They got off the train at Station One. Theo had been here before, but he was always awed by how magnificent it was. When this was all over, he would build a replica of the station, complete with every stone pillar and all of the twenty-two stone eagles that graced the frieze on the front of the building. In that moment, he realized how weird it was to contemplate a future without the Cipher. In the few short months they had been working to solve it, it had consumed every waking minute and most of their sleeping ones. Who would they be without this grand puzzle to solve?

“Theo!” said Tess.

“Huh?”

“You were having a spell.”

“What? I was not.”

“I’ve been calling your name for a full minute.”

“I was thinking.”

Tess considered him, opened her mouth to say something salty, he was sure. Instead she said, “Okay. We should find the clock, though. We have to be back before anyone else gets up, otherwise Mom will never let us out of the house again.”

Inside, the station got more magnificent, and Theo was awed all over again. Ironwork arches decorated the ceiling of the enormous atrium. The moon poured silver through the framed skylights overhead, turning the polished marble floors to elaborate chessboards. Grand staircases were tucked in every corner, delivering travelers upstairs to the waiting room and restaurants and downstairs to the trains that could take them as close as Queens and as far as the Pacific. And, all throughout the atrium, there was the hiss of giant gears, the murmur and thud of the machines that powered the Underway, hammering like so many hearts.

“Theo!” said Tess. “Snap out of it!”

“Clocks, Theo,” Jaime said.

Though there were a number of clocks in the station, each grander than the next, the largest and grandest hung in the middle of the lobby, over the widest tunnel leading to the train platforms.

“That’s got to be it,” Jaime said. “Looks just like the one in the picture on the ledger.”

“A good place to start, anyway,” said Theo. “But that’s pretty high up there. How are we going to get to it?”

“We need a ladder,” said Tess. “A really tall ladder. Where are we going to find a really tall ladder?”

“I’m sure I’ve got one in my pockets somewhere,” Jaime said.

“So now your pockets are Hermione’s pocketbook?” said Tess.

“Whose pocketbook?” said Theo. He wondered why a purse was called a pocketbook, and then why it was called a purse.

“There’s got to be a janitor’s closet around here,” said Tess.

They stood there, looking up at the clock in frustration. Jaime’s pocket beeped. Since there weren’t as many people in the lobby, he unbuttoned the pocket and let Ono peek out.

“To the Land of Kings,” Ono said.

“Uh-huh,” said Jaime. “We have to get up there but we need a ladder.”