“It’s soft,” Russ said as he ran his hands over the strangeblades. No idea what they were made of, but they looked exactly like grass. “Huh. Doesn’tlooksoft.”
“To answer your question, Seth,” Anika said, lying down all the way on the grass, waving her arms and legs about like we did at home to make snow angels in the winter. “I think it will be some sort of puzzle to solve. Historically, the first trial is always the easiest, so it would make sense.”
She was right—the first trials were always the easiest, according to the records available.
“Or it will be a guessing game. Most first trials in the past decades have been guessing games,” I offered.
“True—but I get the feeling they’ll want to switch things up this year,” Russ said. “Just a gut feeling.”
“Switch things up? How would they do that? There’s no switching up—this whole thing is done for Sparetime. We’re producing more of it by justbeing herein this Labyrinth right now, right?” Seth argued—and he was right. That was supposed to be the truth of it.
“Howexactly does that work, though?” I asked the Diamonds. “Do you guys know of another machinery that can multiply Sparetime like the Labyrinth does?”
They all shook their heads. “Absolutely not. The Labyrinth is the only machine of its kind.” Anika sat up, touched the grass on both sides of her hips. “Do you guys thinkthishere is the machinery that does it?”
We all looked about at the fake flowers and rosebushes, hedges and trees…
“Could be,” said Mimi, and the rest of us shrugged.
“We can ask Calren about it tomorrow,” I said. Maybe he would tell us.
“Calren is a Timekeeper,” said Erith. “He’s not our friend.”
Which surprised me. “He is, though. I think he is. He’s been very kind to me since the beginning.” He had kind eyes,too. Like the Red Queen. He did look at Silas weird sometimes, but that could be anything.
“Me, too. I like Calren,” said Mimi.
“I think he’s decent,” said Seth.
“Decent he may be because of the queens, of course. But like I said—he’s a Timekeeper. His kind and ours do not mix for a reason,” Erith insisted.
“They seem to mix pretty well here,” said Seth.
“You saw them when we came—the people cheering. Timekeeper and Clockfolk alike,” I reminded her.
Yes, even though we were very separated from Timekeepers in our court—and from the other courts as well, actually—here in Neverwhen things seemed to be very different.
“Ididsee the people cheering,” Anika said with a grin. “They called my name—so many of them! I had no idea they even knew me.” And she pushed her hair back dramatically, batting her lashes. “It feels so good to be famous already.”
We laughed because she was joking, but only halfway.
“Imagine how muchmorefamous we’ll be by the end of this,” Russ said, a dreamy look in his eyes.
“Imagine how much money we’re going to make out of this, how much Sparetime we’ll take home with us,” said Erith with a sigh.
“All we have to do is finish the games,” Mimi said. “We were lucky to be chosen.”
“Lucky, indeed,” I said with a nod. And I’d had no ideahowlucky until I came here.
These guys were right—itwasa big deal to play in the Trials. Itwasa big deal to leave here with fame, money and Sparetime to get us started and settled into adulthood. It was going to change my life, this place, even if I’d only come here to run away. It was going to change my life forever. I felt it.
We all paused, staring at nothing in particular, lost in thought for a moment.
And then we heard the footsteps.
I jumped to my feet together with Seth, but everybody else was too stunned to move as we turned to look deeper into the mechanical garden where the footsteps were coming from.
I thought it would be soldiers. It thought it would be the help, or Calren, or someone coming to tell us to get back to our rooms that second.
