Clockwork Twist : Trick (23 page)

Twist felt
warmth hanging around him like a cloud, holding the chilly air at bay.  He was lying down on his back, on the flat floor, with something soft under the back of his head.  He heard the clockwork pulsing around him, but there was another rhythm now.  It was quiet, constant, and familiar.  Twist slowly blinked his eyes open to find a shadow shielding him from the dim, cool light.

Jonas looked down at him with a long-suffering sigh, leaning on one arm as he sat on the wooden floor just beside Twist's head.  His brown jacket was missing now. “I told you to calm down.”

“What happened?” Twist asked, his voice softer than usual.

“You fainted.”
Jonas's face took on a taunting gleam. “I mean, I know I'm rather dashing and all.  I can understand.  But really, this damsel-in-distress routine of yours is getting old.”

“Shut up,” Twist grumbled, trying to sit up.  His limbs felt stiff and shaky, but he didn't let it show.  Jonas helped him anyway, leaving a hand on his shoulder once Twist got himself into a sitting position on the floor.  That subtle, quiet rhythm that had hung in the air poured down his spine like warm water, and he recognized it finally as a heartbeat.  Jonas's jacket was bundled up where Twist's head had been lying.

“Feeling better, then?” Aden asked.  He sat in one of the chairs, watching the both of them calmly.  The gun was in his hand, resting on his knee.  Twist looked back to Jonas, then to the jagged hole in the glass wall where two stone gargoyles stood on the shattered glass, staring at them, and then looked back to Aden.

“What did I miss?”

“Well, after you totally botched my escape plan,” Jonas said, taking his hand back, along with the white fog, and shaking out his jacket to put it back on, “we had a little chat while you were indisposed.”

Twist shot him a glare. “I saved your life, you know.”

“Whatever,” Jonas muttered, looking elsewhere.

“Well, I am very happy you saved him,” Aden said, drawing Twist's attention back. “I would never want to send gargoyles after someone with future sight.  They have a bad habit of killing anything they are sent after.”  Twist looked back to the two at the window. “They won't do anything unless I tell them to,” Aden said dismissively.

“I feel safe,” Jonas said darkly, staring at them.

“Now, Twist,” Aden said, leaning forward in his seat. “Can we start again?”

Twist gave a sigh and hung his head. “I'm never going to get out of here.  I'm going to die inside a giant clock.”

“That would be rather poetic,” Jonas said.

“If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all,” Twist muttered.  Jonas looked back to him with a smile.  Twist caught the glimpse of a deep warmth in his eyes, buried behind his defenses.

“Twist, I dearly want your help,” Aden said, sounding tired.  Twist looked back to him.  Aden looked at the gun in his own hand and put it away, back inside his jacket. “What do I have to do?  I tried to scare you.  I tried to tempt you.  Now I'm trying to be understanding.  I let your friend stay with you after all of that.  What do I have to do to get you to even consider helping me?”

Twist stared back at him, intrigued by this new tactic, but said nothing.

“If you're being nice, how about you give our friends back?” Jonas asked.  Twist looked to him quickly. 
Jonas's eyes lost their sharp, confident edge. “I didn't get there in time to stop them.”

Twis
t's world went cold once again. “You told me you couldn't find Myra,” he said to Aden darkly.

Aden gave a sigh, staring at Jonas bitterly. “I didn't want to worry you.  She's unharmed.”

“After everything we went through, they took her anyway?” Twist asked, the words sounding inconceivable even as he spoke them.  Jonas's jaw tightened visibly and his gaze remained on the floor.

“We'll get her back,” Jonas said.

“Well, that's reassuring,” Aden said brightly. “It wasn't a lie,” he added to Twist.

Twist shot him a glare that banished the smile from his face.

“Myra is worth more to me than either of you are,” Aden said, his voice hard now. “So you need to think very carefully, Twist.  I won't harm her, but she isn't your only weak point.  Are you sure you really want me to stoop to threats?”

Twist's exhausted nerves found a whole new reason to shock him still.  He felt the subtle buzz at his neck grow louder as Jonas came to the same thought, though neither of them moved or responded at all.

“Future sight is unbelievably rare,” Aden said with a sigh. “In the last hundred years, there have only been three proven cases of it.  Please, don't push me to risk one of them.” Aden glanced at Jonas.

“Don't tell him anything,” Jonas said to Twist,
his voice dark and smooth. “I don't care what he wants to know.”

“Twist?” Aden asked, looking at him coldly now.

A wave of bold confidence washed over Twist without warning.  In the back of his mind, he knew it wasn't his own.  He stared back at Aden and smiled. “Go to hell.”

A flicker of something dark flashed across Aden's eyes before he said a single, strange word softly, under his breath.  Jonas was on his feet first, turning just in time to see the gargoyles leap into the air, streaking straight for him like a gunshot.  He jumped out of the way, slipping out of the stone claws by a
hair’s breath, as Twist scrambled to his feet.  Jonas landed just beside the small table on the platform and grabbed it, throwing it, tea set and all, at the closest gargoyle.  Aden leaped to his feet and yelled a single word at the gargoyle.  The stone creature screamed in its grinding voice and stumbled back a step, while the second flew at Jonas from behind.

Jonas tried to duck out of the way, but the creature clipped him
with a stone wing, throwing him off to the side.  He slid and tumbled to the edge of the platform, where Twist rushed to join him.  Aden's voice rose, still calling the same word, though it was starting to sound frightened now.  Jonas got to his hands and knees, but an instant before Twist's outstretched hand could reach him, one of the gargoyles barreled at him and threw him far out over the edge.  Twist heard Jonas scream as he fell, both gargoyles racing over the edge to follow him down.  Aden stopped yelling and only stared in horror after Jonas.

“Don't tell him anything,” Jonas said to Twist, sitting beside him calmly on the platform, while the gargoyles prowled at the window. “I don't care what he wants to know.”  Twist stared at him in total shock: breathing,
alive, totally unharmed, and brazenly cocky.

“Twist?” Aden asked, looking at him coldly again, drawing his eyes off of Jonas.

Twist felt the same wave of bold confidence wash over him again, and shuddered as he fought against it, his heart thundering in terror.  Jonas looked to him quickly as Twist's fear burned white-hot.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Twist breathed, his arm wrapping around Jonas's neck to hold him close while his shaking hands clutched tightly to Jonas's clothes. “Stop.  Please.  Stop killing him.” he gasped on jagged breaths.  Jonas froze, stunned and helpless in Twist's awkward grasp.

“Wow, I didn't even have to do anything,” Aden said, looking at them both curiously.

“You did,” Twist spat at him sharply. “You sent your monsters after him, and then lost control.  They killed him so fast you couldn't stop them.  They didn't listen to you when you told them to stop!”  Aden's face paled slightly and he glanced at the gargoyles
, which watched them all hungrily.

“Twist,” Jonas said, pulling at his grip gently. “This is awkward as hell.”

Twist pushed him back into a sitting position, holding tightly to his arms as he stared at Jonas fearfully.  Jonas looked back at him, not looking too deeply back into his eyes.  Twist's fear burned so brightly, searing off every other sense, that the white fog that always came from touching Jonas was as dim as the London sunlight, and offered no relief.  Twist stared at the man before him in complete, helpless panic.  He knew he couldn't bear to watch him die again.  One more vision would destroy him.

“I promised,” Twist said softly. “I gave them my word I wouldn't tell anyone about them.  Not even Myra.”  Aden's attention snapped to Twist instantly, while Jonas now appeared highly confused.  Twist took a heavy breath and looked to Aden, his hands unable to pull themselves away from his friend. “They don't want to be found.”

Aden listened intently to each and every word. “How many were there?”

“I don't know,” Twist answered.

“More than two?”

Twist nodded.

“More than a hundred?”

Twist stared back at him silently.

“Where?” Aden asked, a strange hunger in his voice.

“I can't tell you,” Twist said weakly.

Aden blinked, as if startled by this answer. “That wasn't a lie.”

“It wasn't?” Twist asked.

“No,” Aden said, staring at him in disbelief. “You really can't tell me.  You know the answer, but you can't tell me what it is.”  He glanced at Jonas. “Not even now.”  He looked back at Twist. “What are you, the most honorable man in the world?”

Jonas gave a breath of a laugh. “Well, he did learn everything he knows about human society from novels.”

“That's not a lie either!” Aden said. “Who the hell are you?”

“I'm nobody,” Twist said desperately. “I just fix clocks.”

Aden sucked in a sharp breath, snapping his eyes close against a sudden pain. “Wow,” he gasped, putting a hand to his brow. “That was a big lie.”

“No it wasn't!” Twist said quickly.

Aden grunted painfully and gritted his teeth for an instant.

“Do it again!” Jonas said
happily.  Twist looked to him, alarmed now. “Wait, no,” Jonas said, grinning. “I'm terrified of heights.”

“Stop it,” Aden barked, wincing
as he glared at Jonas.

“Not a chance.  You stole my friends and tried to kill me.  This is payback.  I'm a monkey's uncle.  The world is flat.  Everyone loves the French!”

“Knock it off,” Twist snapped at him. “I've watched you die twice today.  Stop annoying the man who killed you!”

“He deserves it,” Jonas
replied.  Aden let out a sigh as the lies seemed to stop.

Twist just shook his head, staring at Jonas at a total loss.

“That's enough,” Aden said, taking a deep breath.  They both looked up at him. “Look, I'll let you go.  I'll put the gargoyles back to sleep on Parliament.  And I'm taking a break from the both of you.  Just tell me that you won't leave London for a day.”

Jonas opened his mouth, but Twist spoke first. “I can't tell you what you want to know.  What do you still want with me?”

“You have the information that I want, that I and my predecessors have been searching for, for decades.  I've never found anyone who's actually seen them, and I'm not going to give you up that easily.  These clockwork creatures...” he shook his head. “They are the answer to everything.”

“Clockwork creatures?” Jonas asked. “I think I lied at him a little too hard,” he muttered to Twist.

“I'm offering to give you back your freedom,” Aden said sharply. “All I want is to find you again tomorrow without having to chase you over any more continents.  You've told me some things I didn't expect and I need to check my sources.  Once I have, I want to make you an offer.  And I promise you, it will be well worth your time.”

“You'll let us walk out of here?” Twist asked.

“Yes.”

“And you'll stop trying to kill my friend?”

“Yes.”

“Will you give Myra back to me?”

“We can talk about the terms of the deal tomorrow,” Aden said tightly.

“And all you want in exchange is for us to stay in London and listen to you tomorrow?” Twist asked, careful not to let the word 'listen' catch too much attention.

Aden looked at him with a fatigued dullness to his gaze. “Yes.”

“Fine,” Twist said. “You'll find me in London tomorrow.”

Jonas didn't look totally convinced. Aden listened to Twist's words carefully, then nodded, letting out a heavy sigh, seeming to take Twist’s words for truth.