“We wait for the burst,” said the Timekeeper. “Then we continue up to the top while the Distributor resets. The room will be safe for exactly fifty-seven minutes.”
“And the vault?” Russ asked.
“The vault is in the Distributor’s base. I’ll need a few minutes to open it. It’s a nine-step sequence lock on a very old mechanism.” Master Talik looked at all of us for a second, his eyes moving from one set of eyes to the next.
“Then we grab the plaques and run,” Seth said.
“Then we grab the plaques andwalk,” Master Talik said. “Quickly, but we walk.”
“Why not run? It’s surely fast—” Mimi started, but…
“No,” he cut her off. “We always walk and we always watch our step.” He paused, looked at all of us. “It’s very,veryimportant that you watch the floor and watch your step at all times. Do you understand?”
“Why, though?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Stillward,” Silas said. “Right, Master Talik?”
“What in Time’s Trousers isstillward?”Levana.
Master Talik looked at Silas like he wanted to slap the Time out of him just now. Instead, he clenched his jaws and said, “A gap in time. There’s plenty that exist in the tower, but going stillward is the most dangerous of all. Time has no domain there.”
Shivers ran down my spine, ice cold.
“And how do we—” Seth said, but Master Talik didn’t let him finish.
“It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with if you only watch the floor. I said—do you understand me, Hands?”
Another round of nods—we definitely understood.
“And when it’s done? When we reach the bottom?” Anika asked—when,notif.As if she was certain thatwe would.
“Kohen will be waiting at the maintenance door. The distraction will have drawn attention away from this side of the tower. We slip out the same way we slipped in, cross the plaza, and disappear underground before anyone knows we were there.”
Master Talik, too, spoke like he actually believed we’d see that moment.
“And if the guards come back early?” Erith asked.
Master Talik and Kohen looked at each other.
“They won’t,” Kohen said. “The malfunction will keep the emergency teams busy for at least an hour. By the time anyone thinks to check the tower, you’ll be long gone.”
Was it just me or did he really not sound as convincing as he should have?
“And if something goes wrong inside?” Mimi asked next, and I swallowed hard.
We waited—a heartbeat and three and five.
Nobody answered.
I supposed nobody needed to. The answer was obvious, and none of us wanted to say it or hear it said out loud.
Master Talik checked his clock. “Two thirty-eight. It’s time.”
It was time, indeed.
A strange sensation spread in my chest, one that was almost familiar—which didn’t surprise me at this point.Without a word, we climbed through the maintenance hatch, out into the cold night air of the eastern plaza. Buildings surrounded us, one and two stories tall, mostly shops with red and white signs on the windows and golden locks on their doors, dim lights shining inside.
The Great Clock tower was just to our left, looming above us—massive, dark, its face glowing faintly against the sky like a second moon. The sight of it took my breath away, this time more than all the others.
