“Tick!”
The voice was too loud to ignore this time, despite the ripping wind and blazing heat inside him, the buzz of things disintegrating and reforming above him. He knew he was doing things to the trees again, but he didn’t care.
“Tick!”
He snapped out of his delirious daze and looked over to see Sofia standing close to him. The smoky tendrils of a Sleek’s fingers were wrapped around her neck. Paul was next to her, also in the custody of a Sleek. The orange glow of Tick’s power made the Sleek’s silvery eyes look angry and red.
“Tick!” Sofia shouted. “You can’t do this! Remember why we’re here in the first place!”
Tick didn’t quite feel like himself. He’d let the burning power of the Chi’karda consume him and take over his bad parts-the anger, the temper, the thirst for revenge-and part of him had liked it. “You’re just saying that!” he yelled over the noise of the wind and the buzzing. “You don’t want them to kill you, so you’re trying to stop me! Well, I can stop them! Look at this!”
He let go of the Sleek and took a step back, gesturing with his arms like a magician. The orange cloud swirled around him and through his fingertips, around his arms and legs, curling, almost caressing. Fire raged inside him. He turned, pointing at the wooden formations surrounding them. Dozens of trees had been blown apart on a quantum level and put back together again like a series of haunting sculptures crafted by a lunatic.
Tick couldn’t believe it. He was close to understanding how it all worked, close to really being able to control it. So close. And he had no idea how-it was just… instinct.
He turned back to face Sofia and Paul, their necks still ensnared by the cuffs of smoky fingers. “I know I’m a little bit weird right now,” he said. “But check it out. If I can really do this-”
“Dude, you gotta save it,” Paul said. “You’re freakin’ me out here, man. You’ve got the crazy eyes.”
Sofia tried to step forward, but the Sleek yanked her back. She let out a choking cough then said, “Tick, he’s right. Something’s wrong-on a lot of levels. Just let it go and stick to the plan. Let the Sleeks take us to Mistress Jane. Okay, Tick?”
Tick dropped his eyes and held out his hands to look at the glowing orange mist of Chi’karda swirling around his arms and through his fingers. Hunger burned within him almost as strong as the power itself, a fierce desire to wreak havoc on Jane and the rest of his enemies. But somewhere in the nooks and crannies of his mind, he realized that something wasn’t right about the way he felt. Something on the cusp of evil.
“Okay,” he said, barely a whisper. Then louder, “Okay.”
He closed his eyes and imagined the cloud of sparkles retracting, absorbing back into his body. He pulled it all inside, then let it go, releasing it to whatever place it lay dormant in the quantum realm, where it would wait for him to snatch it up again. When a refreshing coolness rushed through his body and filled the void left by the Chi’karda, he had the thought that he’d just extinguished himself.
He opened his eyes and noticed the stark silence and darkness of the forest. Sofia, Paul, and their spooky captors remained still, staring at him. He could just see the two sets of wide eyes and four pinpoints of silver.
“All right,” he said, amazed at how incredibly thirsty he was. “We’ll go with the Sleeks, nice and easy. But this time we’re walking. Don’t make me mad again.”
Chapter 40
Frazier’s Good News
Mistress Jane wasn’t happy. Everything had gone horribly wrong today, and the only thing that could make her feel better was for someone to pay the consequences. Anyone. Whether or not they were actually at fault for the debacle was a minor point she didn’t care too much about at the moment.
She sat at the window of her room in the Lemon Fortress, looking out at a land covered in night, no moon to break up the darkness. The earthquakes and shattering lightning storms had finally stopped, though the damage they’d caused would take months to repair and rebuild. It was a miracle the castle still stood at all. She wondered if it was foolish to be up here. Who knew what had happened to the foundations and inner structure-the whole thing could collapse at any moment.
Her foul, foul mood darkened to black.
What had gone wrong? After months of preparation, the tireless, tedious work required to retrieve and alter the dark matter into the form she needed, the time to find and secure every single one of her Alterants in the major Reality branches-after all the planning and sacrificing and risking…
It had all gone wrong in an instant. The Blade of Shattered Hope had failed her.
That was the worst part. The second worst part was the fact that she didn’t really know why it had failed. The Higginbottom boy had done something-she knew that much. But her instincts told her that his meddling alone had not caused the catastrophic change in direction. His trickle of Chi’karda had not ruptured the connection of the Blade, causing its apocalyptic damage to explode from its course and spread throughout each and every Reality and the barriers between.
No, it wasn’t just him. She’d… missed something, done something wrong.
There-she’d admitted it to herself. But it didn’t make her feel any better. It made her feel worse. Angrier.
Maybe, just maybe, the Blade could’ve overcome this fault if the addition of Higginbottom’s usage of power had not occurred. Yes, maybe.
And that was enough for her. She had a focal point on which to exact her vengeance. Not that she really needed anything to make her hate the boy any more than she already did, but still, it helped.
The knock she’d been expecting finally rapped at her door.
“Come in!” she yelled.
She heard a thump then a small scrape. The big door was stuck because of the shifting of stones from the earthquake. With barely a thought, Jane dissolved the wood particles into the air to allow Frazier to enter the room. Once he was inside, she put the door back together again.
“I have news,” her most faithful servant said.
A fire roared in the brick hearth, a luxury Jane loved even as the coolness of winter faded into spring. She pulled a few sparks out with her power and lit the huge candles scattered throughout the room. The glow showed an eagerness on Frazier’s face that lifted her hopes.
“Have a seat and tell me what you’ve learned.” She pointed to the chair across from her. “I don’t have to tell you how
… disappointing further bad news would be at the moment.” She let the expression on her mask turn to anger for a second before bringing it back to smooth calmness.
Frazier nodded, the barest hint of a smile flashing across his face as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the chair next to her. “I think you’ll like what I have to say.”
“Then get on with it.”
“Yes, Mistress.” He leaned forward, his elbows on knees, hands clasped. “Over the last few hours, we’ve sent people to all the Realities to gather as much data as possible. We, um, had to send out quite a few, because they kept dying in all the chaos. More than half, actually.”
Jane’s first instinct was to snap at Frazier for wasting time about such an unimportant detail, but she kept her cool. “Yes, a worthy sacrifice, I’m sure. Whatever it took to learn what we needed.”
“Yes. Yes, of course. Anyway, the devastation we saw here was universal. Massive earthquakes, catastrophic storms, tornadoes, you name it-it all happened in each and every Reality. Lasted for a good hour or two. Killed, um, millions of people.” His eyes flickered to the floor at this last part.
“Feel no shame, Frazier. Remember, we knew there would be collateral damage in our mission for Utopia. For Chi’karda’s sake, if the Blade had worked today like it was supposed to, six billion people would’ve died! What’s a few million? Keep your focus! We don’t have time to mourn the losses along the way.” In truth, she felt a constant, choking swell of guilt, but had learned to accept it and live with it.
Frazier composed
himself and continued his report. “We know the destruction was widespread throughout all the Realities. But it seems to have stopped, everywhere. Maybe we’ve avoided the complete meltdown you feared.”
“‘Meltdown’?” Jane repeated. “That seems too sweet a word. What worried me was that we’d set off a chain reaction that would wipe us all from existence. I still sense something wrong in the air, in the Chi’karda, like a bubble that’s about to burst. Don’t be too confident that we’re in the clear just yet.”
“At least it’s calmed down for now. That first hour or so, I was ready to accept my fate and make my peace. I don’t know-I feel like we’re good now. I think we’re going to be okay.”
Jane scoffed at him. “You trust your instincts over mine? Not a smart way to go about things, Frazier. What you’re feeling is just the natural relief after a close call. We are not safe yet-trust me on that. If you’re going to be my right-hand man, I need you to stay pragmatic and sharp and not fall for whimsical feelings of comfort and safety.” How she hated being mean to this man, but she could never restrain herself.
“I understand, Mistress. And I promise we haven’t let down our guard in the least. Our people are winking back and forth, constantly giving updates. If anything bad starts up again, we’ll know right away.”
“Good. What else? I have a feeling that smile you couldn’t keep off your face walking in here wasn’t for this alone.”
Frazier grinned enough to show his teeth. “Observant as usual. You always know-”
“Get on with it.”
“Yeah, sorry. Um, well, I think I have some news for you that none of us could’ve expected this soon.”
Frazier paused, staring into the eyeholes of her mask like a lover. His confidence and courage shocked Jane. Surprisingly, it didn’t anger her, only made her more eager to hear what he had to say.
“Word has come from the Sleeks guarding the forest at the Factory. They’ve captured three Realitants. They’re not quite to the Factory yet, but one of the Sleeks rushed to get the news to us. The prisoners will be locked up and ready for you to interrogate by the time you arrive, I’m sure.”
Jane felt a pleasant tingle wash across the severely damaged skin of her entire body-something she hadn’t experienced since the Dark Infinity incident. She didn’t know she still had the capability for such things-for pleasure.
Almost forgetting herself, she leaned forward like an eager schoolgirl wanting to hear about a boy she liked. “I know what you’re going to say next. I know who they’ve captured, or you wouldn’t be so excited. Tell me I’m right, Frazier.”
He laughed, surprising her again. “You are. Higgin-bottom and two of his friends. We got ’em.”
Jane leaned back in her chair, then realized her mask had transformed into a giant smile. She quickly erased it, but that’s how she felt. When Atticus had disappeared back at the Blade tree, she’d had a thousand troubling thoughts flash through her mind. The worst one was that the Haunce had gotten involved, and if that had been the case, very bad things could have happened. But there had to be another explanation if the Sleeks had captured the boy again so soon, so easily.
So… easily.
Her brief elation vanished. “Frazier, why in the world would those people come to the Factory? Why come to the Thirteenth Reality at all? Something’s wrong here.”
Frazier’s face so quickly melted into distraught panic that Jane felt sorry for him. “I… don’t know, Mistress. I… but… if we have them, does it matter? We caught them. Whatever they were trying to do, we stopped them!”
Jane stood up. “It’s too easy, too simple. Tell the Sleeks to guard them with every creature they can spare. I want every weapon on the grounds gathered-send more if necessary. Search the entire area. Something is wrong!” She pulled up the hem of her robe and started marching toward the door.
“What… where are you going?” Frazier called from behind her.
She swiveled sharply to look at him, her mask full of rage. “No more chances, no more mistakes. The boy must die-he’s too dangerous! We’ll have to be careful so as not to accidentally ignite the powers inside him. But I’m going to kill him till he’s dead, dead, dead!”
She felt a trickle of insanity-and relished it.
Chapter 41
An Interesting Gate
Tick’s display of power must’ve made an impression on the tall, wispy Sleeks. They didn’t make a sound as they moved through the forest, and they had even let go of their prisoners’ necks, letting them walk freely as long as they stayed on course. And they came nowhere near Tick himself.
Dawn had finally hit the world, making everything in the forest look dull purple. While the extra light made the journey easier, it also reminded Tick of how long it had been since he’d last slept, and exhaustion weighed on him like soggy clothing. He knew they must be close to the Factory. He couldn’t help but hope that once they got there, they’d throw them in a prison cell where he could get at least a little rest before Jane showed up and they had to do their magic tricks to save the universe.
He’d tried twice to speak to Paul or Sofia, but neither of them would respond, flickering their eyes at the Sleeks as if scared of the consequences. Tick guessed he could understand their hesitation, but he felt no fear of the creatures anymore. It was odd-their creepy look alone should’ve made him shudder with chills every time he looked at them, but his episode earlier with the surge of Chi’karda had pumped him full of confidence.
Those things weren’t going to mess with him again. Right that second, he thought nothing in the world would ever mess with him again. His rational side tried to tell him that he was being stupid, but he pushed it away, wanting to enjoy this feeling of invincibility for a little while longer.
The air around them brightened suddenly, a combination of the trees thinning out and the sun rising higher by the second. Tick looked up and saw the sky for the first time in awhile. A flat layer of bumpy clouds panned across most of it, the eastern edge outlined in fiery orange. Something smelled really awful, growing more pungent as he thought about it. He was pretty sure he’d never been around a rotting animal before, but for some reason that’s exactly what the odor made him think of.
He shot a glance at Paul, wrinkling up his nose.
Paul returned the sour face, then waved his hand back and forth in front of his nose.
Tick returned his attention to the path ahead of him. The Sleeks refused to walk in front of him, instead pointing every once in a while with a rasping, hoarse croak. Tick just loved it-the things were scared of him. Scared of him!
Shut up, Tick, he told himself. Something’s wrong with you.
He knew he didn’t have time to worry about it, but he felt like he’d ingested rotten milk into his system. There was a taint of… evil coursing through his veins. Maybe using Chi’karda-and letting it consume him and take over his emotions, his anger-had a price to it.
He shook it off. Things were changing up ahead.
They stepped past a last bunch of trees into a wide open, muddy space, void of any vegetation. A hundred yards or so away stood a tall, jagged wall of lumber, the thick pieces thrown together as if by accident. The wall ran in both directions for at least a mile before curving out of sight. The only break was a large gate made of twenty or thirty black iron bars, the upper tips ending in spikes. Heads of fangen and other monsters had been impaled on each and every spike.
Tick shuddered. Weren’t fangen and other creatures created here? Then it hit him. Just as you might see several auto models displayed in front of a car factory, so were the products being shown off here.
Tick continued walking without missing a beat, each footstep squishing in the mud, his eyes fixed on the heads on the gate. He wanted to remember them for later, for when he would need something to give him incentive to stop what was going on here. Everything about the Factory disgusted him, and for just a second, he felt a flare of Chi’karda ignite inside him. He put it down and kept mov
ing.
He didn’t break his gaze until they’d crossed about half the open area. He wanted to see what the Sleeks looked like in full light. They still walked right behind Paul and Sofia, their tightly wound coils of smoke looking blacker than ever. Their bodies were impossibly long and drawn out, little puffs of dark fog bleeding off them with every step. They wore no clothes and looked like nothing but a ragtag doll made of old, dirty rope. Their silver eyes were the only things that broke the monotony; they flared just as brightly during the daytime as they had in the night.
Tick caught Sofia’s eyes, then Paul’s, silently telling them that this was it, things were about to get interesting. As he swiveled his head back toward the approaching gate, he wondered about the Sleeks. What were they? Had they been created here in the Factory? Mistress Jane had used her powers to set this all up. Was it something Tick could learn if he wanted to? Surprisingly, the question intrigued him and, for the briefest of moments, excited him. The thought chilled his heart.
Yeah, something’s wrong with me, he thought. He caught a powerful whiff of something totally foul, making words like rotten and decay pop into his head. Pinching his nose shut with two fingers, he took the last few steps until they were standing just in front of the looming iron gate. Oddly, the only thing he could see through the bars of the gate was a grove of trees.
“All right, Sleeks,” he said. “What now?”
One of the smoky creatures walked ahead of him, seeming to float along, then clasped its smoky fingers into fists and leaned forward as it screeched out a breathy series of harsh words, completely indecipherable.
“That guy needs a cough drop somethin’ awful,” Paul said, the first time he’d spoken in a good hour or two.
“How do we know Jane will come here to see us?” Sofia asked. “For all we know, she could just tell them to kill us and be done with it.”
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