Clockwork Twist : Missing (23 page)

Twist woke slowly in dim light. He was lying in a bed, in a small corner room. Two windows were open, letting a cool, dry breeze blow gently over him. The sky outside the window to his left was rusty and purple, deep into twilight. There was a candle burning on the small bedside table to his right, which stung at his vision. He seemed to be alone in the room.

For a moment, Twist remained still. He wasn’t in pain right now. Maybe if he didn’t move, he could remain so. In the quiet of the room around him, all he could hear was the playful flapping of the thin curtains and the faint sounds of people moving and speaking in other parts of the house. Twist took a deep breath, taking in the silence and peace. Then, he finally convinced himself to try to move.

He leaned up slowly on his side, moving gently. His neck felt stiff and ached slightly, but not as badly as he’d expected. The effort of moving wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t terrible either. Glancing over the edge of the bed, he saw a wide pool of orange-and-black-striped fur curled up in silent slumber. The soft creaking of the mattress under him seemed to stir Kali from sleep.

The tiger looked up to him with big, blinking brown eyes and rose to stand. Twist smiled as Kali brought her wide, furry face closer to his. He petted the fur on her flat brow and enjoyed the gentle play of useless and harmless information that flitted through his mind.

“Have you been watching over me, Kali?” he asked her.

Kali brought her face quickly closer and licked at the edge of his jaw with her rough, wet tongue. Startled, Twist pulled away and sat up, finding himself laughing at the strange sensation. Kali hopped halfway up onto the bed, nuzzling at his shoulder with her nose.

“You’re such a nice tiger,” Twist cooed, reaching out to scratch at the base of her ear. Kali started to purr, a sound deep, resounding, and clearly pleased. “I’m very happy that we’re friends, you and I,” Twist remarked, still petting her. “I certainly wouldn’t want you to be angry with me. I’m sure you could tear me to ribbons in an instant, if you wanted to.”

As if in response, Kali licked at him again, catching his ear as he tried to lean away. Twist yelped in surprise, wiping at his now-slimy ear. Before Kali could accost him with any more affection, the door to the room opened and Myra hurried inside while Skye followed behind her.

“Darling, you’re awake!” Myra gasped, reaching for Twist. Twist’s Sight flared into fire for an instant when her hands fell on him, but the pain faded quickly. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Myra muttered, taking her hands away from him when he winced. Kali gave a soft moan of sympathy, watching Twist intently.

“It’s all right,” Twist said as the sharp sensation faded. “I don’t think my Sight is as sore as last time.”

“How are you feeling?” Myra asked, dropping to kneel at his feet with a worried expression. “You’ve been asleep for hours. I would have been here to watch over you,” she added quickly, her fingers clutching at the fabric on her knees anxiously. “I only stepped away for a little while, and Skye left Kali, so…”

“It’s fine, really,” Twist said, putting on a smile and lifting his hands to quiet her. “Kali did a fine job,” he said, petting at the tiger’s neck. Kali leaned into the touch. “And I really think I’m all right now,” Twist added, hopefully, to Myra.

“Oh good,” Myra said with a long, relieved breath.

“What happened, Twist?” Skye asked. He looked up to find her leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed casually. “One second you were just standing there concentrating, and the next you collapsed on the floor.”

Twist’s mind flashed back to the memory, and his smile fell. “I found him,” Twist said softly.

“You mean Jonas?” Skye asked, stepping closer. “Yeah, you pointed before you passed out.”

“No, it was more than that,” Twist said, shaking his head. He closed his eyes to see the memory more clearly. “I mean, I think I heard him speak to me. It was like I was there with him for a moment.” He looked to Myra. “I hope I didn’t frighten you. I knew I shouldn’t have pushed so hard, but…” He gave a sigh when his words slipped away.

“I know,” Myra said with a brave smile. “You miss your friend. I understand.” From the tension in her tone, Twist guessed that she really didn’t at all.

Skye shook her head, smiling at her own thoughts. “This guy really must be something.”

“So, did it help at all?” Twist asked, more than ready for a new topic. “Did they find anything where I pointed?”

“They’ve been looking closely at that part of the sky for the whole afternoon,” Skye said. “So far nothing, but they also said that they’d need time to go over all the data.”

“Vane’s been trying to help, too,” Myra added.

“Really?” Twist asked, disbelieving. Apparently agreeing with his sentiment, Kali made a grumbling tone.

Myra nodded. “He said that he can sniff out anyone whose name he knows. He said that he found you at my palace because he followed Jonas then, all the way from the Caspian Sea. But,” she added with a sigh, “it seems that he’s too far away for Vane to find him this time.”

“Well, it’s good of him to try, I suppose,” Twist toned, struggling to think of a reason why Vane would volunteer to actually help.

There was a sudden thundering of footsteps beyond the open door, and Twist heard Storm calling his name. Kali stood to attention beside Twist’s knee, watching the doorway as Storm appeared. He paused, leaning against the door frame as he caught his breath.

“Twist, good, you’re awake,” he said quickly. “You’ve got to come to the attic. Orad thinks he found something.”

“Come on, let’s go!” Skye said beckoning them on.

Storm nodded, turning to hurry away again. Kali followed after him as Myra offered Twist a hand to help him to his feet. She watched him closely and seemed to relax when he stood steadily on his own power. They all moved quickly down the hallway outside and to a thin set of wooden stairs that led up into the attic just above them.

“Who’s Orad?” Twist asked as he climbed the stairs behind Skye.

“He’s our lead astronomer,” Storm answered over his shoulder.

Climbing up the last of the stairs, Twist found himself in the corner of the huge, open, drafty, rafter-filled attic. Storm led Twist and the others across the exposed beams to where the metal base of the telescope reached down into the building like the roots of a wild, tropical tree. Glass-covered, sparking, electric wires, wide banks of gauges, and other pulsing and buzzing apparatuses that Twist couldn’t hope to identify stood together in a small city of scientific chaos. Long, curling wires hung like jungle vines between softly humming machines. Piles of long, shiny, brown wax cylinder records lay in disordered piles in every corner.

While it seemed to Twist as if the entire population of the estate was crammed into the shallow attic below the roof, a single man sat in the center of the space, cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed and his ears covered by a bulky-looking version of the electrical listening device that Jonas had used with his music player. The man reminded Twist instantly of Monti, as his size, build, and skin color seemed remarkably similar. While his tightly curling hair was brushed with silver, it was long enough to pool in a braided tail on the floor behind him.

After a moment more of silence with no explanation, Twist moved to speak to Skye, but she quieted him before he spoke with a finger held before her lips. Looking around at the others, Twist saw that while everyone watched the man in the center, they all did so in silence. The tall, thin, young man from earlier—with his thick glasses and white coat—stood at one of the consoles, slowly turning one of the many valve-like wheels on its face.

“Wait…” the man in the center said suddenly. The young man stopped turning the wheel instantly. “Reduce the Y,” the man said, his eyes still tightly closed. The young man gently turned a different wheel on the console. “There!” the man in the center said suddenly. “Stop right there!”

A ripple of excitement seemed to murmur through the others in the room, though no one made a sound. The man sitting in the center of the room began to smile slowly, and then he jumped to his feet and tore the speakers from his ears. Though his eyes remained closed, he wore a wide, triumphant smile on his face.

“That is most certainly glass,” he announced proudly. A cheer immediately broke the tight silence as everyone in the room joined him in celebration. “Quickly, begin to track,” the man said hurriedly, rushing to join the young scientist at the controls.

“Did he just find the spaceship?” Twist asked Myra as she too clapped and smiled brightly, while his heart raced with shock and sudden hope. Myra beamed at him.

He looked back to the man who’d left the center of the space to join the young scientist at the console. The two of them were speaking quickly together, both scribbling on clipboards, while other people in white coats gathered around them. Storm, Vane, and Arabel moved to join Twist, Myra, and Skye.

“Congratulations, Twisty,” Vane said, stepping up to Twist with a wide smile. “You’re going to get your boy back after all.”

“But wait,” Twist said, looking to Myra, “it’s still light outside. How can they find anything in the stars when it’s still light out?”

“Hey, you’re not ignoring me again, are you?” Vane whined.

“I don’t understand this magic at all,” Myra answered Twist with a sigh. “But he said that if he found glass, then he would know where Jonas was.”

“It’s all to do with sound waves,” Storm offered happily. “Orad’s Sight lets him see with his ears, like a bat,” he said, gesturing to the man who had been listening to the speakers. “He found a few lumps of something in the area you pointed to, and he’s been trying to figure out what they are. Plus, apparently, the ship is constantly moving, and they’ve been trying to figure out the direction and speed of it. I told him that the ship was made of mostly glass, so he’s been checking for that.”

“I tried to help too,” Vane added eagerly, looking to Twist. “I really did.”

“Yes, I heard,” Twist said to him with a sigh. He spared the fox a glance. “Thank you.”

Vane’s face lit up with a smile. “You’re welcome, Twisty sweetie.”

Myra glared at Vane, while Skye simply shook her head. Twist mastered the last ounce of his gratitude to hold his tongue. He turned his attention back to Storm, meaning to thank him as well for helping the scientists to find the ship in the stars, but Orad approached them quickly.

“Which one of you will go to the ship?” he asked them with a gentle but clearly foreign accent. Twist stared at him, startled. The man’s eyes were milky and white, like the eyes of a blind man.

“That’s me,” Skye said.

Orad turned his face to look at her, but his eyes didn’t seem capable of seeing her. “You should start getting ready soon,” he said. “Now that I’ve found the ship, I can finally pinpoint its trajectory and speed. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

“Great, I’ll go now,” she said brightly, turning to leave.

Twist’s anxiety rose as he watched her turn and leave the space, while Kali bounded after her. He considered following Skye to make one last attempt to take her place, but his thoughts stilled when he realized that Orad was staring directly at him with those milky eyes, frowning.

“Who are you?” Orad asked.

“I'm Twist,” he answered. Twist shifted on his feet, letting himself shift slightly to the right. Orad’s attention followed his motion perfectly.

“Why are you buzzing like that?” Orad asked.

“I’m sorry?” Twist asked. The others around him looked to him curiously.

“You’re…vibrating,” Orad said slowly, as if searching for the right word. “Are you radioactive?” he asked, his expression growing clearly confused.

“I don’t think so…” Twist muttered. “What does that mean?” he asked softly of Storm. Storm gave him a shrug but no answer.

“Is Twist all right?” Myra asked Orad gently.

“I don’t know…” Orad said, shaking his head. “No, it can’t be radioactivity. But you are…
covered
in something that’s buzzing. I can hear it echoing off of your skin.”

“Dragon’s blood?” Vane offered lightly.

At the sound of his voice, Twist felt a strange, undefinable, rippling sensation on his skin. His mind instantly returned to waking up, after having slain the dragon in Japan. He'd thought those odd feelings of vibration in the air and his own crawling skin were only a temporary effect after surviving the traumatic event. But he now felt the same exact sensation once again. He shuddered against the feeling. Orad’s eyebrows rose on his face as if in immediate response.