Button Hill

by Michael Bradford

  “I didn’t bring her. She came even though I told her not to. We have to get her home.”

  Riley put a fist on her hip. “We’re both going home. Together.”

  Harper studied Riley for a moment and pursed her lips. “Well, first we have to figure out how to get out of the ossuary grounds. Wait—what are little skellies?” She looked at Dekker. “That sounds…unusual.”

  Riley dug in the leather bag and pulled one of the skellies out. “These little guys. They dragged Dekker out of the bone sea when he got knocked out.”

  Dekker winced. “Shut up about that.”

  But Harper only laughed and put out her palm, and the skellie squirmed off Riley’s knuckles and into her outstretched hand. “Bonewalkers, they’re called. They listen to you?” she said, looking at Dekker.

  “Anyway, if you two are done chatting, let’s get on with getting out of here,” said Riley.

  Harper bit her lip again. “If only I had my music box, we might be able to call for some help.”

  “Ha! I told you it was going to come in handy.” Riley rummaged through her backpack and produced the white music box she had grabbed from the train before it took Cobb and Harper across the gorge.

  “I can’t believe you saved it,” Harper said, her eyes wet with tears. “I thought it was lost forever.”

  “I thought Dekker’s heart was in it, so I grabbed it when everyone was arguing.” Riley held it out, and Harper took it gently.

  “This was a gift from my mom, to remember her by, when she sent me to Dayside.”

  “I love the butterfly-shaped key,” said Riley.

  Harper laughed as she wound it up. “It’s not a butterfly—it’s two pelvis bones. I guess they do look like a butterfly.” She released the silver key, and the lid snapped open. The skeletal girl and boy began to spin in time to an insistent beat that pulled at Dekker’s feet and made him want to move. “Whenever I started missing my mom, I would play this song. It helped me to stay in Dayside. Sometimes when I played this, people I knew would come and visit me.”

  “Dead people?” asked Riley.

  Harper nodded. “Like my grandma, whom I’d never met. Sometimes spirits who said they were watching over me. If I was in trouble, the box would keep me safe. I would close my eyes, and when the music stopped, the trouble would be gone. Sounds crazy, right?” Harper closed her eyes as the dancers spun in time to the music. After a while it wound down, and the song stopped. Harper opened her eyes and clicked the lid shut. “Okay, I thought of what we need. Now all we have to do is wait.”

  The sharp crack of breaking ice echoed through the chamber as one by one the robed skeletons began to fall from their alcoves. They tumbled onto their hands and knees and began to rise. “Is…that…what you thought of?” said Dekker. Some of the figures began to move toward them.

  “Umm, I think we should go,” said Harper. The chamber was now filled with a warm, delicate light. Water was starting to drip from the ceiling, and the air had the earthy, heavy smell of thawing ground.

  “Look up, you guys! That ceiling’s melting, and it’s not going to last,” said Riley. As she spoke, a crack raced across its surface.

  “Move!” shouted Dekker, and he pushed them toward the exit passage. They turned and fled from the inner chamber of the ossuary just as the first massive chunks of ice crashed to the floor inside. They kept running even as the skulls began to tumble from the walls. There was a deafening crash as they reached the ossuary door. Wind hurled a cloud of broken bones and shards of ice against them and pushed them out into the open.

  Dekker slowly got to his feet. Harper was staring down the slope at the graveyard below. Dekker thought he saw a look of uncertainty flash across her face before she turned back to them.

  “If we hurry, we might be able to sneak into the city before anyone notices we’re not at the mansion anymore,” said Harper.

  “Sounds good to me,” said Dekker. Harper headed into the maze of tombs and crypts.

  Dekker made to follow, but Riley pulled him back. “Don’t forget that I’m the one on your side. I still don’t trust her.”

  “I don’t know—she seems different now,” said Dekker.

  “Remember last time, with Cobb? She totally fooled you. We have to stick together.”

  “I wonder what happened to him,” said Dekker.

  “Exactly. She said not to worry about him, but she didn’t say where he went. What do you think she really wants?”

  “I’m not sure. She doesn’t get along with the governess, so that’s got to be good, at least for now.”

  “Dekker, what if she’s dead now, like everybody else here? Let’s watch out—that’s all I’m saying.”

  Riley had voiced the question Dekker had been trying to ignore. “I don’t know, Riley. But we’ll do it your way,” he said.

  Riley winced as Dekker put his arm on her shoulder. “Well, just ask her. And watch it—those super-bones aren’t soft, you know.”

  They caught up to Harper and wound their way back down through the graveyard. She led them away from the main entrance, along the wall to a small side gate partially concealed by a tall stone gargoyle. It opened at her touch. “This leads out into a side street near the manor,” she said. “I think we should go back to the auction house and see if we can’t convince Monsieur Feu to take something less impossible for the heart instead.”

  “Do you think he’d do it?” asked Dekker.

  Harper moved closer to him and spoke in a low voice. “I don’t think your sister has time for the impossible. Look at her.”

  Riley was leaning against the cemetery wall, eyes closed. The whole side of her body where the governess had stolen the pigtail was a dull, almost translucent gray.

  When Dekker squinted, he thought he could make out the outline of the cemetery wall through her side. We’re running out of time. He took Riley’s hand, and Harper led them down the mountain, away from the manor and toward the foot of the bridge. The shadows between the buildings were darker than the night, and Dekker could not see through them. But they encountered no one and saw nothing as they made their way silently through the streets. It was as if the city were holding its breath.

  They reached the empty market square and hurried to the bridge. The giants’ torches were extinguished, and they stood to the sides, leaving the passage that led under the foot of the bridge unguarded. “Something’s wrong,” said Harper as they descended the dark stairwell.

  “I know what it is,” said Dekker. “It’s cold in here, like in the ossuary. Before, it was warm, and there was light from all the torches.”

  “Be careful,” whispered Harper as they reached the bottom of the stairs. They walked into the auction hall. It had been trashed. Chairs were tipped over, and the red velvet drapes were torn and ruined.

  Dekker hit his toe against something hard. The headless body of the little girl who had been turned to stone lay across their path. “Oh, no—look!” he cried, and he ran to the front of the hall.

  Crumpled on the stage lay Monsieur Feu. Dekker clambered up beside him and rolled him onto his back. The auctioneer’s face was covered in frost. He coughed, and Dekker lifted up his head. Monsieur Feu’s eyes flickered open. The sparks that had been so fierce when they had first met had been extinguished.

  He spoke so quietly Dekker almost missed what he said. “You’re too late. She’s taken it, and nothing but the Nightclock can stop her now.” His breath puffed out like frozen fog and drifted away.

  “What do you mean, the Nightclock?” shouted Dekker. But the auctioneer had shut his eyes again. He coughed once and lay still. As he held him, Dekker could feel him slowly turning to ice.

  Riley slumped against Dekker’s shoulder, but Harper grabbed her and tried to pull her to her feet. “Come on. We can’t just sit here.”

  Dekker shook his head. “Didn’t you hear what he said? It’s over. Narcissa’s got the heart, and we have no idea what to do.”

  Harper kept pulling on
Riley’s arm until she stood up. “We have to try. We can’t give up now. Here, Riley, I’ll help you.”

  Riley leaned on Harper and rose slowly to her feet. “Come on, Dekker. She’s right. We can’t quit. Plus, it’s freezing down here. I can barely stand.”

  Dekker stood reluctantly and grabbed Riley’s other arm. Slowly they made their way out of the icy auction house. The air warmed as they neared the entrance, but Riley continued to shiver, and when she moved, Dekker could see through her. “Harper, what’s happening to her?” he hissed. He tried to force down the fear rising in his throat.

  She bit her lip and shook her head. “Her life force is almost spent. When it’s gone, she’ll be a ghost.”

  As they entered the market square, they became aware of a scraping sound, as if a bag of wet rags was being dragged along the ground. “Blood knights,” said Harper. They hurried as best they could toward the center of the Bizarre, Riley limping slowly between them. They reached the ring of dead trees surrounding the clock tower’s plaza.

  In the center of the open space stood the Nightclock, emanating a pure, cold energy that sucked what little warmth remained from Dekker’s limbs. The clock tower’s ebony bones rose up on all four sides, a dark, impenetrable stand of barren limbs. The open face of the clock itself was dark and silent as ever. The blade-edged skull in the center leered down at them.

  And there, at the clock’s base, stood Narcissa. She had woven Riley’s pigtail into her own hair. It cast an eerie glow around her face that made her cheeks look pinched and sharp. She held the heart triumphantly in front of her, still in its crystal box. “You’re too late, children. I would have shared the power of the heart with you, but now its power will be mine alone. Once I possess it, I will rule Understory and beyond for all time.”

  Harper started forward. “Mom, you can’t do this. Dekker still hasn’t had all of his time on Dayside.” She pointed at Riley. “The Keeper of the Lists said it wasn’t Riley’s time at all. If you do this, everything will be thrown out of balance.”

  Narcissa laughed her papery laugh, an edge of hysteria nicking the air. “That’s where you’re wrong, my daughter. Nothing here has changed since I stopped the Nightclock—everything will stay just the way I want it. The way I need it.”

  The Hirodu had moved into the circle, and they formed a ring just inside the trees.

  “How could you do this? All the souls of the dead trapped here are suffering because of you,” Harper said.

  Narcissa looked with wild eyes toward the shuttered doors of the train station across the Bizarre. “I know what waits for me. My ticket will take me into the uncharted territories, where I’ll have nothing and no one.” She turned back to face them, her eyes bright. “Can you imagine it? To reach a destination that does not actually exist and wait alone, with nothing but your own thoughts, forever?”

  “You don’t know that’s what it’s like, Mom. No one does,” said Harper.

  But Narcissa seemed not to hear, lost in her own thoughts. A shiver ran across her features, and for a moment Dekker thought he saw an ancient, ugly crone beneath the surface of her face. “Can you imagine how a wait like that would feel?” She shook her head, and her eyes sparked. “I’m not riding that train into the dark. And this heart will ensure I never have to.” She drew a curved dagger from her belt and cut open the wax seal on the box. The still-beating heart pulsed audibly. “Hirodu, seize them.”

  The blood knights moved forward, blocking the trio’s way. The governess smiled at Harper and then plunged the dagger into herself, under her rib cage.

  “No!” shouted Dekker.

  “Mother!” shouted Harper. They all lunged forward, but the blood knights closed in, and one latched onto Harper’s shoulders. Harper writhed in pain as the creature’s razor-sharp teeth chewed into her flesh. Another reached for Dekker with its scab-encrusted arms, but he twisted away and swung at it hard with his bone hand. His fist made a sickening crunch as it connected with the creature’s head. The knight crumpled to the ground, black ichor oozing from its wound, but two more knights slithered into its place, forcing him away from the governess.

  Narcissa reached into her wound and pulled something dry and withered from between her ribs. She tossed it onto the ground. Her violet eyes shone as she tipped the box and prepared to thrust Dekker’s heart into the hole in her own chest.

  “No!” shouted Dekker.

  Forgotten in the melee was Riley, who had fallen to the ground during the attack. The battle had moved past her, and somehow she was now behind the line of blood knights. Dekker watched her stand up, only feet from one of the giant leeches and insubstantial as a shadow. “Riley, watch out!” cried Dekker. But the blood knight paid no attention to her. She had faded so much, it was as if it could no longer smell her.

  Riley stumbled toward Narcissa and lunged for the beating heart, hands outstretched. But the governess was faster. She slashed the bone dagger down across Riley’s face. Riley fell away from the governess and cracked her head against the base of the clock. Dark blood dripped from her forehead. Dekker watched helplessly as Narcissa raised his heart into the air.

  The Nightclock’s first bong was a shock wave of low, impossibly deep sound that knocked everyone in the Bizarre off their feet. The sound shuddered out of the ground and shook Dekker’s bones. The clock rang again, but this time the sound filled the inside of his body, pouring in through the hole in his chest. An inescapable blackness rushed in, and his mind flooded with all the nightmares he’d had as a child, visions of darkness and disappointment and failure like walls closing in around him. He was consumed by the feeling of being left behind while those he loved turned their backs on him. The fear of abandonment sluiced into him like ice water, freezing every space in his being. Something in the dark whimpered, and he realized it was himself.

  Twenty-One

  When the clock rang for a third time, the nightmares in Dekker’s head drained away as suddenly as they had come. Narcissa had dropped the heart and was crawling across the ground toward it. Harper scrambled to her feet and scooped up the heart from where it lay beyond her mother’s outstretched hand. Dekker looked at Riley. Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t moving. He staggered over and knelt beside her at the base of the clock. “Riley?” he whispered.

  She blinked and smiled. “Look,” she said, pointing at the clock tower. Where her head had struck the tower, smearing it with her blood, the bones had begun to gleam, still black but shiny now. The slow sound of ticking, steady as a heartbeat, cut through the air.

  “No, not that sound. Anything but that!” cried the governess. She rose above them, her dagger held in front of her. She was nearly unrecognizable, stooped and ancient, as though her beauty had been peeled away. Governess Narcissa, powerful and fierce, was gone. Before them stood an old woman, her once luxurious robes shredded to rags. “Give me the heart,” she rasped.

  “They don’t have it, Mother. I do.” Harper held the pulsing heart in both her hands.

  Narcissa sucked in her breath and reached a hand toward Harper. “My daughter, do as your mother asks, and give me the heart.”

  Harper looked fiercely at her mother, determination set on her face.

  Narcissa’s eyes widened. “Please, darling, won’t you save Mommy?” she whispered.

  Harper shook her head and set the heart into the music box. “No. Guards, take her to the station.” Several blood knights lurched forward and wrapped their oozing arms around the governess’s wrists.

  Narcissa shrieked. “You can’t do this!”

  “You did it to yourself, Mother. I’m sorry, but you are at least a lifetime past your best-before date.”

  Dekker’s head spun. “If we hurry, there might be time to get Riley home too.” Riley still lay against the base of the tower, not moving. “Oh, Riley, hang in there, just a little longer. Here, put your arms around me.” Riley lifted her head weakly and draped her arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her and stood up. �
�She weighs almost nothing,” he said to Harper.

  “She’s given almost all of herself to the clock to wake it from its long sleep. We have to hope it will show mercy in return.” Harper led them quickly to the train station, Riley like a doll in Dekker’s arms. As they walked, little pieces of Riley’s light flaked off and started floating into the air. Dekker held her more tightly against his chest. Please, just stay together for a few more minutes.

  They reached August Key Station, where Narcissa, bent and frail, waited under guard. Harper wound the music box and opened the lid. Beside Dekker’s heart, the two dancers began to twirl and the sad song spilled out, quiet but impossible to ignore. “I have a theory, Mother. When you sent me away, you gave this to me and told me to keep it with me in Dayside as a way to remember you. I think you were making sure this key stayed as far away from the city as possible, so you wouldn’t have to leave.” She scanned the line of doors and finally found one, near the center of the row, with a round keyhole above its handle. Carefully, Harper took the butterfly-shaped key from the music box and inserted it into the hole. She turned it once, twice, and on the third time it clicked. All the doors swung smoothly open.

  From inside, a train whistled immediately. The sound echoed across the Bizarre, long and loud. Lights began to take shape in the air around them and move toward the station doors. “Quick,” said Harper, and she led them inside.

  The blue lights of the spirits that had once crowded the ceiling of the station were streaming toward the train, revealing a stained-glass night sky on the domed ceiling that sparkled in the moonlight. “Moontime, your favorite,” whispered Dekker, but he couldn’t tell if Riley was able to hear him or not. Rows of spirits were queuing up in front of the passenger cars. They were quiet, gazing impassively at the spectacle of Governess Narcissa pleading and cursing as the blood knights dragged her toward a royal purple coach at the far end of the train.

  Harper led Dekker and Riley past the rows of spirits preparing to depart, toward the engine. “On the other side is a track going the opposite way. That’s where you can catch the Dayside train. If you hurry you can still make it.”