The Skeleton Clock

by Justin Richards

  ‘Solve this, and your body shall be restored to you,’ Rahan said.

  Then he removed a mechanism from out of the side of the Azuran Chess Table, a device that would measure forever, without stopping, the eternal hell that Azuras must now endure until he solved the puzzle. Rahan took the mechanism, and he left. He ignored the entreaties of Azuras and the threats of Castigor. And when Castigor’s soldiers ran after him, they found the corridor outside the chamber empty.

  For years the head of Azuras struggled to solve the puzzle. With Rahan gone, the chess table no longer detected false moves and offered no clues that could help solve the riddle of Rahan. Without the guiding mechanism that Rahan had removed, it was merely a table.

  Castigor summoned the cleverest men in his kingdom, but still no one could solve the puzzle. And when Castigor was old and nearing death he told the head of Azuras that the riddle would never be answered. For while Azuras might be immortal, surely Rahan was not – and the solution could be of no use unless it was shown to Rahan.

  So Azuras had Castigor send out spies and agents to find Rahan the Wise, fearing that he might already be dead. The spies followed every rumour and every whisper until they discovered that Rahan had settled in a city far away.

  Still desperate to solve the riddle, Azuras had himself and the chess table and pieces placed on a ship to set sail for the distant city. Here he planned to confront Rahan, and force him to return the body of Azuras the Immortal.

  But the ship was caught in a great storm the like of which had never been seen before. It sank within sight of its destination, and the head of Azuras and the Azuran Chess Set sank without trace with the ship that was named after him. In a river that was known as Thames. Approaching a city then called London…

  *

  ‘And after all this time, after centuries of thought and calculation,’ Azuras said, ‘I believe that I have solved the puzzle. But I have no way to be certain.’

  ‘I have read the legends,’ Mandrake said. ‘I have studied the accounts. But none of them say what the challenge is – what was the riddle that Rahan set?’

  Jake held his breath as he listened. Revelle and Cath were also watching closely. Behind them, the Defeaters stood impassive and silent, guns levelled. Albright also had his gun trained on them, but his attention too was on Azuras as the golden Head spoke again.

  ‘The challenge of Rahan is this: To take each chess piece in turn, and starting from any square on the board move it to every other square on the board. I must use only legal moves for the piece. I must cover each and every square once and once only. The exception being only those squares on which the piece could never legally arrive. So the white Bishop must cover every white square, the black Bishop every black square. Most pieces must cover every square on the board.’

  There was silence as everyone considered this.

  ‘The Queen is obviously easy,’ Mandrake said after a while. ‘The Rooks, too. The King moves a single square at a time in any direction, so that is no problem… The movement of the Knight through every square is an old puzzle known as The Knight’s Tour.’

  ‘And now you know its origins,’ Azuras said. ‘I have spent centuries working out the moves, and having solved the Knight’s Tour, I have repeated those moves over and over so I shall not forget the solution.’

  ‘So you have solved Rahan’s puzzle,’ Miss Patterson said.

  ‘Perhaps. But I worry that there is more to this than a solution to the Knight’s Tour. He must know I would work that out. I need to be certain my solution holds.’

  ‘We can help with that,’ Miss Patterson assured him. ‘We can simulate the solution on a computer, track every move, map every square to be certain.’

  ‘And I must be certain,’ Azuras said. ‘I must play out the moves using the pieces Rahan left, on the table he fashioned all those years ago. I brought them with me in the ship, and they must be retrieved. The search for them could take another hundred years. But every piece must be found so that I can complete the challenge and then – only then – will my body be restored to me.’

  Mandrake was shivering with excitement, unable to keep still. ‘But I have the table. The pieces too – almost all of them. I have made it my life’s work to find them, and these past weeks, when I knew you had returned, I have collected them together. Some pieces had appeared over the years and were held by collectors I had to bargain with or threaten or even kill. Others, the Phibians recovered from the wreck of your ship, where they found you. There is now only one piece missing – a white knight.’

  Marianna Patterson nodded. ‘We must find the final piece of the chess set,’ she agreed. ‘Stammers can program the computers to check your solution while we wait. Then we shall have the secret. And then perhaps we can re-engineer our Phibians so they will live full, healthy lives. ’

  Jake was standing as still as he could, hardly daring to breath. Of all the people in the room, he and Revelle were the only ones who knew where the missing white knight was to be found. He felt like it must be obvious – that as soon as Miss Patterson or Mandrake or Azuras looked at him, they would know. He tried to shuffle slightly behind Revelle. Miss Patterson turned slowly towards him.

  But she was looking at Albright, her eyes shining. ‘I could rule for ever,’ she said. Then she blinked, and the fire faded. ‘Scour the City, Albright. I shall send the Phibians to search the wrecks again, but you must go through every collection, every antique store, every shop and dwelling to find that piece.’

  Albright nodded. ‘Very well. Just as soon as I have these criminals locked safely away.’

  Miss Patterson seemed to notice Jake, Revelle and Cath standing quietly listening to what was going on. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘We are past that now. There doesn’t need to be any official paperwork, just take them away. It can look like an accident, or they might just go missing. But I want you to execute them at once.’

  Chapter 23

  Grim-faced, Albright led Jake, Revelle and Cath up the metal stairway and into the observation gallery. The Defeaters followed close behind. One of them prodded his machine gun painfully into Jake’s back. Through the enormous window, Jake could see several Phibians swimming in the murky water. One of them came up close to the glass, curious to see what was happening.

  ‘You going to shoot us here, sir?’ Cath asked.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ Revelle demanded.

  ‘For all the wrong reasons,’ Albright said. He turned to the Defeaters. ‘You’d better get back in there in case Miss Patterson needs you. I’ll handle it from here.’

  One of the Defeaters immediately stepped back through the door on to the gantry beyond. The other hesitated.

  ‘Go on,’ Albright told him. ‘I can manage.’ He brandished his pistol. ‘And this could get a bit messy.’

  The Defeater nodded, and followed his colleague. The door closed behind them.

  ‘Right,’ Albright said turning back to Revelle, Cath and Jake. ‘Do you have any idea what that mad woman is up to?’

  ‘No more than you,’ Revelle said. ‘Some insane plan to live forever and turn the City’s population into fish people.’

  Albright nodded. ‘That much I gathered.’

  ‘Can’t you stop her?’ Jake said. ‘Can’t you arrest her? Shooting us is no good.’

  Albright glared at him. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ he snapped. ‘I’m not shooting anyone. Though it’s tempting.’ He pushed the gun into his coat pocket. ‘And no, I can’t stop her. Not yet. There’s something I have to do first. Something personal. Maybe after that…’

  ‘You’re letting us go?’ Revelle said, surprised.

  ‘Would you rather I shot you?’

  ‘Well, no.’

  ‘Then shut up complaining and get out of here. I’m relying on you. Both of you.’ He paused, looking at Jake. ‘All three of you.’

  ‘For what?’ Jake asked, confused.

  ‘To stop that crazy woman and her friends. If she wants t
o play at God in her little castle, that’s fine. If she’s persuaded the Council she can do it, then I don’t care. But if she’s committing murder and Lord only knows what else through my City…’ He shook his head. ‘It’s gone too far. I’ve let it go too far.’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Cath said.

  Albright glared at her. ‘Oh yes it is. Now let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Not yet,’ Jake said.

  They all looked at him in surprise.

  ‘Planning on staying?’ Albright asked sarcastically.

  Jake shook his head. ‘Those Phibians, the ones in the cell,’ he reminded Revelle and Cath. ‘They’re as much victims as we are.’

  ‘She keeps them locked up as hostages,’ Revelle said. ‘To make sure the rest of them do what she wants.’

  ‘So, let’s release them.’

  Albright sighed. ‘Doing the right thing is never easy or straightforward, is it? All right, but we have to hurry.’

  Cath led the way back to the cell area. The Defeater guard Cath had knocked out was sitting up rubbing his head. He pulled himself groggily to his feet as he saw them approaching.

  ‘That’s all right, son,’ Albright told him. ‘We’ll take it from here, you go and have a little lie down.’

  The guard looked suspiciously at Jake and Revelle. ‘The prisoners…’

  ‘Have been recaptured and I’m just going to lock them up again. You can go.’

  As soon as the grateful guard had staggered away, Revelle went to the cell where the Phibians were imprisoned. He drew back the heavy bolts and opened the door.

  The creatures turned, watching Revelle and Jake in the doorway. But they made no attempt to leave.

  ‘Come on,’ Jake urged. ‘You’re free. You can go.’

  ‘Can you understand me?’ Revelle asked the first Phibian as it stepped out into the corridor. It paused and looked at him, its expression unchanged. ‘Can you get out of here? Do you know the way?’

  The creature hesitated, then nodded. It turned and walked away. One by one the others followed – a procession of lurching, stumbling creatures disappearing down the corridor.

  Jake felt Albright’s hand on his shoulder. ‘We have to leave now. You’ve done what you can, lad. You’ve given them their freedom.’

  *

  The boatman was long gone, so they had to take the tunnels. It was the early hours of the morning, and they were almost deserted. Albright left them at the junction between Circle and Central. He had given them no clues as to where he was going, and told them he didn’t want to know what they were up to.

  ‘When Miss Patterson calls me to account, I’d rather not be able to help her. No matter how persuasive she is,’ he explained, waving away Cath’s protests.

  ‘You could say we escaped,’ Jake suggested.

  Albright smiled thinly – the first emotion he had shown since they left the White Tower. ‘And let Revelle here thump me to make it look plausible?’ he shook his head. ‘It wouldn’t work, and I just know Revelle would enjoy it too much.’

  ‘I’ll do it if you’d rather,’ Cath said. But she was smiling.

  ‘You do your jobs, and I’ll do mine,’ Albright said as he set off along the Central section.

  ‘You think we can trust him?’ Cath asked when he was gone.

  ‘He did get us out of there,’ Jake pointed out.

  ‘We’d do better not to rely on him,’ Revelle said. ‘He’s right, when Miss Patterson realises he let us go, she’ll find him and…’ He sighed. ‘Well, rather him than me. Now,’ he said turning to Jake, ‘tell me – where’s the chess piece that everyone is getting so excited about?’

  ‘You mean – he’s got it?’ Cath exclaimed.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Revelle said. ‘We’ll tell you on the way. But for the first time, perhaps, we’re ahead of the game. Now, young Jake, where are we going?’

  ‘To the Toymaker’s,’ Jake said. And he wondered what they would find when they got there. Would Sarah be there, safe? Or would there just be her father, sitting alone waiting for a daughter who would never come home?

  *

  ‘That boy…’ Mandrake said. He looked round, but could not see the waterlark. ‘What happened to that boy?’ he asked Marianna Patterson.

  ‘Don’t worry about him,’ she said. ‘If you can translate the moves that Azuras recites into something the computer can understand, we’ll see if he’s got it right.’

  Mandrake was shaking his head. ‘We need to get the pieces, the table. We might do better to go to my Archives.’ He nodded towards the scientists and technicians. ‘Away from prying eyes. This is a secret we might want to keep to ourselves.’

  ‘You may be right. Not everyone has a need to know.’

  ‘And the boy? Where is he now?’

  ‘I said – don’t worry about him.’

  ‘But he might know,’ Mandrake said excitedly. ‘He came to me – looking for the Toymaker’s girl. They’re friends.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So the Toymaker’s girl was friendly with the other boy, the one who brought me a chess piece. They might have found it together…’

  Miss Patterson frowned. ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘Officer Revelle said he was a witness. He was at Whispers – which was where the other lad saw me. Where he found his chess piece.’ Mandrake leaned forward, whispering urgently: ‘What if they both found a chess piece. They dived down into Whispers and found them before the Kraken frightened anyone off, before the Phibians got there to retrieve the box with the pieces in.’ He nodded, sure now of what had happened. ‘That boy has the White Knight.’

  ‘I hope you’re wrong,’ Marianna Patterson said quietly. ‘Because that boy is now dead.’

  Mandrake’s triumphant expression froze. ‘The girl might have escaped. He must have told her where it is. And she will have told her father.’

  ‘You can’t be sure.’

  Mandrake’s eyes narrowed. ‘Then let’s find out.’

  *

  It took them almost the whole of the journey to tell Cath what had been happening. They saw few other people as they made their way through the tunnels and out onto the drywalk that led to Shaft Street.

  The lights were still burning in The Last Drop, and the sound of people talking and laughing – some even singing – drifted through the night. But the Toymaker’s looked empty and deserted. Fearing the worst, Jake tried the door. To his surprise, it swung open, the bell jangling noisily.

  Immediately there was movement at the back of the shop. The door to the workroom beyond opened, and light spilled out, silhouetting the shape of a man.

  ‘You’d better come in,’ Jasper Hickson said. ‘But don’t make too much noise, Sarah is asleep.’

  In fact, she was waking as they entered. She wiped the sleep from her eyes, and as soon as she saw Jake, she got up and ran to hug him tight.

  ‘You’re safe – I can’t believe it.’

  Jake laughed. ‘Neither can I.’

  Revelle introduced Cath and the Toymaker fetched stools from the back of the workshop so they could all sit down at his workbench.

  ‘Sarah has been telling me about Azuras, and about these Phibian creatures,’ the Toymaker said.

  Jake looked at Sarah sitting beside him, holding his hand. She gave the slightest shake of her head – she hadn’t told her father what Miss Patterson and the scientists had done to her. He squeezed her hand gently, reassuring her, letting her know he wouldn’t tell either.

  ‘I’m afraid events have moved on a little,’ Revelle said.

  ‘I have no doubt,’ the Toymaker said grimly. ‘And I expect Miss Patterson and Mr Mandrake will be wanting this.’

  He slid open the lid of a small wooden box on the workbench. Inside was an intricately carved figure of a soldier on horseback, his lance raised. A chess piece. A white knight.

  ‘The last piece,’ Revelle said. ‘And you had it here all along.’

  Sarah’s fat
her smiled. ‘I’ve had a good look at Jake’s Knight, and I wondered if I could ever produce anything as intricate, as clever, as beautiful. I imagine,’ he went on, ‘that Mandrake and Miss Patterson will soon guess where it is, and come looking. And we must be ready.’ He put the lid carefully back on the box, tapping it lightly as he said: ‘Before that, let me tell you about this particular chess piece.’

  In a small room in a large building at the edge of the Drylands, a young woman lay asleep. The equipment that monitored her heart bleeped regularly. The ventilator that forced air into her lungs puffed and sighed. The fluid that fed into her arm flowed slowly from a transparent plastic bag suspended from a frame by the bed.

  The doctor who supervised her treatment stood silently by the door. The father who came almost every day sat by her side holding her cold hand.

  ‘There’s no change, I’m afraid,’ the doctor said quietly.

  ‘There never is,’ the man replied.

  ‘But there is good news.’

  The girl’s father looked up. ‘Oh?’

  ‘We have authorisation from the White Tower to keep this room gridded. Of course that can change at the stroke of a pen, but for now at least…’

  ‘You can keep her alive,’ the father finished. He leaned across and brushed the woman’s dark hair back from her forehead. ‘Is that good?’ he wondered.

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘You said there is no change. You always say there is no change. Tell me – will there ever be any change?’

  The doctor crossed to the other side of the bed and looked down at his patient. ‘Truthfully?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Some people would rather not know.’

  ‘I am not one of them.’

  ‘Truthfully, then – we can’t tell. She might be like this for ever. Or she might wake tomorrow.’

  ‘And how likely is that? Truthfully.’

  The doctor shook his head slowly.

  ‘You see,’ the woman’s father went on, ‘while she’s alive – if you can call this life – other things… stop.’