Read Online Silvertongue by Charlie Fletcher - Free Book Online

She pulled out her mother’s heart stone earring, and was relieved to see it still shone from within.
    She held it up.
    “She’s still alive, see? I thought she wasn’t, but she is,” she explained to Dictionary and the Clocker.
    “Edie,” said George quietly. “This might be a bit bigger than that. If we can’t stop what’s happening, it won’t matter where your mother is or why you thought she was dead. . . . There won’t be any when for her to exist in.”
    “What do you mean when ?” snapped Edie, drinking off the last of her milk and standing in one motion. She stamped her feet to get the circulation going and reached down for the fur coat. She glared at George as she pulled it on. “Saying ‘there won’t be any when ’ doesn’t make sense!”
    “Actually,” coughed the Clocker, “makes complete sense. Precise definition of predicament. Time out of joint. Stopped dead. No when. No then. Just now. Imperative put time back in joint or all stuck here frozen in time forever.”
    He grimaced apologetically.
    “And how do you put time in joint?” she said, lip curling. “Sounds like a big job. What do you do? Find time and then just kick it and bang it on the side? Or is there a button you push? Reboot, reset, off we go again?”
    “No,” said the Clocker. “Have to go to Queen of Time. She will know.”
    “Fine. You go to the Queen of Time. I’m going to find my mum.”
    “How?” said the Gunner, looking her straight in the eye.
    Edie had no idea, and that made her all the angrier at the question. Her jaw jutted forward dangerously.
    “By trying, for a start,” she snapped. “I can’t just not try, can I?”
    “Edie,” said George with a glance at the Queen. “Why are you getting so angry? We’re all in this together. Last night you were . . . happy. Now you . . .”
    The Officer stepped between them, decisively ending the exchange.
    “If the girl got out of bed on the wrong side, so be it. Expect she’ll get over it once the food’s kicked in and the day progresses. We don’t have time for nannying. Sorry, but there it is.”
    “Nannying?” said Edie incredulously. “You think I need nannying ?”
    “It’s not about what you need. It’s about what we talked about. What we all need to do. We’re burning daylight as it is.”
    “It stopped snowing as it got light. Pretty uncanny. We think it’ll start again when it gets dark,” explained George.
    “Another snowfall like this and we won’t be able to move at all,” continued the Gunner.
    “Here’s the plan,” said George. Over his shoulder, Edie noticed the big black bird hop closer to them, right into the shadow of the arch. It cocked its head.
    “The Clocker is going to find the Queen of Time. He says if there’s anything to be done, she’ll know what it is. You, me, and the Queen here, Boadicea, are going to go with the Officer and the Gunner to see the Sphinxes. . . .”
    “ Sphinxes ?” Edie choked in disbelief. “Why’ve I got to go back to the Sphinxes? They don’t exactly like me, do they?”
    “That’s why we need you,” the Queen said calmly. “Glints are the only things we know of that the Sphinxes are wary of. And when things are awry, or need clarifying between the spits and the taints, it’s the Sphinxes who are most likely to come up with an answer.”
    “Not that their answers are the acme of clarity,” grunted Dictionary. “So having someone like you who disconcerts and possibly affrights them may enable us to put their feet to the fire in case of obscurity or obfuscation.”
    “It’s not just them that aren’t clear,” said Edie darkly. She snaked the belt out of the loops in her jeans and used it to cinch the fur coat tight around her.
    “If there is anything to be done, it is the Sphinxes who will know. It is likely that many other spits will come to ask them. It is a good place to marshal our forces, anyway. There is safety in numbers, and we should look to defend ourselves in