“Wow,”someone breathed when we reached these high hedges that had only looked like hedges from afar, to the sides of a wide pathway cut out of bone-colored stone. They could’ve plucked the word right from my thoughts, becausewow, indeed.
“It’s a mechanical garden,” said Anika, and she was right.
The hedges weren’t really hedges—they were made of metal painted green. They went all around the square garden, circling it until we lost sight because of the large trees that weren’t trees at all. Their bark was made of metal, and oil dripped down it like black sap, and the branches were full of metal and plastic leaves, colored appropriately. There were apples hanging on them as well, but they weren’t real apples. They had the right colors, but you could easily see when you went closer that they were made of metal, too.
The roses. The bushes. The blades of grass were some kind of fiber—a whole garden that looked like a garden, but wasn’t one. The flowers were metal spouts dripping dark ink into these narrow channels that went through the soil. Rosebushes shielded pipes that rattled softly when we went closer, like something was flowing beneath them. It smelled of oil here, too, and the patch of daisies near Mimi’s feet was actually a drain of some sort. Only the lanterns atop the low poles here and there were actual lanterns.
“A maintenance yard,” said Russ when we were just ten feet in. “We have these at home.” He slammed his booted feet against the pathway. “There’s a machine underneath here, and this is an actual maintenance yard they’ve prettied up.”
I wouldn’t know what that looked like because I’d never even heard of one before. In the Court of Spades, everythingwas out in the open, and there were no machines underneath anywhere.
“How strange.Why, though?” asked Mimi. “Why do they need a machinehere?” She spun around, looked about us, at the trees and the flowers, all of it fake. But the benches and the pathways were real enough, though.
“Who knows? It’s the Labyrinth,” Erith said. “Come on, let’s go deeper.”
So, we did.
“You guys have seen the projections of the other trials, haven’t you? The ones that are in the archives?” Russ turned to us. “Youdohave archives in your courts, right?”
I laughed, but Mimi rolled her eyes. “Of course we do, Diamond. We have everythingyouhave—and more.”
“You have towers. Lots of towers,” Cook said with a shrug. “So we’re told.”
“We have a lot more than that, too,” Seth said.
“Is it true that your council moves their headquarters every month?” asked Cook.
“Yep—wehaveto be moving all the time,” Mimi said.
“And is it true that when you die, you burn the bodies and throw them off the highest cliff?” Anika.
“Again, yes—wehaveto be moving all the time, even when our souls go to the Everstill. The wind keeps us moving eternally,” said Mimi.
It did make sense.
“So, you believe in the Everstill, too?” Russ again.
This time I didn’t laugh, either—he seemed to be serious.“Wealldo. We’re all part of the same world, aren’t we? We just live in different courts.”
He raised his brows as if the idea was just now occurring to him.
Father had told me about it a long time ago, though. All Clockfolk believed in the Everstill—even Timekeepers. Itwas the place we all went to when we died, and we all had as much or as little time to spare there depending on our deeds during our lifetimes. Some could live forever in the Everstill with the time that they earned while alive, Father said, while some could perish within minutes if their deeds had been so awful in life. I didn’t think anybodythatawful could even exist, but still. If everyone believed it, there had to be some truth to it.
“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s the reason people think we’re stuck up and arrogant and believe we’re better than everyone else,” said Erith with a wave of her hand, nudging Russ playfully on the shoulder before she went ahead after Anika, and we followed.
But just as we passed by Russ, he said, in all honesty, “Butwe arebetter than everyone. We harvest Sparetime!”
Mimi and I looked at one another, and we both laughed. Russ meant no harm or disrespect—he was just…taught wrong, I figured. Maybe the weeks he spent here with us would teach him better.
“So, what do you guys think the first trial is going to be?” Seth asked as we went deeper into the garden.
“Hey—let’s just sit here for a minute,” said Mimi and ran to sit on a particularly wide bench made out of the same white stone as the pathway. “Then we can go search for a kitchen. I could use some cherries before bed. They help me sleep.”
“And I could use some crackers,” Erith said with a nod. “Let’s find the kitchen, then.”
“Afterwe sit here for a moment,” I said because Mimi was right—the bench was mighty comfortable, and somehow it wasn’t cold at all.
I sat near her, and Erith sat near me, and the others made themselves comfortable on the grass.
