ساعت ساز

The Watchmaker

A long, long time ago, when most men measured their days by the sun, there ruled a king in Madrid who was obsessed with time and timepieces. He ordered hourglasses, clocks, watches, and sundials from famous clockmakers all over the world, paying for the delicate instruments by selling his subjects to other kings as soldiers or cheap field laborers. The halls of his palace were filled with the sound of sand running through huge hourglasses and even the sundials in his vast gardens counted the hours with the shadows they cast. He had clocks imitating his favorite birds and others announcing each full hour with the appearance of miniature knights and dragons. Even in the most remote corners of the world people called his royal palace in Madrid El Palacio del Tiempo, the Palace of Time.

The king’s beautiful wife, Olvido, had borne him a son and a daughter, but they weren’t allowed to play and laugh like other children. Their days were measured and ruled by the clocks the king had given them, ordering them, with their silver and gold dials, when to rise and eat and play and sleep.

One day the king’s favorite fool dared to joke that his master was only obsessed with timepieces because he was afraid of death and hoped that by measuring time he could keep it away.

The king was not a man who forgave easily. The next day his soldiers chained the fool to the cogwheels of his largest clock and the king watched without a hint of compassion as the wheels broke every bone in his former favorite’s body. As hard as they tried, the servants couldn’t wash all the blood from the cogwheels and the clock was henceforth called the Red Clock, people whispering that its ticking repeated the dead fool’s name.

The years went by. The prince and princess grew up and the king’s collection of clocks was envied all over the world. Then one day—it was approaching the tenth anniversary of the fool’s execution—a gift arrived at the palace from an unknown sender. In a box made of glass lay a beautiful pocket watch. Its silver coat case was open, showing the king’s initials engraved inside the lid and two lean silver dials moving from minute to minute, their ticking as subtle as the footsteps of a dragonfly.

When the king took the watch from the box, he found a carefully folded and sealed piece of paper underneath. He turned pale as he read the message, which was written in a firm and beautiful hand: Your Majesty,

When this watch stops, you will die. It knows the exact hour, minute, and second, for I have locked your Death inside. Don’t try to break it. The end of your life will only arrive faster.

The Watchmaker

The king stared at the watch in his hand. He felt as if the dials were stabbing his heart with every second they measured. He couldn’t move. He could no longer eat or drink or go to sleep. His hair and beard turned gray in a matter of days, and all he could do was continue to stare at the watch.

The prince sent his father’s soldiers out to find the messenger who had delivered the deadly gift. They found him in a nearby village but the man didn’t know the watchmaker’s name. He swore he’d received the box at a deserted mill in the old forest but when he led them there, the king’s soldiers found only an abandoned workshop. The shelves and workbenches were empty except for a small silver figurine of a dancing fool. It was standing in a bowl of blood. The soldiers rushed back to the castle to report their findings. But they were too late. The king was dead, still sitting on his throne, the pocket watch clenched in his cold hand. The watch had stopped at exactly the same hour, minute, and second that the fool had died.

Only then did the prince remember that the fool had also had a son.