The Blade of Shattered Hope

Soulikens. All Sato knew was that it had something to do with the electricity that existed within the human body. Actual and real electricity. Words like signals and impulses and imprints were thrown around, but never enough at once to make any sense of it. The Realitants would just have to be patient and wait for George to get it all together inside his thick skull.

But Sato had learned some things on his own, and as he stood in the darkness, enjoying the cool air, the quiet, the peace he always felt in a cemetery, he thought about one of them. Electricity was an essential physical element in making the heart pump. It seemed impossible that the human body could create electricity, but it was true. And the fact that the heart—the most important organ and the symbol of so many things in life—depended so greatly on it meant . . .

Well, he didn’t know what it meant. But it had something to do with soulikens, and something to do with his mission to find dead Alterants of Tick. Except every time Sato tried to put the pieces together, it got jumbled and

confusing. No wonder George was so insistent that he couldn’t talk about it yet.

Sato felt a headache coming on. He reached into his pocket and pushed the little button that signaled he was ready to wink back to HQ.

A nice, long morning nap. That’s exactly what he needed. Folding his arms and shivering at the cold that had seeped through his thick coat and chilled his skin, he waited for Rutger to bring him home.

A minute passed, then two. To his surprise, two people appeared in front of him—one short and fat, the other tall and skinny. He didn’t need to shine the light on them to know who they were, but he did anyway.

Rutger threw up one of his pudgy arms to block the brightness. He held a Barrier Wand in the other. “Point that back at your feet, Sato! I’d like my eyes to last another decade or two!”

Sato didn’t budge, hoping they couldn’t see the big smile that flashed across his face.

Mothball, towering over her best friend and standing like a pile of sticks thrown together at the last minute with glue and draped with loose-fitting clothes, merely squinted. “Master Sato, best be puttin’ down your torch there. ’Less you’re wantin’ to have a nice-sized pair of fists box them sad little ears of yours.”

Sato did as she said, snapping back to the reality of the situation as he did so. Why had they come? Something had to be wrong. A trickle of panic wiped his grin completely away.

“Wait,” he said. “What are you guys doing here? What happened?”

Rutger, temporarily blinded by Sato’s trick with the flashlight, was making his way forward, waddling along on his short legs and reaching out with his free hand to make sure he didn’t bump into anything. “Calm down, you worry-wart. Everything’s fine.”

Mothball’s eyes seemed to have already adjusted. She made it to Sato before Rutger was even halfway there. “The wee man is right, Master Sato. No need for your worries. Just come to give ya a bit of a break, we ’ave. Thought we’d come and visit me mum and dad. Let ya see what real nice folks are like here in the Fifth.”

Sato felt a strong surge of relief, which made him worry that maybe he was worrying too much. Oh shut up, he told himself. “Serious? We’re going to see your parents?” He was surprised at how much the idea lifted him.

“Right ya are,” Mothball replied. “’Long as we can get our guide here to quit stumbling about like an eyeless toad. Come on, Rutger, set your dials and switches and get on with it.”

Rutger grumbled something too quiet to make out, then held the Barrier Wand up, concentrating. “A light, please?”

Sato shined the flashlight on the Wand, then asked, “Where do they live? Around here?”

“No, grumpy cheeks,” Rutger responded as he turned a dial or two, his tongue caught between his lips. “We’re going to wink to another cemetery near them. It’s a good ten thousand miles from here, so hold your hats.”

“I’m not wearin’ a ruddy hat,” Mothball said.

“It’s an expression,” Rutger huffed. “Alright, we’re ready to go, and I’m locked onto all of our nanolocators. Here we go.”

Without another warning, Rutger pushed the button on top of the Wand. Sato heard the metallic click and felt the familiar tingle on his neck, and then everything changed.

It was daytime, the sun above almost blinding. Sato shielded his eyes, and at first he thought that what he saw in front of him was a trick of the light on his mind. But then it came into better focus, and he had no doubt.

Several people were trying to kill each other with swords.

And they were dressed like clowns.

Chapter 10

Ribbons of Orange

Tick couldn’t believe how quiet Paul and Sofia had been since coming down the stairs—especially Sofia. The girl could never keep her mouth shut. And Paul—he had to be terrified to stay so silent. And his face showed it. Tick thought about how many weeks he’d been dying to see these guys, and now that they were here, he’d give anything to send them safely away.

“What do you mean?” Master George asked Jane after a long period of silence, Jane seemingly content to let her pronouncement sink in. “What plan are you talking about, and why would you want us to witness it?”

Tick had been trying to look at the floor, avoiding the menacing mask on Jane’s face. But his eyes kept drawing back to it, fascinated at its almost magical ability to change expressions. Upon Master George’s question, it melted into compassion, almost sadness.

“You have always known my wishes,” she said in a flat voice, as if beginning a long lecture. “My ways and means may have changed—certainly my abilities have—but I’ve never wavered from my lifetime mission, George. And that is to see the suffering of countless Alterants end. To create one and only one Reality, where the strongest of each one of us can live, and where we can stop the torturous splitting of worlds.”

“I’ve never heard you put it quite that way before,” Master George said. “I remember your talk of a Utopia, a paradise, a place where all can be happy. The way you describe it now sounds more like the wishes of an evil, insane, power-hungry monster. What’s happened to you, Jane?”

She paused to let him speak, but then acted as if she hadn’t heard a word he said, continuing her lecture without missing a beat. “The first step of my plan is not going to be easy. I hardly expect any of you to understand what I do or to give it your blessing. But I couldn’t possibly care less. For what the lot of you have done to me, I don’t expect to let most of you live long enough to see the end come to pass.”