Timekeeper

by Tara Sim

  Danny remembered the moment when a drop of his blood had touched Colton’s clockwork. The shudder of power, the skip in time. The hint of it at the ruined Maldon tower. The blood he’d spilled in Shere.

  Aetas’s blood spilled into the ocean, and that’s why it’s so salty.

  Danny closed his fist around the cog. Blood seeped onto the metal.

  You have more control than you think.

  He thought of time, of fibers and threads and the small cracks in between. He thought of ticks and tocks and the sound of air when a pendulum swings through it. He thought of movement, and of hands of black iron making a circle, now standing still. He held the cog tight and cut himself deeper, drawing the fibers closer.

  His vision darkened. When it cleared, he inhaled sharply.

  He could see the threads between him and Matthias, and between him and Evaline. He saw one, thin and faded, that stretched toward the clock tower. Toward Colton.

  Danny stood. He looked all around him, noticing in a distant, offhanded way that he was the only thing moving in Enfield. Everything else had become motionless.

  Time fibers crisscrossed one another, like the woven pattern of a tapestry. Danny could see them, the normally pulsing, bright fibers that now thrummed with each pump of his heart.

  He was connected to time.

  Matthias had stopped mid-step. Danny parted the fibers suspended in the air like they were made of gossamer to reach him. Matthias’s face was determined, his mouth pinched and wrinkled at the corners. Both cogs—Enfield’s and Maldon’s—were nestled in his arms, similar in shape but slightly different in color.

  Danny looked around again. The town at his back was frozen. Evaline was crouched, one hand extended to Matthias, her mouth open to call him back. Danny waved a hand before Matthias’s face. Nothing happened.

  “Oh God,” he whispered.

  This isn’t possible. Maybe he had taken one too many blows to the head. To control time, to make it stop completely, was … was …

  Possible.

  As he focused on his connection to the time fibers, he could feel Colton fading faster. Danny was borrowing the spirit’s power, or perhaps Colton was giving it to him. The longer they stayed connected, the more life he leeched from Colton.

  Time to get to work.

  He tried to pull the cogs from of Matthias’s arms, but with no luck. He tugged and tugged, but there was no give. Danny opened his hand and gazed at the little blood-smeared cog, thinking. He got an idea and ran toward the village green.

  Danny searched frantically, barely taking in the people stuck in strange positions. Eventually, he passed a house with a small picket fence. In the yard lay a cricket bat.

  He hopped over the fence with a groan. His body ached. He plucked at the fibers and allowed time to move for just a second, enough to lift the bat from the ground. He froze time again with another quick pluck and headed back for Matthias.

  Danny stood to one side of the man, considering his options. He patted the cricket bat against the sole of his boot, dislodging clods of dirt. When he felt ready, he turned his attention to the time fibers around him and let them drop.

  Matthias had only just finished taking his step when Danny swung the bat with all his strength and landed a juicy thunk on the man’s skull.

  Matthias fell hard. The cogs spilled from his arms, dirt billowing where they skidded along the ground. Before Matthias could recover, Danny pulled in the fibers and everything stopped again.

  Danny walked to the cogs. The dust hovered above them in immovable clouds. He tried to dig his fingers under Colton’s cog to lift it, but it seemed permanently attached to the earth. Danny glanced over his shoulder at Matthias. He could start time and grab the cog, just as he had done with the cricket bat, but that would leave Matthias free to escape once the central cog was installed.

  Colton was fading even faster.

  Danny ran off again. He peeked inside houses, front doors still open after their owners had run out at 11:14. He finally found what he was looking for: on a table beside a box of tools rested a coil of rope. Danny allowed just enough time to pass for him to grab it.

  When he returned, he slowly circled Matthias’s prone body. This decision required more courage than the last one. Taking a deep breath, Danny started time.

  Matthias lay dazed on the ground, but was soon squirming in agony. Danny had only precious seconds, and he quickly grabbed the man’s thick wrists, pulling his arms up until they stuck out behind him. Just as Matthias made to jerk them away, time froze.

  Heart hammering, he wrapped the rope around Matthias’s wrists, leaving just enough slack so that when he restarted time, he was able to cinch the knot tightly.

  Danny pocketed the tiny cog and stepped back to examine his handiwork. Matthias writhed against the ground, rolling onto his side, testing the rope at his wrists.

  “What did you do?” he demanded, more stunned than angry. “Danny?”

  Danny ignored him and walked to the fallen cogs. He picked them up and brushed them off, then handed Evaline hers. She accepted it with both hands, her lips parted.

  “Danny, no!” Matthias yelled. “What did you do? Danny!”

  He made to walk to the tower, Colton’s central cog under his arm, but Matthias’s cries snagged on the last shred of pity he had left. He stopped, sighed, and knelt a safe distance away. Matthias’s hair was coming undone from its queue. His gaze was wild.

  “I’m not sorry,” Danny told him. “You could have made this right three years ago. It was already too late for you.”

  Too late for Matthias to have a happy ending.

  Matthias kept blinking, his eyes gleaming. “I didn’t mean for it to come to this. My fate was to be an old, lonely man with regrets. So I changed that. I had to.”

  He had certainly achieved that goal. But in changing his fate, he had created for himself something even worse.

  “You don’t understand,” Matthias whispered. “Wouldn’t you do anything for the one you love?”

  “Yes, I would. And so I am.”

  Matthias stared at him, defeated, but still proud. Danny thought of all those promises they had made to each other over the years, their pinky fingers twining in their own secret pacts. All the times Matthias had said he would be there for him no matter what.

  He considered breaking the man’s pinky fingers.

  “I’ve never told you how like your father you are,” Matthias said.

  “I’d rather you didn’t.” Danny stood and limped blindly to the tower. He followed the sound of Colton’s voice, the thread between them bright and taut, urging Danny to find him. To be healed.

  Brandon and Daphne were by the clockwork. Colton lay unconscious between them, transparent enough for Danny to see the floor beneath him. They turned at the sound of feet on the stairs, and Brandon raised his fists threateningly. When they saw Danny’s rumpled appearance they relaxed, then cried out when they saw what he carried.

  “Tools,” he croaked to Brandon. The apprentice ran to fetch them.

  It took barely any time. Danny’s body still hummed with hyper-awareness from the fibers, and the thread between him and Colton grew stronger, brighter. He slipped the central cog back into its proper place and nodded to Brandon, who ran to the pendulum room below. The clock was wound—he and Daphne heard the chattering turn of gears—and Danny placed his hand on the central cog.

  Calling in the fibers, time compressed all around them. A gear turned, and then another, until the cogs and gears rolled back into one large, functioning unit.

  Time was released like the first gasp of life.

  Colton’s eyes flew open. He shuddered and sat up, his edges filled in, the golden glow returning to his body. He looked down at himself in amazement. Then he looked straight at Danny with a smile so bright it flooded the tower.

  “You did it!”

  Danny fell to his knees beside him. He grabbed Colton and they both toppled over onto the dusty floor.

 
; “We did it.” He took the cog from his pocket and pressed it to Colton’s chest.

  THE BOY AND THE TOWER

  There was once a golden boy who lived in a golden tower.

  The tower was wrapped with threads of time, so meshed and measured that the boy had to care for them lest they become tangled. The boy stayed in his golden tower as time ticked around him, as he felt the days end and the nights stretch on forever, the earth tremble and fall silent, baked by sun and blanketed by snow.

  One day, a lost boy came to the golden tower. He was alone, and had felt the gentle tug of time. He followed it to the golden boy, and saw the future as he never had before.

  Through this golden boy he saw the sun and the moon and the galaxies that had given birth to everything, the beginning of creation and the end of time. He saw how the world was supposed to be, hanging on every breath, every flutter of a heartbeat, as stars were born and died and born again. He saw the shutter of the sun falling and the whisper of the moon rising. Over and over, until gold and silver blended into a veil through which the world was perfect. A world that was ancient and new.

  A world that was theirs.

  Danny watched the metal balls of the kinetic toy bounce back and forth, back and forth, click-clacking incessantly while he twisted a handkerchief in his hands. The window beyond the Lead’s desk glinted with rare winter sunshine. Papers were scattered across the desk’s surface. Danny tried to read them upside down, but it proved too much for his jumbled mind, and he returned to watching the toy.

  The Lead had kept him waiting again. Danny couldn’t help but think he did this to be dramatic. It was not appreciated.

  Danny began chewing on the end of his handkerchief. He was dressed in his best suit, the silver chain of his timepiece creating a foil against the black waistcoat and trousers. His mother had even applied Macassar oil to his hair in order to make it lie flat, with little success. The battle with the comb had nearly made him late this morning. Not that it mattered now.

  The door opened and he swung around. The Lead saw the handkerchief in his mouth and raised an eyebrow. Danny quickly stuffed it back into his pocket.

  “Daniel,” the Lead sighed, slapping a file onto his desk. “What are we to do with you?”

  Danny swallowed. Although he had been fired from the London Union, there was still the possibility of applying to other cities. One word from the Lead, however, and no one would hire him again.

  “Here you are, my boy. You’ll need it.”

  A cup of tea was set down before him. He hadn’t even noticed the Lead carrying it. He blinked at this offering and peered up uncertainly.

  “Sir?”

  “Drink, Daniel.”

  So he drank. The Lead looked through a few papers, signed a couple of memos. Finally, he reached out and stopped the kinetic toy.

  “Tell me in your own words what happened.”

  Danny had already done this several times, even once to the London authorities. When they showed up at Enfield, they had driven him, along with Brandon and Daphne, back to the city. Another auto had taken Matthias and Evaline. At the station, they had given their witness statements while Evaline was put under close watch.

  Daphne had been let off with a fine after Danny and Brandon vouched for her, and Matthias admitted to tricking her into stealing the cog. There was even a possibility of letting her back into the Union on a probationary period, so long as she kept her head down from now on. Danny had pulled her aside and said he would pay the fine for her, as he’d dragged her into this mess in the first place, even if it meant depleting the rest of his new auto savings.

  She had demanded the full story from him, about how he’d defeated Matthias. “I felt something pass through the time fibers,” she said, blue eyes glinting. “What did you do?”

  He was tired of lying, so he said, “I controlled time.”

  Daphne sighed. “No more games, Danny.”

  “It’s not a game. Believe me or not, it’s the truth.” He’d left with her staring after him, bewildered.

  Matthias was to be tried, and likely had a long, hard imprisonment ahead of him. Danny ought to have felt sorry for him, but he didn’t. Not really. He was only sorry to have lost the man he had admired for so long.

  At least Matthias hadn’t told anyone about Colton. Danny supposed he should be grateful for that.

  When Danny wrapped up his account, taking care not to mention his more intimate involvement with Colton or how he’d connected to time—the latter he still didn’t know how to explain—the Lead stared at his desk. Danny began fidgeting again, pulling at his too-tight collar.

  “I’m sorry to have lost such a valuable mechanic,” the Lead finally said, his words weighted. “He was a fine man, or so I thought. I never would have believed that all this time …” He shook his head. “Daniel, I’m truly sorry. I know the two of you were close.”

  Danny nodded, but said nothing.

  “Maldon, of course, will be freed. You must be pleased.”

  “Sir,” Danny said, “why don’t you just tell me why I’m here?”

  “Very well, then. After what’s happened, I’ve done some thinking. Specifically, thinking about your future as a mechanic.”

  Danny gripped his knees. His fingernails pricked the skin underneath the fabric of his trousers. “Please tell me, sir.”

  And he was told. Danny sat for a moment and weakly asked for the words to be repeated. After a few questions, he left the office with his cap and his coat, neither of which he could remember how to wear. By the time he stood outside in the winter air, thoughts were flooding his mind all at once.

  Danny looked across the square at Big Ben. And smiled.

  “Oh, hell, get on with it!” his mother snapped at his side.

  “Mum, stop it. You’re drawing attention.”

  “I’ll draw as much bloody attention as I please!” Leila took a final drag from her shortened cigarette and dropped it to the grass, stamping it out with a high-heeled boot. Twin plumes of smoke steamed from her nostrils. “They’re taking forever.”

  They stood milling within the crowd that had come to witness the freeing of Maldon. It was rather a difficult thing to witness, as so many had come, and Maldon’s time zone extended quite a ways from the actual town. The authorities hadn’t even brought Evaline to the site yet.

  Danny looked at all the eager faces, some smiling like this was a treat, others as solemn and anxious as his mother. Many here also had family trapped in Maldon, had waited three years for this day to arrive. Danny’s heart did an excited little turn of its own, but he would not breathe properly until Evaline walked through the barrier.

  They weren’t close to the ruins of the other tower. Danny still knew it was there, a landmark of their failure and of Matthias’s betrayal.

  He glanced again at his mother, wringing her hands like the mayor of Enfield had. He took one of them in his own and she looked up, startled.

  “Don’t worry, Mum. It’ll be all right.”

  She smiled faintly and focused again on the barrier. Danny watched it with her, though there was nothing much to see. His eyes bored into the gray sheet that stretched across Maldon, hoping to sense his father beyond the dome.

  “Oh!”

  A train of autos headed for the crowd. The people cheered, and Evaline, in the front seat of the lead auto, looked around in surprise at the noise.

  The guards helped the clock spirit out and escorted her toward the time barrier. Everyone backed away quickly. The ring of guards around Evaline glared at anyone who even looked her way. Evaline walked past the crowd, her head held high, but Danny could see it was not pride; she was facing her own humility.

  Leila’s hand nearly crushed his.

  Evaline paused at the barrier, then scanned the crowd for Danny. When she spotted him she gave a small nod, grief still lingering in her eyes. It would fade, he hoped, in time. But what was time to one who breathed never-ending seconds, minutes, hours?

 
Evaline walked through the barrier. The grayness wavered and the people murmured, expecting it to fall, but it didn’t. Danny knew they still had a long wait ahead.

  “Come on, Christopher,” Leila whispered. “You can do it.”

  Many sat, or spread out blankets as if to watch a fireworks show. Danny paced and bit his thumbnail for at least half an hour. Leila stood in the same spot as if transfixed.

  Just as he was worrying that it might take hours or even days, suddenly the barrier wavered again. Then, in an instant, it fell. The field was finally exposed.

  And beyond it, Maldon.

  “He did it!” Leila screamed. “He did it, Danny!”

  The crowd’s cheers were deafening. Several people ran toward the town, even as the police tried to maintain order. Leila was one of them, Danny not far behind.

  People slowly trickled out of Maldon, unsure of the sudden freedom they had been granted. Many ran back into town at the sight of the oncoming army of friends and relatives, but others hurried forward to be hugged and kissed and to exclaim over how much time had truly passed.

  Danny guarded his mother from elbows and hands as she weaved through the crowd. She reached an empty clearing and looked around.

  “I don’t see him,” she panted. “Do you?”

  “No,” Danny said, “but he’s probably still in the clock tower. Let’s just wait.”

  The crowd thinned. People were either entering the town or whisking away loved ones to continue their reunion in the field. Leila worried her lip so much that Danny feared it would start bleeding.

  He was about to suggest going inside when an arm fell heavily across his shoulders.

  “Hello, and who might this tall lad be?”

  “Dad!”

  “Christopher!”

  They both turned and winded him with their embrace. Christopher Hart laughed and held them as tightly as he could manage.

  “What’re the tears for? It’s only been a day.”

  “A day!” Leila repeated in a near-shriek. “You buffoon, it’s been three bloody years!”