“We can speak like adults,” Master Talik said, his voice low, dark. “We can figure out a way onward. All that has happened has happened already.”
“And we still are nowhere near an answer,” March said.He’d dragged his chair even closer to me and held my hand over his lap now, sandwiched between both of his. “We’re brought here against our will, and we did everything you told us to do, but your stories are not enough.”
“We still don’t remember,” Mimi said from his other side.
“I still don’t knowhowI got to this end of time, and nothing you’ve told us so far has made a difference,” said Erith.
“And nothing they say will.” Silas. “This was the queen’s doing?—”
“We don’t know that—” Master Talik started, but Silas wasn’t having it.
“Itis.Your memories were taken from you by the Red Queen. Only she would have the necessary expertise, power, and Sparetime to use. Memory magic is the most expensive magic out there—youknowthis.” Slowly, he raised his head and locked eyes with Master Talik. Silas lookedmurderous.“Who else would have the power, the Sparetime? Who else?”
Master Talik didn’t answer.
“I believe it, too. It was the Red Queen. She has always been a master at memory magic,” Kohen said instead.
“Well, of course she is—she’s the queen!” Levana said, then looked terrified for a second like the words had slipped from her lips accidentally, too.
“She’s a thief,” Silas said through gritted teeth. “They both are. They use magic to stay in power. To keep themselves young. They use the magic that they steal from the land. From the people.”
“Silas,” Master Talik whispered, but he didn’t tell him he was wrong. On the contrary—the Timekeeper looked down at his lap, pale as a sheet.
“How long?” I asked, my blood rushing, heart racing. “How long have they been queens for? I keep trying to thinkif we ever learned about this, but we never did. They were always just…there.”
Silas met my eyes, a half-smile on his lips. “Exactly. Before, queens grew old and stepped down for new ones to take their place. They grew old within a few decades—but these queens have been reigning for almost five.”
“Fivedecades?” Because that couldn’t possibly be…possible.
“Yes. Five decades,” Silas said with a nod.
Which was ridiculous. “But they are so young.” They look forty at the very most. It made no sense.
Not that anything did lately, but still.
“They arenot.They look like it because of all the magic they steal. They keep themselves young so they can hold onto power—don’t you see? Theywillstay in power forever.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Russ. “They can’t stay in powerforever.”
Silas turned to him. “Why not?Who’sgonna stop them?” He waited a tick. Nobody made a single sound. “Who? Who’s going to stop them, Russ? The people that benefit from their theft? The rest of the Clockfolk who don’t even know why their lives are shorter and shorter, their magic supply lower?”
“It happens gradually,” said Kohen, almost to himself. “It happens only seconds at a time, so nobody knows.”
“Or if they do, if they notice, they just…die.” Silas shrugged. “It’sthateasy when you have all the power, and ears everywhere, and soldiers and people to do your bidding without you having to even worry.”
“But…but they arequeens,” Erith said in half a voice, and she was crying. Mimi was crying, too, and there were unshed tears in Seth’s eyes as he tried to stare at his hands over the table without blinking.
“They’re supposed to protect us, not steal from us,” Cook whispered.
“They’re supposed to take care of their people,” said Mimi, and she sounded so disappointed it was painful.
This whole thing was painful to all of us.
For a while there, all we did was breathe and think and try to hold ourselves together.
Did I believe what Silas and Kohen were saying? Absolutely. Power corrupts. That much we’d been learning in school since forever. There had been queens throughout the history of the Clockrealm who’d gotten greedy, who’d ruled in a way that had taken the people to poverty—butpovertywas different from what they were saying. Stealing money was very different from stealing time.
“How do we get to her?” I asked—and I wasn’t crying only because my mind was working fast, and March still held onto tightly to my hand. “How do we get to the Red Queen and confront her? Make her give us our memories back?”
