The Blade of Shattered Hope

Tick waited.

“The place we must gather,” the Haunce said, seeming to have recovered its composure a little, “and where you must bring Jane, is . . . the Factory.”

“The Factory?” Tick repeated.

The Haunce nodded. “Yes. It is the place where Jane manufactures her creatures. Her abominations. It is a hideous, wretched place full of death and tortured souls. But also the site of massive amounts of Chi’karda.”

“And what do we do once we get there?” Tick asked. He was trying not to think too much about what a creepy and horrible place the Factory must be. “Assuming that we somehow convince Jane to come with us and do what we ask, I mean.”

The pulsing, silver-blue orb of the Haunce moved several feet across the floor and back again, as if pacing, deep in thought. “The task you and Jane must do is simple. Both of you need to concentrate and summon every ounce of Chi’karda you can. Gather as much as you can, and then you must channel to us. Our job will be to harness the power and combine it with the Chi’karda that already exists within the Factory.”

The Haunce quit pacing and took another one of those deep breaths. “Once we have gathered enough power, we will bleed the Chi’karda through the cracks of space and time, binding the seals of the Realities that are currently rupturing. Quite honestly, the task could destroy us, but we believe we can save the Multiverse before that happens. Before we ourselves cease to exist.”

Tick didn’t know what to think. The whys and hows didn’t matter so much at the moment, and he couldn’t pretend to feel a pang of potential loss at hearing that the Haunce might die in the act. Especially if the Haunce’s sacrifice would save thirteen entire worlds—and his family. But still, hearing it all poured out so short and sweet when so much was on the line was dizzying.

“Do you have anything to say?” the Haunce asked, now showing the face of a pretty girl about Tick’s age.

“Not a thing,” Tick responded. “I don’t know what else I can do but trust you. If you say we can do this, then let’s do it. I guess the first thing is to figure out how to get Jane to play along. I’m sure once we tell her what’s about to happen, she’ll have to. I mean, how could she want everything to disappear, including her? That’d be beyond stupid.”

“We can only hope.” The Haunce morphed into an old woman. “There is one final thing to say before we begin. You must know that a lull has occurred in the fragmentation of the Realities. For the moment, they are safe. And so is your family. But . . .”

Tick felt a thrilling rush of joy as he realized that somehow he’d known all along that his family was safe. The relief lasted only a second before being tempered. “But?” he repeated, thinking, What now?

The face of a small boy responded. “But we have only thirty hours until the fragmentation begins again. And when it does, it will not stop until all that we know ceases to exist.”

Part 3

The Fifth Army

Chapter 30

A Bowl of Debris

Sofia lay on her back, staring at the twilight sky of the desert, the deep blue just beginning its fade to purple. No clouds. A throbbing pain pulsed somewhere inside her skull—something had knocked her out. Something had hit her in the head during the chaos right after Tick disappeared.

Tick disappeared!

She forced herself into a sitting position, groaning at the thunder of pain it ignited. She coughed, a dry rasp that hurt her throat. She needed water. Badly. The natural rock formations of Jane’s secret spot still surrounded them, though several chunks had broken off and tumbled to the dusty ground during the earthquake. The tables and screens and computers used by Jane’s people lay scattered and smashed, strewn about like abandoned toys. The air smelled burnt.

Twisting her head around, she searched for signs of her friends. She felt a fleeting moment of panic when she didn’t see them at first, but it quickly vanished when movement under a collapsed table caught her attention. Master George, his nice suit filthy and torn, was wiggling his way out from under the heavy slab of the table. Paul sat a few feet from him, his arms wrapped around his knees, staring into the distance with a blank expression.

“You guys okay?” Sofia asked.

“They all vanished,” Paul said, not bothering to look at her. “Jane first, and then everyone else right after. Zip, zip, zip. Zippity gone, just like that. Left us here to die, I guess.”

“I’m actually quite surprised.” Master George grunted. He finally freed himself from the confining rubble and stood up, dusting himself off. “She went to all that trouble to kidnap us, and then she simply ran away? Odd.”

Sofia disagreed. “I don’t think it’s that weird. Somehow Tick winked away, or someone took him, whatever. But without him, she didn’t have what she needed anymore. It’s his family she took after all.”

“It’s not even that,” Paul said in a subdued voice, still staring at the rock walls like he’d been hypnotized.

Sofia scooted a little closer to him. “What are you talking about?”

“Look at that.” Paul finally blinked and pointed to the middle of the depression where the black tree—the Blade of Shattered Hope—had been. It was gone, replaced by a small crater. The ground was blackened and charred, some of the desert sand actually glistening where the heat had transformed it to glass. “I think something went wrong with what that freak Jane was trying to do. Really, really wrong. She doesn’t care about us anymore. She ran away to try to fix whatever it is she messed up.”

Sofia stared at the dark scar of a hole and slowly nodded as she thought about what he’d said. Paul was right. The earthquake had been horrible, and all of Jane’s people had run around screaming, falling down, and crawling over each other as they looked for a way to escape. Things had obviously not gone according to plan.

“That certainly sounds reasonable,” Master George said. “What I wouldn’t give to know what exactly happened here today. All that nonsense about dark matter. Perhaps it wasn’t quite rubbish after all.”

“Dark matter,” Paul muttered in disgust; Sofia shared the sentiment. “I don’t give a patooty about any of that stuff right now. All I want is a chance to put my hands around Jane’s neck and squeeze.”

Sofia felt her eyebrows rise in surprise. “A little violent this evening, aren’t we?”

Paul looked at her for the first time since she’d come to, and she couldn’t help but lean back a couple of inches before stopping herself. His eyes were full of fury and hatred. There was no sign of the normally lighthearted, joking Paul.