Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)(88)

“Not quite,” the man said with barely concealed amusement.

“But I saw you when I was an apprentice here. I’m sure of it.”

Colton tugged on his sleeve. “Danny,” he whispered, “he’s the spirit.”

Danny stared. Looking closer, he saw that the man’s shirtsleeves were rolled to his elbows, and a tattoo—or what looked like a tattoo—circled one thick arm: DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRUM VICOTIAM PRIMAM.

When the spirit who wanted to be called Big Ben winked, Danny rocked back on his heels, his face burning.

So much for being a detective.

“We’re sorry to intrude,” Evaline said, sounding humble in the man’s presence, which was definitely big. His smile alone flooded the room like a blast of heat, and Danny swore the clock faces glowed brighter.

“No need to be sorry. I like the company. Couldn’t help but overhear your dilemma, though. What are two spirits doing outside their towers in the first place?”

Colton and Evaline explained while Danny lingered shyly in the background. He wondered how many people Big Ben had revealed himself to over the years, and if any of them had been quicker to catch on.

“Well, now, that makes sense. I’ve felt you in the city for a while, but I wasn’t sure why. I felt you just recently,” Big Ben said, turning to Colton. “I know this mechanic fellow you talked about. I’ve seen him here working and training young mechanics. He didn’t strike me as the type to turn rotten.”

“That’s just it,” Evaline said. “He isn’t rotten, not at all. He’s only done something selfish. As have I.”

“As humans tend to,” Big Ben mused, “but not so much spirits.” Evaline ducked her head. “You love this human?”

“I do.”

“But you also love your town.”

She nodded, her long hair swaying. “Yes.”

He turned to Colton again. “And you?”

Colton looked over his shoulder at Danny, longing in the shade of his eyes, misery in the shape of his mouth.

“Yes,” he said quietly.

Big Ben rolled his eyes heavenward. “Hopeless creatures, the lot of you.”

“We’re aware of that,” Danny grumbled, pulling Colton back and taking his place. “The question is what to do now.”

Big Ben considered the matter. He began to slowly pace the room, and Danny worried the spirit might take hours before he came up with anything useful. But only a moment later he said, “There is no right answer.”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked.

“I mean,” Big Ben said, “that time itself is the answer. You can’t force something to occur in the future because you’d like it to, just as you can’t go back and force the past to change. There are many branches of time reaching from your bodies—I can see them attached to one another. Humans call it fate, but it’s nothing so poetic as that. It’s simply time. Time, and the decisions you make as it passes, which in turn make history. When one decision becomes impossible, the thread snaps, leaving you fewer and fewer choices.

“Anything can happen. You could return to Maldon, or your cog might be destroyed,” he said to Evaline and Colton, respectively. “The men you love may die. Both, or just one.” Colton gave Danny a horrified look. “You won’t know until it happens, and that’s when you’ll know the right thing to do. Because it’ll be the only thing you can do. And that becomes your fate.”

“You’re a real bloody comfort,” Danny muttered, rubbing a hand over Colton’s back. “What about an actual solution?”

“Thought I gave you one.”

“No wonder they call you Big Ben. Big Headed, more like.”

“Never heard that one before.” The spirit smiled broadly. “Listen, mechanic. Time is the language of all things. It is everything you see, hear, touch. Treat it carefully.”

Danny couldn’t tell whether he meant time as a whole, or if he meant Colton. He supposed they were one and the same.

“And remember,” Big Ben said, looking straight at Danny. “You have more control than you think.”

The clock struck eleven and the four great bells began to carol the hour. Danny felt the floor vibrate with the chimes and stood rooted to the spot, surrounded on all sides by the booming, mesmerizing sound. In the chimes they heard something more than bells, something like what the spirit had been trying to tell them: time moves, and so does life, for good or ill. They could stay up here and wonder, or they could go and see what would come to pass.

When the last ringing echo faded into silence, they turned back to Big Ben, but he had disappeared.

Danny was reluctant to move and break the spell, but he roused himself with a shake of his head. “Right. We best be going.”

“To Enfield?” Colton asked hopefully.

“To Enfield. But first I want to check if Matthias has been by the house.”

“Yes,” said a new voice behind them, “he has.”

They whirled around. Matthias stood on the landing, blue eyes fixed on Danny. They briefly took in Colton and then settled on Evaline. His shoulders slumped.

“Why did you leave, Eva? You said you understood.”

Evaline had frozen at the sight of him, but his pleading tone coaxed her to speak. “Matthias, this is wrong. You know it is. I thought I understood at first, but now that I know the truth, how can I?” She swung her head from side to side, a dreamer gradually waking up. “You’ve destroyed my town. All those people I loved and cared for are trapped because of you. And because of me.”