding her, unraveling the twisted space that Ending had wrapped her in. It gave way, but frustratingly slowly. By the time she had her arms free, the cloud of steam was dissipating, and Ending’s dark shape was fully visible, slinking back toward her with something dangling from her mouth.

It was Isaac, hanging limp from her jaws by his battered coat. Ending dropped him in a heap at Alice’s feet. The big cat’s tongue licked out, cleaning a dark spatter of blood from her muzzle.

“Isaac!” Alice shouted. She couldn’t see much of him under his long coat, but he wasn’t moving. She was suddenly back in Esau’s fortress, watching as another labyrinthine casually tore out Jacob’s throat. “Isaac!”

“You want him to live?” Ending said. “Is that it? Stop fighting me, and I’ll grant you that, at least.”

Alice struggled to free her legs. “I’d never trust you,” she spat.

“You don’t have much alternative.” Ending yawned. “I might as well keep him alive, if you cooperate. He’s no threat to me. Not like you are.”

“If you’ve . . . if you’ve hurt him, I’ll kill you,” Alice said, breathing fast. Her right leg came free. “I don’t care what it takes.”

“You won’t, you know,” Ending said, looking on with interest. “This isn’t some stupid storybook where the underdog wins in the end. This is the real world. The strongest do what they want, and everyone else has to live with it. Or”—she glanced significantly at Isaac—“not.”

Alice finally got the last knot in space undone. She was free, but Ending was standing right in front of her, as though daring her to make a move. Isaac lay motionless between them.

“You know me,” Alice said. “You know I won’t give in.”

“And you knew from the start that you couldn’t beat me,” Ending said. “So what are you doing?”

Alice felt the fabric of the labyrinth shiver as someone twisted a pathway from here to there.

“Buying time,” she said.