The Timekeeper's Apprentice

When the son of the watchmaker is woken by a discomfiting sound, he knows it means trouble. Outside on the wet and slippery cobblestones of the once-thriving port town of No Man's Landing, the metal boots of the automatons clang with regimented force enforcing the Emperor's curfew. But that's a sound Barthian has known since the day he came into this world, so it's hardly something that would wake him from sleep.

From his straw bed in the workshop, Barthian can hear his father's gooey cough...