by Tim O'Rourke
“And we will be,” he rasped, sounding as if his throat was being squeezed.
“But how long must we wait?” she said, followed by a fart that echoed back off the walls.
Moving away from her, Throat went out onto the balcony and looked out across the ever-increasing desert. The Delf joined him, the wind dragging her wispy lengths of grey knotted hair off her boil-infested face. “It’s the boy, Zachary Black, isn’t it?” she asked her brother.
He nodded, great chunks of his hood falling away. The spiderpedes scuttled over his hood, re-joining the intricate weave of the black fabric.
“But you said that he was nothing...” the Delf started.
Wheeling around, Throat gripped his sister’s throat with such force that her eyes bulged wetly in their dark sockets. “And I sent his sister to you!” he settled, his voice rattling.
“But she never reached me...it was Fandel...” she gasped. “He lost the girl. I went after her. If it hadn’t been for the peacekeeper...”
“Peacekeeper?” Throat hissed, gripping his sister’s neck tighter as if trying to squeeze the information out of her. “The peacekeepers are dead – I made sure of it.”
“There is one...” the Delf croaked, a stream of maggots escaping out of her mouth.
“Where is he now?” Throat gasped as if his neck had been slit open.
“The bandits have him, they have the girl and Fandel, too,” the Delf wheezed as she clawed at her brother’s fingers around her throat. “The bandits will kill all of them.”
“But we need the girl,” Throat spat. “She is no good to me dead – not just yet. Not until the box is open. The Queen and her reflection must die together. Where are they heading?”
“To the volcano,” the Delf choked.
“How do you know this?”
“I heard Fandel bargain for his life. He said he would take them to the box if they let him live.”
“The snake,” Throat rasped. Then slowly, he loosened his grip on his sister’s neck and turned away. From beneath his hood, the Delf heard her brother start to chuckle. It sounded like he was choking on a throat full of glass.
“What is it?” she spluttered, rubbing her stringy neck with her hands.
“To reach the volcano and the box,” Throat smiled beneath his hood, “all will have to pass through the outer-rim and the Clockwork City.”
“Is that good, brother?” the Delf asked, hoping that it was, for her sake.
“It’s more than good, it’s perfect,” Throat chuckled. “I have someone in place there that I can trust. And even if they fail me, I have riders patrolling the edges of the outer-rim. They will intercept the boy and his pathetic band of friends. This is far better than I first thought. Not only will I catch the boy Zachary Black in the net I have cast, I’ll also catch his sister, and the wolf-boy with the key to the box, and the last remaining peacekeeper. There will be no one left to stand in our way. I will have the Heart of Endra, and its power, will be mine.”
“We will turn back then?” The Delf asked him. “Will we return to how we were once before? Live how we did before?”
“Yes, sister,” Throat gasped, taking her in his arms, as if no longer angry with her. “But I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” she said, staring beneath his hood.
“Make your way to the Craggy Canyon by the outer-rim,” he said, and be ready to take the key.”
“Let us travel together,” she said, holding him tight, some of the spiderpedes scuttling from her brother’s cloak and finding a new place to nest in her hair.
“I have to stay and keep watch over the Queen,” he rattled from deep within his throat. “It seems that our enemies are many. And besides, unlike my sweet sister, I am in a further state of decay – but that will change.”
“And what of Fandel?” the Delf asked.
“What of him?”
“I want him,” the Delf smiled.
“Then he is yours, sister. I will have no use for him once this is over,” Throat rasped.
Then, sneaking her hand back beneath her brother’s hood, she cupped his decaying face and said, “It will be over soon, won’t it? I can’t bear to be like this any longer.”
“You will soon look beautiful again,” Throat tried to convince her. Then leaning forward, he gently kissed her maggot-infested lips.
Chapter Six
Zachary and William sat in the glow of the fire, as Faraday told them his story. Bom sat apart from the others, the pipe dangling from the corner of his mouth, bushy white eyebrows covering his eyes. To look at him, one might believe he was asleep, but every now and then he would grunt, or make a remark that told the others he was awake and listening to the mechanical man’s story. Neanna lay on her side, cloak drawn up beneath her chin, her eyes wide and bright as she listened.
Faraday sat crossed-legged before the fire and spoke in that odd-sounding voice, which again Zach couldn’t help but be reminded of a voice coming through an electronic PA system. The mechanical man started by telling them that as far as he knew, or his memory would allow him to remember, was that in the great Clockwork City lived a madman, and his name was Der Cribbot.
“I don’t know if he was truly mad,” Faraday explained. “Some called him a genius – but in the end he was believed to be insane.”
“Why?” William asked, his eyes glowing hot behind his odd-looking spectacles.
“Whether he discovered his doorway by chance – luck – or fate, I do not know,” Faraday said. “Is that important? I don’t much care. But what he found on the other side – that’s what is important. On the other side of his doorway he found...”
“Earth,” Zach cut in.
Faraday stared darkly at the boy.
“I come from there,” Zach added.
Faraday continued as if Zach hadn’t spoken at all. “On discovering his doorway, Cribbot became obsessed by what he found on the other side. He marvelled at the technology, the creatures, and everything else he had discovered. Living on the edges of the outer-rim, the people of Clockwork City were a simple folk. None had ventured through the doorways – none of them had even looked for one – they were happy and content with the city in which they lived. But Cribbot wasn’t happy with his lot and he couldn’t understand how the other people who he lived amongst could be happy with such simple lives. He would gather people together in the town square, street corners – anywhere people would listen to him. He would tell them of the extraordinary things he had discovered on the other side of his doorway. But those gathered before him would soon walk away laughing as he told them about the incredible flying machines he had seen soaring through the skies, the machines with wheels that ran on tracks and through tunnels cut deep into the mountainsides. He spoke excitedly about the cities made of glass buildings, and how they nearly touched the sky. Cribbot enthused about the animals he had seen beyond his doorway. He spoke of giant cats called tigers with fur painted orange and black, of mighty beasts called gorillas, and tiny, gentle flying animals called butterflies. But he couldn’t find anyone to share his enthusiasm. He could find no one who would believe him. Cribbot had fallen in love with the world he had discovered on the other side of his doorway. But he didn’t love the humans as much as everything they had created and the animals they shared their world with. He began to resent them – become jealous of them perhaps,” Faraday explained.
“Jealous?” Zach asked. “Why?”
“Cribbot told those who would listen that the humans didn’t appreciate what they had,” Faraday continued. “They were killing the world they had and the creatures they shared it with. He would shout from the street corners about how there were only three-thousand of those beautiful orange and black cats left on the other side of the doorway. With an ever-increasing anger, he would rant that the humans had destroyed the tiger’s natural habitat, poached them, driven them almost to extinction. He spoke of the mighty creatures called gorillas and how their numbers were even less
. But it seemed just like the humans, the people of Clockwork City didn’t care – in fact, they cared even less because they didn’t believe him. Cribbot believed that if only he could bring one of these creatures back – if he could bring back some of the technology that the humans took so much for granted – if he could only show it to the people of Clockwork City, then perhaps they would care – perhaps then, they would believe him.
“So, by cunning or by magic, Der Cribbot brought some of those machines which the humans had made back through his doorway and into Endra. It wasn’t just machines he brought back with him – he brought some of those creatures back, too. But something went wrong – terribly wrong,” Faraday said.
“What?” William asked, his eyes now blazing behind his bulbous lenses.
“The doorways have the power to change you,” Faraday said.
Remembering how the doorways had changed his friends William and Neanna and the polar bear he had killed on his first night in Endra, Zachary nodded and said, “We know all about how the doorways can change you.”
“The creatures Cribbot snuck back through the doorway somehow became entangled with the machinery he was smuggling back into Endra,” Faraday said, and again his voice was emotionless, just like his dead, black eyes. “At first Cribbot marvelled at what had happened. His aspiration to soar through the sky like a bird was no longer just a dream. To travel at incredible speeds, to ride on creatures that ran on tracks and cut their way through tunnels was now a reality, and he was overjoyed. He took these creatures and travelled across Clockwork City and the furthest reaches of the outer-rim with his circus of mechanical animals. Just like Cribbot had, the people marvelled at these animals and paid good money to witness them. But word soon spread beyond the reaches of the outer-rim.”
“The rumours,” Neanna whispered. “So they were all true.” She looked at Zachary. Not in a cocky or smug way that she had been right all along – but in a way one might look on realising that the bogeyman does really exist, that there are really monsters in the closet. All the stories had been true.
“So what happened?” Zachary asked, looking away from Neanna and back at Doctor Faraday.
He explained how the technology and creatures, which had been taken from beyond the doorway started to advance the people of Clockwork City at a speed that wasn’t meant to have been. And because most of it was damaged and way beyond anything they would have been able to imagine, it wasn’t always used to enlighten and advance the people, but destroy them and Endra.
“It is believed that the Queen dispatched a company of her most trusted peacekeepers to investigate if there was any truth to the rumours which had reached the top of the Splinter. She feared that if such technology had truly been smuggled into Endra, than it would soon destroy her world as quickly as it was destroying Earth.”
“So what did the peacekeepers find when they reached the Clockwork City?” Zach asked. He was interested to find out as much as possible about the race of people he was meant to be a part of.
“They found a city in ruin,” Faraday said. “There had been a war – a war that I had been a part of but one that I can barely recall. I remember great birds taking to the skies, their wings on fire. These black and orange striped creatures came racing across the outer-rim, more machine than animal. Giant black beasts tore up the city and creatures with tusks that breathed fire torched the city.”
“So why did Cribbot turn these animals – machines – on his own people?” Bom asked from the corner of the overhang, and the others couldn’t help but sense the fear in his voice.
“He didn’t, as far as I can recall,” Faraday explained. “It wasn’t only the Queen who had heard the stories coming from the outer-rim – there was another.”
“Who?” William asked.
“A sorcerer called Throat,” Faraday said, a click-click noise suddenly coming from the back of his throat. The others watched as he lifted the skin beneath his chin and slipped two fingers beneath it. There was a whizzing noise as he pushed and prodded at the cogs and pistons he had exposed. Another series of click-click sounds came, then stopped. Faraday removed his fingers and replaced the artificial skin. “Just dust,” he said.
Zach looked at his friends at the mention of the name Throat.
“So what happened?” Zach asked Faraday.
“I’m not too sure,” he explained and Zach couldn’t help but think that Faraday was trying to avoid answering his question. Machine or not, Zach sensed that Faraday was hiding something.
“Then we must find Cribbot’s home,” Zach said.
“But why?” Bom grumbled.
“Because if we are to reach the Rusty Volcano and open the box, we have to cross the outer-rim and this Clockwork City,” Zach said.
“You can’t do that,” Faraday spoke up.
“And why not?” Zach asked him, staring into his jet-black eyes.
“Thousands of those creatures that Cribbot created – the creatures Throat found a way of multiplying – still roam the outer-rim and the city,” Faraday said.
“And that’s why we need to find the home of this Cribbot,” Zach insisted. “Perhaps we will discover a way across the outer-rim. Perhaps we’ll find a way of switching these creatures off.” Then, staring at Faraday, Zach added, “Like you, they’re just machines.”
“But it will be dangerous,” Bom said, getting to his feet and coming across the overhang to reason with the boy.
“Maybe not,” Zach said, eyeing Faraday. “Perhaps the machines have all been turned off already. After all, we did find Faraday lying out in the desert. I wonder who it was that flipped your switch to the off position?”
Faraday said nothing and just stared emotionlessly back at Zach.
“What happened to the peacekeepers who were sent to investigate?” Zach asked him.
“It is rumoured that they still patrol the outer-rim, preventing anyone from entering,” Faraday said, his eyes never leaving Zach’s.
“That’s funny,” Zach spoke with a knowing smile, “But I thought all of the peacekeepers were dead.”
“They are,” Faraday said, and his throat made that clicking sound again. “Nothing you find in there is truly alive – not as you know it.”
A silence fell over the group, the only sound being the burning fire in the centre of the overhang. William looked at Zach, as if waiting for him to speak. Neanna lay on her side and looked at Zach, too. He knew that they were waiting for him to make a decision – to lead them. But what choice did he have? Zach wondered. There was no other way to reach the volcano where the box hung – the box that would save his sister and the Queen of this strange world. He sensed that the mechanical man knew more than he was saying, but what he didn’t know was if he could trust him or not.
Drawing a deep breath and feeling the weight of the decision he had to make bearing down on his young shoulders, he looked at his friends and said, “We rest today and leave for the outer-rim at twilight.”
“What about him?” Bom asked, pointing at Faraday with the end of his pipe.
“I’m going to switch him off,” Zach said, heading towards the mechanical man.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Faraday said, again his voice flat – cold.
“And why not?” William asked, reaching for his catapult again.
“Because you won’t survive without me,” Faraday said.
“We’ll take our chances,” Zach told him, his fingers twitching over his crossbows.
“And do you know where to find the home of Cribbot?” Faraday asked. “You won’t find it without me. You won’t reach the volcano without me.”
“Why do you want to help us?” Zach asked, unable to crush the feelings of suspicion he felt inside.
“Because like you, I have my own mission.”
“And what’s that?” William woofed.
Then leaping to his feet with the same speed and agility he had shown before, Faraday stood before Zach and said, “Like you, boy, I need to find out
who and what I really am.”
Chapter Seven
Anna Black felt the boat slow. It listed from left to right on the oily black waves. The paddlewheels on either side of the floating stagecoach stopped spinning as the giant seahorses steered it towards the shores of the outer-rim. Anna looked to her left. Tanner lay on his side. His fever seemed to have broken. It had been several hours since he had last screamed out in a state of delirium. In that time, Anna had managed to sleep. She didn’t know for how long, as she had lost track of time, deep in the bows of the strange boat in which she was held prisoner. Her Uncle Fandel felt the boat slow too, and he lifted his narrow face off his chest and looked over at her through the gloom.
“It feels like we’re docking,” he whispered, and she couldn’t help but notice the fear in his eyes. “It’s our last chance to get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she glared. Anna broke his stare and looked at the peacekeeper. His face looked thinner than it had when they had first been taken prisoner. His hair looked whiter somehow.
“Hey, you,” Anna said, nudging him with her foot. She still wore the nightdress she had been wearing the night she had escaped from her uncle and the jeans and boots she had found at the railroad station just outside the town of Tud.
The peacekeeper groaned and his eyes flickered open.
“Are you okay?” Anna asked him.
“Thirsty,” he whispered.
“I am too,” she said back. “I think we are going to be taken ashore.”
Tanner peered blearily about the bow of the boat, as if trying to remember exactly where he was. Then, looking over, he spied Fandel and whispered, “Why aren’t you dead yet?”
“Nice,” Fandel sneered back. “I think we’re all going to be dead soon.”
“Not you,” Tanner hissed, struggling to pull himself up into a sitting position. With his arms tied behind his back, he cried out as the wound in his shoulder exploded with pain. The world swam darkly before him and he gritted his teeth. With his head rested against the bow of the boat, he looked at Fandel and said, “Van Demon and his crew aren’t going to kill you. They need you to lead them to the box.”
