Thief of Time

“What happens if you find out you're no good?” said Lobsang. The going felt easier now. He no longer had the feeling that his skin was trying to drag itself off him.

“Dead men don't find things out,” said Lu-Tze. He turned his head to his apprentice and his evil grin was a yellow-toothed curve in the shadows. “Getting the hang?” he added.

“I'm… I'm on top of it…”

“Right! Then now that we've warmed up…”

To Lobsang's horror, the sweeper faded further into the dark.

He called up reserves he knew he didn't have. He screamed at his liver to stay with him, thought that he felt his brain creak, and plunged on.

The shape of Lu-Tze lightened as Lobsang drew level with him in time.

“Still here? One last effort, lad!”

“I can't!”

“You bloody well can!”

Lobsang gulped freezing air and fell onwards—

–where the light was suddenly a calm, pale blue and Lu-Tze was trotting gently between the frozen carts and unmoving people around the city's gate.

“See? Nothing to it,” said the sweeper. “Just maintain, that's all. Nice and steady.”

It was like balancing on a wire. It was fine if you didn't think about it.

“But all the scrolls say you go to blue and violet and into the black and then you hit the Wall,” said Lobsang.

“Ah, well, scrolls,” said Lu-Tze, and left it there, as if the tone of voice said it all. “This is Zimmerman's Valley, lad. It helps if you know it's here. The abbot said it's something to do with… what was it?… Oh, yeah, boundary conditions. Something like… the foam on the tide. We're right on the edge, boy!”

“But I can breathe easily!”

“Yeah. Shouldn't happen. Keep moving about, though, otherwise you'll exhaust all the good air around your body field. Good old Zimmerman, eh? One of the best, he was. And he reckoned there was another dip even closer to the Wall, too.”

“Did he ever find it?”

“Don't think so.”

“Why?”

“The way he exploded gave me a hint. Don't worry! You can maintain the slice easily here. You don't have to think about it. You've got other things to think about! Keep an eye on those clouds!”

Lobsang looked up. Even in this blue-on-blue landscape, the clouds over the city looked ominous.

“It's what happened back in Uberwald,” said Lu-Tze. “The clock needs a lot of power. The storm blew up out of nowhere.”

“But the city's huge! How can we find a clock here?”

“First, we're going to head for the centre,” said Lu-Tze.

“Why?”

“Because with luck we won't have to run so far when the lightning strikes, of course.”

“Sweeper, no one can outrun lightning!”

Lu-Tze spun round and grabbed Lobsang by the robe, dragging him closer.

“Then tell me where to run, speedy boy!” he shouted. “There's more to you than meets the third eye, lad! No apprentice should be able to find Zimmerman's Valley! It takes hundreds of years of training! And no one should be able to make the spinners sit up and dance to his tune the very first time he sees them! Think I'm daft, do you? Orphan boy, strange power… what the hell are you? The Mandala knew you! Well, I'm just a mortal human, and what I know is, I'll be damned if I'll see the world shattered a second time! So help me! Whatever it is you've got, I need it now! Use it!”

He let go, and stood back. A vein in his bald head was throbbing.

“But I don't know what I can do to—”

“Find out what you can do!”

Tick

Protocol. Rules. Precedent. Ways of doing things. That's how we've always worked, thought Lady LeJean. This and this must follow that. It has always been our strength. I wonder if it can be a weakness?

If looks could have killed, Dr Hopkins would have been a smear on the wall. The Auditors watched his every move like cats watching a new species of mouse.

Lady LeJean had been incarnate much longer than the others. Time can change a body, especially when you've never had one before. She wouldn't have stared and fumed. She would have clubbed the doctor to the ground. What was one more human?

She realized, with some amazement, that the thought there was a human thought.

But the other six were still wet behind the ears. They hadn't yet realized the dimensions of duplicity that you needed to survive as a human being. They clearly found it hard to think inside the little dark world behind the eyes, too. Auditors reached decisions in concert with thousands, millions of other Auditors.

Sooner or later they'd learn to be their own thinkers, though. It might take a while, because they'd try to learn from one another first.

At the moment they were watching Igor's tea tray with great suspicion.

“Drinking tea is protocol,” said Lady LeJean. “I must insist.”

“Is this correct?” Mr White barked at Dr Hopkins.

“Oh, yes,” said the doctor. “With a ginger biscuit, usually,” he added hopefully.

“A ginger biscuit,” repeated Mr White. “A biscuit of red-brown colouring?”

“Yeth, thur,” said Igor. He nodded to the plate on his tray.

“I would like to try a ginger biscuit,” volunteered Miss Red.

Oh yes, thought Lady LeJean, please try the ginger biscuits.