“They won’t,” said Reggie. “Otherwise, there would be no other option. March is right—they have obviously been killed. Look at the blood.”Blood, blood, blood—except in my head I saw another image, of all that bloodon me,too. Not just the grass, but my hands, my chest, my legs, my face—everywhere,blood. “If we won the trial, that means we killed them, and the speaker said we have touneverything. So, we unkill them.” He fidgeted with the back of his suit for a second, then pulled out a small leather pouch—his was green.
“You guys got one of these, didn’t you?”
We were all moving, putting our weapons away and reaching for the leather pouches. Inside, there was a screwdriver set, a round loupe, tweezers, a wrench, and a spring bar tool with a built-in ruler.
Everything one would need to fix any kind of a clock—with a bit of magic, of course.
“So, wefixthem,” Helen said, looking at her red pouch.
“We fix them,” Reggie repeated with a nod.
“And the wounds?” Mimi wondered.
“They don’t die from wounds. Only broken clocks,” I saidbefore I could help myself. It was a thought—my father’s words slipping through my lips by accident.
“Right,” she said, nodding her head too many times. “So, we…fix the clocks, and unkill them, and…”
“We unwin the trial, most likely,” Russ said. “Come on, let’s get on with it. Tick-tock.”
He fell on his knees in front of the closest clockbeast, with his pouch open there by his side, then stopped again.
“I can’t see anything.”
“Try magicking light,” Anika said, moving closer. “I tried it in the bedroom yesterday—look.”
She raised her hand and a blink later, silver smoke rose from her skin and revealed a white light burning in the center of her palm—which impressed the others a great deal.
“How?I thought you said you’re eighteen!” Erith said, smiling widely as she watched the light.
“Iam!It’s this place,” Anika said. “It’s the Life Clocks.”
Nowthatwas certainly curious.
“You’re joking,” Russ said, and immediately reached for his Life Clock.
Magic use spent time—nothing new there. All Clockfolkcoulddo magic, use the time in a chronobank as energy—afterwe finished the two-year program in the School of Magic. Some people could do basic tricks long before they were of age, some couldn’t. Jinx could, but never me. I felt my magic like a presence, a buzzing in my chest, and Mother and Father had tried to teach me at home plenty of times, but I could never get it to work as it should.
It’s why we had chronobanks in the first place, and why Sparetime was so important—if not for it, we had to use our own time, our ownlifeto do magic, and we obviously couldn’t do that.With the way the Clockfolk liked their magic tricks, nobody would live past a week.
“Holy Hour, look at that!”
Both Russ and Erith had white light in the palms of their hands now, too.
My blood rushed, the excitement mixed in with the fear.
“It works! Our magic works!”
“Try it, guys, c’mon!”
“It’seasy,like I’ve done this a million times before!” The smile on Anika’s face left no room for doubt.
Diamonds manipulated light with ease. It’s how they were able to compress Sparetime into the crystals used in chronobanks—but these three of them were far too young to master it quite so seamlessly.
And the others, too.
Magic had color when it first manifested out of a person—something thick, between smoke and liquid. It faded away quickly to reveal the actual magic the person intended to do. Right now, the smoke over Seth’s hand was a deep green, and a blink later, he, too, held a small yellowish light over his palm.
Others laughed, pulled out their Life Clocks, fell on their knees to do the same.
