The problem was that I couldn’t stop those memories from taking over my mind any time I looked at him by accident, or felt his eyes on me. It was proving to be an impossible feat.
But when we weren’t in the same room, I breathed much easier. That’s why I had no trouble focusing on the questions I wanted to ask Master Talik, hoping that, since dinner wasn’t even over yet, he’d still be at his workshop. Last night I’d had no luck finding him anywhere in the palace, and that morning Calren had been with us at all times, so it had been impossible to speak to him privately.
Tonight, though, I had a good feeling that I’d finally find him, and I was right. Because just before I turned the corner of the hallway that led to the workshop, I heard the door opening.
I stopped for a second, strained my ears to hear better.
Footsteps, then something slamming against the wall—which confused me. I reached for the corner of the wall and peeked to the other side, sure that I’d find Master Talik handling some kind of a device or something, but…
It was Reggie.
I paused.
Reggie had just come out of Master Talik’s workshop, and the door swung closed behind him slowly. He’d stopped a couple feet down the hallway, and he was leaning against the wall, eyes closed, breathing heavily.
Holy Hour, he was so pale, his skin slick with sweat, and he could barely keep his balance.
The smart thing to do would have been to stay behind the wall and wait until he got himself together and left, but the curiosity. It drove me toward him even before I knew what I was doing.
“Reggie.”
His eyes opened and he pushed himself off the wall, but he couldn’t hold his balance so he fell against it once more. My brows were narrowed, my head shaking. He really did look like he was going to be sick any second.
“What happened to you? Did the Timekeeper do something?” That would be something I’d want to know.
“Ora,” Reggie whispered, blinking his eyes fast before he gritted his teeth and pushed himself off the wall again. “Ora, I…”
He raised up his hand, and in his fist was a piece of paper.
Reggie stopped when he saw it, like he hadn’t even known he was holding it. His voice trailed off as his eyes moved on whatever words were written on it fast.
Curiosity burned me.
When he looked at me again, Reggie suddenly straightened his shoulders, stuffed his hand in his pocket, and cleared his throat.
“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing happened. I just, uh… I think I ate something I shouldn’t have.”
ExceptIate the same dinner he ate, and I was feeling fine.
In fact, he’d only left the eating hall some twenty minutesbefore me, and he’d been fine then. A little more silent than usual for Reggie, and he did look perfectly disoriented since the night before, but still. Those mirrors had changed all of us.
“What were you doing in there?” I asked, pointing at the workshop’s door, and suddenly Reggie looked panicked. Wiped his face with his hand. Moved to the side.
“Nothing, I…I have to go, Ora. I have to go.” And he rushed down the hallway as fast as his legs allowed without losing his balance.
Curiouser and curiouser.I was dying to see what that letter he’d put in his pocket said.
Instead, I went to Master Talik’s door and pushed it open. It gave.
The lights in the room were dimmer than usual, and the tables and benches we usually sat on were all pushed against the walls. The room looked bigger that way, and with a lot more tools and devices all over the floor that my foot caught on as I made my way to the other side of the room where Master Talik was.
He wasn’t working for once, which was strange all on its own. I’d only ever seen him with tools in his hands. Right now he was sitting on the other side of the long table, eyes closed, and he had sweat beads on his forehead, too. He wasn’t breathing heavily though, just deeply.
The long table was a mess, as always, except for right in front of him. There, a single device as big as the palm of my hand glowed with white light. A strange device I’d never seen before—tear-shaped, with these thin metal strings wrapped around the glowing glass ball in the middle, like they were caging it in.
Such a curious thing.
I wondered what it was used for. I was so focused on the way it was made, the way those metal strings were twistedaround, that I didn’t see where I was stepping until I hit something made out of metal with my foot, and it shot forward and slammed onto the leg of the table, making a deafening noise.
