As fall crept on and the storms got worse, the supply of monkeys ran low.
At first, we actually prospered, because we were able to use the monkeys that the other shops could not. The best monkeys for making into mermaids, [...]

Krina nudged her clock, and it crept up her long neck, closer to her ear, tiny claws tickling. "Left. Left again," it whispered. "Forward."
Behind Krina walked the confidante, a spider-limbed girl with lip rings to seal her mouth. She kept close to Krina, whose inventions always found the right way, no matter how the ziggurat [...]

My name is Tom Pietrzyk. I was born in 1973 in Myslowice (Poland)…