My eyes searched the blurry faces, though I knew two things for certain—they were too far away to see with any clarity, and the answer to my last question wasno.
“Your second trial begins at the turn of this breath, and the grains are already falling,” said the speaker—and next I tried to figure out wherehewas sitting, too. Who was speaking? And why was his voice so irritating?
Too far. Everything was too far away, except Elida, who might be shaking worse than us as she stood there with herback turned to the gates, a plastic smile on her face, and bloodshot eyes that moved far too fast from one side of the arena to the other.
“You’ll surely find scattered remains of time in this trial, fragments of hours that no longer belong to anyone, and in appearance, your task is quite simple, dearest Hands.”
I held my breath, listened together with all the others. Down the line, March looked at me for a second where he stood with his hands fisted and his chin up.
“Assemble a working clock before the final grain drops—but I am so happy to say that that isnotall.”
I licked my lips and released a long breath.Assemble a working clock.Easy. I’d done it a hundred times before.
And then the speaker said, “You must beware the Thirteenth Hour, though. You must tiptoe around it—careful, careful, slow!” Thesound of boos from the audience. “For should you awaken it, the trial will surely end…and so willyou.”
Laughter.
Cheers.
Applause.
I was going to be sick.
“Precision is your downfall, overconfidence is your ally—or was it the other way around?Ha-ha-ha,”the voice shouted, and I swallowed down the bile as fast as I could.
“I must warn you, though: mind your fingers and your fear—both have been lost here before,” the booming voice claimed. “The Labyrinth remembers every mistake you make within these walls. Work swiftly. Work wisely. Time is your material, your weapon, and your judge. And now…”
A lock turned somewhere ahead. Metal ground as gears shifted underneath our feet.
This is it, this is it, this is it…
“You may enter, Hands. Enter, and do us proud! Everyman, woman and child in our realm today wishes you good-timing.”
Screams from the other Hands, but nobody heard from the applause and the cheering.
“Keep your composure! Keep your composure!” Elida cried as she clapped her hands furiously and stepped to the side. “I will see you when you’re done. Be brave!”
Screams—Helen, Russ, Anika. They called for the White Queen, they called for Time, they called for someone tostop this at once!
Nobody did. Nobody cared.
The gates were wide open, and trumpets sounded in the distance. Our legs moved, even though none of us wanted them to. Together, we took one step after the other into the darkness beyond the gates, wondering where the trees went, where the forest was, where all those clockbeasts had gone.
Where Reggie had ended up if the tea party was no longer taking place here…
Tears in my eyes but they didn’t spill. My teeth were gritted and my hands in fists, my ears full of cheers and applause.
Sparetime save me,I thought as I inched closer and closer to the darkness like it was the mouth of a gigantic monster.
A moment later, it swallowed me whole.
Tick-tock,tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…
Hands turned somewhere in the distance, two seconds fast, another three far too slow to be considered a second. The sound of my footsteps echoed together with it, sharp, precise. There was only darkness, and only one way to go—ahead. The sun had been shining outside, the time a little before four, but the sunlight didn’t reach through these thick dark clouds, it seemed.
Then I saw something pulsating in the distance.
No cheering or applauding made it through to my ears anymore. The other Hands had disappeared, too. March was gone. I was all alone.
