Clock City

by Rebekah Dodson

  Wyatt wiped a dirty hand across his face. He wrapped an arm around Aila’s waist and pulled her to him. “Forget about him, darling, it’s obvious he’s replaced you.” His eyes shot daggers at me.

  I started at that. “What? Sebastian and I aren’t—”

  Aila laughed, haughty but sad. “We all know, Alayna, we see how he looks at you. Just know he’s a tomfool and breaks the girls’ hearts.”

  Wyatt was nodding. “Come, Aila.”

  They pushed past me and into the hall, hurrying back to the main area.

  I shook my head, scoffing. I didn’t know how I felt about Sebastian, nor how he felt about me. Every boy in my life had taken one look at me and passed by. Sebastian offered me hope and strength. I did like him. But what if Aila was right? What if he was just another boy out to break a heart? The pain in her eyes had been so harsh. I couldn’t imagine losing Sebastian. He was the only thing I had in this world right now.

  I headed back to the cave we were excavating, trying to shake off the memory of what I’d interrupted.

  “Oh, thank the Gods, Alayna, I’m doozy with hunger. Did you manage to grab soup?” He took a look at me. “What is the matter? Are you feeling all right?”

  As much as I tried not to let it bother me, it was clear I was a horrible liar. No sense in lying about it now. I told him about what I’d just witnessed and watched his face change. The humor was gone, replaced by a shadow.

  “So, when were you going to tell me about Aila?” I blurted.

  Sebastian studied the rock in his hand rather closely and didn’t answer.

  “Sebastian.”

  “Alayna—”

  “I don’t want to hear that it’s my imagination,” I said, one hand in my hip. “I saw how she acts around you. Her cheeks are red, she giggles often. She doesn’t look at Wyatt that way. What’s going on?”

  “Not really sure.” He shrugged. “I just can’t believe Wyatt is taking advantage of her like that.”

  “It looked willing to me.”

  “Still—”

  “It was more than a school girl crush, from what she said.”

  Sebastian eyed me with a sideways glance. He shook his head, as if he didn’t understand my modern reference. “Okay, maybe she held a fancy for me before Matthias took me from the mines, but Alayna, we were just kids.”

  “You promised her you’d come back for her,” said a voice from behind us.

  We turned to see Wyatt, arms crossed on his ever-bare chest, leaning against the small, rough-hewn doorway.

  “And you never did, Sebastian, why is that again?” He threw his hands down to the side; fists closed and strode to Sebastian. With a quick flip, he knocked the goggles off Sebastian’s head. “Oh, that’s right, because you were too busy fiddling with your toys, like these.” He raised his bare foot to crush them, but instead kicked them into the back of the cave.

  “Wyatt,” Sebastian started, but Wyatt cut him off.

  “And running around with this pretty thing” he motioned to me. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Aila despises all you are, Sebastian.” He spit out his name at the end.

  Sebastian’s fist balled at his side, and he took a step forward. I put my hand on his chest gently and pushed him back. “He’s not worth it,” I whispered, hoping desperately Wyatt wouldn’t hear me.

  “Oh, really?” Wyatt took a long stride towards us. “What makes you better than us, milady? I mean, who died and made you queen? Oh, apparently your mother.”

  “That’s it,” Sebastian fumed, “I’m going to knock the sense into you as I should have done rells ago!”

  Wyatt threw out his muscular arms to his side. Young though he was, he was built like the wrestlers I had seen Daddy watch on TV.

  “Sebastian—”

  Before I could react, Sebastian pushed past my hand and met Wyatt face to face. Only an inch or two taller, and much more lithely built, Sebastian might be a little faster. But I was suddenly terrified if they came to blows, Wyatt would hit harder, as I saw the muscles that rippled down up his arms and into his neck.

  Wyatt threw the first blow, which Sebastian ducked cleanly under, the fist just grazing the top of his curly head.

  I gasped as Sebastian side stepped behind Wyatt.

  Wyatt swore, spit in the dirt just shy of my feet and turned. He threw another wild punch, missing again.

  I watched them tangle for a few minutes.

  Wyatt’s left hooks just narrowly failing to connect.

  I kept begging them to stop, trying to keep as quiet as I could to not alert the bots.

  Finally, Sebastian stepped under one of Wyatt’s throws and connected a series of punches to his stomach. The sudden outburst of violence terrified me, but I found myself cheering a little for Sebastian. At least, I hoped he might be able to end this quickly. When Wyatt doubled over, Sebastian caught him, and I was surprised to see, put his forefinger and thumb into the side of his neck. Wyatt fumbled for air, trying to fight Sebastian off, but finally lost consciousness.

  Sebastian gently laid him down and crossed Wyatt’s arms over his chest. “There, he will sleep for a little while, at least.”

  “What was that?” I held up my fingers to demonstrate his move.

  “Ah, the point of air,” he said, and I frowned. “Matthias had me learn from anatomy books, when he could wrench the science ones from me.”

  “I don’t get it. Point of air?” I repeated.

  “There’s a few different points on the body,” Sebastian pointed to each area. “Neck, shoulder, arms, legs, and...” he swirled his hand in a circle below his waist and trailed off.

  I nodded. I was sure I was blushing. “Is that how he’s asleep?”

  Sebastian winked, with a curt bob of his head. “I don’t look like much, but if I can get to a point, I can usually subdue my opponent.”

  I shook my head. “Why didn’t you just, you know, zap him?”

  Sebastian chuckled. “What is the ‘zap’?”

  “It’s like, your light – er, thingy.”

  Sebastian was full on laughing at me now. “First of all, it would be a little much to ‘zap’ him, I didn’t want to hurt him, just calm him down,” he chuckled a little more heavily, and I could see his eyes were full of mirth. “You have weird words for things, Alayna. Things like ‘sill funs’ and the pants that women wear, those ‘jans,’ I can only imagine—”

  “Cell phones and jeans are normal for any girl my age I’ll have you know.”

  “Girls your age are bearing children at their breast, fixing supper over the fire for their husbands, or ordering their staff around at all hours of the day. So, what’s your excuse?”

  “Easy, I’m in a crazy underground slave imprisonment in a cavern for children, watching you toss balls of light at stones trying to blow a hole in the wall.”

  “The company makes all the difference.”

  It wasn’t until then that I realized my arm didn’t hurt. The tumble with Wyatt, laying him down, all of it, and no pain. “Sebastian! Did you feel that? Or more importantly, didn’t feel that?”

  “What?”

  “Your shoulder! I didn’t feel any pain when you hit Wyatt!”

  He smiled. “Your healing treatments must be working.”

  “They must be.”

  Wyatt rolled to his side, a blustering snore erupting from him.

  Sebastian ignored him, but his gaze was locked behind me. He was fiercely fumbling with the bag of stones, so much that the stones fell through his grasp. I scrambled to pick up the ones that rolled across the uneven floor. One rolled to the back of the wall where the rock was still crumbling from the recent explosion. Were my eyes playing tricks on me, or was that—?

  Aila rushed into the hollowed-out cave. “Wyatt!” She yelled. “Sebastian, why have you—”

  “He’s got a mouth on him,” said Sebastian, who shook his head with a smile.

  “Sebastian,” I cautioned him.

  “So, you think you can just hit
him?” Aila screamed. “What’s become of you, Sebastian? Do not forget you left me here, to go join your fancy knight! You promised to love me!”

  “It was never love, Aila, we were children, surely you know that.”

  “You promised you wouldn’t forget about me.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Sebastian!” I cried again, tugging on his arm. The cracks splintered above us, raining dust into the top of my hair.

  “And now you’re with the princess, so who forgot about who?” Aila continued.

  “She’s not a—”

  “Look!” I tugged on his good arm, hard.

  He shook me off.

  “I’m sixteen rells, Sebastian. I can make up my own mind, as you have. And I’m with child.”

  I dropped my grasp on Sebastian.

  “Wait, what?” we both said at the same time.

  I forgot about the collapsing ceiling and stared at Aila.

  Aila only nodded, sneering at Sebastian.

  “Wyatt’s?” Sebastian muttered.

  “Aye, who else?”

  “Are you kidding me?” I nearly yelled. “We don’t have time for this!”

  Sebastian shook his head. “This be no place to have a child.”

  “You don’t think I know that?”

  “You should really look at this!” I finally screamed at Sebastian.

  Both Sebastian and Aila turned and looked to where I was pointing. A small shaft of light illuminated the stone that had rolled out of my grasp, spread across the black floors.

  “God of Gears,” Sebastian murmured, “What is that?”

  “I can feel the fresh air,” Aila inhaled deeply, “did you finally break through?”

  Sebastian approached the pinhole and pressed a finger gingerly into it. He withdrew and put his face to it. “I can see blades of grass!” The excitement spilled into his voice.

  I pulled him back. “One more blow, and we will be free!” I shoved a blue stone into the hole. “Aila can have her baby, in the safety and security of a midwife. Hit it again, Sebastian!”

  He pulled out his watch and studied it. “Two more minutes.”

  When the second hand struck the top cog at the top of the watch, I closed my eyes. I could hear the crackle as Sebastian’s light burst to life. We all stepped back and braced for the explosion.

  “Sebastian!” I yelled, opening my eyes. “Something’s wrong!”

  Too late, I realized Sebastian hadn’t stepped back far enough. The stone was expanding, preparing to blow the hole wide enough for us to fit through. Fractures were spreading across the ceiling of the hole, a rock break that dropped miniscule rocks on our heads. I felt Aila’s hand on my shoulder, pulling me out. We both tumbled backwards.

  Sebastian turned and tried to run. As the stone exploded, the roof of the cave went down with it. Sebastian was caught by a boulder larger than I had ever seen, and he disappeared in a shower of rubble and dirt.

  “No!” I screamed, and scurried forward on my knees, pushing and pulling the tiny stones out of the way. “Sebastian, no!”

  Aila got to her feet and screamed at Wyatt, who was coming around, but still groggy. He rolled to his hands and his knees, shaking his head. “What’s going on?

  “It’s Sebastian, he’s trapped in the cave in!” Aila yelled at Wyatt.

  Holding his head, Wyatt grabbed a nearby wooden stick and started digging. I crawled forward, grabbing large rocks with my hands, and tossing them to the side. I rocked back on my heel, wiping black soot across my forehead. “He’s gone, Wyatt, he’s gone!”

  Wyatt stopped and looked over at me.

  I let the crushed goggles, one eye missing its glass and the other badly compressed into a metal mass, fall from my fingertips. I looked at the pile of black shiny rocks that had once been our way out. Now it was nothing but a grave.

  I tucked my legs into my chest and wrapped my arms tight around my knees. Someone was murmuring “he’s gone, he’s gone” over and over. It sounded oddly like, well, me. Pain ripped through my body—my shoulder down to my wrist, wrapping across my stomach, and shooting down my hip into my feet. I bit my lip, tasting blood, telling myself I was fine, I wasn’t hurt, that the pain didn’t belong to me.

  But Sebastian, the Light Spinner bound to me, who swore he’d help me kill the Timekeeper and save the kingdom of Elestra, was not so fortunate. He was crushed under a cave in, and we were his only hope of survival.

  Wyatt was digging a little faster now, having ditched the stick for a crude spade with jagged edges and a short wooden handle. “Even if his head is on sidewise,” he murmured, “no bloke deserves to die like this.” The muscles in his arms rippled as he dug in with fervor. He stopped only to wipe his brow or adjust the tattered suspenders that crossed his bare chest and clipped into ripped and ruined pants.

  Aila left my side and joined Wyatt with her bare hands. I unfolded myself and joined the efforts, wincing as I felt the pain circulate to my left leg and worsen. I dragged myself toward the rubble, ignoring the frantic stares of Wyatt and Aila. As I started pulling away the biggest boulders I could find, I noticed three other children I didn’t recognize had also appeared beside me. I knew they were from the mines; but in the vast sea of faces who had greeted me a few days ago, when we had been betrayed and trapped down here, I had no way to knowing who these children were. My pain was too much of a constant reminder to let me concentrate on anything else.

  I managed to push to my feet, limping, and pulled a large clay rock from the top of the pile, delighted to see a sudden burst of light emanating from the hole. “Sebastian?” I called. “Sebastian, we’re trying to get you out!”

  It was silent and still in the cave as we all listened for any sign he was alive.

  A groan, muffled by rock and nearly silenced with exhaustion, floated through the mess of dirt, rocks, dead leaves, and clay.

  I fell, crashing to the ground and landing hard on my elbow as the pain hit my hip once more. I turned to Wyatt, “He’s hurt, maybe broken leg,” I told him. “We have to hurry!”

  The light kept getting brighter and wider until I had to shield my eyes. With a tremendous explosion, rubble was blown in all direction as a small ball of pure energy shot through it. I ducked as it rolled past me, no bigger than a golf ball, and fizzled to ashes on the cave floor behind me.

  Sebastian’s arm and head were freed. He couldn’t turn his head, but at least he was still awake and alert, for the most part. “My leg, it’s pinned,” he said through clenched teeth. “Alayna.”

  I grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. “We’ll get you out. I swear it.”

  More children flooded in. Aila was frantic to remove them and kept shouting for them to go back to their duties.

  “Let them stay...” I begged. The pain was too much to bear and the world started spinning in different directions. My vision swam up, down, sideways, diagonally. I fumbled for Sebastian’s hand; I hadn’t meant to drop it. I tried to stand but collapsed.

  An earth-shattering explosion from the main room sent more rubble showering down on us. The ground shook beneath us, sending little pebbles dancing a few inches off the floor. Darkness crept on the corner of my sight, and I felt the cave tilt sideways.

  I peered out of the little room. The bots, oh no, my brain was screaming at me to move, but I couldn’t. I felt as if every limb was made of lead. The blackness took my vision and I passed out, just before the screams of the children echoed from the cave.

  “The bots. They’ve found us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Disaster

  THE CONSTANT DRIP OF water on my cheek bolted me awake. The smell of mold, dust, and sick dampness fill the room and I gagged, trying to sit up. I couldn’t move my arms or legs. I pulled and yanked, but nothing gave way. I opened one eye, then another, and I quickly understood why. Thick, purple ropes were tied not once, not twice, but three times around my wrists, and more on my ankles, the other end secured to a metal post. Beneath me, I could
feel the sharp splinters scratching into my bare back.

  Wait, scratching? How could I feel that from between my –

  Oh.

  Good God of, what was it called here, Gears or something? My dress had been pulled off, and I was only in the remnants of the night dress and bloomers I’d worn back when in the underground at Bailia’s. It was torn at the stomach and lay flat just above my knees, leaving me in a sparse two-piece outfit. The scratching on my back told me I was on something rough and wooden. The room was freezing, and I tried not to move for fear my back would be torn open.

  Before I could notice anything else, a figure near the back wall caught my attention.

  Dinga.

  His head slumped to the side and his legs dangled free. His wrists were black where the irons were clasped and bolted to the wall. His chest slowly rose, but his double-lidded eyes were closed.

  I thrashed to and fro again. I had to get to him. “Dinga, Dinga!” I whispered as loud as I dared. “Dinga, wake up, please wake up!”

  No answer.

  I looked up, trying to take it all in, trying to figure out how to get out of here. I turned my head as far as I could. In one corner, sat a pair of stocks, the old kind from the movies I had seen that were used for public punishment. Why was that in dungeon such as this? I couldn’t bear to think of it.

  A high vaulted ceiling of misshapen green and red blocks held it together, all except for the water running freely down the sides of the bricks. I wondered if we were under a body of water of some kind. Then, a familiar groan greeted me. “Sebastian?”

  He was dressed in a ripped shirt and pants torn above the knee. He turned his head and tried to smile as much as he could. “Alayna, thank God. What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Honestly, I passed out.”

  “Worst leader ever,” he said, but a half smile crossed his face and I couldn’t take him seriously.

  “How can you smile?” I thrashed against the ropes, which held fast. “Where are we? What’s happening?”

  “I don’t remember much after the explosion, the bots came, and I know we struggled but the rest is blank.”

  “Sebastian, were we under a spell? I don’t remember!”