For the past millennia, Aeon has sat on the opposite shore to Alinakard, linked only by a bridge. In all that time, there has been a one-way flow of people to Aeon, where they get caught by the city’s eternal time loop. Meanwhile, the river folk of Alinakard suffer shortened lives from the fallout of Aeon’s loop.
Alinakard’s soldier squad, headed by Captain Afizere, plans to change that. So does Lord Aridius of Aeon - for the opposite reason. Whoever controls Gowan’s Tower claims the time machine and, with it, the decisive advantage in a future war.
Lilian and Kinley are on their way to the Tower to stop this from happening. They also want to rescue their companion, Jem, from a judicial drowning.
You can read the last episode here.
If you want to read the whole serial, start here with The City On The Other Side. The links at the bottom of each piece will jump you straight to the next chapter. You can find them all here if you’ve missed a few episodes.
Lilian wrinkled her nose. Here, by the river, the scent of coffee fought the stink of fish. The coffee won - just - but she suspected by noon that the tiny shack of crates and barrels would be gone and the fish heads at the water's edge would reign supreme.
The stallholder was a skinny 13-year-old boy, making up in enthusiasm what he lacked in muscle.
“Bugger,” Kinley muttered. “He's scarpered.”
Lilian frowned. “Who?”
“Jere’s blatherer. Gimme a tick. I'll spy out the land.”
Lilian hung back, feeling slightly sick. The long night in the pit with it's lack of sleep was catching up. Her backpack shifted and she felt rather than heard Cassius’ latest obscenity. Kinley was still holding the puzzle box with a jaunty air.
“Not long now,” she muttered, more to herself than the skull. “One way or another, we're ending this.”
Kinley sauntered back over and handed her a coffee and a fresh baked roll. “Let's scuttle,” he suggested. “An yer can think me later for stickin’ fast on the plain bread. Lad charged me extra for the lack of fish filing!”
“Why did we come here?” Lilian asked, trotting to keep up as the tracker propelled himself forward. Kinley ate with a mechanical precision, allowing three breaths between every bite.
She glanced behind, to see a small group of fishermen clustered around the boy. One of them was gesturing at Kinley’s back.
“Ah wanted to put a stumbling block in the squad's way,” Kinley explained. He was dispatching his coffee at the same rate as the roll, each sentence punctuated by a sip. “The usual merchant for that place is Jere’s friend. With a few choice words, I implied that there may be an upset twixt them an’ told the fishers where to look.”
“You know where the soldiers are?” Lilian gasped, nudging his arm to slow him down. Her own coffee sloshed over her fingers and onto the floor.
“A rounding guess,” he said, shrugging. “C'mon. I wanna get us lost before they find a City Guard.”
“No! Wait, how d'you know?”
Kinley sighed. “Jere’s plan to topple the Tower needs a lot of zombies to work. There's only a few places he can go for that. The cemeteries, which have been dug up, the Fight Court, which you destroyed, or the Caves. I reckon Jere grabbed that fancy-pants undead inscription from the Court yesterday whilst I was with you, but he couldn't get the ghouls to work. So he's gone ta the Caves. The City won't like that. All the common folk's ancestors are down there. They'll be hoppin’ like frogs.”
Lilian started grinning. “Send a tracker to catch a thief?” she teased him. Kinley shot her a flat look, but a corner of his mouth turned up.
“Yeah. That.”
“You said we needed to get to the Tower before midday. Why?”
“‘Cause we're not the only ones with plans. Heard it announced at the crossroads, when I went to rescue you. The lords will open Gowan’s Tower to ev’ryone at noon. Sounds like a proper party.”
Lilian shook her head in despair. “They don't have a clue how dangerous it is, do they?”
“We are talkin’ about a city that fed people to a demon. Their sense of danger is screwed loose.”
*
There was already a queue when they reached the Tower. Workmen, scribes and festival organisers, from what Lilian could see. There were a small group repairing the stairs, whilst the ruined doors had been boxed over with a reed lattice. Two guards were standing at eitherside of the staircase whilst two more were checking credentials and directing traffic, next to a wine barrel. Stallholders were already setting up camp directly against the Tower, grumbling like magpies.
“Follow me and look confident,” Lialian told Kinley in a quiet undertone and joined the queue. She watched as two of the scribes disappeared behind the reed hanging. It all looked so mundane. Laughing, drinking, and complaining about currency change and the weather. Didn't they realise their world could end at any moment?
The guard gestured her forward. There was a brief flicker of recognition, and he pointed at her bag. “Credentials and search, Miss.”
“I'm Lord Aridius’ scribe”, Lilian said confidently, setting down her cold coffee on the barrel. “He wants me to check on the progress.”
The guard nodded. “Thought I saw you at the Courts.” Now, his gaze was appraising, sweeping across her entire body. “He said you would turn up. Who's that with you?”
“Lars Munchkins, artist an’ mapmaker,” Kinley declaimed grandly. “Here to make sketches an'record the occasion.”
The guard grunted, unimpressed. “Bags, please.”
Lilian handed hers over and stood back. The guard opened it and gave a double-take.
“What’s this?”
“My counsellor and pet,” Lilian replied, allowing a smile to break over her face. From inside the bag came the familiar peeved voice. “The rabbit's crapped in here! Being a dunghill is not the eternal rest I had in mind!”
The guard pulled out the rabbit by the scruff of its’ neck, open-mouthed. There was an indrawn breath where the world seemed to stop, and Lilian saw the rabbit's eyes cloud over to black. She opened her mouth to scream, then found herself thrown backwards from the percussive force as the rabbit changed shape into the familiar demonic whirlwind. Her ears caught up afterwards as the noise dropped from deafening to loud. She couldn't see the guard anymore. The stallholders were frozen on the spot. Kinley grabbed her shoulders, shouting something- how could he still move? - and then he was dragging her towards the Tower. He had her knapsack over one shoulder, and she could see the puzzle box crammed into the opening. How had he gotten that without getting eaten?
One of the door guards was throwing up whilst the other was fumbling for his sword. Kinley ignored them both as he pulled aside the lattice work and then, they were inside the Tower.