Journey to Jahennah: Chapter Seven

The process of moving Lila’s family was simple, although the story behind the clockmaker was a bit more complicated. All Orva knew was that Jessie Sparrow had been at Orlodge Clockmaker’s when she had discovered the portal to Tortaris, and that the apprentice that worked there had seen her go through it. Orva didn’t know what had happened on Jessie’s return, whether the young clockmaker had waited to hear the story, or if they had stayed in contact since.

After a quick internet search on Kenji’s tablet (which thankfully he had put in his bag before they’d left that morning), they found that the shop was still open, tucked away in the middle of Kent. The owner was called Madam Orlodge; the business had stayed in the family, much to their relief. The woman who had seen Jessie go through the portal had to be well into her eighties now; with any luck, one of her descendants ran the shop and would be able to take them to her. It was risky, but it was also the best chance they had of keeping Lila’s family safe, so they made their preparations.

The clockmaker’s shop was on a small parade in the middle of an ordinary street. Kenji’s online map showed a narrow alley between the parade and the terraced house next to it; that was where they would teleport to.

With some difficulty, Lila and Kenji moved the chairs in the living room closer together so that each member of the family was touching another. Kenji went to fetch Ava’s stone body and set her down next to her mother. Lila couldn’t look at the tiny statue but continued to drag the others into position. Orva checked the rest of the house for magical surveillance and returned five minutes later, satisfied that they were not being watched.

“I’ve checked for every observatory spell I can think of and nobody’s here,” she said confidently, checking that Lila’s aunts’ arms were firmly pressed together. Satisfied that they were ready, she placed her hand on Ava’s head and then turned to the others.

“Hold onto me and don’t let go,” she ordered. Lila and Kenji obediently stood on either side of her and grasped her arms.

A horrible sensation overcame them. It was like forcing jelly down a plug hole; Lila felt like her body was being squashed into the floor, her head squeezed until her eyesight became blurry and her breath coming out in gasps. After a few seconds, the sensation reversed; they were being pulled back up through the ground. Then, quite suddenly, it was over. Before her sight returned to normal, Lila noted the faint smell of lavender. A cool breeze ruffled her hair. They were at the mouth of the alley that curved behind the parade of shops, wide enough for a car to enter and ending with a black garage door. On one side was a faded concrete wall belonging to a fish and chip shop, the other a tall, wooden fence hiding a garden. Lila saw a flash of purple flowers between the panels. The street was deserted.

Orva cast an invisibility spell on herself and Lila’s family, concealing them so they were safe while Lila and Kenji spoke to the clockmaker. They weren’t sure how long it would take to convince Madam Orlodge to help them, but they hoped it was before anyone came down the alley. Kenji checked to see if the coast was clear, then they hurried past the fish and chip shop and the boarded-up florist until they reached the faded sign that read ORLODGE CLOCKMAKER’S, EST. 1842. The shop was quite large, its entrance set higher than the shops around it, with stone steps leading up to a black, windowless door. With another furtive glance up the street to make sure they were alone, they walked up the steps and slipped inside.

A bell clanged eerily as the door closed behind them, although it was nothing compared to the rumbling ticking of at least a hundred clocks of all different shapes and sizes. They covered the walls, hung from hooks stuck to the windows and stood cluttered on shelf after shelf. There were free-standing alarm clocks; large clocks bearing beautiful illustrations; and behind the counter, there stood a stunning grandfather clock. For a moment, Lila gazed in awe at the collection. Then she noticed a hunched figure at the till staring at her. She didn’t look particularly surprised to see them there.

“Hello,” Madam Orlodge said, her voice so quiet they could barely hear it over the din of the clocks. “I’ve been expecting you for some time now.”

The woman was well into her eighties; she was tiny and almost bent in half, with wispy white hair and thick glasses perched on her long nose. She shuffled around the counter, leaning heavily on a green walking stick, and looked up (she really was quite small) at Lila, who smiled nervously.

“I assume you are Jessie’s granddaughter?” she asked, looking Lila up and down. Lila nodded, her heart beating wildly.

“Yes,” she breathed, “We’ve come to ask for your help. My family is in danger.”

Madam Orlodge’s expression was difficult to read at first, then she beckoned them to follow and hobbled towards a doorway at the back of the shop which led to a tiny staff room with a set of cupboards, a kettle, a moth-eaten sofa, and a few rickety chairs around an old, wooden table. She motioned for them to sit and Lila and Kenji perched uncomfortably on the sofa, watching the old woman warily. She lowered herself shakily into a chair, propping her walking stick against the table.

“I knew someone would come the moment the clock disappeared,” she said. “Yes,” she continued as Lila and Kenji’s jaws dropped, “I know about the clock.”

“But, how-?” Lila spluttered. Madam Orlodge put her hand up to silence her.

“Unlike most humans,” she explained, “my family and I have practised magic for generations. Across the world, there are families like us who, for some unknown reason, still have memories of magic. We keep in contact, sharing magical secrets, hoping that one day we might be able to break Ebony’s curse and expand our teachings to others. My family studies the magics of time and teleportation.”

Madame Orlodge’s eyes glazed over.

“I was twenty-six when my father found the clock in an abandoned shack in Budapest. He sensed peculiar magic surrounding it and brought it back here to examine, but we couldn’t unlock its secrets. The clock ended up on a shelf at the back of the shop, forgotten.

“Jessie Sparrow came in a few months later. She didn’t know what she was looking for and scoured the shelves, finally coming across the magical clock. She sensed something strange about it and spent a long time examining it. Her fingers brushed the V of the incorrect eight, and she was pulled through.

“I called my father immediately. We tried spells and enchantments that might bring Jessie back. My father wouldn’t let me touch the clock; we didn’t know where it had taken her or even if she was still alive. It was too great a risk. Then, as suddenly as she had disappeared, Jessie was back. She had been gone for twelve hours but told us about Tortaris and the mythics like she’d been there for months. She told us how she had barely escaped. The clock was sealed away to stop anyone or anything following Jessie through.”

Madam Orlodge struggled to her feet, grasped her walking stick and shuffled over to the cupboards, placing her wrinkled hand against the middle door. After a few seconds, it melted away. The cupboard was empty.

“The clock was as it always had been,” Madam Orlodge continued. “No movement, no magic, no indication at all that it possessed a secret. We locked it in here, magically sealed the cupboard, and Jessie went to travel the world. She was desperate to find another way into Tortaris, so began the search for other portals with your grandfather.”

Lila gasped. Madam Orlodge smiled.

“Yes, your grandfather also knows about magic. Jessie and Sid had only been together a short while, but she confided in him and they searched together. They never found another portal to Tortaris, although they did find nine other portals to different places on Earth. Jessie sent the clocks to me to check for traces of dangerous magic before taking them home.”

Kenji gaped at her.

“But then… the clocks in the basement…” he spluttered. Lila’s eyes widened. Were her grandparents’ most important clocks actually a collection of portals across the world?

Madam Orlodge’s lip trembled.

“I checked the cupboard every day for sixty-two years,” she whispered, “Then about three months ago, I came into the staff room to check the cupboard and the clock was gone. There were no signs of forced entry, it had simply disappeared, with no way to track it or know where it had gone. But I knew who was responsible.”

Madam Orlodge gestured to the cupboard. Lila and Kenji got up and moved closer, peering at the bottom shelf. There, faintly visible, were three I’s and a V, the backwards eight, scratched into the shelf. Lila’s blood went cold.

“I warned her that Ebony was coming,” Madam Orlodge’s voice shook. “She and Sid went abroad to hide.”

She paused. Lila’s breath quickened. Her grandparents had gone to Fiji around the time the clock had disappeared. They’d still been abroad when she died a month later.

“Ebony found them, didn’t she?” she said quietly. Madam Orlodge nodded. Lila lowered herself into one of the chairs by the table. Now she knew the truth. Ebony had killed her grandmother.

“If she found her and got her revenge,” she whispered, “why did she put the clock in the basement? What was the point?”

Madam Orlodge hesitated before answering. “To make Sid suffer.”

Hot tears filled Lila’s eyes, spilling over her lashes. Her body shuddered with sobs and she put her head in her hands. She listened while Kenji explained everything that had happened between Jessie’s death and now, Grandpa Sid’s strange behaviour, travelling through the clock, Ziyadah and Ebony, their search for Jahennah. As she sat there, she thought about everything that had happened. She could hardly believe it had all begun that same afternoon.

After a while, the tears stopped. Madam Orlodge placed a hand on Lila’s shoulder, and she gripped it with her own. Her sadness was replaced with a fierce determination. This wasn’t about saving the mythics. She needed to keep not just herself, but Kenji and her family safe. Ebony had to be defeated. She gave Madam Orlodge a small smile and got to her feet, wiping her eyes.

Gripping her walking stick tightly, the old woman walked through a door opposite the one leading back to the shop, Lila and Kenji behind her. They made their way down a set of narrow, rickety stairs into a dingy, low-ceilinged basement. Through the gloom, Lila made out a rusty door against the back wall and realised it must open onto the alley behind the shops.

Kenji pulled the door open and checked the coast was clear before running around the corner to Orva. Lila waited with Madam Orlodge, and after a minute, a bizarre sight appeared. Lila’s family members floated towards them, about an inch off the ground. Behind them was Orva, her hand raised lazily in front of her to keep the statues moving, and Kenji, who was filling her in on what she’d missed.

Madam Orlodge was completely unphased by a centaur levitating statues into her basement. One by one, Orva set down each of Lila’s family members on the floor in the dark room. Kenji closed the door behind them.

“Thank you,” Orva said to Madam Orlodge, “Ebony doesn’t know that we know about this shop, and it is the safest place until we can reverse the curse on Lila’s family.”

Madam Orlodge smiled but said nothing. Orva turned to Lila and Kenji.

“We should return to your grandfather’s house and see if we can find any clues about where the entrance to Jahennah may be,” she said. “Once we know where to go, we can form a plan.”

Lila and Kenji nodded in agreement. As Kenji thanked Madam Orlodge again, Lila embraced each of her family members, lingering on her mother and sister. She placed a hand on her grandfather’s cheek, a silent promise to free him from the spell that had tormented him since his wife’s death. Dragging her gaze away from his face, she gave Madam Orlodge a brief hug.

“Please, look after them,” she whispered in her ear.

“Once you leave, I will put protective enchantments on this room,” Madam Orlodge replied, patting Lila on the arm.

Lila stepped towards Orva and Kenji, who both held out their hands to her. With a deep breath, she took them. Stealing one last glimpse at the lifeless statues of everyone she loved, Lila closed her eyes as the three of them melted into the darkness, hoping desperately that they’d be able to find what they were looking for.