“All right, that’s enough, everyone. Sit tight and listen to your lecture. We don’t have much time before we have to go through everything,” Calren then said, clapping his hands together.
“It’s just a question,” someone muttered, but Master Talik had already brought a device that looked sort of like a clock to the main table, and he started telling us about all the ways one could go about fixing more complicated clocks.
He spoke slower. Even his eyes weren’t open all the way.
The man wasexhausted,yet nobody seemed to care. Had he really workedall night?And what kind of issues needed to be fixed by aRoyalTimekeeper, when this place was brimming with normal workers?
Rotten seconds,said the voices in my head.Something stinks like rotten seconds.
That was the first time I admitted to myself that I was actually looking forward to going back home. I couldn’t wait, in fact. To leave here, to see Mother and Father. My cousins. My friends.
For the first time since I’d gotten on that carriage, Ireallycouldn’t wait to be done with these trials.
But thenanotherterrifying thought filled me with dread. With the way things had gone for me these past couple weeks, what would going back home be like for me?
34
“Please excuse me, sir—your presence is required outside.”
We all looked back at the Timekeeper worker who’d come through the door some fifteen minutes after the lecture began, and he said this to Calren.
Calren, who looked positively shocked. He had definitely not expected that.
“Of course.” Clearing his throat, he turned to us, to Master Talik. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
There were times when Calren had left the workshop briefly before. Never because someone had called for him like that, though. And Master Talik had never looked at the closed door after he left like he was doing now, the screwdriver in his hand shaking slightly, though he refused to move.
“Master Talik,” Reggie said. “You were saying about the clock?”
Finally, he seemed to be back to himself. “I was.”
The man dropped the screwdriver on the table, lowered his head for a moment, took in a deep breath. Whatever itwas about him, about this morning, it was only getting stranger and stranger.
Then Master Talik dropped to his knees all of a sudden, and reached for something under the table—the ball.
The ball made out of metal bands that moved in perfect sync whichever way you pushed them.
Holy Hour, hehadput it somewhere under the table!
Master Talik cleared his throat. “I changed my mind,” he said. “Let’s talk aboutthisfor a moment, shall we? You seemed very curious.”
We looked at one another, lips parted, eyes wide.
“We are,” Reggie said. “What is it?”
Every single one of us in the room held our breaths—not because of the device in his hand, but because it was obvious that Master Talik was only showing it to us because Calren wasn’t there. It was obvious he’dhiddenit when he first came into the workshop, just like I—and probably everyone else—suspected.
“This here is a…new device. A very special device,” said Master Talik. “It’s a timeometer.”
That sounded like a mistake. “Wait—isn’t that justa clock?” Seth asked.
“Not at all,” said the Timekeeper, a small smile playing on his lips now. Then he searched for something in the pocket of his gray, oil-stained apron, and threw it in the air all of a sudden—right into Reggie’s waiting hand. “Mind locking that door for me, boy? Do it quick.”
He’d given Reggie a key—to lock the door of the workshop.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Reggie went and locked the door eagerly, fast, a grin on his face all the while.
