The Clockbound
Chapter: The Stillness
The Order's novices tick. Read a Clockbound or its Escapement with the Loupe.
How to open it
- Read with the Loupe:
clockboundorescapement - Notes: The Stillness — 3
- After the entries:
The Order of the Still Hour
Pages of the entry
1
The Clockbound are the Order's fighters: they strike in series of three, faster than any living man, and then lie open — that is when to strike. A novice who joins the Order gives up his Tempo; in its place a wind-up is set into his chest, a brass case of gears with a key in the back. When the wind runs out, the doors on his chest swing open, and he stands until the key turns again.
2
Strike while he unwinds: the open mechanism takes blows half again as hard. Dying, a Clockbound sets free its Escapement, the heart of its movement, still ticking and looking for a bare head. Crouch and it falls off; a helmet keeps it away entirely.