Firestarter

by Tara Sim

  Daphne sighed in relief. When she noticed Akash on her other side, though, she seemed to grow paler.

  “Akash saved us, you know,” Danny murmured. “He carried you to the ship and got a knife thrown at him for his trouble.”

  “What? Where?” Charlotte bustled Akash off to take a look at his leg.

  Daphne watched as Charlotte drew a privacy screen, hiding Akash’s embarrassed expression. “Did he really?”

  Danny nodded. Before he could say any more, Jo slipped into the room. “Good, you’re all on the mend. Zavier wants to see you three in the meeting room.”

  “Can’t it wait?” Meena asked.

  “He insists on doing it now, before he holds an assembly with the crew.”

  Danny helped Daphne to stand, and she leaned against him for support. Together they walked to the room where Danny had reunited with Daphne and Meena. And where Danny had learned that Colton was onboard the ship. He still felt Colton’s touch, the ghostlike imprints of the spirit’s fingertips on his skin.

  Zavier sat at the table, hunched over a mug of what looked like whiskey. At his side sat a girl not much younger than Meena, with light brown hair and gray eyes. Daphne made a little “oh” sound.

  “Here they are,” Jo said as she closed the door. Danny helped Daphne settle into a chair. “It’ll just be us, yes?”

  “Yes.” Zavier cleared his throat. He looked haggard, and the girl watched him with worry. Danny remembered seeing her a couple of times on the ship—Zavier’s sister, Sally.

  Jo touched Zavier’s shoulder. “Go ahead. Tell them.”

  He took a deep breath, looking … young. Helpless.

  “I want to free Aetas,” he began, his voice slow and cracked, “because my mother is trapped in a Stopped town.” He gestured to Sally. “Our mother.”

  No one spoke. Danny looked between them, noting the same gray eyes, the same strong nose.

  I have an interest. It was what Zavier had told him, once, when Danny had asked him why he was so invested in this implausible scheme.

  “It was during the Austro-Prussian War,” Zavier went on, addressing his mug. “I was thirteen, Sally was about seven. Our mother was—is—a nurse. When she was stationed in Kaplice, in Bohemia, a bomb dropped on the tower and destroyed it. She’s been trapped there ever since.”

  Danny was momentarily transported out of the room, returning to that moment when Leila stood hunched over the phone, eyes wide with terror. The sound of his mother crying. Standing before the gray barrier that separated him from his father. Your fault.

  “Mechanics have tried to free Kaplice, of course,” Zavier murmured. “But they’ve had about as much luck as they did with Maldon.” He met Danny’s eye. “In this instance, there is no runaway spirit. It’s either freeing time itself, or nothing.”

  Sally signed something, and Zavier nodded. “Sally and I lived with our father after that, but a couple years later he died in a mining accident.” He paused to take a swig from his mug. “Then we stayed with Aunt Jo and our late uncle. I vowed to do whatever it took to free our mother, and Aunt Jo said she would help however she could.” He looked at her, and she gave him an encouraging nod to go on.

  “During that time, I prayed to Aetas. I prayed to Oceana. Hell, I prayed to any god who would listen. I just wanted to believe in something. I wanted to believe that I could save her. And then, one day, Oceana called me to the ocean. Aunt Jo didn’t understand why I needed to go, but …”

  Jo’s eyes were glazed with memory. “I took him anyway,” she said in a faraway voice. “Didn’t know he’d be coming face-to-face with a goddess, of all things.”

  “I hardly believed it, even when she stood before me.” Zavier swallowed. “She told me … told me that I could help. That there was a way to save my mother. Once I found out the truth about Aetas, I knew I had to free him.”

  Danny risked a glance at the others. Daphne was listing to one side, wearing a strange frown. Meena stared at the table’s surface.

  “I’ve always hated the clock towers. If they were gone, if their hold on time were dissolved, then no one else would have to suffer what we went through.” He glanced meaningfully at Danny. “So I gathered my crew, and here we are. I didn’t want Sally to tag along, but she insisted.” He raised an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged. “We want our mother back. We want everyone in every Stopped town to be freed. We want the world to go on as it used to.”

  The room fell into uneasy silence. Danny listened to his own breathing, short and shallow.

  “And your arm?” Meena asked in a croaking whisper.

  “What about it?”

  “When you said you’ve always hated clock towers, you glanced at it.”

  A wry smile lifted a corner of his mouth. He flexed his metallic fingers. “An accident. I am—was—a clock mechanic, just like you three. But I was terrified of the towers after what happened to my mother. I wasn’t paying attention, and my arm got caught in the gears.”

  Danny felt Daphne shudder against his side.

  “The towers are unnatural,” Zavier said. “Every second of every day is a countdown to when they’ll malfunction next. If we want to see the world progress, we must cut our connection with them. Danny, you have to understand. You know what it’s like to have a parent trapped. Wouldn’t you have done anything to free your father? Weren’t you desperate to find a way?”

  “Yes, but …”

  Colton.

  “I realize that you’re concerned about the spirits,” Zavier went on, “but you have to let them go. They’re not living entities. Millions of people will benefit from time being restored. If we want to help the world, there must be sacrifices.”

  “You said you could save him,” Danny rasped.

  “If there’s a way to save him, we will. We’ll do whatever we can to keep Colton for you. We can make a deal with Aetas, maybe. But the others …”

  Daphne leaned forward. She was looking at Sally, talking directly to her. “Look, I’m sorry for your loss, but do you really believe in this cause? Do you really want to bring down the towers, and free Aetas, if that’s even possible?”

  Jo interpreted some of what Daphne said, but once Sally understood, she nodded.

  “She says she loves her brother and wants to free her mother as much as he does,” Jo translated as Sally signed, “but she agrees that Zavier has been … mean.” Sally gave her brother a small shove, and he scowled at her in response. “She apologizes for his behavior.”

  Zavier scoffed and slid a book toward Danny. It was old and battered, the spine cracked and the corners rubbed raw. “That’s Prometheus Unbound, by Percy Shelley,” he explained. “I want you to read it. Maybe then you’ll understand the importance of our mission a little better.”

  “But who were those people who attacked us?” Daphne demanded.

  “I’ll explain to everyone later,” Zavier replied. “And about you three taking off in one of our planes—which was destroyed, by the way—”

  “Official pardons all around,” Jo said with a wiggle of her fingers. Zavier swung his glare toward her. “You all need a break, Zavier. You’ve told them what they need to know, and now I’m going to take them back to the infirmary.”

  “Fine,” Zavier muttered, sounding for all the world like a child denied his favorite toy.

  Danny stood, the thin book heavy in his hand. Zavier held his gaze for a moment. There was something more than cold determination in those eyes. Something Danny knew all too well.

  Desperation.

  Out in the hall, as Meena supported Daphne with an arm around her waist, Daphne took one look at him and scoffed. “Don’t you dare,” she said.

  “Don’t I dare what?”

  “Start siding with him. He’s trying to get your sympathy.”

  “If he wanted to play that angle, he’d have told me at the beginning. Besides, I do understand. My father was trapped in Maldon for three bloody years. I know what it’s like.”

  “Why
are you even letting him do this?” Daphne demanded of Jo. “Why do you go along with whatever he says?”

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my sister. My niece and nephew need a mother. I’m not trying to justify what he’s done, but give his words some thought, all right?”

  They reluctantly followed her down the corridor, but Danny stopped, taking another look at the book in his hands.

  “I’ll catch up to you later,” he said.

  Jo let him go without questions, which was precisely why she was the only one on this blasted airship he liked. He turned and headed in the opposite direction.

  Liddy was standing guard outside Colton’s door. Well, sitting guard; she was slouched against the wall, whittling a piece of wood. When Danny came around the corner, she hopped to her feet.

  “Yes?” she drawled. “And what does our escape artist need, hm?”

  “Just let me in,” he mumbled. “Please.”

  Liddy took out the key, jangling it in his face. “You two are like magnets. I’m locking you in for one minute, but that’s all. Got it?”

  Colton was sitting on the edge of the low bed, head bent as he examined something in his hand. He lifted his face in surprise when Danny walked in. The sight of him sent a blow through Danny’s chest. Colton was too damn beautiful for his own good.

  Danny was stricken speechless for a moment, his tongue dry. Colton stood and pocketed what he had been studying: a tiny cog.

  “What’s that?”

  “From Big Ben,” the spirit said. Vague, cold.

  “Oh.” Heart racing, he reached into his pocket and touched the cog Colton had given him. He glanced at Colton’s neck, remembering what the knife had done there. Wincing, he let the cog go.

  “Zavier gave this to me,” Danny said, lifting the copy of Prometheus Unbound. “I was wondering … I mean, since you like … since we both … Do you want to read it? Together?” Like we used to?

  Colton’s face crumpled, but in a blink it turned back to that uncharacteristic stoniness. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

  Danny resisted the urge to hold the book to his chest, as if to use it as a shield. His body ached. His mind ached. He wanted to lie down and never get back up again.

  “Are you sure?” Danny whispered. He didn’t know what had compelled him to say the words, but now he wished he hadn’t. He quickly turned for the door, eyes burning.

  But the door opened before he could reach it. Dae stepped back, surprised to see Danny there.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Quick as that, he dismissed Danny and turned to Colton. “I think I’ve completed it. The new holder.”

  Danny watched, fascinated and forgotten, as Dae transferred Colton’s cogs from the holder Christopher Hart had made into a new one. The cogs glowed faintly, and when Colton put on the holder, he looked even more substantial. More human.

  Colton made a surprised sound. “I feel great.”

  “Better than the other one?”

  “Definitely. Thank you, Dae.”

  Danny couldn’t tolerate another second of seeing Colton smile at someone who wasn’t him. Liddy tried to say something as he left the room, but he silently continued down the hall, taking refuge in his room.

  An hour later, Prema came to collect him for Zavier’s assembly.

  The crew gathered on the observation deck. Though he had learned the plane they’d stolen had crashed in the Himalayan forest, Danny had no idea where the airship was at the moment, and didn’t particularly care.

  “You’re all wondering who those people were,” Zavier said. “The airship that attacked us is a class-A registered ship, the type usually commanded by the military. From the intelligence we’ve gathered in the past few weeks, I believe I know who it belongs to. The group calls themselves the Builders. They’ve tracked our progress taking down clock towers, and they want to stop us. But they aren’t military, so far as we know. It’s like they’re a separate entity altogether. It could be they’ve received under-the-table government funding, but it’s hard to say.

  “What I do know is”—he paused, frustration passing like a wave across his face—“they’re rebuilding the towers we destroy.”

  The crew erupted in shocked protests. Zavier waited for the chatter to die down before continuing.

  “The Builders have only succeeded once so far, in Khurja. That was the second town we liberated, and time was going strong when we left, thanks to the water from Aetas’s prison.”

  A dark realization grew in the pit of Danny’s stomach. He turned and met Daphne’s eye. Her face was white, frozen with horror. Like Danny, she knew how the tower had been rebuilt.

  Blood. Sacrifice.

  “We’re not sure how the Builders are doing this,” Zavier went on, “but we can’t let them distract us. We will free Aetas. Until then, we’ll be vigilant—and we’ll fight back.”

  “How?” Felix asked.

  “With a demonstration. An open declaration of war.” Zavier’s steely determination lit his gray eyes, turning them to storm clouds. “We’re going to take out the astronomical clock in Prague.”

  The musty wallpaper smelled of spice and vinegar, as if someone had spilled wine on it a hundred years ago. Danny leaned his head against it as he cradled Prometheus Unbound in his lap, occasionally running his fingers along the old, crinkled pages. The spindly chair he sat on was uncomfortable, but the only other option was the bed by the window, already claimed by Edmund.

  The apartment Zavier had rented was small, with barely enough space to squeeze in the two beds, a stove, a hearth, and a water closet with the tiniest tub Danny had ever laid eyes on. Somehow, he was meant to share this space with Zavier, Edmund, and Felix. None were too happy about it.

  The ship had dropped them off a few miles from the city, and they’d hitched a ride on the back of a wagon that was carrying goods to market. Liddy, Astrid, Daphne, and Meena had come too, holed up in their own apartment down the street. Everyone else was on the Prometheus, awaiting orders.

  Danny had considered jumping from the wagon or escaping into the streets of Prague, but Colton was still on that airship, and Zavier’s threat still clamped around his neck like a collar.

  “Can’t win,” Danny muttered.

  Edmund looked away from the window. “What’s that?”

  “Nothing.” Danny returned to the book—Zavier’s book. He’d hoped to find something hidden there, something beneath the story of Prometheus being freed.

  The door opened and Zavier walked in, unraveling a blue scarf from his neck. He looked tired, his face pink from the cold. “Just did a preliminary search,” he said, throwing the scarf on the bed where Felix had spread out. “The security is lax. I think this will be easier than we thought, but we’ll still need to be careful, especially with the clock being where it is.”

  Danny had only caught a glimpse of the tower when they’d arrived earlier that afternoon. The astronomical clock—known as the Orloj clock—stood tall, dark, and proud in the Old Town Square. He could see what Zavier meant about it being so out in the open.

  “What’s the plan, then?” Edmund asked.

  “We’ll split up tomorrow to gather as much information as we can. Street layouts, in case we need to run. Details about the square and the clock. Anything we don’t already know. You’ll be helping us with that,” Zavier said, noticing Danny in the corner.

  “Allow me to show you how surprised I am.” Danny returned to the book. Edmund laughed, but it turned into a cough as Zavier cast him a withering glance.

  “You’ll be escorted at all times while we’re here,” Zavier said. “I mean it, Danny. No more running.”

  “Hard as it is to believe,” Danny replied, “I actually want to return to the Prometheus. You are, unfortunately, my only way back there.” That I know of. “But I won’t be going inside the tower.”

  Zavier barely thought it over. “Agreed. Now, let’s get dinner from downstairs and call it a night.”

  �
�Er, one thing,” Edmund said, lifting a finger. “One of us has to share a bed with him.” He pointed at Danny, who flushed.

  “What, are you saying I smell?”

  “No, it’s only … well …”

  Zavier rubbed his face with a gloved hand. “Yes, Ed, he likes other men. That doesn’t mean he likes you.”

  “Wasn’t suggesting it—I mean, I’d be flattered—It’s just, wouldn’t it be uncomfortable for you?” he asked of Danny.

  “I’ll sleep on the bloody floor,” Danny snapped. “Heaven forbid you’re uncomfortable.”

  “No, you won’t,” Zavier interrupted. “I’ll get some extra blankets and I’ll sleep on the floor. Ed, you share with Felix. Sorry, Felix.” The man sighed.

  “I’m not taking an entire bed for myself,” Danny argued, but Zavier held up a hand to silence him.

  “You are, and that’s the end of it.”

  Danny shrank farther into the corner, using the book as a feeble barrier between himself and the others. He was nothing but an oddity to them, a specimen they didn’t understand. It didn’t help that Zavier kept watching his progress with the book like a hungry hawk.

  That night, curled up alone while Felix and Edmund snored in the other bed, Danny remembered when Colton had snuck out of his tower to come to his cottage. How much better he had felt holding the clock spirit in his arms, knowing he would be right there when he woke up.

  But Colton wasn’t there as the sun rose over Prague the next morning. Colton was miles away, and wanted nothing to do with him.

  People milled about the Old Town Square among rococo buildings painted in soft colors. They were elegantly designed with asymmetrical scrollwork and shell-like curves, windows and roofs arching toward an overcast sky. A tall church brooded to one side, its black spires stabbing upward, like something out of a Gothic novel.

  But what stole Danny’s attention was the clock. The tower itself was simple, built of pale brick with a small, black clock face at the top. Despite its humble appearance, he sensed the power emanating from it, rippling up his spine. He almost thought he could feel the cog in his pocket grow warmer.