Clockwork Dream

xi Dreams of Clockwork

Alice had been left to settle in while Matthew looked for another lock, preferably one Leo couldn't pick. He struggled to hold still while he waited, finger twisting in the helm of his shirt to give them something to do. Things could have gone much worse, but the cold knot in the base of his stomach had yet to dissolve. Sitting in silence, he was finally able to put one of his questions into words.

"You don't seem to be very upset with me."

"Na, I would have been rather disappointed if you hadn't tried to pull something like this. I'm still stumped on how you managed to trick the deadbolt though." Matthew shrugged.

"Trade secret."

"Patching a hull can get rather tedious after a couple hours you know, a little adventure gets the blood running."

"If you're really that desperate for excitement I can see why you decided to become a pirate."

It wasn't meant to be taken seriously but the expression on Matthews face hardened. "Look here, don't go around making assumptions. I don't mind little shenanigans but you'd best not be making me look bad to the captain."

Leo was suddenly aware of how much larger the other man. That wasn't what made him shrink back though, nor was it the words themselves. It was the startling coldness with which he spoke them. There was something dangerous lurking in those dark eyes. Matthew made it easy for him to forget that they weren't on the same side. A reminder was long overdue.

Then the moment passed, fading out of existence like a nightmare upon waking. The hard glint drained from Matthews eyes and he rubbed the back of his neck. That was the last thing either of them spoke that night.

He had no friends on The Devil's Mistress.

***

Leo focused on a sketch, eyes retracing the patterns until they were ingrained in his memory, and then he retraced them again, and again, and again. It wasn't because it was particularly fascinating, a few minutes earlier a series of unusual watermarks on the floor had been the center of his attention and before that it crack in the dresser drawer. In truth he would do anything to avoid looking over at Lazarus Reiner.

The man had been staring at him like a specimen under a microscope for nearly half an hour and he had yet to see him blink. He refused to speak, though occasionally his caterpillar eyebrows pulled together in the middle and he would "humph". At first it had been annoying, then just plain ludicrous, but by that point it was bordering on disturbing.

Last night's sleep had been restless, though nonexistent might be a more appropriate term. Maybe it was because of his close shave with freedom or the possible familiar relationship Matthew had with the infamous Jekyll and Hyde, but while both of those reasons seemed logical he knew it was something else. He couldn't rest without the bells.

Even in the very first hour after he was brought into the world he had had those great resonant chimes to accompany him, distant as they had been to start with. After years of them tolling just above his head, he couldn't help but to wake up every hour waiting to hear a phantom whisper of noise among the constant mechanical screeches of repairs being made. When the ship finally set sail he had just given up.

And after a night that gave him nothing but bruised eyes for his troubles, he had to deal with a lunatic... To say the least, it wasn't a very auspicious start to the day.

Finally sick of looking at the sketch he plucked another one from the masses that occupied every empty surface. As he unrolled it however, the thick cardstock revealed the automaton that started the whole mad venture. He glared at it for a minute, trying to discern what could possibly be so important about it that a bunch of pirates would go through so much trouble to steal it.