Which did make sense.
“That clock is counting time,” I said, just to think out loud. “This one is like…”
“Supplying it with its spinning,” said Cook. “But a full cycle could be when that hand comes back to six.”
I flinched. “Too long.” That was way too much time.
“I think it’sgatheringit,” said Mimi. “Look at it go—it’s like it’sbuildingan hour. Maybe that’s what the door clock is doing—just building an hour, and it will complete when the hand reaches twelve.”
“Yes,” Silas whispered. “When it has…enough.”
“Enoughwhat?” Russ and Anika asked at the same time.
“Sparetime,” Silas said. “Every game runs on Sparetime. See that?” His shaking finger pointed at the spinning clock made of thousands of tiny pieces. “It’s not just spinning—it’s collecting Sparetime from the walls, from the pipes, from whatever reserves it can find down here. There’s not much left. That could be why it’s moving so slowly.”
“So, if we gave it more Sparetime…” I said in wonder, and Silas nodded.
“It would finish faster.Theoretically.”
“We can do it,” Erith said. “We can give it more Sparetime. We’ve got our chronobanks.” And she reached for hers in her pocket.
“Yes—youdo.Wedon’t,” Russ said bitterly.
“Because of you!” Levana was pointing her finger at Silas. “This is allyourfault!”
“It’shisfault, too, for knocking down the stupid clock,” Seth hissed, throwing Russ a look.
“You—”
“Everyone—shut up,” March said, his voice booming in the small space. “Let’s figure out a solution and argue later.”
“The glass,” said Cook, looking up at the ceiling. “Can we break through the glass if not the door?”
“Impossible,” Silas said. “It only looks like glass from here—it isn’t real.”
And I would ask how that was possible, but there were way more pressing issues here at the moment.
“We would need to channel the Sparetime in yourchronobanks into this mechanism.” Silas looked up at the Diamonds. “It’s the same principle as harvesting Sparetime, but…”
“We can’t do it,” Anika said with a flinch. “I’veseenit done a hundred times, but I can’t tap straight into raw Sparetime yet.”
“We’re too young. We need training, practice—it’s too soon!” said Erith.
“What aboutyou?” Levana pointed her finger at Silas again. “You’re half Timekeeper, aren’t you? Maybe you can do it.”
But Silas shook his head. “I can’t. I’m half Timekeeper, half Spade—not Diamond.” And other than Diamonds, nobody could even begin to move Sparetime about in any way in its raw form. The rest of us could merely use it as energy for our magic.
So that was that. That was all the ideas any of us had.
We really were stuck.
The reality of it settled over us all at once. We were locked in a room underground, beneath the Labyrinth, with no way out except a door that wouldn’t open until a clock decided it had counted enough. We couldn’t speed it up, and we couldn’t break it, and every minute that passed was a minute closer to being found by that Timekeeper woman—and taken to the queens.
Eventually, March got up from the table, walked around the clock on the floor, searching. Mimi and Seth joined him, and together they searched the walls for seams, for hidden panels, for anything that might be a second exit.
Nothing.
Then Levana made her way to the door and tried it, just in case, and I’ll admit my heart didn’t beat at all in that second it took her to pull the handle down. Of course, it was locked. She even tried to pick it with a pin but failed. ThenErith went and tried to use her magic, too, but even though the minutes in her chronobank were spent, the door didn’t budge.
