Chapter 107 THE FROZEN DIAL
Chapter 107 THE FROZEN DIAL
The three golden hands shot down toward my face like giant brass shears.
SNAP.
I threw my head back, rolling hard across the freezing brick deck. The sharp metal tips missed my nose by an inch, digging deep into the wooden wall of the wheelhouse and throwing up a shower of dry splinters. The ice under the ship groaned, the cold air biting through my torn shirt.
"Get away from her!" Arthur roared.
The pirate leader didn't hesitate. He swung his heavy arm, and the rusted iron winch handle in his hand slammed straight into the side of the monster's brass clock-face.
CLANG!
The blow was heavy, but the brass dial didn't even dent. The clock-monster simply tilted its metallic head, the gears inside its neck whirring with a wet, grinding noise. Without a word, one of its silver-sleeved arms lashed out, its long iron fingers locking onto Arthur’s throat. It lifted the heavy rebel leader off his feet as if he were nothing but an empty flour sack.
"The rebel meat is extra grease," the hollow voice echoed from the spinning dial, using my little sister's sweet tone to say those terrible words. "The pattern does not need your brick boat, Arthur."
With a brutal twist, the clock-monster threw Arthur across the deck. His body crashed hard against the frozen iron oars, his copper coin eye popping out of his socket and rolling across the gray ice. He didn't get up. He lay there in the frost, a dark pool of oil leaking from his head.
No! the word screamed inside my chest.
I tried to push myself up, but the black iron leash around my neck went tight. The twelve silver needles bit deeper into my throat, sending a fresh wave of freezing magic straight down into my core. My right bone claw was totally dead, looking like a dry piece of gray wood. My single black wing was pinned flat against my back, completely paralyzed by Arthur's grease-lock.
I was helpless. I was just a kitchen maid again, shivering on a floor while the monsters took everything.
The hate in my gut didn't fade. It grew into a hot, stabbing spike. They had stolen my sister's voice to use it as a weapon. They had frozen the sea just to block my path. I didn't care about their high council or their stupid pattern. I wanted to smash that brass dial into a thousand tiny pieces until my sister’s voice belonged to her again.
"Aria..." Kael’s weak rasp came from near the boiler hatch.
He was trying to crawl toward me, his thick fingers scratching uselessly at the frosted brick floor. His shoulders were covered in dark red ice where the rebel medic’s bandages had frozen solid. He didn't have his gun, and he didn't have his leg. He was completely spent.
The clock-monster turned its blank brass face back toward me. The three golden hands began to spin backward at a dizzying speed, the whirring noise filling the quiet air like a swarm of angry hornets.
"The maid has run out of rooms to clean," the monster said, stepping down from the wheelhouse roof. Its silver robes rustled against the frost, leaving a trail of gray grease on the brick floor. "Give us the black core under your ribs, Aria. The master loom requires the fuel."
It reached out with its iron hand, its sharp needle-fingers extending three inches as they pointed directly at my chest wound.
I couldn't run. My legs were locked by the leash.
If I can't use the core, I'll use my teeth! I thought, my jaw clenching until my gums bled.
As the iron fingers touched the cloth of my shirt, a sudden, blinding red light exploded from the center of the frozen sea.
BOOM!
The gray ice behind the brick ship didn't just crack, it shattered into a million jagged shards. Rising out of the freezing water was a massive, rusted steel cage, five times bigger than our boat. Inside the cage, her red wire body completely melted into a single, solid lump of iron, was the mother.
She wasn't dead. Her rusted steel face was split all the way to the ears, and her red engine light was pulsing with a mad, roaring heat that melted the frost on our deck instantly.
"NOT... MY... CHILD!" the iron mother roared, her electronic voice shaking the brick hull.
One of her giant wire arms shot out from the cage, the heavy red cables wrapping around the clock-monster’s waist. With a sudden, savage yank, she tore the monster off the deck, lifting its silver-robed body high into the air.
The clock-monster thrashed wildly, its golden hands snipping at the red wires, but the mother’s grip was too tight. She didn't try to climb onto the boat. She pulled the monster down toward the open cage, her red engine light flaring into a blinding white glare.
"Aria! The leash!" Kael screamed, pointing a shaking hand at the dead rebel leader.
I looked down. Arthur’s body was frozen stiff, but the black iron key to my collar was dangling from his leather belt, just three feet away from my fingers.
I scrambled across the ice, my human hand locking around the cold metal key. I shoved it into the keyhole under my chin and twisted it with all my might.
CLICK.
The twelve silver needles snapped backward, pulling out of my neck with a wet, popping sound. The purple fire of the World-Eater rushed back into my veins like a tidal wave of hot ink. My right bone claw flared with a thick cloud of dark smoke, and my single black wing snapped wide, breaking the ice around my boots.
I stood up, ready to turn the fire on the clock-monster.
But before I could take a step, the iron mother’s cage didn't just sink, it was crushed from above.
A massive, five-pronged iron anchor, completely covered in fresh, wet white dough, dropped out of the dark sky like a falling star. It slammed straight through the mother’s iron head, silencing her electronic roar instantly, and pinning her broken body to the bottom of the frozen sea.
Standing on the top of the anchor, his silver eyes spinning with a mad, terrifying speed, was my father. He held a long wooden rolling pin that was wrapped in thick silver wire, and his hands were completely covered in my sister's fresh red blood.
"The kitchen is open for the final bake, Aria," my father whispered, his gentle voice echoing across the ice.