Echo Quickthorn and the Great Beyond by Alex English

Author:Alex English
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2020-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

Keen to avoid the frosty atmosphere that had grown between her and Horace, Echo spent the rest of the day in the workshop at the Mech Market, painstakingly assembling and disassembling clockwork under the guidance of Jimmy Mainspring. It was delicate work, but Echo loved seeing all the parts come together into something with purpose – a beautiful creation that flew of its own accord. It was so much better than embroidering all those pointless samplers and handkerchiefs! She found the hours melted away until finally the evening of the meeting at the Guild came.

‘Gotta go!’ she said, suddenly realizing the time and wiping the oil off her hands with a rag.

Jimmy looked up from his work. ‘Wait there. I’ve got a little gift for you, as payment for all your hard work.’

He rummaged in his workbox and took out a miniature clockwork bird with feathers of copper and gleaming white enamel.

‘My own postal pigeon!’ said Echo, turning it over in her hands and carefully stretching out one wing to marvel at the intricate metal feathers. She beamed. ‘Thank you, Jimmy.’

‘It’s not just any postal pigeon,’ said Jimmy. ‘It’s my own design. You enter the coordinates here.’ He showed her a series of dials under the little bird’s wing. ‘Write your message and put it in the bird’s claw here, then let it fly. When the message is returned, the bird will navigate its way back to you. You just need to calibrate it to something metallic, something you always keep with you. Do you have anything?’

‘Yes,’ said Echo, thinking of her mother’s pin.

‘Well, you just set it, using this dial here, and it can find you wherever you are.’

‘Oh, Jimmy, it’s the best present ever.’ She gave the stout man a hug and her heart glowed. In just a day, she’d learned so much, and not just about clockwork. Making things with her hands had made her feel more real somehow. Not just a grateful ward of the king whose only role was to be quiet and look presentable, but someone who could create things, who could do things, who could change things.

‘Thank you, Jimmy.’ She carefully stowed the pigeon in her pocket before racing all the way back to Hawthorn Square, Gilbert clinging to her shoulder, and a huge smile on her face.

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