But he had learned so much.
The Chi’karda raged. It was pure power, collected into one place like a newborn star ready to explode with heat and energy. But Tick kept it at bay, probed it, felt it, soothed it in some way. The feel of it was pure and clean, like an inferno burning inside his chest.
He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but he had a good idea. A sense more than anything. Tick felt like someone was standing right behind him, just inches away. His eyes couldn’t see them, but he knew someone was there all the same.
The Haunce had taught him a valuable lesson. Reality spoke to you in interesting ways—not in the formulas and equations of mathematicians and scientists, nor in the dry, lengthy descriptions found in dusty old textbooks. Reality was on another level altogether, at one with our minds. It spoke to you in the best way your own self can speak back. And that’s what Tick wanted as he probed things he didn’t understand with the power of Chi’karda.
He was looking for a riddle.
Lorena Higginbottom knew her stuff.
She’d suspected from the very second they’d appeared on that rain-slicked grass that her Barrier Wand had winked her and Lisa into the Thirteenth Reality. Something about the smell and feel of the place had been her first clue. The big forest—with no signs of technology or civilization around—had been her next clue. And then, when they’d stumbled up to the top of that ridge and had seen Mistress Jane’s ruined castle, any remaining doubt had vanished.
She knew that castle because she’d been there before. Just once. But that had been enough.
Now it was a collapsed shell of its former self, broken and crumbled. Fangen and other creatures swarmed what still stood, but they were too far away to know exactly what they were doing. But if she could help it, Lorena wouldn’t take her daughter one step closer to find out.
They’d sneaked back down the hill until the castle was out of sight and entered the outskirts of the forest they’d been trying to avoid. They needed cover, and time to think. The dark depths of the woods chilled her, though, and she kept a wary eye out for intruders.
“So what are we going to do?” Lisa asked. They’d been whispering back and forth for a while now, but no solid plan had solidified yet.
“Well, like I said,” Lorena answered, “my first instinct is to get ourselves back to that place we winked into and get out of this scary Reality.”
“But?” Lisa prodded.
“But there has to be some reason we were pulled here. I was trying to isolate Atticus’s nanolocator, pushing the Chi’karda levels to the extreme, and somehow, instead of bringing him to us, it brought us here.”
“But why?”
Lorena had to refrain from giving her daughter an impatient look. “Well, dear, that’s what I think we need to figure out. If we just wink back home, we’ll never know.”
Lisa opened her mouth to answer, but she didn’t say anything as a sound came from deeper in the woods, like the whoosh of wind blowing through an open door.
Lorena searched the darkness between the trees but saw no sign of movement. The strange noise stopped after several seconds.
She and Lisa didn’t say anything—they didn’t need to. They were in the Thirteenth Reality, after all, a couple of miles from Mistress Jane’s castle. Caution had already been strong, and now things were on full alert. They both stood up, slowly and quietly, reaching out to take each other’s hand. Lorena held the Wand in her free hand, ready to club something if she had to. The Chi’karda levels weren’t quite high enough to wink away from where they were.
Something crunched up ahead. Twigs cracked on the ground. Then again. And again. There was no sign of the source of the sound, but it was coming closer.
“Just step away,” Lorena whispered. “Quickly now.”
They faced the forest as they began to walk backwards, their footsteps also crunching through the underbrush. Lisa’s hand was shaking, and sweat slicked her palm. The noises continued, but Lorena still couldn’t see who was approaching. The mystery stranger picked up its pace, heading for them. The time for caution was gone.
“Run, Lisa!” she barked. “Run!”
She turned and yanked on Lisa’s hand, pulling her along as she sprinted for the grassy hill outside the fringe of the woods.
Their pursuer picked up its pace to catch them, but then the sound of footsteps abruptly ceased, replaced by that whooshing sound again. A wind rose up into the air and over their heads, the noise of it making Lorena scream and look skyward.