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would ring and ring. His father would think he had overslept, would come in to rouse him, would find the bed empty. . . .
    People would be worried about him, but Owen couldn’t regret it, not now. He would tell them everything once he came back home. He closed his eyes and pictured the buildings of Crown City from the chronotypes in his mother’s book. Now that he thought about it, this was what he’d wanted most in his life. Certainly, it was for the best. Owen could jump aboard another steamliner and ride back to Barrel Arbor whenever he liked. But first he would have a grand adventure that he could one day tell Lavinia and eventually their children and grandchildren.
    The steel wheels scraped on tracks that glowed faintly with alchemical residue. When the steamliner began to slow on its approach to the city, the nameless stranger stood and brushed himself off. “Are you prepared for what awaits you, young Owen Hardy? I see you didn’t bring much.”
    “I have an apple . . .” he said, but realized that wouldn’t be enough.
    The stranger wasn’t impressed. “Do you have money? Crown City operates on money.”
    Owen was flustered. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m poorly prepared.”
    “Sometimes it’s best not to plan.”The man reached for a leather pouch at his side and upended it into Owen’s hands, giving him all the money he had—nine coins of various denominations, each embossed with the Watchmaker’s honeybee. “Take this, my good friend. It gives you more freedom to do whatever you like.”
    Owen gratefully accepted the gift. “Thank you, sir. You’re very generous.”
    The man gave him a smile that was not a smile and held on to the edge of the cargo car with his burn-scarred hand. “Generous, am I? Maybe I just like the idea that you’ll owe me.”
    “Then I’ll do my best to repay your kindness someday,” Owen said.
    The steamliner slowed toward its destination, and the first buildings flashed by, warehouses and factories sprawling on the fringes of the city. They rolled past streets crowded with row houses; some of the windows were brightly lit, while others remained dark as sleepers clung to their last few moments in bed.
    “You’ll want to get off the steamliner before it reaches the heart of the city.” The man raised his significant eyebrows. “The Regulators don’t like stowaways.”
    The cargo car rolled past a thick, bushy hedge. Without a glance at Owen, the stranger hopped off the steamliner as if levitating and vanished out the cargo door. With a yelp, Owen leaped to his feet, sure the man must be dead. But when he leaned out the cargo door and looked back down the line, he saw the man pick himself up from a thick hedge, brush himself off, and dart away.
    Owen pocketed the coins the stranger had given him along with his remaining apple, and looked ahead at the buildings of Crown City. Above them rose the glorious, monolithic clocktower, the tallest in the land—no doubt in all the whole world. He already knew many of the wonders to expect, but his mother’s book was old and ragged. Surely Crown City had thousands more wonders for him to discover. The anticipation was almost unbearable.
    The stranger had mentioned the Regulators, however—the Watchmaker’s security force. These trusted watchers helped maintain the Stability and stopped anyone from breaking the rules. Owen had never considered them frightening before, but now he realized with a skip of a heartbeat that he was a rule breaker.
    Sparks showered up from the steel wheels as the brakes on the leading cars clamped down on the rails. Owen saw a transfer station coming up, the rail yards crowded with the business of offloading.
    Having come this far, he didn’t want his adventure cut short, not until he got a chance to explore Crown City, see the Clockwork Angels with his own eyes, perhaps even a glimpse of the Watchmaker himself, or the throbbing source of coldfire beneath Chronos Square. The steamliner had slowed