by C. S. Quinn
Neptune to here. Saturn to here.
Carefully Janus entered the planetary positions of the eclipse. But as he reached the right configuration of the stars, moving the moon into position, nothing happened.
Anger boiled up.
It must be right. His planetary placements were perfect.
Frantically he moved the pegs again, checking his workings. Still nothing. Janus slammed his fist into the front of the box. The sturdy brass shell barely moved.
Then he realised. There was only one man in London who carried the code.
Janus had a sudden terrible premonition.
Charlie Tuesday. What if he’s found the rings and solved Thorne’s clues? He might track the Eye here and steal my birthright after all.
Desperately Janus took out his knife, determined to prize apart the box by force. It was only then he saw how expertly Thorne had protected the Eye.
The box had been integrated into the workings of the clock. Janus’s fingers followed the mechanism to be sure. Attempt to open the box by force and a spring-loaded mechanism would shunt it forwards. The huge hands of the astronomical clock would pass through a narrow aperture skilfully banding the centre of the box. Anything inside would be crushed. The precious Eye would be destroyed forever.
Janus pondered for a moment. He was certain only Charlie Tuesday could enter Thorne’s code. He wondered if the thief taker even understood what he knew.
Charlie Oakley. The golden boy.
His mind turned the problem around, thinking of ways to trick the information out of Charlie Tuesday. Then a possible solution presented itself.
The answer was so obvious he almost laughed out loud. Saturn was not a god of action and movement. He was passive, acquisitive. Janus must sit back and let his enemy gather the spoils, then move in and take them from him.
Use the thief taker. His lucky stars will lead you to the prize.
The more Janus thought about it, the more sense it made. Perhaps this was what the prophecy meant all along. Jupiter and Saturn. Life and Death. And death always triumphed in the end.
Chapter 93
Charlie and Lily were standing outside the clock tower at Greenwich Palace. Above them the huge clock ticked the minutes away.
It was seven minutes until midnight struck.
‘The clock shows planetary movements,’ said Lily. She was pointing to a moving circle of spheres on the clock face. The gold hands and circles made an intricate dance around one another, shifting planets and tidal times as the year went on.
‘It’s the rest of the prophecy,’ said Charlie, referring to the shapes of Saturn and Jupiter heading towards one another in a gold orbit.
When tide and time a circle make
And dread Saturn seals Jupiter’s fate
Then luck will break and time will end
And mighty Heavens the world will bend
‘When Saturn meets Jupiter,’ explained Charlie. ‘At midnight on All Hallows’ Eve,’ he said, pointing, ‘those planets will collide on the face of the clock. Look at the angles. The clock will break at midnight. Time will stop. Thorne altered this whole clock to be one giant countdown.’
‘The eclipse,’ said Lily. ‘Thorne must have plotted the star charts nineteen years ago.’
Instinctively they looked up. The full moon was now painted almost entirely blood red.
‘The Eye is destroyed at midnight,’ said Charlie. ‘It must be somewhere inside the mechanism for Thorne’s hiding place to work. A place that will change when the clock strikes twelve. That only really leaves the mechanism.’
‘Then we must hurry,’ said Lily.
Charlie and Lily moved around the edge of the tower. There was a large door, which appeared to be locked. But when Charlie reached for the handle, it turned easily.
He hesitated. ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ he said. ‘It’s too easy.’
‘There’s no time,’ said Lily. ‘We have minutes.’
A black corridor opened ahead of them. It was littered with broken swords and shields.
‘Come on,’ said Charlie grimly. ‘I recognise this place. It’s this way.’
They moved through the corridor into the large room of Charlie’s dreams.
Lily pointed to a small door set at the back, adjoining where the clock tower would rise. To the side was a lever, and unthinkingly Charlie reached towards it and pulled.
The heavily bolted door clicked and rumbled from somewhere deep in its depths.
‘How did you know to do that?’ asked Lily as the door swung open.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Charlie. Something else came into his mind, but he resisted saying it out loud.
If I know how to get in the tower, so does Janus.
Inside, the narrow clock tower was crammed with spinning cogs and whirling movements. Charlie scanned the dark confines for something that didn’t seem part of the working movement. It didn’t take him long to find, perched high at the top of the tower.
‘Up there!’ he pointed triumphantly, where they could see the outside clock face reversed. ‘There’s something set high up.’
‘Let’s go,’ said Lily, looking at the clock face. The hands were nearly at midnight.
They raced up a narrow wooden staircase that took them to the very top of the clock tower. And as they reached the summit, Charlie’s heart sunk at the sight of another puzzle.
‘It’s a box,’ he said.
Etched on the front was the Eye of Providence, set in a triangle with beams of light spilling forth.
‘This must be where Thorne hid the Eye,’ said Lily.
The brass cube was etched with circles, like planetary orbits. Set inside were round metal pegs, some bearing a coloured jewel, others etched with a symbol.
‘Star signs,’ said Lily, touching one. ‘The jewels mean something else.’
‘The planets,’ said Charlie. ‘Each planet has a different colour. Green for Venus, red for Mars.’ He tapped them, taking in the wider construction.
‘The box is part of the mechanism,’ he said. ‘Thorne must have planned this years in advance. Look at how the clock hands are placed.’
Lily eyed the turning shafts of metal. ‘The clock hands will pass through the centre of the box,’ she said.
‘But only at midnight tonight,’ Charlie pointed out. ‘Look how the astrological configurations add a tilt to the hands. They only move into the box when the planets and the time are both right.’
Charlie frowned at the circular map of heaven. ‘Unless this chart shows a particular planetary configuration at midnight, whatever’s inside this box will be crushed.’
‘The Eye will be destroyed,’ said Lily.
Above them the giant clock ticked away the seconds to midnight. There was a minute left.
Charlie took out Thorne’s Chart of All Hallows’ Eve.
‘The answer must be here,’ he decided. ‘Thorne left this star map to find the Eye.’
His eyes lifted to the brass orbits and then dropped back to the star map.
‘What is it?’ demanded Lily, looking to the ticking seconds.
‘The pegs have already been set according to this chart,’ he said. ‘Someone has tried and failed.’
Charlie felt hope drain away. He was no astrologer. Thorne’s Chart of All Hallows’ Eve was the only answer he could think of. Unless . . .
The patterns of circles and planets rearranged themselves in his mind. A strange idea bubbled up.
‘I think I know how to solve it,’ he said. ‘It’s a birth chart. But you have to know whose birthday it belongs to.’
‘Whose?’
But Charlie barely heard her. His hands were moving the pegs, positioning and repositioning.
‘Blue is Neptune’s colour,’ he muttered. ‘Purple for Jupiter.’ His hands began moving faster, aligning the pegs to where he thought they would fit.
The clock ticked away their final seconds.
‘That’s it,’ muttered Charlie, moving the
final planet. He stood back. Nothing happened. Behind them the massive hands completed their circuit.
‘We’re too late,’ said Lily as the minute hand moved to strike the hour. ‘It’s midnight.’
There was a deafening chiming of bells, and they both put their hands to their ears. Charlie waited for the crunching sound of the Eye being destroyed.
Then there was an unexpected click. The metal box shot forward and the hands passed harmlessly around the back. Its front fell open to reveal the contents.
Lily and Charlie moved forward. Inside, a jewelled sphere glittered. The Eye had not been what Charlie was expecting. It was the size of his spanned hand, round and exquisitely made.
‘It’s beautiful,’ said Lily, staring at the gold- and diamond-encrusted object, ‘but I don’t understand. That’s the Eye?’
Charlie nodded.
Locked inside the box for all these years was nothing more than an elaborately decorated clock.
Chapter 94
Amesbury was looking helplessly out to the old fort.
‘I sent clear instructions,’ he said. ‘Landguard was to fortify its defences.’
Captain Naseby spread his hands in a don’t blame me gesture.
‘Funds were sent,’ he said. ‘The men on the fort were half starved. The money—’
‘I can see where the money went!’ raged Amesbury. ‘There’s a brewery on that fort!’
He pointed at a tall chimney, merrily puffing out hop-scented steam.
‘No navy has attempted a raid on the Thames,’ countered Naseby helplessly. ‘The fort hasn’t been used in over two hundred years.’
‘You didn’t notice the Dutch ships amassing on the English coast?’ shouted Amesbury. ‘You didn’t receive my orders to fortify?’
‘We did, but . . .’
Amesbury forced himself to calm.
‘Could De Ryker have a local pilot?’ suggested Naseby. ‘Someone to steer them through the shoals and sandbanks.’
‘No,’ said Amesbury. ‘I keep every pilot capable of such skill under close watch.’
‘Then we have nothing to fear,’ said Naseby. ‘The Thames can’t be negotiated by a foreign invader. It’s a labyrinth of hidden dangers lurking just below the surface. Even locals run aground.’
‘Maps have been drawn,’ said Amesbury.
‘Fantastical things,’ said Naseby. ‘The river is too broad. A map is useless unless a ship could chart an exact location.’
‘That,’ said Amesbury, ‘is what concerns me most.’
He balled his fists. ‘The next part of the coast is Chatham docks,’ he said. ‘If De Ryker gets that far upriver, he’ll see our mothballed ships.’
Naseby paled. ‘There are no defences,’ he conceded. ‘If De Ryker has enough luck and bravado, he could sail right in and burn our entire navy.’
‘Such as it is,’ agreed Amesbury. ‘I fear De Ryker has access to something very powerful. Something men killed to create.’
He was remembering Thorne telling him how the bodies had come to be.
‘The first girl was the hardest to kill,’ Thorne explained. ‘Her family had refused her marriage to Buckingham. She’d taken deadly nightshade when I found her. The poor girl was screaming in agony.’
Thorne took a juddering breath. ‘Suicides are damned to hell,’ he said. ‘Refused a dignified burial.’
His eyes had a faraway look, and Amesbury knew Thorne was remembering his young lover, burned at the stake and hung out for the crows.
Thorne swallowed. ‘I cut her throat and gave her body to the river,’ he said, ‘marked for Venus with a silver coin. When she washed up at Dead Man’s Curve, I realised the old gods had given me a sign. I’d been trying to chart the tides for months, but mudlarks plundered anything I floated downriver.’
‘You used bodies,’ said Amesbury grimly, ‘to measure the moon’s influence on the tides. But you were wrong.’
‘The moon and stars were not the tools I ultimately needed to perfect the Eye,’ admitted Thorne. ‘But they were part of the learning. I spared those girls,’ he added, seeing Amesbury’s face. ‘I sent their souls to a better place. You’ve killed more than I, in the name of war. Yet my work will change the world. Can you say the same?’
‘We may not know in my lifetime,’ said Amesbury. ‘You’re convinced the Eye works as you hope?’
‘I am,’ said Thorne. ‘But we won’t know for certain for another nineteen years.’
Chapter 95
‘It’s small,’ said Charlie, gazing at the Eye. ‘Smaller than almost any clock I’ve seen. Thorne must have been a master at his craft.’
‘But what’s valuable about a clock?’ asked Lily. ‘Why would the Dutch want it so badly? They can plunder more jewels and gold than this in the colonies.’
‘Perhaps nineteen years ago this was more of a miracle of construction than it is now,’ suggested Charlie, ‘and the Dutch were misled.’
But even as he said it, Charlie knew that must be wrong. Nineteen years. What was so significant about nineteen years? He weighed what Lily had said about the great wealth of the colonies.
Charlie reached inside. The Eye was attached to part of the larger astronomical clock. He gently pulled it free.
‘That’s interesting,’ said Charlie. ‘There’s a fitment at the back. The Eye has been regularly wound by the movements of the larger clock. Thorne wanted his invention to keep time.’
Then the answer came to him.
‘This little timepiece,’ he said slowly, ‘has been inside the astrological clock for nineteen years. It’s been tossed and jolted with the mechanism. It’s endured nineteen hard frosts and hot summers.’
‘It’s metal,’ said Lily. ‘Why wouldn’t it endure?’
‘Lily,’ said Charlie, ‘look at the time.’
Lily looked at the little clock. Its jewelled face was showing nine minutes past midnight.
‘In all this time,’ said Charlie, ‘it’s only slipped by nine minutes. Less than thirty seconds a year. And that in conditions similar to on a ship.’ He pointed to the metal box. ‘I think Thorne set this all up,’ he said, ‘to test his clock. He couldn’t risk it aboard a ship, so he invented the next best option. Thorne made a box with a mechanism to ensure the clock stayed wound, and hid it exposed to the elements for nearly two decades.’
Lily’s eyes widened as she realised the implications of this. ‘This clock would work aboard a ship,’ she said, ‘but no clock can do that. Conditions are too intemperate.’
‘This one has,’ said Charlie, ‘for nineteen years.’
Carefully he opened the back of the clock. The insides whirred and spun. Charlie recognised brass cogs and intricately wrought springs, but other parts he’d never seen in a clock before.
‘He’s used wood as well as metal,’ said Lily, peering over Charlie’s shoulder.
She was staring at a few tiny parts, pieces of wood crafted so small it was incredible to think they’d been made with human hands.
‘It’s darker than any wood I recognise,’ said Charlie. ‘Perhaps some dense oily tree from the colonies. It would explain how the Eye kept time,’ he added. ‘The biggest problem clock makers have is lubricating the works. The oil thins in hot weather, sticks in frost.’
‘In which case,’ said Lily, ‘it could tell longitude. Keep time in different climates. Men could know their position, even in uncharted ocean.’
They paused for a moment, taking in the magnitude of this possibility. The notion was nothing short of miraculous.
‘To see as the angels see,’ said Charlie. ‘That’s why Thorne was so interested in Saturn. We thought of him as the God of the Dead. But he’s also the God of Time.’
‘If this clock can truly keep time at sea,’ said Lily, ‘there’s no limit to what it’s worth. They could sail faster routes direct to colonies. Discover new ones. Whichever country owned it would rule the seas.’
‘They also could navigate the Thames,’ said Charl
ie. ‘Dutch spies have drawn maps of the shoals, but they’re useless without an exact position. With this clock an enemy could sail all the way to London.’
‘We need to get it to the King,’ said Lily, ‘before Janus finds us.’
‘Wait.’ Charlie raised a warning finger.
‘What?’ Lily looked around them.
‘Do you hear that?’
Lily listened for a moment. ‘I don’t hear anything.’
‘Exactly,’ said Charlie. ‘The astronomical clock. It’s stopped ticking.’
Suddenly the wooden platform beneath them shook. Charlie stumbled. Then a great crack sounded and they both dropped several feet. Lily skidded, tried to right herself and fell back towards the high drop.
Instinctively Charlie grabbed for her dress. The Eye fell from his hands into the tangle of wooden beams and moving wheels far below.
Chapter 96
Charlie pulled Lily back to safety, eyes darting around the narrow tower. Thorne’s Eye had fallen somewhere deep below them, into the huge workings of the astronomical clock.
‘What happened?’ asked Lily, breathing hard. ‘Did Thorne design the tower to fall if the clock was found?’
‘I think someone’s in here with us,’ said Charlie, adjusting his footing. ‘And they’ve jammed the mechanism of the astronomical clock.’
He pointed to where the mighty cogs were now juddering with pressure. Small cracks were opening like rivulets up and down the structural beams.
‘The Eye!’ said Lily. She was pointing at a collection of cogs halfway down the tower. Thorne’s clock rested on a beam just beneath them.
Charlie’s eyes followed the moving cogs. ‘We need to be careful,’ he said, watching the huge grinding metalwork. ‘The whole mechanism is under huge pressure. It could break apart any minute.’
Then out of the corner of his eye, Charlie spotted something. There was a dark shape at the bottom of the tower, moving easily up the beams.
‘You were right!’ shouted Lily. ‘There’s someone down there! We need to get to the Eye!’
Charlie swung and landed on the next timber. Then he stopped. The shadowy figure was examining a lower part of the mechanism. He made some adjustment, then the cogs shuddered again.