The Eternity Clock (Book One of the Time War Series)

Prologue: The Time Keeper

Prologue

The Time Keeper

The ticking of the Time Keeper keeps me awake at night. It isn’t a big piece of tech, and definitely not as large or fancy as some other Time Keepers I have seen. But for what it lacks in size, it makes up for in noise. The small device is about the size of the grape tomatoes my mother grows in her garden and is shaped like an egg standing straight up with a flat bottom. It has designs carved into it, and on the side nearest to my head, I can just make out the Duke of Faewood’s crest. My mother says my father gave it to her when she found herself pregnant with me, but I know the real story. I know she stole it the night of my conception, to prove to the duke that I was his. It must have been on his bedside table.

I shift so my eyes are facing the ceiling, tracing the cracks there with tracing the cracks there with m eyes.  I look at the projection coming from the Time Keeper. The electric blue numbers rest on the ceiling, interrupted only by the occasional crack. 2358 hours, it reads.

I take a deep breath. Two minutes until midnight. Two minutes until I am sixteen. Two minutes until I am free.

I don’t know where I will go yet, exactly. But I won’t be going to the west. There is nothing there for me. Since the Split, millions of Arindelans have moved west to the territory that declares itself the Arindel Free States. They believe they are headed towards a Republic, like what the savage Lithiatonians believe they live in. No, I need to go east, probably to the capitol.

I glance at the Time Keeper again. 0001 hours. I suddenly feel like I can breathe a little bit easier. This is the end. In a little bit less than 1200 hours, I will be long gone from this place; free of the curse my blood has brought me. Maybe I can meet a nice man from my tribe, someone who won’t judge me for who I was born. Maybe get a nice job. Who knows? Now of age, the possibilities seem limitless, when just hours before, the future seemed hopelessly far away.

I leave a little after 1030 hours in the morning. My mother stands next to me as I saddle the horse. Her blonde hair is pulled into a tight braid at the nape of her neck, swinging free down her spine. I always admired her hair, and was glad I had inherited my hair from her and not my father. His was blond too, but not as fine as Mother’s and had the consistency of straw. My deep blue eyes I also got from my mother, but it is my nose that I got from my father. It is a man’s nose, and looks odd on my female face. It is rather long too. I hate it.

“Are you ever going to come back?” Mother asks, straightening her long dress. She is biting her lip, a habit of hers for when she is upset.

“I don’t know,” I reply, tightening the saddle strap. “I don’t know if I will want to.”

This seems to only upset my mother more. I see tears in her eyes, and I know that I have hurt her a little bit. Quickly, I draw her into a hug. She is much smaller than I am-height that I get from my father-and I stand a full head taller than her. Her chin presses into my shoulder, and I can feel some of her tears as they leak out of her eyes.

“You know I might not be able to come back,” I whisper, stroking her hair, “Here, I have no life. It isn’t your fault, but I am just a worthless bastard here. Out there, though, I can be someone other than that. I can be free of my father’s blood.”

My mother pulls away and wipes the tears off her cheeks. “I know,” she sniffs, “and I am so sorry for ever doing this to you. You didn’t deserve it.”I quickly pull her back into a hug, comforting her. “Alexa,” she whispers into my hair. “Alexa, you can never let them find out who you are. No matter where you are or who you are with. If the Rin find out, they will treat you the same as the Rin treat you hear. Maybe if you go to another tribe, they won’t, but we can’t take that risk. DO not tell anyone of your bloodline. It may as well be your death.”