Clockwork Twist : Missing (14 page)

“Damn,” Skye murmured, almost admiringly. “Jonas sure knows how to get into trouble.”

“It’s his best skill,” Twist said dryly. “My life was very simple before I met him.”

“Really?” Myra asked. “Then I’m glad you met him.”

Twist smiled to her. “As am I.”

“Well, everything’s got a weakness,” Skye said with a shrug. “Real-life dragons or no, we’ll find a way to storm the spaceship and get your buddy back,” she said with conviction.

Twist laughed lightly at the absurdity of the idea.

That night, Skye, Myra, and Twist remained together—hidden from Arabel in Twist’s little cabin—as they discussed the situation. Myra seemed to have a rather thorough working knowledge of many different magical creatures. She spoke easily and quickly about dragons, imps, and warlocks as if they were perfectly normal topics of conversation. Skye listened eagerly, asking question after question. Twist, meanwhile, silently pondered the nature of sanity itself.

While the sky outside remained as dark and unchanging as ever, the aurora seeming to disappear slowly over time. Twist began to feel his eyes grow tired and his mind dull. As his watch still showed the time in London, he had no idea what hour it might be in relation to his current location. Whether it was the proper time for it or not, sleep began to pull at him from the silence between his companions’ words.

“So, that totally makes sense,” Skye continued, tossing an arm lazily over the back of Twist’s dressing-table chair as she sat on it backwards. “I mean, if they aren’t bound by most physical laws, then there’s no reason dragons couldn’t survive in the cold emptiness of space.”

“Oh, how deliciously fantastic!” Myra said brightly. “They could fly off to take a stroll on the moon any time they liked.” She clutched her knees as she sat on the floor beside a now-sleeping Kali, looking up at Skye as they spoke. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Twist rubbed at his eyes with his palms. The itching sensation only subsided for a moment.

“I know, right?” Skye said to Myra excitedly. “I’d love to go to the moon anyway. But could you imagine meeting dragons while you’re there?”

Twist fought to contain a yawn, but the effort was in vain. Myra giggled brightly at Skye’s suggestion. Twist looked longingly at his pillow.

“Uh-oh,” Skye toned, sounding worried. When Twist looked to her, he found her watching him. “It looks like we’re losing him, Myra.”

Twist frowned at her, confused. “What?”

“Here, I can fix that,” Myra said, getting to her feet. She walked to the head of Twist’s bed, picked up his pillow, and sat herself down in its place. She crossed her legs and then put his pillow on her lap. “Come here, dear,” she said sweetly, with a beckoning gesture. “You’ve had a very trying day. You should rest a while.”

Twist smiled at the casual nature of her solution and glanced at Skye for an instant. She gave him a shrug and a smile of her own. Twist accepted Myra’s offer gladly, meaning to only rest while they spoke. When he lay down, he was astonished by how good it felt to let his head sink into the soft pillow. His eyes closed on their own, and Myra’s cool metal fingers found their way to his brow. He could feel each and every stress of his day slide away with her soothing touch. His Sight didn’t complain as her warm, gentle, and fascinated emotions washed over his tired mind.

Skye and Myra continued to debate the nature of magical interplanetary travel, but Twist lost his grip on their voices quickly. His mind filled with images of magical beasts and brightly glowing stars. At first, the thoughts made little sense. Twist let them play as they willed while he floated languidly among dragons, planets, and fantastic ships like those he’d read of in novels. Then, slowly, the images started to feel more real to him.

He was standing in a glass room, staring out at an endless sea of stars. The air was cold on his skin. There was no sound at all anywhere around him. As Twist continued to stare into the countless points of light, he began to notice that many of them were more than just white. Some were colored in brilliant blue, yellow, red, and orange. After a moment of marveling at this thought, the whole sky of stars seemed to fill with color.

Realization hit Twist like an electric shock. He tried to move his eyes away from the stars, but they didn’t turn. He tried to speak, but his lips didn’t move. His awareness pulled away from the mind around him until Twist could once again sense the subtle color of Jonas’s thoughts whispering in the shadows. It was only then that he saw what Jonas was truly seeing.

One bright, nearly white, yellow star grew in his attention. It seemed to push the other stars away as Jonas focused all of his powerful vision on it, and it grew in size until the illusion filled his view completely. It wasn’t a star at all, but a solid, pale-yellow planet. Unimaginably huge mountains of darker rock screamed blue and green torrents of fire into the sky like the exhalations of a whale. Whole continents seemed to tremble under the incredible force, while more and more fire burst from the volcanoes and filled the strange planet’s sky with noxious, deadly gas.

Twist’s attention stared transfixed as, in the starry sky, the lower rim of a giant, red-and-orange striped planet turned gently behind the yellow one. Jonas knew that the little yellow ball of trembling, toxic gas and rock was the moon Io, and that Jupiter was hanging just beyond it. He knew that the horrible little world was a hellish, uninhabitable place for him. Standing under that wretched, stinking sky would kill him in his first breath. But sitting silent in his mind, Twist felt a tiny part of Jonas thrill at the idea of actually visiting any other world.

“Have you found it?” a voice asked from behind him.

Jonas didn’t turn but continued to stare. “Space is quite big, you know.”

“It takes time to plot our course,” the voice said, sounding tight. “We need to start building the spells now if we’re going to make good time.”

“Are you sure it’s this way?” Jonas asked, tracing the glowing, brilliant-blue arabesque of a volcanic jet streak up into Io’s sky. “Maybe it’s on the other side of Earth.”

“Stop stalling, or I’ll have your left arm for a snack.”

Jonas turned quickly, looking out of the corner of his eye at the silver-haired man who was standing behind him in the glass room. “I thought you needed me,” he said, struggling to keep his voice smooth despite the fear Twist felt burning in his thoughts.

“I need your eyes,” Bob said with an unkind smile. “You can point the way with your right hand just fine.”

“It’s right there,” Jonas said without the slightest pause, pointing at Jupiter’s moon.

“Good boy,” Bob said brightly. He handed a pen and a pad of paper to Jonas. “Now, write down the exact location of the moon, in relation to Jupiter and the background stars, in roughly a year and seven months from today.”

“I’m neither an artist nor a mathematician,” Jonas answered, looking at the blank page.

“Don’t worry about the asteroids, either,” Bob continued. “We’ll deal with those after we pass the orbit of Mars.”

“Wait, a year and a half?” Jonas asked, looking back to Io. “When are you planning to return to Earth?”

“Maybe in another hundred years or so,” Bob said casually. ”We’re just going on holiday.” Twist felt Jonas’s fear flare to light at the thought of never returning to Earth. Bob seemed to sense it too as he went on in a cool and musing tone. “Of course, you’ll probably die in another fifty years or so, won’t you? I mean, if the oxygen and food supplies we’re bringing hold out that long. Well, no matter. You can give us the return path once we get there.”

Twist felt despair creep into Jonas’s thoughts, but he could do nothing to clear it away. He tried again to reach out, to speak, to make himself known in any way at all, but Jonas’s thoughts only continued to darken steadily around him, undisturbed. As Jonas placed his pen to paper, Twist felt his friend’s heart grow nearly heavy enough to drag him down to his knees. Twist bent the full force of his will on the single thought of Jonas’s name. He screamed it with all the strength of his soul, but still Jonas’s thoughts remained bleak. Twist couldn’t sense even the slightest glimmer of recognition as Jonas began to sketch stars onto the page.

The darkness in Jonas’s thoughts seeped into Twist’s attention, slowly blacking out his vision. Twist struggled to hold on to him, but the more he struggled, the faster the connection faded. Soon Twist was left in full, empty blackness.

Twist didn’t actually realize that he’d fallen asleep until he woke again, in the chill quiet of his cabin. He was lying on his bed, still in his clothes from the day before, while Myra lay curled up beside him with her head on his chest. The first, gentle rays of new sunlight were falling in through the windows to shine on her sleeping copper face. Twist struggled with the heavenly vision as the bitter despair of his dream still lingered in his mind. He silently savored for a very long moment the peaceful image that met him now. He let the quiet and beauty of Myra soothe him all the way through.

Not long after he woke, Myra moved slightly, gave a soft tone, and then nuzzled her cheek against Twist’s chest before falling still again. Twist felt her sleepy, indistinct emotions blush and fade with feelings as subtle and shifting as the aurora colors had been. He pulled gently at his Sight, drawing his awareness deeper into her sleeping mind, but he found nothing distinct even there. His Sight throbbed angrily as he used it, causing him to let go. He gave a silent sigh. He’d have to leave the mystery of clockwork dreams unsolved for the moment.

Myra’s eyes opened in a flutter and found his instantly. She lifted her head and smiled at him before glancing off to the glowing window. “Is that the sun?” she asked softly.

“We must be out of the Arctic Circle,” Twist responded just as softly.

“Oh, that feels so nice,” Myra said, closing her eyes as she turned her face into the thin shaft of light that fell through the window. “I missed the sun.” Twist quietly admired the way her copper face glinted in the light, wishing that the moment would last forever.

“Me too.”

“Did you sleep well?” Myra asked, looking back to him again.

Twist’s chest tightened when the memory of his dream flashed to mind. He gave a quick nod anyway. “What about you?” he asked, desperate not to let her see anything amiss. “Any good dreams?”

“Oh, just silly things,” Myra said. She put her head back down on his chest and curled up just a little closer. “I like this much better.”

Twist wrapped one arm around her shoulders, savoring the peace that wafted off of her like a heady and exotic perfume. Myra took his other hand and played her fingertips over the angular lines of his fine, pale fingers. Twist watched her with an odd fascination of his own, until her fingers found the long, hard line of the scar that ran up over his wrist. A memory of the sword fight with Vane—on the deck of the
Vimana
over the Caribbean Sea—flashed to his mind. Of course, it was only Jonas’s swordplay lessons that had saved Twist from worse injury that day.

Myra gasped suddenly and sat half up with a start. Twist jerked in surprise, staring up at her. She took his right hand in both of hers and stared at his scar intently, with a clearly amazed expression.

“What’s wrong?” Twist asked her, not seeing anything surprising on his wrist.

“Very short gold hair, all in spikes,” she said quickly, still staring at Twist’s hand. A chill of fearful hope broke over Twist, giving him a shiver. “Green eyes, just like Arabel’s,” she continued, turning her gaze to meet Twist’s slowly as her face remained a mask of astonishment. “He held you while Philippe stitched this up.”

“You remember?” His breath was almost too thin to voice his words. His heart thundered in his ears.

“I couldn’t help you then,” Myra said, frowning slightly as if struggling to catch her thoughts. “Why couldn’t I? Why did I have to stand by and watch, but he could hold you?”

“My Sight,” Twist said carefully, frightened of breaking this unknown spell. “Touching him is calming to my Sight. I could resist getting a vision from Philippe’s touch if I focused on Jonas.” Though Myra seemed to be staring at Twist intently, he saw that her attention was focused elsewhere. “Myra, do you remember him?”

“I remember that.” She closed her eyes and shook her head with a sigh. “Or maybe I dreamed it…I remember being unhappy that I couldn’t be the one to help you. But I was also glad that he was—that someone was there. You needed someone.” She looked to him again, an unhappy frown on her face. “But I can’t remember seeing that face before. I can’t remember anything at all about him. There’s just nothing.”

“But you do know that I’m not making him up,” Twist said, wishing his heart would stop pounding so hard.

Myra gave him a smile. “I decided to believe you days ago,” she said as if he were being silly. “Didn’t you believe
me
?”

A wave of relief rushed through Twist’s heart as he smiled back at her, and all of his fear shifted into excitement. He leaned up on his elbow to kiss her shining copper cheek and felt her bright thrill of delight before he pulled back and saw it in her eyes. “I’ll never doubt you again, my love. I promise you that.”

Myra’s smile warmed; her metal skin vanished like a shadow in his Sight until he saw the true face of her spirit beneath. Her soft skin felt cold under his touch, and her emotions vanished from his mind even though her dark, shining eyes showed him her mind just as clearly as his Sight ever could. When she bent closer to him, he met her kiss gladly and let the sunny warmth wash all of his darker thoughts away.

A sudden knock at the door startled Myra. She turned back to look at it reproachfully. To Twist’s delight, her metal face hadn’t resurfaced yet. She still seemed human to him. He also realized that she hadn’t used enough force to stop time for them, as she had before. Even now, she was being careful with his Sight. He turned her face back to him with a gentle finger.

“Maybe they’ll go away,” he whispered.

Myra giggled softly and nuzzled her chilly nose against his. Then the knock came again. Twist glared at the door.

“Twist?” Arabel’s voice asked softly from the other side.

Twist shook his head. “Oh, no, no,” he muttered sternly. “I’m done with that woman.”

“I know where you are, you know,” Arabel’s voice said. “I can find anything with my Sight…” Myra looked to Twist sadly.

“Damned badgering bloody woman…” Twist grumbled as he slipped out of Myra’s arms and got to his feet. He opened the door sharply, but only wide enough to glare at Arabel through the crack. “Go away.”

“I’m sorry,” she said instantly, her face fearful. Twist was slightly confused to find a plate of toast and a cup of coffee in her hands. “I’m really very sorry. Can’t we talk?”

“Is that supposed to be some kind of peace offering?” Twist asked with a nod to the coffee and toast.

“You missed dinner,” Arabel said softly, looking at the food in her hands as if she also felt it was wholly inadequate. “I thought you must be hungry.”

As Twist looked at her, he was quite surprised to find that she appeared honestly apologetic. He made her wait—enjoying the unease in her eyes—before he finally gave a heavy sigh and stepped away from the door to let her enter. Myra was now sitting on the edge of the bed, back in her clockwork skin. Twist took the offering from Arabel and put it on his dressing table. He stood against the wall and took a drink of the coffee before he looked to Arabel expectantly. She closed the door behind her and stood awkwardly near it as she seemed to gather her words.

“Dr. Tuttle was shocked by how angry you got when he spoke to you,” she said carefully. Twist put his coffee cup down and picked up a piece of toast, but gave her nothing more than a cold stare as he nibbled at it. “He said that people with a…a situation like yours are usually delighted to talk about their…I mean, the subject of their…situation.”

“Delusional people like to talk about their delusions,” Twist clarified flatly.

“Basically, yes,” Arabel said with a sigh. “But you were enraged at even the mention of it. He said he’s never seen that before. He couldn’t explain it.”

“That must be distressing for him.”

“So, according to him, you aren’t acting like a delusional person,” Arabel said, struggling to hold her point.

“Twist isn’t delusional,” Myra said easily. Twist smiled.

“Well, that got me thinking,” Arabel said. “And thinking just gave me a headache because I can’t imagine that I’d forget my own brother, if I had one. But either way, I’m tired of fighting with you,” she added firmly. Twist and Myra both looked to her, confused. “I feel like we’ve been fighting since London. Even when we weren’t, it still felt like it. I’m sick of it.”

“But you’ve never gotten tired of fighting before,” Twist said slowly. “You’ve been on constantly hostile terms with Jonas for years.”

Arabel looked to him quickly. “I fight a lot with this brother of mine?” she asked, sounding hesitant.

Twist barely contained his snigger. “When I first met you, he would tense up whenever you walked into the room. He left the
Vimana
and joined Quay to get away from you and the rest of his family. Recently, things have gotten better,” Twist added, remembering. “You had been trying to hold on to him, to keep him home on the
Vimana
, but you finally understood that it was only pushing him further away once Storm explained it to you. Then you stopped, he relaxed, and you started to be playful with each other again. But that was only very recently.”

Arabel listened quietly and began to shake her head slowly. “Twist,” she said after a pause, “you don’t know me that well. We’ve only spent a few weeks together, here and there. But all of that sounds…typical,” she added with a pained expression. “I always feel like I push people away. I don’t even know why or how…” She looked back to him thoughtfully. “But you just don’t know me well enough to make that up. And I can’t remember fighting with anyone in front of you.”

“I was always with Jonas,” Twist said with a shrug. “When he’s around, you focus on him.”

“But you said we were getting better.”

Twist nodded. “You were throwing sugar lumps at each other and laughing in the tea shop, just before he was taken.” The sweet scent of that memory turned bitter on Twist’s tongue as he spoke of it. Arabel took a deep, thoughtful breath.

“That sounds nice,” she mused softly. She then looked to Twist with certainty in her eyes. “All right. Whatever the hell is going on, if I’m not against you, then I suppose I’m with you. I’m sorry for how I’ve acted. How can I help?”

Twist carefully studied her sharp green eyes for traps. “Really?”

“Yes, really, you dolt,” Arabel said with a sigh.

“Ah,” Twist toned. “Well, I would find it very helpful if you could refrain from scheduling any more therapy sessions.”

“Done,” Arabel said with a slight smile. “Anything else? It’s too bad I can’t use my Sight to find this guy…”

“Well,” Twist said, with a sigh, “I think I have a theory about where he might be.” If she really was going to be on his side, then she’d have to accept all of the madness.

“You do?” Arabel asked. “Where is he, then?”

“I think he’s in a spaceship with dragons,” Twist said, watching her. Arabel’s eyes widened in surprise. “I saw Jonas in space in my dream. But Myra says dragons are real, so it might have been a vision.”

Myra nodded earnestly.

“Spaceship?” Arabel asked. “As in, a ship that travels the stars?”

“They want Jonas to guide their ship to one of Jupiter’s moons,” Twist said, finding it easier to say the more often he said it. “His Sight gives him very powerful vision. One of the dragons said that he can see better than they can.”

“Dragons.” Arabel nodded slowly with a frown. She shook her head sharply and gave a sigh. “No, no, I said I was with you. All right,” she added, looking back to him. “So we have to save my brother before the dragons take him to Jupiter.”

“Yes,” Twist said with a nod.

“Well, one thing is certain,” Arabel said. “If all of this turns out to be true, I’ll never doubt your word again.”

Myra got up and took Arabel’s hand. “I’m glad you’re with us,” she said brightly, smiling to her.

Arabel smiled back. Another knock at the door drew everyone’s attention.

“Bloody hell, what is this, Victoria Station?” Twist grumbled as he moved to open the door. He found Skye standing outside in the hallway. “Please, come in,” Twist said, opening the door with an inviting gesture. “Didn’t you bring any friends? I want to see just how many people we can fit in my cabin.”

“Easy there, grumpy,” Skye shot back as she stepped inside. Twist shut the door behind her and leaned against it, while Arabel and Myra made room for Skye. “Storm needs to talk to you,” she said to Twist.