The Midnight Hour by Benjamin Read

Author:Benjamin Read
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Emily and Tarquin walked out of the Bell Foundry in silence. She wandered down the street, not caring where she went, and the slope of the hill took her down toward the Tower of London. Tarquin paused at a hatch in the wall, grabbed a grubby cone of newspaper filled with fish and chips, and handed it to her. She eyed the steaming food with suspicion then started to shovel it in with her fingers, without checking if it was made of three-headed fish or magic potatoes or anything. She didn’t taste it as she chewed, but the food filled the hole inside her.

They sat on a wall alongside the Thames, which had a lot more sea serpents and merfolk in it than at home. She was pretty sure Tower Bridge was missing, too, but didn’t have the heart to bring it up. She couldn’t even finish her chips. She poked one into her pocket for the Hog, then sat unmoving as the moon-silvered water flowed past.

“Can you say something? I’ve not heard you stop talking before, so this is unnerving,” said Tarquin.

“I just don’t know anything.”

“We do know something. It’s to do with the coins. They want them, not you.”

Emily pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, and didn’t answer.

“You heard what Cornelius said after he’d stopped howling about the clock,” Tarquin said. “They’re bad, but there’s no way they can destroy the real Great Working. It’s much too powerful for that. Anyway, it sounds like only you and your mom can pick them up.”

A knot of hot lead flared up in her stomach when he said that. She didn’t want to think about it.

“I don’t care. Everything I know about everyone and everything is wrong.” The words were thick in her mouth. “I can’t cope with any more.”

“I know it’s difficult being somewhere strange. You mustn’t give up.”

“You have no idea how I feel!” she snarled. “And I don’t need a motivational lecture right now, thank you, Tarquin!”

“My name is Tarkus actually.” He stood up. “Tarkus Poswa. We changed it when we came here. To fit in.”

He waited, hands laced so tightly together his knuckles went white.

“Oh. Right. Erm … well, it’s a definite improvement on Tarquin, I’ll give you that.”

“Our country wasn’t safe anymore, and this place was. We had no choice.” As he spoke, he reached into his jacket, pulled out a bunch of dandelions, sighed, and bit the head off one. “I’m just saying I know how it feels when everything falls out from under you, that’s all.”

Her cheeks flushed with heat. “Okay, well, maybe you do know—LOOK OUT!”

She dived forward and grabbed at Tarkus as a big black post bike dropped out of the air where he’d been standing, and screeched to a halt right by them. The rider, a tall woman with owl eyes, a beak, and a white-feathered face, slid off in a smooth, weightless move. The owl-lady stretched, her neck turning much further around than it should have done.

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