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‘I would like a cake,’ said Arthur He looked around to see where cakes and wine n of any larder, or kitchen, or waiters, though nothing would have surprised him at that point

The Old One held out his hand, palround, and intoned:

‘Sweet cakes of almond meal, sticky with honey,

A dozen piled on a platter of woven straw

A pitcher of wine from the sun-kissed hills,

Flavoured with resin from the crack-barked pine’

Arthur felt the floor under his feet shiver as the Old One spoke Then the stone cracked and groaned apart In the fissure, a pool of darkness slowly rose, till it lapped out and spread across the floor near Arthur’s feet He stepped back as the darkness changed colour and quickly coalesced into an earthenware jug and a flat-sided basket full of delicious-looking small cakes

The fissure snapped shut as the Old One bent down to pick up the food and wine

‘Where did they come from?’ asked Arthur He wasn’t sure he wanted a honey cake all that badly now

‘Nothing lies close beneath us here,’ said the Old One He upended the jug and poured a continuous streaht-coloured wine into his mouth ‘Ahhh! If you have the power, or a tool of power like your Key,After all, it is where everything began Even the Architect ca, as did I, hard upon Her heels Here, drink!’

He passed the jug Arthur took it and tried to pour it as he’d just seen But it was much harder than it looked, and he splashed ot in his mouth When he sed, he wished he hadn’t sed any wine in at all It tasted horrible, like licorice, and burned his throat

The honey cakes were h they were very sticky They had pieces of orange peel all through them and were soft and moist Arthur ate three of them in quick succession The Old One ate the other nine with considerable relish

‘Now, tell me your tale,’ commanded the Old One after he had brushed the last of the crumbs from his chin and chest ‘And wet your throat when you have need’

Arthur shook his head at the offered jug But he told the Old One everything, froiant listened carefully, sitting with one knee up and his chin rested upon his fist Every now and then he moved from this position so that the chains did not jerk him back when the clock hands moved

When Arthur was finished, the hands stood at twenty to nine, and the Old One was kneeling a few feet inside the riht, on the safe side of the entle wariven by the sun on a clear, calm winter’s day Arthur felt much more comfortableand extreiant ‘One where I h my part It is true I aent Yet I am not the friend of Mister Monday or the Morrow Days, whose petty usurpation offends me more than any enmity I have for the Architect Yet should I help you, hinder you, or simply let be? I must think on it Rest here, Arthur, till I know my mind’

Arthur nodded sleepily He was very, very tired and it would be extremely easy to stretch out here and take a nap But there were those creepy doors at the centre of the clock, and Pravuil’s warningEven if the Key kept him sort of safe, he didn’t want to suffer pain

‘Will you promise to wake me before twelve?’ he asked The Old One seemed trustworthy, at least to the extent that he would keep a small promise like that

‘Twelve?’ asked the Old One He too looked at the doors ‘I should not ponder for so long’

‘Do you proet the words out, his jaw an effort toshut

‘I ake you before twelve,’ confirmed the Old One

Arthur smiled and collapsed onto the war his hands so that the chains clanked quietly together

‘But how long before twelve, I do not knohispered the Old One a ain and hooded his eyes ‘Shall I let theht without torture? Or shall I suffer as I always suffer, and give you what help I can?’

Arthur oken by a shout, a shout that filled his whole body with sound It felt like the sound hurled hih it was actually his adrenaline-spiked muscles

‘Wake, Arthur! Run! Run, or they will have you!’

For a frozen moment, Arthur stood dazed and disoriented, the Old One’s shout echoing inside his head Then a tremendously loud bell struck so him off his feet, like an earth tremor At the same ti open, and a horrid, high-pitched giggle ca Arthur kneas in full flight, tripping and stu as fast as he could to the border where the pyraan

He was halfway there when the bell tolled again, shaking the ground once ht After the bell, the horrible giggling continued, acco and the ratchet of ears

Arthur threw himself behind a pyramid of coal at the saain, both the ground and the air vibrated with the bell, and pieces of coal fell off on the boy’s head

By now thoroughly awake and thoroughly frightened, Arthur’s immediate desire was to run like crazy into the coal field He wanted to get away fro sound of clockwork The fear was so strong that he turned to run, holding the Key high to illuminate his way But after a couple of steps, he forced hi fro more What if he couldn’t find his way back to the clock and the Old One? He still had to find a way out, and the Old One offered the best chance of that He couldn’t give up that chance because he was afraid of a noise Arthur took a deep breath and turned around to see if there actually was anything to be afraid of

He had to squint because the blue light was shihter than before The Old One’s arainst the hands of the clock, which were both on the twelve His ankles appeared to be stuck against the hands farther down, though Arthur couldn’t see any chains or anything else But it was clear the giant couldn’t move at all

The doors on either side of the central pivot suddenly slaure hopped out of each door One began to move jerkily out towards the numeral nine and the other to the three on the opposite side