Clock City

by Rebekah Dodson

  The woman next to Victor made some comment I couldn’t really hear, but I ignored her. My mother didn’t even flinch. Her arms were still open.

  “Believe me, Alayna, faking my death was the hardest thing I could do, but leaving you with your father was safer than this world at the time. The Keeper...”

  “Safer?” I laughed sarcastically. I rolled up my sleeves and turned my arms over, revealing the mostly healed over horizontal scars I fought so hard to hide. I thrust my arms out, wrists together, palms up but fists clenched. “Look, mother, look at me! How is this safer, Mother? That I tried to kill myself? Look at it, Mother!”

  Sebastian sucked in a breath. I knew he’d hate me after this; they all did, in the end.

  “What is this?” As if someone had hit the unfreeze button, she grabbed my wrist and turned it over, then dropped it. “Alayna, I knew he was a drunk, but I figured you’d finish school, move away, start your own life. I... Oh, gods, I never thought...” she trailed off as she choked on a sob.

  “Don’t cry, Mother,” I barked at her, “it doesn’t become a queen.” My words were so vile I almost spit them out. I rolled my sleeves down. But really, how could she let me mourn her death five years ago when all it did was kill me on the inside—almost kill me, period? This was all her fault.

  “Enough!” Victor uncrossed his arms and placed his own grip on the table, leaning forward. A hush spread over the table. His voice suddenly soft, “Alayna Winston, daughter of Queen Lydia, you will watch your tongue!”

  “Victor, my love,” my mother turned to look at him, “hasn’t she been through enough?”

  My love?

  Oh, hell no. I wasn’t stupid. Something else was going on here. She used to look at my father that way. The way she looked at Victor.

  “How did you travel between the worlds?” I interrupted. “Tell me, or I’ll just go home. I don’t need any of this shit.”

  I didn’t look at Sebastian. I knew he would protest. Dinga gripped my leg harder, his claws digging into me. I ignored it.

  My mother pointed at my waist. “You’ve found my dagger. I had it made years ago, from a locket someone special gave me when I was a child.”

  I gripped the weapon at my side. “I found it in the woods, where I come from, just before I...” came here, was what I wanted to say. Instead, what I did say was, “Wait a minute, your dagger? How did it get lost in Texas?”

  “It belongs to the royal family of Elestra,” Victor sat down heavily in his chair. “As to how it came to be in your world, we know not.”

  “You can’t travel back and forth,” my mother told me.

  “Well, I did.”

  “Only royalty can wield the dagger, and you know not of the magic it holds. But there is a penalty when you travel.”

  “What is that?” Sebastian finally stepped beside me. His hand snaked around mine, but I pushed away from him. As far as I knew, he was on their side. He certainly new his uncle well enough, didn’t he?

  “I don’t know how it works,” my mother sighed. Edwin pulled out a chair for her and she sank into it, her back still straight and rigid. His hand found her shoulder and she patted his hand with hers. “Somehow the magic adds years to your life. Decades even. Your father found out that I was,” she glanced at Victor, “traveling back and forth, but he couldn’t have guessed this. He threatened to kill you if I ever came back. It was his idea to stage the funeral.”

  I sighed, gritting my teeth. Before I could say anything, Victor blurted, “It’s your destiny that you arrived here when you did, Alayna. You are the only one who can wield the dagger to stop the Timekeeper from destroying our world.” Victor’s his dark eyes burnt into me. “You must save us all. You mother is too old to wield the power against the Keeper.”

  How could it be true? My brain screamed at me. Am I some kind of hero to them? Me? I was just a girl from a trailer in another world, with nothing to live for?

  Sebastian squeezed my hand.

  I glanced up at him. Was that really what I wanted?

  To be their ‘savior?’

  I didn’t think so.

  “No,” I took out the dagger and tossed it onto the table. “Find someone else.”

  “Don’t you see, sweetheart?” my mother protested. “There is no one else.”

  “I’m not your hero,” I spat back at her. “I just want to go home.”

  “You’ve met Anual Elinar of the Zespars,” she continued, as if it would change my mind. “His prophecy said the key and the dagger would save us.”

  I looked down at the hand Sebastian held, the same one with the leather band that matched mine. “He said what?”

  “We aren’t sure,” Victor reached up and took the key from around his neck and threw it on the table next to the dagger. “We only know you will save us, because it was in the stars. I’ve had a vision that you will need these both.”

  “Oh, come on,” I whined. Visions? Really? This is a load of—

  “Alayna,” Sebastian whispered to me. “We can do this. We have to do this.”

  I hung my head, defeated, and slumped back into my seat. “But I’m nobody.” Nor do I want to go on some stupid adventure and die!

  “Even nobodies can be heroes,” Edwin said softly, the first time he’d spoken.

  “Mistress,” Dinga released my leg and sat primly on the hard, stone ground, “Anual never wrong.”

  I didn’t even look his way, as sweet as he was. My head pounded against my temples, threatening to split it in two. Before her death, my mother wasn’t around much. Now she wanted me to save her kingdom? Screw that.

  She worked long hours, supporting my father’s drinking habit, but little else.

  I had rarely seen her, to the point standing at her grave had brought me few tears, because I felt I never knew her. I was still angry she was here, instead of with me. What could be so important she would abandon her only child?

  Sebastian’s hand was still closed around mine.

  I shook it off.

  Despite my resolve, I was bone weary. And very aware I had an audience who was staring at me. “Who are they? How do they know so much?” I murmured to Edwin, ignoring the dark look that crossed Sebastian’s face, as I motioned around the room.

  Across the room, my mother was silent, eyeing us curiously.

  “This,” Edwin whispered back, “Is the....”

  “Order of the Dragon Key,” Sebastian added in hushed tones. “It’s the resistance. Your mother, Victor, the others are business owners, politicians. Before the Timekeeper came.”

  “Not enough people here to fight that evil Keeper,” Dinga chimed in.

  “Doesn’t need to be,” Edwin said. “We just need one. The girl with the dagger, or so the prophecy says.”

  “Prophecy?” I interrupted. “What prophecy?”

  “The one that says a queen will come to save us all,” Victor’s booming voice shot across the long table. “We thought it would be Lydia, but when she came back to me,” he glanced at my mother, “to us, in this state, we knew were wrong. It’s you, Alayna.”

  “The dagger, let me see it,” my mother said.

  I picked it up and handed it to her.

  “And the key,” she said softly. I slid it over the grand table.

  She held up the dagger and all eyes were on her. The light from the grate overhead caught the jeweled hilt and spread prisms of every hue across the ceiling and walls. With one hand, she inserted the dragon key into the hollow dagger hilt.

  It fit perfectly.

  “This dagger has been missing for ten cycles,” Victor announced. “Ten revolutions around your sun in your world. It was once protected by this very organization.”

  “It’s just a dagger!” I said loudly.

  “It’s not just a dagger; it’s part of a set. A deadly set,” my mother said.

  “The clock face,” Edwin stood, pushing the chair back. “The key is for the clock face!”

  The old woman sitting next to my m
other finally spoke. “What clock face, boy?”

  “Sit, son,” Victor told him, and he did. “But yes, we believe Edwin may be right. The clock face in the tower of the palace is the key to the Keeper’s power. And both the key and dagger are needed to open it.”

  The two women began to talk over each other, their voice clamoring to a din.

  Great, everyone was ignoring me again. Story of my life. I looked at my mother, urging her again to stand up for me, but as usual she looked away. She was fixated on Victor.

  “Sir, the clock face? In the tower of the palace?” Sebastian asked. “But it hasn’t kept time for many cycles! It stopped the day...”

  “Yes, the day the Keeper came,” my mother answered him.

  “But it still hums,” Edwin responded.

  “And it can be wound.” The older man on Victor’s right, who had been silent the entire time, finally stood. He was hunched over, leaning heavily on a sturdy wooden cane. His head was bald, but white tufts of hair poked around his ears. He was dressed the same as Victor; a gray vest over a collared shirt. “You need a key to wind the clock, sometimes two, one for the movement and one for the chimes. The dagger and the key aren’t just tools, but removable keys.” He took his seat with some difficulty, landing heavily with a sigh.

  Dinga looked up at me. He was silent for once, but his face was scrunched, his wide eyes and lack of eyebrows below a smooth head adding a terrifying look of confusion. “Mistress,” he whispered, “Dinga doesn’t know what is happening.”

  “Makes two of us,” I mumbled.

  “So, the key and the dagger, both, are needed to open the clock face?” Sebastian was asking.

  “We believe so,” the old man answered.

  “But we don’t know what’s in there,” the blonde young woman said. “It could be anything.”

  “Or maybe it’s the key to the Keeper’s powers,” Sebastian muttered.

  The old man tapped his cane on the floor. “What did you say, boy?”

  “In the throne room, where we met the Keeper,” Sebastian cleared his throat and spoke up. “Well, where Alayna did,” he turned to me with a brief smile that faded as quickly as it appeared. “I was only there for a few minutes when they dragged us to the dungeon. But I saw what he did. He froze time, somehow. No one in the room could move, but Alayna did, somehow.”

  I didn’t take my eyes of my mother. She sat staring at me, as if announcing the Keeper had magical powers was old news. Hmm.

  Victor held up a hand. “Is this true, Alayna?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t move, but he spoke to me, somehow. He said I looked like her,” I pointed to my mother.

  She gasped.

  “What?” I looked around the room.

  “When the Keeper freezes time, people do not live to tell the tale,” Edwin said quietly.

  I stared at him.

  “Could the dagger have protected her?” Sebastian asked.

  “It’s possible,” she said.

  “Besides, what better way for the Keeper to keep his secret in a cage without a key?” Sebastian continued, “a key he has no idea where it—”

  “Stop!” I yelled suddenly, capturing everyone’s attention. “What about this clock face?”

  Edwin looked at me, wide eyed. “It’s in the palace, at the top of the tallest tower. I found it on my patrols one day—”

  “Patrols?”

  “Edwin is a palace guard,” Victor interrupted. “He keeps tabs on the Keeper for us. Continue, son.”

  Edwin nodded. “The tower is locked, of course, but I smashed the lock one day and let myself in. At the top of the circular staircase is a giant clock face, nearly the size of this room from top to bottom.”

  “And it’s ticking?” I asked.

  “No, it’s beating.”

  “What?” Sebastian raised his eyebrows, and half stood.

  “I think it’s alive.”

  “We think it’s the source of his power somehow,” Victor explained. “Why else would he keep it such a secret?”

  “Maybe that explains why he’s going crazy,” Sebastian shook his head. “He had some barmy, well, bloody odd speech when we were arrested. Alayna, what did he say?”

  I shook my head, trying to remember. “Something about fish. It was very weird.”

  Sebastian nodded. “So, maybe that clock face needs to be wound.”

  “Or, it needs to be destroyed,” a voice came from behind us.

  We all turned to see Bailia, shed of her nightgown and changed into a dress of silver finery. Her hair was brushed and neatly wound in a tight bun. She put a basket with a cloth tucked over it on the table.

  “I’ve brought bread, jams, and some puddings.” She ripped the cloth off with a flourish and tossed it to Sebastian who caught it and tucked it into his ruined shirt collar. “Resistance business can make one hungry.” She winked at the me.

  My stomach roared at the sight of the crusty rolls, jars of purple jellies, and icing topped bars. It had been a long day, and a long time, since we nibbled on the dried fruits the Zespars had given us when we fled the village. The chaos of prison, escape, fleeing, the ceremony, and that attack on the village was just too much.

  And I wasn’t the only one.

  Dinga and Sebastian grabbed two rolls each, not even bothering with jam, and devoured them.

  Edwin snatched one and broke it in half, handing one part to me. “Milady?” he winked.

  I was angry and bitter, with steam almost literally rolling out my ears, but I couldn’t resist. I was so, so hungry. I hadn’t had a meal in what, weeks? A stolen apple here, a snatched candy bar there. And this roll looked like absolutely heaven. Indeed, it was like nothing I had ever tasted. Buttery and light with a slight sweetness. I swirled it around my mouth, savoring it, before swallowing it dry. I never wished-for water so badly as I did in that moment.

  Bailia had taken care of that, too. She passed around glass goblets of a purple juice. Sebastian pressed one into my hands. “Ekel berry wine. It’s like tea, but sweet.”

  I took a sip. It was very earthy, a woody taste like chamomile, as well as raspberries and something exotic. Pomegranate maybe? Or Mango? I smiled to think such tropical plants could grow here. I downed the rest of the goblet, still unable to decide exactly what the flavor was. I felt the anger at my mother subsiding, but just a little. Hangry? Me? Maybe.

  “I don’t think the clock face needs to be destroyed,” Edwin was saying between mouthfuls of sweet rolls, “I think it needs to be investigated first.”

  Victor was thoughtful. “I suppose it needs to be opened first, and then we can decide.”

  “It must be Alayna,” the older woman in the hat spoke up. She delicately nibbled a small part of bread with jam. “We are all a bunch of old men and women.” She waved her roll around the table.

  “I beg your pardon madam,” the old man who had stood earlier objected. “I am a spring chicken.”

  “From a hundred cycles ago,” Victor laughed, holding his goblet high.

  “Elinar has chosen these three,” my mother contested. “Victor, Edwin, and I, well, our faces are too recognizable. The rest of you are members of the community.”

  I watched as everyone nodded in agreement.

  “But who would recognize a faceless guard, Matthias’s crazy inventor son, may our dear Matty rest in peace.” The old woman finished for her.

  Sebastian began to object but I held up my hand. “Excuse me, but I think my face is very noticeable. Queen’s daughter, remember?”

  My mother slid the dagger back across the table to me. “This is yours now, Alayna. It will protect you. I am sure of it.”

  I paused, swallowing hard. Picking up the dagger meant I was taking on a greater risk than anyone knew. I was accepting the lives of everyone in the room—in this city—into my hands. I still didn’t want it but everyone thought I did. Was I strong enough?

  I looked at Sebastian.

  He nodded.

  Dinga smile
d up at me.

  Even Edwin was staring at me.

  Ugh, what can I do? I picked up the dagger. “I’ll do it.”

  “I’ll help,” Sebastian stood next to me.

  “Me too!” Dinga jumped up on the table.

  The men and women at the other end of the table looked horrified.

  The women pulled out handkerchiefs and pressed them to their faces. A few of them swooned.

  It was then I realized the Dinga was too short for them to have seen him, especially since he’d been at my leg most of the night.

  “A Zespar!” the younger one said. “I’ve never seen one up close.”

  Dinga bowed with a flourish. “I will protect mistress better than any human!”

  Sebastian eyed him, and then laughed. “I will help you then, dear Dinga.”

  “The hour grows late,” Victor stood. “I must retire. Come, Edwin.”

  The others stood, put on hats, and adjusted skirts and cravats.

  Victor reached for a carved gavel nearby and knocked the table three times. “Until the morrow, ladies and gentlemen.”

  My mother pushed away from the table and stood. As she pashed my chair, she touched my shoulder lightly.

  I looked up at her.

  “You have made me proud, daughter. I will be back tomorrow night.”

  I let her go without a word. There wasn’t much left to say.

  What have I done?

  Chapter Ten: Sleep

  EVERYONE LEFT SLOWLY, Edwin, Victor, my mother, and their elderly patriarch first, then a few minutes later, the three women and the two men. Sebastian, Bailia, and I cleaned up the remnants of the food.

  When the last goblet was tucked away, Bailia nodded toward one of the tapestries behind me. “Just there, lady, you’ll find a small closet of clothes. Over there.” She slung the basket on her elbow and nodded to the blue curtain to the left of the other wall. “There’s a straw mat to rest on in that alcove. Sebastian and the Zespar, there are lounges on the other side for you to rest.”

  “Dinga,” I offered.

  Bailia’s eyes were kind and she smiled. “Dinga, then,” she told him.