“The Turning Trials were a massive success. Four trials, all played, all completed, allwon,”the White Queen started. “And when it ended, it did not end at all! We had a traitor among us, little tickers, and we never even knew.”
More gasps. More wide eyes and parted lips.
All but the guy with the curly hair. The one Ialmostknew but didn’t. His eyes were hard, his hands fisted. He looked at the queen and it was clear to see that hedid notbelieve her.
Such a curious thing to not believe a queen.
Maybe thiswasa dream after all.
“The twelfth Hand?” someone asked.
“The twelfth Hand,” the queen confirmed with a nod. “He was a Timekeeper in part, and?—”
This time she could not continue from the gasp and even the little scream that left the girl sitting next to her on my side of the table.
A Timekeeper in the trials?That was unheard of.
You see, only the four courts of the Clockrealm played in the trials. The Timekeepers were…timekeepers. They did not play with the rest of us. They kept time and built clocks.
“Hush now, tickers—hush. He wasn’tallTimekeeper. He was half Spade, too. Six hoursthisand six hoursthat.” The queen looked at me again, then at the boy sitting to my right, the last in line on this side of the table.
A Spade. Easy to tell as our hair was usually pretty light, our eyes some shade of blue. His were as bright as the sky outside.
The boy recognized me, too. We were both from the Court of Spades, and apparently, so was the traitor.
“And so, he carried a Timekeeper Clock with him, and he cast the curse upon us with it. Cursed Time itself to wither and die in all the realm.”
My eyes closed as the information rushed through my mind.
A Timekeeper Clock was the most powerful magical item we had. Only Timekeepers could build and control them, and they amplified every second and minute and hour, and some said they pulled energy from the Great Clock itself. Limitless. More than enough to cast curses, but…
Why would a Spade want the realm to wither?
Why would a Timekeeper want to curse Time?
Why would a Spade and a Timekeeper ever be together—to create life?
Unheard of. Perfectly absurd.
There were four courts in the realm—The Court of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds—and ours. Most of the Clockfolk lived and married and died within their courts, but there were times when people from different courts married one another, too. Created life together. Not common, but it had been done.
Never with Timekeepers, though. Because they wereTimekeepers.They were not like us.
Madness,the others said.
Ridiculous!
Outrageous, indeed!
Yet in my head spun another word:impossible.Which was mad and ridiculous and outrageous all on its own because we all knew that there was no such thing as impossible.
“Silence—focus—sip-sip-sip!”
We took three sips each.
The tea never ran out in our cups. It never cooled. The magic that sustained it was stable still.
My eyes drifted back to the boy. Tried to read the strange look in his eyes. Tried to see all the colors in them that I knew to be there, when I didn’t.
