Chapter 17
They took us to Master Talik’s workshop again the next day, and he tried to teach us how to find a problem in a malfunctioning device.
The problem was, he went over terms and parts like he was sure we knew exactly what they were, and we didn’t.
That’s why none of us could find the problem when he called us to his table one by one.
Only Anika came close. The rest of us guessed.
I didn’t have a single second alone to ask him any questions before Elida announced it was time to eat because training started in an hour.
She joined us at the eating hall today for both dinner and lunch, and so the others didn’t say much.
I still sat at the end, and March still sat right next to me, and we all pretended to be very interested in our plates as we chewed.
Erith looked okay. Normal, though at times in the workshop I thought I saw her shivering since I was sitting on the bench right behind her.
She never said anything, didn’t speak a single word, which was very unlike her.
And I wanted to get in her head so badly to see her dream.
Then there was the piece of paper I’d torn off my sketchbook, folded and tucked into my pocket.
The portrait of a boy named Silas. I don’t know why I’d taken it with me when I left the room, but I couldn’t imagine parting with it.
I’d taken the tiny mushroom made of white stone, too, just for a bit of comfort. It actually helped.
March remained a solid presence near me throughout the day.
He never spoke to me, but any time he wasn’t looking at me, I was analyzing him.
Now that I’d seen the way I drew him, my fingers itched to immortalize every little detail on him again—even the shape of his fingernails, and the lobe of his ears.
I must have felt the same craving before, too.
It explained all those sketches of his perfectly.
In training, Asha and her partner Hector took us all to the outer parts of the arena this time, and we weren’t required to find partners—they paired us themselves.
Elida watched and took notes, and we were told to do dual-weapon fighting with real weapons we chose from the racks, then disarming our opponent.
Then we had to fight in confined structures, for which we went near the edge of the arena to this maze made of wood with barely enough space for one of us to move, let alone two to fight.
But we managed.
Somehow, we managed to complete all the tasks she gave us when I’d been sure that we’d all fail even worse than we had in Master Talik’s workshop.
A curious concept, but my body knew movements I was sure I’d never done before.
I was more aware in a fight, and much faster to react than I would have ever thought possible.
Muscle memory, Asha told us, and how could I not believe her when I felt my own body like it was a stranger’s?
Four hours went by both incredibly fast and excruciatingly slowly as the sun unrose higher and higher in the sky until noon. We were all dripping with sweat, bruised, bloody, and dirty when Asha decided that we’d had enough.
“Well done,” she said before she dismissed us. “Rest. Eat. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow. We’ll be focusing on long distance weapons and mechanical traps for as long as you can stand.”
Then she and Hector turned around and left the arena with a nod Elida’s way.
The Royal Timekeeper beamed like she herself had been given a compliment.
“That was a day well spent. Congratulations! I’ll let you—”
“Where are the queens?” Erith cut her off.
Elida made a face like she swallowed something wrong. She still wore her hat, and her suit was as impeccable as ever, today an olive green. Something about it had been bugging me since I saw her at dinner.
“I’m afraid I don’t know where the queens are at any given time, Erith. I’m right here, same as you.” Her smile remained but her expression had changed completely in the past two seconds.
“We need to speak to them. To the White Queen,” Anika said. “There must be a way to contact her. Tell her we want to see her.”
“When the White Queen decides to see you, she will,” Elida said, fists tight, knuckles white. I noticed from where I stood, a few feet away from the group.
“It’s urgent. Send her a message and tell her we want to speak to her, that it’s urgent,” said Russ.
“Tell her it’s about the trials,” said March—but it wasn’t.
It was about the Red Queen. Not that they told me, but it was an easy guess.
I’d seen them whispering in each other’s ears throughout the whole day, and I bet they planned to talk to the White Queen about her sister since both Mimi and Erith claimed they knew she’d done something.
“I will,” Elida said, but I would be very surprised if she actually made the effort to send a message to the queen. “I’ll send word. I’ll tell Her Excellency it’s about the trials.”
She wouldn’t.
The others exchanged looks, confused, unsure. Only March showed with his whole face that he didn’t believe her for a second.
Clapping her hands together, Elida smiled again. “Any other questions?”
I had several, but I chose one. “Is there a library in the palace?” Because Jinx was of the mind that books knew all the secrets of every second to have passed in the Clockrealm and every second that would come to pass.
If Master Talik wasn’t going to tell me anything about the Labyrinth, maybe I could find books that could.
“Oh.” Elida was surprised. I thought maybe she expected a different question. “Yes, actually. There is one on the second floor, south wing. Feel free to check it out whenever you like.” A grin. “Now, off to your baths, all of you. Breakfast will be waiting in the eating hall.”
Second floor, south wing. For a second there, I must have malfunctioned because I could have sworn I knew there was a library there.
Elida stepped aside to let us through, and the others moved slowly, heads down, flinches on their faces.
They hurt everywhere and they were exhausted—and I was no better.
But as I passed by Elida, there was something about her scent that poked some unknown thought in my brain.
It was strange to fight against instincts and senses that knew things differently from your own mind—but I knew her scent.
I could have sworn I had smelled it before, and I’d seen that olive-green fabric, too.
On a vest and on a hat.
So, I stopped, and as the others slipped out the door, I looked at Elida.
“Keep going,” she sang, never letting her smile drop, not yet.
“Where is your brother?” I wondered. Because her face could be a male face as well, and in my head there was something that insisted it had been. Strange, I realized it, but she did say that her brother had been our warden before.
Her smile faltered again. “Why?”
“No reason. I’m only curious.” Which was the truth.
The way she fidgeted with her fingers was not a good sign.
“He’s around,” Elida said.
“Can I see him?”
“I don’t see a reason why.”
“But he was with us in the original trials. Why isn’t he with us now?” If Master Talik had remained the same, and Asha and Hector as well, why had her brother not stayed, too?
“Because he can’t. He’s unwell, and I offered to fill in for him. Why—you don’t think me a competent warden?”
The way her voice slightly shook—with anger. Some part of me wanted to reassure her that she was a competent warden no matter what I thought was the truth. Just say it!—but of course, I didn’t. If she was angry or hurt over something, it was her problem, not mine.
So, I said, “Good day,” and I walked away.
March was there with his shoulder resting against the wall, watching me in the hallway when I exited the arena. The sight of him like that, his silhouette was exactly like the one I’d drawn, and I had the overwhelming urge to drag him all the way to my bedroom and show him.
Again—of course I didn’t.
“What?” I asked instead, and I tried to act casual as I walked toward him, my body in another fight against itself—the side that wanted me to stop in front of him and the side that insisted I should just walk away.
“You’re not telling me something.”
I stopped. His eyes fell on my lips, and curiously enough, they still burned with the echo of that kiss any time he looked at me.
My body loved to be reminded of the way he’d tasted, even if I’d have rather wiped the memory from my head altogether, just so I didn’t have to feel like I was being eaten by flames.
“I’m not telling you a lot of things.” Like how much time I spent thinking about that kiss. It embarrassed the time out of me, almost as much as it irritated me.
“But you’re not trying to run away anymore.” He pushed himself off the wall and stepped closer. “Right?”
“Maybe.” This was the part where I should have stepped around him and walked away. I didn’t.
“I’ll tell you a truth if you tell me one.
” He stuck his hands in his pockets and stopped way too close to me, those eyes of his moving fast all over my face like mine moved on his.
His hair was wet with sweat, yet his curls remained as wild as always.
He had dirt everywhere on him, and a bruise was just starting to show on the left side of his jaw—but otherwise he looked okay. Alive. Delicious enough to eat.
“What kind of a truth?” I wondered, and the war that was raging in my head to get me to move back was simmering.
“One you’ll be interested in, I assure you,” he said, then his hand slowly rose up and up and up, all the way to my cheek.
I didn’t breathe. I didn’t move. I only stared at his eyes as he slowly touched my cheek with his fingertips, then rubbed my skin gently, like he was wiping something off.
Whatever it was, it must not have budged because he did an unusual thing next: brought those fingers to his lips and licked them, then wiped my cheek again. With his saliva.