Timekeeper

by Tara Sim

  “Coo. Bit butter upon bacon, isn’t it?” Cassie said under the noise. “What should we do?”

  Danny watched as a well-dressed group took to the dance floor, their loud chatter like the squawking of seagulls. “Use your escape plan, of course.” Her sheepish frown confirmed his suspicions. “Let me guess: you don’t actually have an escape plan.”

  “You know they’ll have chaperones guarding the place. Otherwise all the couples will be off to find themselves a private moment.”

  Frustration welled up inside him. He hated that Cassie had dragged him here, forcing him to mingle with people he didn’t like. People who would turn their noses up at his old suit and laugh behind their fans at his clumsy dancing.

  He looked at Cassie and found her to be equally miserable, and that made him feel better, in the worst way possible.

  “I’m sorry, Cass. I don’t feel well.”

  “Will you tell me what’s the matter?” Someone bumped into them from behind. Realizing they were crowding the entrance, they moved toward the tables laden with food.

  Danny took a deep breath. “It’s about my job.”

  Her fingers tightened on his arm. “You weren’t sacked, were you?”

  “No, not that. But Enfield’s been assigned to someone else. The Lead doesn’t think I can handle it anymore.”

  “That’s not so bad, is it? You said yourself Enfield was small and—” Her eyes widened. “Oh. Your blond fellow.”

  Danny nodded.

  “Can’t you still visit him? Or could he come to London?”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  An automaton stood behind the table, its blank face decorated with a ridiculous black mustache. As they approached, the automaton lifted its head. “Refreshments?” it asked in monotone.

  “Oh, ah, sure,” Cassie said. She checked her hair as the automaton made up a plate, its arms whirring with movement. When Cassie was certain no lock was out of place, she gave Danny another frown. “You’re being this way on purpose, aren’t you?”

  “You caught me. Miserable, brooding Danny, available for one night only! Come on, Cass.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what’s got you so bothered?”

  The automaton handed her a small plate loaded with sugared fruit and a colorful assortment of canapés. “Drink?” it asked.

  “No, that’s quite all right. Listen, Dan—”

  But she was interrupted yet again, this time by a young man with a green silk ascot at his throat. He sent a cool glance in Danny’s direction before bowing to Cassie. “May I have this dance?”

  Cassie looked as though she’d been told she would be the next Queen of England. Her eyes met Danny’s, but he just shrugged.

  “All right,” she agreed faintly. Danny wondered if she had ever danced with a boy other than himself. He suddenly recalled clearing away the furniture in the sitting room when they were younger, Cassie directing him through the steps she’d seen her parents dance at a party.

  “Here,” she hissed, shoving the plate of food at him. “Don’t you dare laugh at me!”

  She took the young man’s arm and they walked off, Cassie a little unsteady beside the confident gait of her partner.

  Cassie proved to be somewhat graceful, and she even let the boy lead. Danny picked at her food as he watched, and his bad mood nearly snuck away from him. But then he wondered what it would be like to be here with Colton. If he weren’t a clock spirit, but a human boy, living and breathing and able to eat delicious, if impractical, finger foods.

  He imagined leading Colton across the floor, stepping and swirling in time to each sprawling note, the bend of a smiling mouth, the glimmer of golden eyes. His hand on Colton’s waist to draw him close. The glow of the chandelier catching their edges and setting them alight.

  Danny set the plate down, no longer hungry.

  The song ended and Cassie curtsied awkwardly to her partner. They exchanged a few words before Cassie made her way back to Danny, flushed and out of breath.

  “That I should not like to repeat,” she said, fanning her face.

  “You liked it.”

  She opened her mouth to deny it, but at that moment Danny heard his name. Turning, he spotted a few apprentices and a mechanic moving toward them.

  “All right, Danny?” Lucas asked. His brown hair had been slicked back, and his eyes were bright. He sounded friendly enough, but made no attempt to hide a smug smile.

  Danny recognized this group. They weren’t exactly the kindest crowd in the Mechanics Union. A blonde apprentice clung to Lucas’s arm, eyeing Cassie. The girl’s upper lip curled.

  “All right,” Danny replied cautiously. “Didn’t know you’d be here, Lucas.”

  “Sure. Smart thing to do, isn’t it? Socialize, meet other successful young people like ourselves. Well, nearly all of us, anyway.”

  Danny narrowed his eyes. “Are you suggesting something?”

  “Oh, not at all. You’re a young mechanic, Danny, and plenty successful. Bar that one minor incident, of course.” He tapped his chin, and Danny wished he could cover his own. “Some of the others, though …” Lucas followed his companion’s gaze to Cassie, who tightened her hand on Danny’s elbow. “What’s this? I thought you weren’t for the ladies, Danny.”

  “I’m his friend,” Cassie said, her voice cold enough to ice over the punch bowls. “We’ve known each other since we were children.”

  “How sweet,” Lucas said. “Now I see why you don’t like ladies.”

  Danny shook off Cassie’s hand and stepped forward. He was as tall as Lucas, but that’s where their similarities ended. Lucas boasted a broad chest and thick arms. Danny wouldn’t last long against him.

  “Don’t!” Cassie whispered. “It’s not worth it.”

  “What did you mean by that, Lucas?” Danny growled.

  Lucas held up his hands. “Only that with such a fine lady in your sights for so long, all other women must have been spoiled for you.” The others grinned.

  Damn Lucas. Damn him and his stupid, long eyelashes.

  “How have the assignments been?” Lucas asked. “You were in Enfield, weren’t you?”

  The town’s name made Danny’s heart stutter.

  “I was in Guildford, myself. Rather nice clock tower there, if you haven’t been. But that’s beans compared to the new assignment they’ve put me on.”

  “And where might that be?”

  “The new Maldon tower.”

  The room came to a standstill. Though others danced and talked and laughed all around them, Danny stood in a pocket of stillness, deprived of his senses except for the ring of one crucial question: Why?

  “He’s chosen you?” The words strangled his throat. “You?”

  “Why, Danny, I thought you’d be happy for me.” Lucas’s smile turned cruel. “Maybe if you’re extra good, I’ll tell the Lead you ought to assist me there. Teach you a thing or two. After all, you need more friends.”

  “You must be his only one,” an older apprentice said to Cassie. Danny remembered him from his classes. “He never visits anyone else except that old washed-out mechanic.”

  “And an unknown chap in Rotherfield,” Lucas added with amusement.

  “Stop it!”

  “There was that one fellow,” Lucas drawled. “Barnaby, was it? You two were rather close, weren’t you? Until they relocated him, anyway. Such a sweet little couple, we always said.”

  Danny flushed, then turned pale. The sudden shift was so similar to the heat and chill of a fever that his body began to tremble. Lucas had been walking down the hall when Barnaby had given Danny his second-ever kiss. Lucas had looked into the empty classroom just in time to see it.

  That had been before Danny had felt comfortable with others knowing his secret. They’d begged Lucas not to tell.

  Danny should have known better.

  “Bit brave of you, doing that in a classroom,” Lucas went on. “We all thought you and Barnaby were such shy lit
tle things. Imagine my surprise when I saw him pawing at you like an animal!”

  They laughed at Danny’s stunned face.

  “Darling, I think he’s about to burst into tears,” Lucas’s companion loudly whispered into his ear.

  Danny did nothing of the sort. Instead, he grabbed Lucas by the shirt and punched him in the eye.

  The people around them screamed. Lucas staggered and nearly fell, but Danny caught him and clouted the side of his head. Lucas regained his senses and sank a fist into Danny’s stomach, winding him. Cassie wrenched Danny back as a whistle sounded. Two chaperones elbowed the crowd out of the way.

  “He hit me!” Lucas whined. He had dropped dramatically to the floor upon their arrival, one hand covering his eye, hair in disarray, companion fretting at his side.

  “Explain yourself,” a chaperone demanded.

  “It’s not his fault,” Cassie pleaded when Danny remained silent. “This lot was provoking him!”

  “That’s no reason to come to blows. Come along, then.”

  “But he hit back!” Cassie pointed at Lucas, who had somehow managed to work up tears. He should have been a bloody actor.

  “Did anyone else see this young man fight back?” Of course, Lucas’s friends shook their heads, even though Danny was doubled up clutching his stomach. “There we have it.”

  The chaperones escorted Danny out of the building. It seemed he’d found an escape route after all. His head spun, and the dark, narrow streets of London blurred together. He shrugged their hands off his shoulders.

  “Give us your pass, please.”

  He thrust the crumpled paper at them.

  “Daniel Hart?”

  He nodded.

  “We’ll be letting your parents know about this.”

  Danny turned toward his auto. Go ahead, he thought, tell them. One of them doesn’t give a damn, and the other is frozen in time.

  He kept clenching and unclenching his hand. The other—the one he’d slugged Lucas with—throbbed painfully, and his stomach ached where he’d been hit. Danny had never punched anyone in his life before tonight. Matthias had once taught him how, in case he found himself in a situation like this one, but he had never warned Danny how his knuckles would bruise and split.

  He had to get away. Looking around, Danny realized an unsettling yellow fog had descended. It was the type of fog people could get lost in. In fact, several had ended up drowning in the Thames this way. His lungs hurt, and his head was woozy, but there was no way to tell if it was from the poisonous fog or his own desperation.

  Finally, he recognized his auto and hurried to it, guided by a desire as sharp as hunger. He wanted to drive through London, through the fog and the night, all the way to Enfield. He wanted to see Colton.

  The new idea took hold and he ran faster, wincing when his stomach protested.

  Enfield. To hell with what the Lead said; Danny would go tonight. He’d stay with Colton in his tower, learn how to be a shut-in, a recluse. They could have all the next day to practice reading, and Danny would tell him stories of London, and listen to the local gossip.

  Danny hopped into the driver’s seat. The auto gave a promising little jump, then quieted. He tried again and again, but it wouldn’t start. The fog had done something to it.

  He yelled into the night air, then got out and kicked a tire in vexation. His toes twinged, but he couldn’t stop.

  “You damned—piece of—rubbish!” He punctuated each breath with a kick. “You’re never—here—when I need you!”

  What did any of them know about him? That he preferred blokes, that he had no friends, that his father had left him forever.

  The saddest thing about it all was that his father wasn’t even dead. No—his father was trapped in time, unmoving, a memory.

  And now he couldn’t do the one thing that might free him. He had been too caught up in himself, in Colton. Putting Enfield before his own father.

  “Oy, what’s going on here? This your auto?”

  Two constables had seen what he was doing and approached to investigate. Danny stood panting in the cold night air, glaring at them both, his breath bursting into white clouds.

  “Yes, it’s my bloody auto,” he said. “’Course it’s mine, it’s a piece of shit, isn’t it?”

  “That’s quite the mouth on you, young man.”

  “Shove off.”

  They were threatening to take him in when they heard the rapid clatter of a woman’s shoes. Cassie emerged from the fog, out of breath.

  “Please, he’s had a rough night,” she told the constables. “I promise I’ll see him home.” They grumbled for a moment, then let him go with a warning.

  Danny straightened his jacket and turned to Cassie. Her face was blank, but he could tell she was disappointed in him.

  “Auto won’t start,” he said, looking away.

  She went to the boot for her tools. They had expected something like this to happen. As she propped the bonnet open and began to tinker, Danny leaned against the auto. Now that his anger had burned off, he could feel the cold and started shivering. Even the throbbing in his hand grew more intense, a sickening starburst of pain.

  “I’m sorry,” Cassie said. “I know how badly you wanted the Assignment.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Sure. Beating on a bloke tends to mean everything’s fine.”

  “It’s just …” He dragged his uninjured hand through his hair, clutching it until his scalp ached. “What the hell am I supposed to do now? I can’t go to the Maldon tower. I can’t even go to Enfield.”

  “Is it really so hard for you?” Cassie asked, glancing at him as she worked. “Not going to Enfield.”

  “You wouldn’t understand, Cass.”

  “Wouldn’t I?”

  “No, you wouldn’t. No one does.” Except for Matthias, he remembered with a pinch of shame. Matthias would know how this felt.

  He watched the brick wall across the street and listened to the clanks and scrapes of Cassie’s work. There was a pause, then she swore. Danny turned and saw her staring at the internal components, her shoulders shaking. She went back in and checked every piece, every connection, every screw, every valve. Then again. And again.

  “Cass.” Danny gently pried her tools from her hands. Her white gloves were now stained with grease. He wrapped one arm around her, tucking her under his chin. It was the way he’d held her when she told him William was dead. She breathed hard, and he could feel the cold sweat on her temple.

  “You’ve done enough,” he told her. “It’s fine. I’ll be all right.”

  They stayed like that as the noxious fog rolled in, thick and oppressive. Eventually, Cassie swallowed and stepped back. She ran her sleeve under her nose, an unladylike gesture that would have given both their mothers conniptions.

  “Thanks,” she said thickly. He nodded. “Listen, Danny … if it’s so important to you, then why don’t you just find out who the new mechanic is and ask to switch?”

  He leaned back on his heels. “What?”

  “Find out who’s going to replace you and convince them to let you go instead. Whatever assignments you get, they can have, and their Enfield assignments can be yours.” She took a deep breath. “Right,” she said to the auto, closing the bonnet and kissing the top. “That’s a fix for you, then. And you?” She looked at Danny. “Is that a good enough fix for you?”

  He thought about it, then nodded. “Cass, you’re brilliant.”

  “Don’t tell me what I already know.”

  He had been wrong about his mother not caring. When she got the call about Danny’s behavior at the social, she ordered him to sit at the kitchen table. She lit a cigarette. The smoke wafted his way and he coughed.

  They were silent for a long time. Finally, Leila said, “Why?”

  “He was being an arse.”

  “Danny, please.”

  “What do you want me to say, Mum? He was being rude to Cass. How could I let him get away with that?”r />
  “Hitting him was not the solution. You should have reported him to a chaperone.”

  Danny almost laughed at that, thinking back to Rotherfield and how the constable had been willing to accept Lucas’s word over his own.

  “Oh, now it’s all so clear! Let me just pull apart time and go back to that moment—”

  “Danny!” Her voice cracked, and he winced.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  She took a long pull off her cigarette, then snuffed it out on a copper ashtray. “What did he say to you?”

  He watched her expression as he told her, but it didn’t change.

  “Don’t waste your thoughts on him, Danny. He isn’t important.”

  “You agree with them, don’t you? You think it’s strange, me being this way. You think I do it just to make your life harder.”

  “I never said that.”

  “You think it.”

  She took out another cigarette.

  You lost your temper, the gesture said.

  She lit a match.

  You told him to go, the flame whispered.

  She took a long, slow drag.

  He’s gone because of you, the smoke sighed.

  He stood up from the table. “I’m heading to bed.”

  “Danny …” They stared at each other, but Leila eventually looked away. The unspoken whispers followed him out the kitchen, up the stairs, orbiting above his bed like twin desolate planets.

  Your fault.

  AETAS AND THE SKY GOD

  Aetas had never stood on a cloud before. The desire coursed through him with a sensation humans might have likened to hunger, so he emerged from the ocean and called for his brother.

  Caelum descended from the sky. He soared on wings that branched from his arms in feathers of deep topaz streaked with veins of silver, like the halo of a storm cloud when the sun sits behind it. His skin was the deep blue of the night sky, freckled with white star-like diamonds. They winked and shone as he turned toward his golden brother.