The Hourglass Read online

  “We have to do it soon, you’re starting to heal,” said Sarah, critically examining his bruises. The cut on his lip had clotted up neatly and the swelling had gone down.

  “And we only have a week.” He straightened his shoulders. “Better get it over with then. I’ll pretend to fall over something and convince the guard that I need you to assist me to the infirmary. Easy peasy.”

  “No, wait, you can’t go tonight. If I get sent away I’ll be locked up in my stupid cell so I won’t be able to find another way to meet up with you.”

  “How do you know you won’t just get sent away if we do it tomorrow?”

  “I don’t, but at least tomorrow I won’t be locked in a cell with no guards in sight to persuade.”

  “I could do this myself,” he offered.

  Sarah bit her lip. It was tempting. Then she shook her head in mild self-disgust. “Even the Queen thought it was too hard for one person to do. We’ll do this together or not at all.”

  “Tomorrow then,” said Finn, trying hard not to look relieved.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Attempt

  “Good morning,” said Sarah as she joined Finn at their usual table.

  “Morning,” replied Finn through a mouth full of food.

  She was just about to sit down when a flying spoonful of porridge splattered over one side of Finn’s face. Sarah leapt back to her feat, outraged and trying to find the culprit. Two boys sitting a table over were giggling and smiling smugly.

  “You idiots. You absolute idiots. What the hell did you do that for?” demanded Sarah, enraged. She grabbed her spoon and loaded it up with as much porridge as she could before thinking better of it and grabbed the whole bowl. She was just positioning herself for maximum aim when Finn reached out a hand and tugged her back into her seat. He wiped most of the porridge off his face and wiped his hands clean on his pants.

  “Calm down, psycho, it’s just porridge. Five minutes ago it was a fork. This is definitely an improvement.”

  “What? What happened? Why are they throwing stuff at you?”

  Finn grimaced. “I had a little meeting last night with the King. He was very interested to know what our deal with the Queen is. I didn’t tell him, of course,” he added, in reply to the panicked expression that blossomed on Sarah’s face.

  “Are you ok? Did he hurt you?”

  “Nope. Whatever deal it was the Queen struck with him worked. He didn’t touch a hair on my head. However he made it clear that he couldn’t stop ‘boys from being boys.’ So far I’ve been tripped three times and breakfast has become more dangerous than I thought. The sooner we get this over and done with, the better.”

  He looked up to find Sarah assessing him. In her opinion he was a frustratingly good healer. His bruises had started to yellow already and the swelling had completely disappeared. It wasn’t really going to convince anyone that he needed to see the doctor.

  “I know, right? I need to be fresh. Don’t worry, I’ll sort it out once we get to the floor.”

  Sarah frowned in reply. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I’ll get Boulder to hit me and make this,” he waved at his bruised face, “look a bit more recent. The ribs will still pass muster though. I was going to get you to do it, but they might not let you help me get to the infirmary if they think you’re the one who hit me.”

  Sarah was about to protest that she wouldn’t have hit him, but she stopped herself before the words came out. If they wanted to survive on that ship, they needed to get into that infirmary. Punching him in the face was better than them and their friends dying.

  April sat down at the table, followed shortly after by Marland.

  “Have you guys seen the Queen’s new eating partner?” asked April, pointing across the cafeteria at the Queen’s table. Sarah looked over. Colt was sitting with the Queen, his body positioned so that, although they were sitting side by side, he was almost directly facing her. His thumb was stroking the back of her hand. The Queen looked pleased.

  “I’m guessing that was more her choice than his,” said April.

  Marland snorted. “I doubt he minds, getting close to all that power,” she said, then she quickly glanced at Sarah, worried that she might have offended her.

  “Good luck to them,” said Sarah sarcastically.

  “Any luck about finding out what this mystery event is?” asked Finn, trying to change the topic.

  “No,” said April. “Everyone we’ve asked has no idea. They all say the exact same thing.”

  “What’s that?” asked Sarah.

  “That every single day is exactly the same as the last,” said Marland with a sigh. “Nothing is ever different, apparently.”

  “We’ll keep trying though,” said April. “Someone will know something.”

  “Just be careful, ok?”

  April gave her a wry smile. “I think you need to be more careful than us.”

  Marland let out a small yelp as a knife, sharpened by someone outside the kitchen into something a lot more lethal than it was intended for, imbedded itself into the table next to Finn’s hand. Finn’s hand twitched and the expression on his face flickered to something darker, something that Sarah had never seen before, but it was gone as quick as it had come. He turned around briefly to find the culprit and then turned back to the table.

  “Everyone ok?” he asked.

  April nodded and Marland followed suit with a trembled nod of her own.

  “Are we ok?” asked Sarah. “Are you ok? You’re the one who nearly lost his hand to a… to a bloody shiv! Finn, if this keeps on happening they’re going to kill you.”

  “No, they won’t. Queen’s deal, remember?”

  “Yeah, well, this ‘boys will be boys’ business has gone on too far.” She stood up.

  “Sarah, sit down.”

  “No, I-”

  “Sarah, they can’t break the deal. As much as the King wants to know what’s going on, he also clearly wants to keep the deal or he’d already have me over hot coals. Which means I’m safe. It’s fine.”

  Sarah sat down slowly. She actually had no idea what she was going to do anyway. She sighed.

  “The sooner we get this over and done with, the better.”

  “Agreed,” said Finn. “Excuse me.” He stood up and followed another boy into the bathroom.

  Sarah watched him go.

  “He’ll be alright,” said April, patting Sarah gently on the hand. “He’s right, you know, it’s been agreed that he’ll be alright.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” mumbled Sarah.

  Finn joined then a few minutes later, just as the bell went for them to head back to the factory floor. As they stood up to head out a bow with a bloodied nose stumbled out of the bathroom. It was the same boy Finn had followed in.

  “Finn, did you..?”

  Finn shrugged. “The shiv really was too far,” he said.

  Sarah just stared at him, flabbergasted.

  “Are you coming?” he asked.

  “Ah, yeah, just a moment,” she said, her thoughts whirling around in her mind. “Actually, I’ll meet you there, I just need to have a word with Marland.”

  Finn shrugged and walked off.

  “Hey Marland, will you do me another favour?”

  “Ah, sure,” said Marland cautiously.

  “Let me know if you hear anything about why the Queen hates the doctor from the infirmary so much, ok?”

  A look of relief swept across Marland’s face. “Yeah, sure,” she said with a smile, “I can do that. Hey, um, Sarah?” added on Marland a bit nervously.

  “Yeah?”

  “You know how we were wondering why the Queen chose you and not one of her usual people?”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Well, I don’t think she did just chose you.”

  “What?”

  “People have been talking. Apparently a whole bunch of the Queen’s lackeys were thrown into solitary just before we arrived. Apparently they were found
in random places throughout the ship. You know, like they were looking for an alternative way off the ship.”

  “So you’re saying…”

  “I don’t think you were her first choice. I think you’re her only hope left. Everything hinges on you.”

  “Well,” said Sarah, processing the idea. “That’s shit.”

  They followed Finn and April to the factory floor and separated to their different sections of the conveyer belt. Instead of taking his usual seat Finn walked up to Boulder.

  “Punch me in the face.”

  Boulder frowned, his eyes flickering around the room. “No.”

  Finn stared, momentarily surprised. “Why not?”

  “Sit down. Idiot.”

  “Look, I’m asking for this. It’s not like I’m going to take it personally,” began Finn, working on what Sarah considered was the insane idea that Boulder was worried about Finn’s feelings. “It’s just that-”

  Boulder stood up and socked him heavily on the nose. Finn reeled backwards, tripping over one of the stools and clutching his face as blood gushed from his nose. Two guards ran over.

  “What’s going on here?” one of them demanded.

  Boulder shrugged innocently. “I don’t really know. One moment I’m doing my work, the next he’s bleeding all over the floor. I think he tripped over the stool.”

  The guard gave him a disbelieving look. “See anything?” he asked the other guard.

  The other guard, a thin, weedy looking woman, shook her head. “Nah, I’d just turned away too.”

  Sarah, who had by this time crouched beside Finn, helping him as best she could, raised an eyebrow. Boulder clearly had no issue with punching Finn in the face. He had just been waiting until there were no witnesses.

  “I saw it,” she piped up. “He did trip. He landed awkwardly over the top of the stool as well. I think I heard something crack.”

  A third guard joined them. It was Mr Painter. There was an anxious moment when Sarah thought they would just be sent back to work, and then Finn started making retching noises and all the guards took a hurried step back.

  “Take him to the infirmary, Gragur,” Mr Painter ordered the first guard. He turned to the weedy woman. “Get back to work, Nadia. That Stickler kid in your section is playing up again.” Nadia gave him a harried look and slunk back to her usual position on the factory floor as Gragur bent down to help Finn up, carefully ensuring Finn was facing away from him. Mr Painter’s notifier buzzed at his waist and he moved away to answer it, to everyone’s relief. Gragur managed to heave Finn to his feet and walk a step before Finn’s knees sagged and he groaned pitifully.

  “I think my ribs are broken,” Finn muttered. “I can’t walk.” Finn’s weight dragged Gragur down with him so that he was now standing half-hunched over, trying to support Finn’s heavy body.

  “Bloody hell,” muttered the guard resentfully. “How can you weigh this much and be so skinny?”

  Sarah suppressed a grin. She had said the same thing only a day or two ago. The guard glanced around at the surrounding prisoners, who were all watching his progress with interest.

  “Get back to work,” he growled. The prisoners reluctantly turned around. Sarah ignored the guard and stepped forward, slipping Finn’s other arm around her shoulder. Gragur grunted but didn’t complain as he was now able to stand a little straighter, and the three of them headed out of the room. The infirmary, as it turned out, wasn’t too far away. It was down the far end of the ship one level above the factory floor. At one point they passed a set of stairs that led up to the open deck. Sarah could feel the fresh air on her skin and she broke out in goosebumps. It felt delicious.

  They arrived at a single door with the word ‘INFIRMARY’ printed neatly on it in block letters. Below the word was printed a little hourglass symbol. The guard swiped the door open and they walked into a clean room that smelt of disinfectant and something slightly off. There were six beds in the room, three on either side, their feet pointing at each other, just as Winter had said. At the far end of the room, directly opposite from them, was the office. The office was as wide as the ward. On either side of the door were set two large windows. All three of the current patients were in the beds closest to the windows. Clearly, the doctor liked to keep an eye on what was happening on his ward. The two patients to Sarah’s right were badly bruised and battered. One had both arms in plaster, the other his leg. The single patient on Sarah’s left looked completely unharmed. He was sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his knees, rocking backwards and forwards.

  “Justin!” yelled Sarah, unable to stop herself. Justin didn’t even blink in response. It was like he hadn’t heard her.

  Finn’s head jerked up quickly at Sarah’s exclamation. Before either of them could do more than stare the door leading into the doctor’s office opened and a man strode out. He wasn’t what Sarah had expected at all. She had been picturing a middle aged man in a white lab coat sporting an expression full of evil intent. What she saw was a young, good looking man with a strong jawline and hair that was swept back stylishly. He was wearing scrubs and comfortable shoes. The doctor’s eyes flickered over the three of them, coming to rest on Finn.

  “Put him down here,” he ordered, directing them to one of the spare beds. They walked over, awkwardly squeezed between the beds and lowered Finn onto the mattress. Finn groaned pitifully, clutching his side. “What happened?”

  “Apparently he tripped over a stool,” said Gragur, disbelief clearly evident in his tone.

  The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Some fall.” He turned to Finn and started to ask him questions about what happened and how he landed. Much to Sarah’s relief Gragur sat down on the spare bed next to Finn’s and watched the interview. He was clearly as reluctant to return to work as she was. Sarah understood why. All he did was stand in the same area of the factory, watching people do the same repetitive thing day in, day out. It was almost as bad as what the prisoners had to do. He must be bored out of his mind. He obviously welcomed the variety. This also suited Sarah. She knew he couldn’t send her back without an escort, and the more time she stayed in the infirmary, the better chance she had of picking up something that could help her later. Their first plan, that Sarah would try and slip away to see what she could find, was clearly not going to work. Gragur was positioned so that he was facing the office door. He would spot her in seconds. Still. The more time she spent there, the more opportunity she had to learn something useful. She looked over at Justin again. He hadn’t moved an inch and appeared completely unaware of their presence.

  The doctor had started to cut away Finn’s shirt. Sarah looked back at Finn and gasped. The whole right side of his chest was covered in a nasty looking purple and black bruise that was yellowing at the edges. The doctor turned around and looked at Gragur. “What’s your name?”

  “Gragur,” answered Gragur.

  “Gragur, clean up his face while I deal with this,” he said, indicating Finn’s chest.

  Gragur got up and rounded the bed so that he was now standing on the opposite side to the doctor, near Finn’s head. He stared at Finn’s bloody face for a second before looking around the room vaguely for something he could use to wipe the blood away. After nearly a minute the doctor realised that Gragur hadn’t moved. He rolled his eyes.

  “Sit down Gragur,” he said, exasperated. Gragur returned to his usual seat on the bed with a look of relief on his face. For the first time the doctor seemed to realise that Sarah was there. “You,” he said, pointing at her. “There is a cloth and a dish under the sink. Let’s see if you can do any better.”

  Sarah followed his directions and started rooting around under the sink. She found a stack of kidney dishes, disposable cloths and a variety of bandages. She grabbed a kidney dish and filled about a third of it with water from the sink, added a few disposable cloths and walked back over to the bed, careful not spill any of the water. The doctor had finished poking and prodding Finn’s chest and was now liste
ning to his lungs with a stethoscope. Sarah set down her equipment and wet one end of a piece of cloth. Finn’s face was an absolute mess. His nose looked misshapen and the blood had smeared everywhere. He was grimacing. The doctor had told him to take deep breaths and apparently this was hurting just as much as the prodding. Sarah decided on cleaning him up from the edges in, leaving his bent nose until last. Finn was watching her as she worked, which unnerved her somewhat.

  “Quit looking at me,” she murmured under her breath.

  Finn was saved from responding as a particularly vicious prod from the doctor elicited a long groan. She had washed the cloth five times, the water in the kidney dish a bright red, before she got to his nose. By this time the doctor had finished with the rest of him and was ready to assess his nose, now that he was looking a bit tidier. He took the cloth off Sarah and cleaned the remaining blood away roughly but effectively. Finn groaned. “Yup,” said the doctor, “definitely broken.” He put a finger and a thumb on either side of Finn’s nose and then, without any warning, tweaked it. Sarah winced at the grating noise it made and Finn yelped. His nose starting bleeding again, but at least it looked straighter. Finn was trying to blink the tears out of his eyes without looking like he was crying. The doctor wiped away the new flow of blood and pulled out a small packet from the breast pocket of his scrubs. In it were lines of small pieces of fabric and plastic. He peeled off two of them from their plastic backing and placed them across the bridge of Finn’s nose.

  “That’ll help keep the nasal passages open so you can breathe,” he said. He got up and disappeared into his office, returning almost immediately with two white tablets in a cup. “Take these, they’ll help with the pain.”

  Finn took them.

  “He’s fractured a few ribs and his nose, but otherwise he’s fit for the factory floor.” The doctor retrieved a small notebook from the same breast pocket as he kept the nose strips in, scribbled a note and tore out the page, handing it to Finn. “Show this to a guard so they’ll bring you here.” He turned back to Gragur. “He can come back twice a day and get more analgesia for his ribs.” The doctor walked towards another cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a fresh shirt, which he threw gently at Finn. Finn removed the remaining rags of his old shirt and slowly, with much grimacing and pauses, he managed to put the fresh one on.