The Palace of Glass Read Online Free Page B

half-cats obviously are. And I’ll have you know that my siblings and I are a vital part of the defenses of the library.”
    â€œDefenses against rodents, you mean.”
    â€œCan you see Master Geryon out here chasing the little terrors down himself?”
    Alice chuckled, and Ashes hopped to the ground beside her, circling her ankles.
    â€œWell?” the cat said. “Are we going to walk all the way there?”
    â€œYou’re going to get fat if you keep being so lazy.”
    â€œYou say that like it’s a bad thing. For cats, being fat just means that you’re winning.”
    Alice grinned and reached out for the strange, slipperyfabric of the labyrinth. Searching the library for scraps of magical power that had ripened in the vast collection since the last time she’d come through was still one of her primary duties, whenever Geryon didn’t have a more important errand for her. It had grown much easier, however, since her return from Esau’s fortress. Not only had her ability to sense the magic from a distance grown as her own power had expanded, but the Dragon’s labyrinthine abilities also let her step across the library in moments. Ending’s power over her own labyrinth was superior, obviously, but Alice could twist space as she liked as long as the labyrinthine didn’t stop her. It was one way she managed to fit in her lessons in Writing while still finding enough magic to satisfy Mr. Wurms.
    It was also a power Geryon knew nothing about. She’d kept it secret when she’d come back from Esau’s, in spite of a few probing questions from her master about how, exactly, she’d defeated Torment. The more he didn’t know, she reasoned, the easier he would be to fool.
    She gripped the fabric in her mind, folding it over just around the next corner, so that
here
became
there
. Ashes stepped ahead of her through the gap—he seemed to be able to sense the fabric as well, presumably as a result of his half-labyrinthine ancestry. Alice rounded the cornerand passed into familiar territory, an aisle between two tight-packed shelves that led to Mr. Wurms’ table.
    They found him sitting at his table, as always. He looked like an older man in a black suit, with a high, shiny forehead and thick spectacles, but Alice knew now that he wasn’t really human. Like Mr. Black, the big, surly groundskeeper, he was a magical creature in Geryon’s employ—not something the Reader had pulled out of a prison-book, the way Alice could summon the Swarm or Spike, but an intelligent being who’d agreed to serve.
    He looked up at her approach, a cloud of dust rising from his clothes at the slight motion. Mr. Wurms spent most of his time filling thick leather volumes with tiny, precise script, only his fingers moving. When he saw Alice, he made an effort to smile, showing a mouth full of rotting teeth.
    The first time she’d come to the library, Alice had been afraid of Mr. Wurms. There was a
hunger
about him, and his eyes, huge and blurry behind his spectacles, bored into hers in a way that made her uncomfortable. Now, though, Alice realized he was deliberately avoiding her gaze and his long, thin fingers twitched nervously.
    He’s afraid,
she thought.
He’s afraid of me.
    â€œMs. Creighton,” Mr. Wurms said in his rasping,German-accented voice. “Have you had a good day’s hunting?”
    â€œFair,” Alice said. The swarmers rushed past her, stacking the books beside the table. Controlling so many of the little creatures was always a challenge, especially on a complex task, and Alice felt a touch of pride when they finished the pile without a single book toppling.
    â€œGood, good.” Mr. Wurms set his pen down and closed his ledger with a
thump
. Alice was taken aback. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him stop writing. “Our presence has been requested at the house this afternoon. The master wishes to