The Time Mechanic

by Victoria Bastedo

  Meanwhile Mars had dragged his feet the entire time. He was supposed to be the guardian on the team. He was supposed to help his old friend while he attempted to do the impossible.

  The dead of night sneered at him from outside a nearby window. A chill draft of air leaked in. Jeremy was stuck outside somewhere in the cold. Mars’ fists clenched until his hands ached. He wasn’t going to sit there for another second. If the constables arrested him, so be it. He surged up from his seat, ready to make a confrontation to bring down the roof if need be.

  But a swish of movement caught his eye. It was Kannikey, moving like a sibilant whisper in the doorway. Her dark blue eyes were on him, and tears were on her cheeks at the sight of his misery. When his eyes connected with hers she must’ve read his mind. She was clever and cunning and like a great thief, she’d stolen his heart. Her head tilted now and she shook her head the tiniest bit, raising one finger to her lips.

  When Mars had threatened to march out of the headquarters earlier Olpher had gone and locked them in, hanging the key to the headquarters on a chain around his neck. Mars blinked in surprise now. Kannikey dug in her pocket. She lifted her long, elegant finger and he saw that same key now, dangling from it. His heart pounded at the satisfied smile on her face. This girl was going to be nothing but trouble. He crept forward anyway. The two of them slipped out into the night together.

  He and Kannikey snuck away from the headquarters and ran down Tonturin’s streets. They hurried up the hill of fancy houses and reached Kannikey’s home. They raided the barn and took one of Stedland’s carriages. Finally they rode off. They got to the edge of Tonturin on the road towards the farms and were met with a surprise.

  There stood Olpher and a line of constables. The man was firm with his hands crossed over his chest. Next to him were Nemeth, and Stedland. Even Halbernon stood there, bent over and looking more like an old man than ever before. Kannikey’s hands crept to her cheeks and Mars’ face fell.

  But Halbernon sighed.

  “Oh, all right then!” he cried out. “How much do you think I can stand? It’s been six hours already so I suppose it’ll be all right! If we’re careful I can almost guarantee the poison will be no more of a threat to us!”

  Olpher uncrossed his arms and glanced to the side.

  “So now you’re saying it’s all right?”

  Halbernon turned in fury and clicked his fingers in the man’s face. “Let’s just get going!” he said. “Let’s go find Jeremy!”

  They lit lanterns and went back into the headquarters to gather what supplies they needed— water, medical supplies and a stretcher. They wasted another inordinate amount of time but Mars could see they were trying and felt he had to be patient. At last they set off and by the time they reached the spot of the hidden fields their lanterns were almost unnecessary.

  Dawn was coloring the sky with jagged orange streaks when they found the wreckage of the Steam Eagle. The purple stain of poison on the rocks was clear to see.

  “The air should be clear but still try not to touch the poison spots,” Halbernon said.

  They didn’t investigate the splintered Eagle for long. Everything was soon flattened and one of the constables declared the body was nowhere in sight, as if Jeremy were already dead.

  Mars jolted in awful realization. All around them in the early morning there was utter quiet. He blinked when he noticed the expression on the men’s faces. The constables thought they were now trying to recover a corpse, doing their best to comfort Jeremy’s loved ones after his obvious loss. But they didn’t understand.

  “No!” Mars cried. “Give him his due credit!”

  “All right,” said Olpher in a sympathetic voice. “My men didn’t mean anything.”

  “Jeremy’s smart, I’m telling you! If anyone could’ve figured out how to get out of that Steam Eagle alive, it would be him!” Mars heard the anguish in his own voice.

  “Yes, yes,” the constable agreed, humoring him.

  “Let’s just find him,” Mars pleaded.

  The constables started moving again, willing to help however they could. The group of them climbed up and down rock piles in silence. Until they saw a sheet of material ripped and fluttering, its lines tangled in some rocks. On the other side they saw Jeremy. The constables exclaimed and Mars hurried forward, his heart pounding in dying hope.

  Jeremy’s boots were dusty and one leg was bent crooked. One arm lay out long from his side, and the other was twisted up by his head. It looked broken. His face was turned to the side and still. The wind drifted his wavy hair, which looked damp. But there was evidence of what’d gone on. Jeremy had intended to avoid crashing with the Steam Eagle and all the poison. Even if this was his end, it was good to know that Jeremy had attempted to save his own life. Mars hadn’t wanted to admit to the constables that it was likely that Jeremy had just let it all happen.

  Kannikey yelped out a sob at the sight of Jeremy in the dust. Stedland came over and she clung to him on one side. Mars, wanting comfort, too, took hold of her other hand.

  “I’m sorry,” Olpher said to them. He sighed. “Tearrant,” he ordered to his man, “make certain he’s dead.”

  “Yes, sir,” the medic said, climbing over the crackling rock floor to reach Jeremy’s side. He crouched down and leaned forward. He put a hand on Jeremy’s neck and then, after a moment, on Jeremy’s chest. Then he blinked and turned. There was a wonder of surprise on his face. “He’s still alive,” he said, a small smile growing.

  Chapter Forty-Two (In Which Jeremy Misses the Loop Dance Festival)

  On the morning of Tonturin’s yearly Loop Dance Festival every citizen in the vicinity of Tonturin woke up with a new piece of knowledge in their minds, as if they’d been infected by a mist of informing steam. There was a new Time Mechanic. The citizens weren’t certain who it was but they did know that the Time Mechanic’s mission had been dire and it was already completed. Tonturin’s leadership was approached and answers demanded. The constables were consulted. In due course as the morning passed certain answers were supplied to the public. There was a big announcement in the town square. The bad men who’d tried to destroy the town were named and their plot revealed.

  A city Historian reminded them of the Time Mechanic legend. It’d always occurred this way. First the Time Mechanics of the past had completed their missions, and then their city had learned as a group the next morning that the Time Mechanic had arisen. Only it seemed that they were living the legend right now.

  Meanwhile the Festival went on as planned. The strong feeling of disaster averted caused the celebration to have more meaning than ever before. The people joined in a vast circle and danced through the streets. They shopped. They feasted. They laughed and lifted their glass to the mysterious, life-saving Time Mechanic that’d watched over them. Surely, they thought, they’d soon learn who it was they had to thank.

  It was very strange for Mars to go throughout the day. He and the others, from Kannikey and Ffip to Halbernon, Stedland, the doctor, and all the constables— everyone in fact who knew what Jeremy had done— all of them were determined to keep his secret. They’d each discussed it when they ran into each other or happened to pass as they left his room at the hospital to get to the Loop Festival.

  The hardest part for Mars was when he didn’t tell Jeremy’s Uncle Tov the truth. Mars thought about it again as he shook the older man’s hand, leaving the fellow to sit by Jeremy’s bedside in his place as his shop was about to open.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t watch over Jeremy better, sir,” he said. They both looked over at Jeremy’s unconscious form.

  “No, Mars,” Tov replied, “You mustn’t blame yourself. However it was that Jeremy had this accident out there in the wild land beyond the farms, well he did it to himself. He was determined to risk his life on something, I think! Perhaps now he’ll settle down and…”

  “Make something good out of his life?” Mars finished for him.

  “Well… yes. I just want him to
be safe and happy.”

  Mars relaxed into a smile. The compulsion to keep the secret was strong and couldn’t be ignored. But he could say this.

  “Jeremy’s a good man,” he asserted. “He’ll get through this, because he’s not alone.”

  Uncle Tov saw his meaning and his eyes lit up. He shook Mars hand all the harder.

  “I’m glad, Mars,” he said. “Jeremy needs a friend like you.”

  Still it was strange. All day long after Mars had left the hospital and gone to his shop; as he watched the people celebrate and as he heard them discussing that a Time Mechanic had arisen and wondering who it was, he just wondered if Jeremy was going to wake up. Still he grinned as a group of giggling girls left his shop, discussing that they were on their way to buy some new clothes.

  “You never know when you’re going to run into a handsome hero around town,” one of the girls said with a wink as they left.

  He shook his head. Jeremy missed out on the fact that no woman had eyes for Mars today. The thought made him pause. Except there was one girl he hoped to interest.

  His first assistant Joram excused himself after lunch and took Mars’ other employees. They were dressed in the special costume Mars had bought for them. With trim brown pants and flared leather boots they left to lead their section of the circle dance on behalf of his shop. The door closed behind their laughing exit. Mars felt he could relax at last in his empty rooms.

  He’d be alone for a while, he thought. But to his surprise his own office door clicked open from behind him. His heart started pounding, for he was still nervous after all the experiences of the past few weeks. But the door didn’t move again and he thought it’d just popped open in reaction to the outer door of the shop closing.

  Still he had to check. He stalked to his office and opened the door. He stepped inside and froze at what he saw.

  How had the girl gotten past him? Slim and dressed in fine but comfortable clothes, Kannikey sat on his desk, her booted feet swinging. She was smiling. How she could’ve entered his shop and bypassed his employees to hide in here he couldn’t imagine. How indeed had she slipped by all of his defenses? He swallowed.

  “How…” he stuttered, and then felt awkward. “I mean, hello,” he said.

  “Hello?” she laughed. “Is that all you have to say to me?”

  He stared. She was impossibly pretty when she laughed.

  “Uh… what was it you wanted me to say?”

  “Tell me how our friends are first,” she demanded. “I had to spend all morning reassuring my mother since my stepfather and I couldn’t tell her much. We were gone all night and she didn’t know why. And Stedland… well, it’s out already that he was the one who pinpointed Serrin’s evil deeds and helped to save Tonturin from the poison. He’s been called upon to make a speech tonight after the celebrating.”

  “I guess he knows what to say. He’ll be popular and make his lost money back, like Jeremy said. Anyway, about our friends; Ffip’s going to be all right,” he supplied. “Her wrist is sprained and she needs to keep it in a sling for a while. Her head is healing up, too. The doctor thinks she can go home tomorrow, except she doesn’t have much of a home.”

  “She can stay with me,” Kannikey said. Then she sighed. “I guess we can’t all stay at your house anymore.”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “It’s sad.”

  He stared again, wondering if she’d really liked his house, or if it had been the adventure she’d miss.

  “How’s Jeremy?” she went on.

  He deflated at the question. He rubbed his tired eyes.

  “He’s a mess.”

  She sat up straight and her smile dropped away.

  “How bad?”

  Mars felt angry, but at least he was mad at QuRellon instead of Jeremy.

  “His leg is fractured and they had to reset his arm so the break there would heal properly. He’s got a few broken ribs, a knock on the head, and he’s still fighting off that dose of poison he received crashing the Steam Eagle so far away from Tonturin— not to mention exposure to lying out in the cold all night. The same stupid fever as before, only this time he doesn’t need help to keep him asleep.”

  “We… can’t lose him now, Mars,” she protested. His eyes flew up to meet hers at the sound of distress in her voice.

  “By that I don’t mean I’m in love with him or anything,” she added quickly. “He’s the most maddening fellow I’ve ever met! Let Ffip deal with him, rather!”

  “Ffip?”

  “You haven’t noticed the way she looks at him?”

  He shook his head.

  “Well, anyway, you have to allow me to care about Jeremy after all this.”

  He felt stubborn and didn’t care that his face heated in jealousy.

  “Do I?”

  “Well you care, right? How come you can claim him as a friend and I can’t?”

  He frowned, trying to appear reasonable. “I suppose, when you put it like that…”

  “And he is just a friend to me, you know,” she added. “I’ve got feelings for… someone else.” Her meaning was clear.

  He started breathing faster when he noticed color rising in her cheeks. Her skin was so smooth and he wanted to touch it. He walked forward until he was only a foot away from her. He let his fingers rise to her face. “Kannikey,” he breathed. This was the moment for her to push him away if he’d misread her but she didn’t. She lifted her face instead and put her arms around his neck. He bent down and touched noses. “What if your stepfather still has doubts about me?” he asked with a smile.

  “He’s got more doubts about me. Always has.”

  He pulled back and studied the troubled line between her eyebrows.

  “And are you eager for his good opinion?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t been, I know. But he revealed something to me last night. A humility I didn’t know he possessed. And the way he was with my mother this morning I… well, I may’ve misjudged him.”

  “You said he bruised your arm.”

  Now she stroked Mars’ cheek.

  “And did that bother you?”

  “It made me want to break his fist.”

  She chuckled.

  “I admit that he bruised my arm on accident. I was trying to run away one night and my mother was wailing. He took hold and tried to talk me out of it and I wrenched my arm away. I hit a side table with the force of it. I blamed him but the truth is that, well there were times I was the biggest brat I could think of being. The man must hate me.”

  “He wouldn’t keep calling you his daughter and trying to vet your suitors if he didn’t care. Besides, no one could hate you.”

  “You didn’t think much of me, at first.”

  “Not true. I was drawn to you from the first moment I saw the sketch warning about you in my shop.”

  She snuggled back in and laid her head on his chest. “Tell me more.”

  He smiled. “I was hoping we could do less talking while my shop assistants are away.”

  “You see,” she said. “My stepfather was right. That’s the very sort of behavior he was concerned about.”

  “Good thing he doesn’t know about this then.” He bent down and met her lips. She drew herself up so she could help kiss him in return. A few minutes later he was mesmerized in a fog, unable to notice anything but the spell kissing her put him under. There was a sound in the outer shop but the bell tinkling at the door meant nothing to him. At last she pulled away and took a deep breath.

  “You’ve got a customer, I think.”

  “Huh?”

  “A customer. You’re a shopkeeper, right?”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “After all, if you intend to pursue me, you’ll need some money to buy me flowers and things.”

  He kissed her again. He thought only one thing as his appetite for her kept growing. Why had he waited so long to get seriously interested in a girl? But then again, there weren’t any other girls like t
his. She was so beautiful, so clever, and fun, and intriguing. She tasted so…

  Outside in the shop came the sound of customers complaining.

  “Go on,” she said, turning his shoulders in the proper direction.

  He went out into the shop on shaky legs and apologized to his customers. He helped them find the items they wanted to buy. He got them out the door and then hurried to return to what he was doing before. But when he got into his office Kannikey was gone. She’d somehow managed to slip by him, leaving his office undisturbed; except for one thing. His favorite paperweight, the silver one that he’d bought with his first big dose of profit, was missing, too. He laughed.

  Chapter Forty-Three (In Which Jeremy Notices Something Important is Missing)

  When Jeremy woke up he was in a very dark room. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. At last he saw a dim light out in the hallway. He thought he must be in the small hospital located near Tonturin’s city fountain. He tried to move and then flinched. Everything hurt; the spot where the back of his head hit the pillow, the place where he breathed, his leg, his arm, and his stomach. It seemed to take a great deal of his strength to turn onto his side so that he wasn’t pressing down on any sore spots. He groaned quietly but then realized he wasn’t alone. His noise disturbed someone’s slumber. The person was in the corner of his room, sleeping in a chair by the dark window. He heard them suck in a breath and then shuffle around.

  “Who is it?” he whispered.

  “What!” a voice bellowed and he recognized his visitor. Mars scrunched in the chair, apologized, muttered something about a candle, dropped the candle when he tried to light it, and then cursed under his breath.

  At last the flame flared and Jeremy could see in the given direction. He lay on his side and stared at the man for a moment. Mars stretched, yawned, found a belch from inside himself due to all that movement, and then chuckled. Jeremy’s eyes widened when at last he smiled down at him. This wasn’t the Mars he’d been spending time with the past few weeks: the subdued, frustrated Mars. This was his friend of old, the one he’d known before everything changed. Jeremy forgot his sore spots.