“It’s rare for me to receive visitors.” Nick shot me a sly grin. “Did you arrive through one of the portals?”
“I—no.” One of the portals? What was this place? “I traveled by using an unofficial object.” I pointed to my glasses.
He nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. “Is there some way I can help you, friend?” His smile was a challenge, but it was neither threatening nor unfriendly; he must have thought me stupid.
“I’m searching for someone who I fear may be lost. My uncle suggested that I continue my search at the Clock Tower. He said the tower would show me the way.”
Nick looked up at the tower. “Without more to go on, that could take some time. The Everywhen expands at an alarming rate.” He pointed to an object on the tower about the size of a pearl. “See this? A new timepiece, representing a tiny world just starting out.”
“What purpose does the Clock Tower serve other than to keep an ornamental record of all the worlds?”
“It’s more than pretty, friend. The Clock Tower can transport you to any of the worlds; but you have to have some idea of where you’re going.”
“How’s that?”
Nick smiled. “The tower is an interactive map of sorts.” He brushed his hand across a silver pocket watch—gargantuan in size—that stuck out of the lower side of the Clock Tower. The watch glowed with his touch, then faded when he turned back to me. “Each timepiece is a portal to the world represented.”
Shame filled me as realization set in. I’d climbed the tower, held symbols of the worlds in my hands and stepped on them with my feet. Some of the worlds I may have built myself. If Nick told the truth, I could have been transported anywhere. Yet there I stood at the foot of the tower, surrounded by purple haze. Then again, nothing I’d touched had glowed.
Either way I felt I’d violated Nick’s property. “I apologize. Had I known, I wouldn’t have touched the timepieces, not without your guidance.”
“No harm done, friend. Like any door, the portals need to be opened before one can travel through them.”
“You mean unlocked, with a key?”
“Yes. When the last Time Keeper moved on, I became the official keeper.” He bowed. “I am the key.”
How strange. In all my travels I hadn’t met anyone like him. If the worlds were as vast and numerous as they seemed to be, I supposed it made sense. “How are you able to unlock the portals?”
“It’s an inherited travel talent, one that Aboreal doesn’t look upon kindly.” He sniffed. “They equate the ability with witchery or sorcery—”
“Like World Builders,” I said, pointing to myself. The significance of how the two talents worked together hadn’t escaped me.
He nodded and rubbed his lip. “If only we’d been born Chauffeurs—”
“Or Detail Technicians—”
“Loop Blockers, perhaps.”
“Or Remnant Transporters,” I whispered, thinking of Calla.
Nick’s eyes widened. “You’ve met one?”
“Two. My friend and his daughter. They’re of Chascadian descent.”
He chewed on my words for a moment. “Are they the ones you seek to find?”
“I’m sure Plaka’s fine wherever he is without me. I’m looking for his daughter, Calla.”
The muscles along Nick’s jaw twitched. “The girl—she means something to you.”
I nodded. “I don’t know where she is. I’ve tried time traveling to her. Even if she’s lost, she must be somewhere.” My hands involuntarily balled into fists. “I’ll search through every portal if I have to.”
“For that, you’ll need a key.”
“Will you help me, Time Keeper?”
“I’m happy to show you how I read the portals and travel through. I can accompany you, but visiting every world is impossible, even if we were to travel backward in time. There are too many places to search.”
I gulped, feeling a flash of pain behind my eyes. “So you’re saying there’s no hope of finding her?”
Nick grabbed my shoulders. “Pull it together, friend. All I’m saying is that you need to focus your search. For that, we’ll need a place to start, a beginning of sorts.”
NICK SHOWED me a door, not a portal, but an actual door that led inside the Clock Tower. Wonders never cease.
We climbed a staircase that wound up along the interior wall of the tower, until we reached his home. It resembled an apartment loft with a bunk bed and scattered floor pillows. A countertop that doubled as a dining table sat off to the side, opposite a desk and a black-and-white trunk crafted in a style I’d seen in Aboreal.
I brought Nick up to speed on everything that had happened—Plaka’s role as my friend and healer, his order that I protect his family, the Uproar’s involvement, the history of the travel glasses, Calla’s infraction and sentencing and our search for Plaka. Where necessary, I highlighted details from my upbringing at the White Tower and Calla’s visits to past versions of me.
Nick listened with interest. He did not appear to pass judgment. If anything, his countenance remained calm and kind, his demeanor breaking only when I raised two subjects that seemingly troubled him.
The first of these topics was the TSTA. Had Plaka been present at our chat inside the Clock Tower, he would have found a follower in Nick. Both shared the same disdain for the TSTA. This I found strange given that, unlike me, neither Nick nor Plaka had been formally charged with an infraction or ordered to carry out a sentence.
The second demeanor-breaking moment occurred when I mentioned Ivory as having been sentenced to join our team. Nick seemed particularly interested in the details of her hearing and conviction of a contributory infraction. “She, too, is Aborealian,” I’d said. If he had further interest in Ivory after his initial surprise at the mention of her name, he didn’t show it. His face remained stoic, the chill of winter highlighting his hair and eyes.
THE KEY and I exited the Clock Tower.
“How do you unlock the portals?”
Nick smirked. “Time Keeping is a method of reading. I’m able to locate Everywheres on the Clock Tower and unlock portals into those worlds. The tricky part is figuring out the exact time within the Everywhen.”
“Where do you suggest we begin?”
“From what you’ve told me so far, I would recommend seeking the help of those you trust, starting with the present. A search party of sorts.”
Inwardly, I groaned. A direct route to Calla seemed more unlikely all the time. Edgar had led me to Nick. Now Nick wanted a search party. I groaned again, this time externally, audibly, wondering how many more travelers I’d need to pick up along the way. I could count the number of living persons I trusted on one hand. I didn’t want to bother any of them.
“We need a place to start, friend.”
“Let’s start with Ray. He’s been working on one of the TSTA’s elite intelligence teams. He cares for Calla. He may have learned something by now. If that fails, it’s likely he’ll be able to put us in touch with Ivory.”
Nick’s eyes darkened as his chin dipped in an uncertain nod. “A fine start. Let’s get on with it then.” He turned to the tower. “If I remember correctly, the TSTA’s timepiece is blue with gold lettering. They like to believe themselves timeless, and so they’ve adopted a classic look.”
He climbed the tower. Timepieces lit up as they made contact with his hands; they faded again after he failed to show them additional attention. A quarter of the way up the tower, Nick stopped. He motioned for me to follow.
As I climbed, careful not to disturb any of the timepieces more than I had to, I suppressed a chuckle. I’d expected Nick to go farther, up to the compass I’d seen at the center of the tower. Perhaps the TSTA wasn’t the center of the worlds it thought it was.
“Here,” said Nick. His finger pointed to a dark blue clock, the size of a dinner plate, with Roman numerals on it. The numbers and clock hands were gold, as were engravings of the words Everywhere and Everywhen. I’d seen its likeness before, o
n a wristwatch—the one the TSTA had given Calla before sending us to search for her father.
“I have no doubt that this is the one. Good work,” I said. “How do we get through?”
“Patience, friend. I’ll show you.” Nick reached out and touched the clock. Immediately, it began to glow. First white, followed by red, then blue. The light emanating from the clock obscured the numbers and writing until it resembled an electrically charged disk, with veins of purple like an electrostatic ball.
“It’s ready,” said Nick. “We can pass through to Ray’s present whereabouts at TSTA Headquarters.”
“What about security? The TSTA is—”
Nick tilted his head back and laughed. “Part of the fun of being both a traveler and a Time Keeper is the ability to bend certain rules and, shall I say, physical principles. It’s a…privilege of sorts.” He reached his hand through the disk. “The charges are ready; they’re quite tingly inside this portal. Follow me, feet first.”
I watched as Nick repositioned himself and stepped through the disk, leaving one hand outside which he waved at me. Feet first? Unlikely. I grasped his hand.
The portal sucked me into a purple-blue tunnel. Electrical charge prickled my skin. Sizzling and popping sounds crackled in the air. All of this happened briefly, before turning into a familiar glow of white light.
I fell forward. My face smacked into a slick, hard surface. Someone tugged me upward.
“I warned you, friend. Feet first.”
Grinding my teeth, I answered, “I suppose the landing would have been softer had you been holding my foot through the tunnel?”
Nick frowned. “Have I given you any reason not to trust me?”
“No, you haven’t.” I shook out the tension in my arms. “Fine. Do we need to ground here?”
He shook his head.
“No?”
“Now you know why Aborealians liken this method of travel to sorcery.”
At that moment, everything I thought I knew about travel changed. “I see.”
A throat cleared behind me. Nick and I spun around.
“Valcas?” A blond male, with eyes of dark blue, much like the face of the TSTA clock, stared at me. Cautiously and intensely. He sat at a desk larger than most tables, with his hands suspended in the air, frozen above a laptop keyboard. The wall behind him was covered with shelves filled with books and binders. The spaces in between were stuffed with tubes that looked like maps and architectural drawings.
Ray stood and approached me without breaking eye contact. “Is there news about Calla?”
“No. I’m sorry. But I brought someone who I hope can help.”
He stared at Nick for a long moment before speaking, then held out a hand. “I’m Benjamin Raymond, lead—”
“You’re the Detail Technician Valcas told me about—the one who can capture recordings with nothing more than your mind.” Nick wriggled his fingers around his head as he said this, and then grinned, shaking Ray’s entire arm. “I hear you go by the nickname, Ray.”
“Yes, and you’re—”
“An expatriate of Aboreal,” I said. “He goes by a nickname as well. It just so happens that he’s given himself the nickname Nick.”
Ray laughed. “Pleased to meet you, Nick.” He looked around. “How did you manage to get through security and not cause an impact from your arrival, Valcas?”
“We didn’t travel here with the travel glasses. We came through a portal, unlocked by Nick. He’s a Time Keeper.”
Ray flinched, breaking his gaze on Nick. “I haven’t heard of such a talent. There’s no documentation…in the records.”
“I prefer to keep it that way, friend.”
“I don’t see any reason to challenge that,” I added. “Nick’s travel ability can help us find the portal that will lead us to Calla. I visited a silhouette of my uncle Edgar. He told me to go to the Clock Tower. There, I found Nick and learned of his travel talent. The problem is that there’s not enough time to search all of the portals. Ray, I thought you might be able to help narrow our search.”
“You know I’d do anything for Calla,” he said. He lowered his head. “But I’ve failed. I’ve found nothing.”
I understood his disappointment all too well. “We just need a lead. Are there any TSTA records of what happens to individuals who become lost?”
“If there are, I’m sure the information’s classified, a top level that I don’t have access to yet. I’ve advanced in the ranks more quickly than anyone in history but... I’m sorry, Valcas, I’m just not there yet.”
“It’s all right, Ray. We just need to find a work-around.”
Nick clapped me on the back. “That’s the spirit!”
I squeezed my forehead. “Have you kept in touch with Ivory? We may need to reunite our prior team. Wouldn’t hurt to get Plaka in on this too.”
Ray shook his head as Nick’s smirk subsided. “Ivory and I were really good about having lunch together shortly after we found Plaka and left Edgar’s workshop.” He shrugged. “Then I guess we both got busy. The lunches became less frequent until they stopped.”
“What time of day is it now?”
“Late morning.”
“Can you contact Ivory? We could meet in the cafeteria.”
“Yeah, sure.” Ray walked off, presumably in search of a telephone or a similar communications device.
Nick sat at the desk and cradled his head in his hands.
“We can grab lunch while we chat,” I said. “You look like you could use refreshment. Ivory’s always up for eating.”
He sighed. “Suddenly, friend, I don’t have much of an appetite.”
NICK, RAY and I idled in the cafeteria, three guys as different as night, day and whatever time scheme applied to the Clock Tower. We sat in silence, awaiting that one special woman who could help us out, or beat the crap out of us, depending on her mood.
Ivory’s arrival reminded me how much time had passed.
She looked like she did when I’d first met her, back when she was in the Aborealian military. Her hair—white like Nick’s—hung loosely around her shoulders instead of cropped in the sassy style I’d grown accustomed to behind the Fire Falls. Her jaw was tightly set.
Black eyes pitched daggers in our direction. I took a double take, hoping the daggers weren’t meant for me.
The headlock that ensued was brutal.
My mouth hung open as Nick struggled to release himself from Ivory’s grip. He murmured something unintelligible between gasps, all while she ranted a string of Aborealian curses that would make a pirate blush.
I held out a hand to still Ray, who’d gotten up to help. As for who he wanted to help, I wasn’t sure; I knew firsthand not to get in the way of Ivory’s targets. Best to let her wrath run its course.
When finished, Ivory pushed Nick from her and wiped tears from her eyes.
Nick, still sitting, gulped for air as he rubbed his neck and throat. “That was one heck of a hug, love. Breathtaking.”
“Why are you here, Trav?” Ivory’s breath hitched. “You can’t be here.”
My left eye twitched. “Trav?”
Nick coughed before mumbling, “It’s short for Travertine, friend.”
His real name, then. It made sense given his hair color. The purest form of travertine was white, just like ivory.
“It’s Nick now.”
Ivory swallowed and closed her eyes. She swept her hands across her cheeks and sniffled. “I wasn’t supposed to see you again. Not after you left Aboreal.”
Nick smirked as she nervously looked around the cafeteria.
“What happened? Why aren’t you in hiding?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned on me and Ray. “Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing Trav with you to lunch?”
I shrugged, meeting Nick’s eyes. “Because I didn’t know his name.”
“Times have changed, love. Travertine is no more.”
Ivory sat down and squeezed her forehead with her hands.
“This changes everything.”
“You won’t help us?” The pain on Ray’s face was profound.
“It’s not that. I can get the time off. We both can.” She gave Ray a sharp look, clearly with meaning behind it that I wasn’t privy to. “We can’t talk about this here. It’s not safe.”
“Very well,” I said. “Are you up for a short trip back to Nick’s…place?”
Nick grinned. “I promise there’s nowhere like it. No rules, no surveillance. No friends either, but it suits me just fine.”
Ivory glowered.
“Don’t smolder with thine eyes like that, love. It’ll only encourage my asking you to stay with me forever.”
She gave him a shove. “Stop it. You already know I want that.”
Ray and I exchanged a glance. His eyes flickered with an understanding that was just beginning to sink in for me.
I’d never met any of Ivory’s past love interests—had never thought of what such a love interest might be. A life partner for Ivory would need to be secure enough to match her confidence, relaxed enough to counter-balance her stringent military persona and smart enough to know when to back off. Not to mention Nick enough to make her burst into tears. Someone Ivory would lay down her life for, someone she’d protect no matter the cost.
Ivory was charged with a TSTA infraction for having committed an Overwrite, a contributory infraction. I’d watched from the mezzanine level of the Hearing Chamber, on the same day Calla was sentenced to help me find Plaka. Ivory was tight-lipped and livid. She’d avoided telling Commissioner Reese why she’d created the Overwrite and who she was protecting. Her Overwrite had been so effective that the TSTA hadn’t figured out who he was.
How ironic that the object of Ivory’s protection sat there with me inside TSTA Headquarters. Nick kept up his calm demeanor. But I was certain he knew, as I did now, that we needed to leave the TSTA as soon as possible.
Perhaps the TSTA couldn’t find the slice in time that would suffice as evidence. This didn’t surprise me, now that I’d seen the Clock Tower and gained a better understanding of how many worlds we were dealing with, ever-growing and limitlessly sliced.
Time for the Lost Page 4