Clockwork Twist : Waking (8 page)

Saltwater rushed instantly up his nose and Twist was fully disoriented in the blur of deep, oily green.  Another figure plunged in beside him, moving away again.  He struggled against the water, fighting his way back to the surface.  His head burst out into the air for only an instant before falling under again.  Animal panic took him over as he thrashed up again.  A hand grabbed his arm, pulling.

Twist's form stilled, floating limp just below the surface as his mind flashed through the images that flooded into it.  A little boy, barely big enough to walk, splashing in shallow water.  A crowd of boys yelling and shouting, daring him to jump from a high pier into the sea below, and the tight arc of his back as he did so in perfect form.  A race through open water, pulling ahead of his friends and knowing he would win.  Lying easily in the cool water on a hot summer night, staring up at the stars, in a moment of pure peace before something huge and metal burst out of the sea just beside him.

The desperate need for breath brought Twist back to himself.  He pulled free of the grip and brought his head out of the salty sea, took a deep, full breath, and dove then under again, flying easily and quickly for the shore.  His limbs seemed to move on their own, while his lungs rationed the air to remain safely hidden beneath the dark water.  He knew Halil was with him, swimming in exactly the same way, while Benny followed behind, splashing and kicking loudly at the surface.  Twist came back up for another big breath and dived down again, before finally pausing to look back.

The pirate ship was still on the surface, but he couldn't see anyone following through the water.  Benny caught up slowly.  Not wanting to tempt fate, Twist turned back and swam for the shore as quickly as his body knew how, cutting through the surface like a knife.  It felt like no time at all before he and Halil found ground beneath them and began to walk up onto the shore.  Benny joined them shortly, all but collapsing onto the gray sand.

Halil went to him, but Twist only stood on the sand beside them, breathing heavily and watching as the ship slipped back under the surface, into the depths of the sea.  He looked down to his wrist and saw a good amount of saltwater dripping out of his watch.  He didn't even have to lift it to his ear to know that it had stopped ticking.  He didn't have to touch it to know what the saltwater had done to the fine, intricate, mechanism.  He unwound its chain from his wrist and ran a finger around its edge, silently promising to bring it back to life.  Though it lay silent in his hands, he could still hear the soft murmur of London's rain on his attic window, wafting gently under the watch's tiny pains.

Once the pirate ship disappeared and Benny regained some of his strength, Halil couldn't seem to stop smiling even for an instant.  He insisted that both Twist and Benny follow him into the city beside the shore to find his family home.  He led them through the wide boulevards and tight backstreets of a large city, built in a style that felt at once familiar and foreign to Twist.  Most of the pale stone buildings looked to be both Western—with flat, multistory faces and neat square windows—and also distinctly Eastern and medieval, with framed, onion shaped doorways and alcoves, adorned with red cloth awnings and intricate ironwork, fences and gates.  Halil finally came to a stop before another stone framed doorway.  There was a woman in a long, embroidered gown just outside, sweeping the few low steps.

She looked up from her work and her face blanked in total shock when her gaze fell on Halil.  Her eyes then filled with tears as she rushed to him, wrapping him in her arms, laughing and crying, and talking quickly in a language Twist couldn't understand, all at the same time.  Halil looked a picture of total bliss, hugging her and kissing her cheek, and talking just as quickly as she did.  When he gestured to Twist and Benny, the woman looked up to them both with an enormous smile on her damp face.

“You will come in, and stay,” she said with a much thicker accent than Halil's. “We will have a feast!  My son is home!” she said, her voice breaking with tears of joy.

Twist and Benny were shown in, while Halil was embraced by every person in the house—a man with the same eyes as Halil's, an older couple, and piles of children and young adults—each one overjoyed to hold him again.  Twist watched the display curiously, and did his best to stay out of reach.  None the less, as Halil spoke quickly, looking to Twist occasionally as he did, the others in the house turned to him with wonder and admiration filling their faces.

“You have saved my son!” said the man with Halil's eyes, coming closer to Twist with open arms.

“I saved myself,” Twist said, his hands up as he stepped back, wide eyed. “He helped me, actually.  I should thank him instead.”  He slipped around the man before he got too close, stepping quickly past a low, square, red cushioned sort of couch and back into open space.  Halil's father watched him with a curious smile.

“Mr. Twist is shy,” Halil said as if it were a secret. “He doesn't like to touch.”

Twist swallowed the implications against his pride, and gave Halil's father his best apologetic look.  A few of the children giggled.

Halil's father laughed as well, but not apparently at Twist's expense, turning to the others with a wide smile.  He said something with great declaration, calling cheers and happy words from the others.  Halil's mother and many of the young girls hurried off, while Halil ushered Twist and Benny into another room.

The three of them, still dripping wet from their escape, were given warm towels and a change of dry clothes.  Twist was almost as thin as Halil, and so ended up in a pair of his soft, dark, roomy trousers and a long tunic of blue linen, trimmed with an intricate, embroidered pattern.  Benny was similarly attired before Halil finally took Benny and Twist to one of the low couches in the front room and told them to sit.

“We are having a party to celebrate,” he said to them, excitedly.  His father came to them with dark tea in thin clear glasses, with a slice of lemon in each.

The festivities began quickly with sweets to start, and plenty of the hot, rich tea.  The children played around the room while everyone else talked brightly together, laughing most of the time.  Halil's attention was absorbed by his family at a furious pace, and he looked nothing but happy.

“So, what will you do now, Mr. Twist?” Benny asked. “Will you return to England?”

The thought of London was intoxicating in the exotic whirlwind that his life had become, and for a moment Twist wanted nothing more than the comfort of those soot-stained cobblestones under his feet, the chilly drizzle, and the quiet of candlelight and ticking clocks.  He shook his head, steeling his courage once again.

“No,” he said softly. “I have something I have to do, first.”

“Well, I'm headed straight back,” Benny said. “I was here as an adviser for about a year before my survey ship was attacked by those pirates and I was taken.  I started to believe that I would never see England again.  Now, I want nothing more.”

“What were those pirates doing, anyway?” Twist asked. “It seemed strange to go to so much trouble to hide underwater.  Why don't they just use a normal ship?”

“They don't usually attack merchant ships, or anything like that,” Benny said. “They're oil pirates.  They tap into the pipelines on the sea bed, and steal the oil.  They can't take too much at once, so the pumping companies, like BP and the others, hardly notice the difference.  But split among a small handful of men, the prices they can get on the black market amount to small fortunes over time.”

“Oil is that valuable?” Twist asked skeptically.

“They are finding new uses for it all the time,” Benny said. “You watch.  Soon, it will be one of the most valuable things in the world.  Cities like this one will only grow richer and richer.”

“What city is this?” Twist asked, slightly alarmed now by how little he actually knew about his situation. “I don't even know where we are.”

“Baku,” Benny said, a light laugh on his voice. “The capital of Azerbaijan,” he continued as Twist stared at him blankly. “In the Caucasus.  South of Russia, north of Iran, right in the middle of the Middle East.  On the planet Earth...”

“How far are we from, say, Nepal?” Twist asked.

“Oh, that's the landmark you understand?” Benny asked, laughing again. “I don't know … we're about a day and a half away from India, on a fast airship.  So, maybe two days from Nepal, depending on the transport.”

“I see,” Twist said, his mind working hard.  If he was going to finish what he set out to do, he'd first have to get himself to Nepal on his own.  Without the
Vimana
, though, he'd have a terrible time trying to the find a forgotten myth in a country he didn't know in the least.  It still seemed more reasonable to try it on his own—than to find the
Vimana
again—considering that he'd last seen her in the middle of an intense battle.  For all he knew, it was lying at the bottom of the Caspian sea.

“Mr. Twist?” one of Halil's relatives asked, entering the room from the entry hall. “There is someone here … to see you,” he said, uncertainly.

“Who could possibly know you're here?” Benny asked, voicing everyone's confusion.

Arabel walked into the room and her face burst into joy when her eyes fell on Twist. “I found you!” she said with a gasp, rushing to him. “Oh, I'd hug you if I knew it wouldn't cause you extreme discomfort!” she said, smiling brightly.

Twist stared at her in naked dismay.  “How...?” he breathed.

“I.  Found.  You,” she said, sounding out each word slowly.  Twist got it the second time: her Sight.  “But where have you been?  For two days, you were underwater.  How ever did you do that?”

“Oil pirates,” Twist said. “They enslaved me and made me shovel coal to keep their boiler running hot.”

“You're having one hell of a week, aren't you?” Zayle asked, appearing in the room behind Arabel. “Look at this,” he said, glancing over Twist's clothing. “Two days alone, and he's gone native."

“How charming,” Arabel said, smiling at Twist.  Twist instantly wished she wouldn't.

Halil jumped in to make the introductions after Twist explained that Arabel and Zayle were his traveling companions.  Halil's family welcomed them as they had Twist, and insisted that they stay for a while and enjoy the celebrations.  Halil and Arabel traded stories, explaining Twist to each other.  Halil was just as delighted to hear of the mid-air battle that threw Twist into the sea, as Arabel was to hear of him fighting his way to the surface again.

“Seriously?” she said to Twist, smiling at him. “Five pirates, all by yourself?”

“Six if you count the one that ran away,” Benny said.

“I didn't know you had it in you,” Zayle said, shaking his head.

“They threw me into the engine room,” Twist said with a shrug. “Steam engines are always angry.”

“Of course!” Arabel said, clapping her hands with sudden understanding. “You touched it and
then
beat up the whole crew with a shovel.  That makes so much more sense.”  Twist rubbed at his brow and prayed for strength.

“And then when you got to the bridge,” Zayle said, “All you had to do was touch the controls.  Am I right?”

“I don't get it,” Halil said.

“He's got a Sight,” Zayle said, hooking a thumb at Twist. “Touch something, and he knows exactly how it works.”

“He takes on their emotions, too,” Arabel said, sounding proud for some reason Twist couldn't imagine.

“Really?” Halil said, looking to Twist, wide-eyed with wonder yet again.

Twist shrugged and took a sip of his tea, hoping this conversation would go away if he ignored it.

“What about in the water?” Halil asked. “One moment you were drowning, the next you swam as well as me.”

“You touched me,” Twist said. “You probably saved my life.”

“Amazing,” Benny said, staring at Twist.

Much to Twist's relief, Halil's mother and the girls returned with large platters of food, drawing the room's full attention.  Each dish was brightly colored with bits of meat and vegetables in a variety of sauces and forms unlike anything Twist had ever seen.  While everyone dug in happily, eating off small plates with their hands and bits of flat bread, Halil's mother handed each of the visitors a plate piled with some of everything.

Not wanting to be rude, Twist tried a small bite of bright yellow colored rice and meant to smile back to her in thanks, but the flavors surprised him.  Sweet fruits, nutty spices, the aroma of perfectly seared meats, and a multitude of flavors entirely foreign to him melded together into a level of delicious that he never knew existed.  A true smile spread across his face instead, as he thanked her.  Suddenly realized that he was starving, he finished most of the plate very quickly and each bite seemed totally different from the last.

Once Halil's mother was finally satisfied that everyone had eaten enough, the celebrations took a quieter turn.  The girls disappeared again to clean up, while everyone else gathered for warm conversation over hot drinks.

“The
Vimana
is repaired from the battle,” Arabel said, sitting beside Twist, “and we're ready to leave as soon as you are.”

“What happened in the battle, anyway?” Twist asked. “I sort of missed the end.”

“They were after you, actually,” Zayle said. “Once you fell over the side, they didn't know what to do.  We attacked them in full force while they were spread out.”

“Most of their ship is at the bottom of the sea,” Arabel said proudly. “What's left of it won't be flying again anytime soon.”  While Twist listened, his memory of the battle came back to him: the man with Arabel's green eyes, and the blast that threw him clear off the ship.

“That was your brother, wasn't it?” Twist asked. “The one who grabbed me.”

“Jonas,” Arabel said, looking at Twist carefully. “Do you know what happened?  Between you two, I mean...”

Twist shook his head. “I've never experienced anything like it,” he said. “He touched me, but I didn't see any vision.  Everything just went white and hot, like my mind was on fire.  I only remember falling after that, and then I must have blacked out.  I don't even remember hitting the water.  I just woke up later, under the sea on the oil pirates' ship.”

“Jonas can't explain it either,” Arabel said. “He was unconscious for most of a day, and when he woke up he said kind of the same thing.”

“We saw an explosion,” Zayle said, leaning closer to speak quietly. “When he grabbed you, there was this huge white flash and you both flew apart.  The blast threw you right over the side and sent him flying to the other side of the deck.”

“Wait, where is he now?” Twist asked.

“He's on the
Vimana
,” Arabel answered. “Even if he is a traitor, he's still my brother.  He's staying with us for now.”

“The rest of Quay's crew scattered once their ship broke up,” Zayle said.