Ahead of her, Rupert disappeared down the stairwell. Arachne had stayed behind with her spiders. They had eaten—but only cheese and a dry brick of strange bread. It would have been too hard to chew if Cyrus hadn’t dipped each bite in water. Rupert had said that it was fortified and would fortify. He’d also said that he needed to know how their bodies reacted to it while they were still in a controlled environment. Cryptic, but Cyrus hadn’t cared. He’d been hungry enough to eat anything, but a steaming pile of noodles from the dining hall would have come back up as quickly as he pushed it down. Antigone shoved back her hair with a headband and put on a linen safari shirtdress that Diana had given her. She belted it at the waist and pulled on caramel-colored boots. Cyrus wore straight trousers, his own shorter boots, and a black cotton tee with the Polygoner monkey on the chest under his flight jacket. Once clothed, Rupert had them heading for the Galleria without much explanation.
