Tick pressed his hands against the hard dirt to steady himself as he focused on the gaps that littered the sky. At first he’d only noticed that they didn’t look the same, that they had varying shades of color and light, but as he got over his initial shock and peered closer, he could see that the rips in Reality were actually windows to other worlds.
Through the one closest to him, he saw buildings and cars and people—a city at night. The darkness of the scene made it hard to see much, but there seemed to be a huge traffic jam and people running down the sidewalks. Another gash nearby revealed a field of crops and a farmhouse during the brightness of day. Yet another showed a jungle or rainforest, thick with trees and vines and foliage. All the rents in the sky showed something different: a desert, a mountain peak, a neighborhood with damaged homes, people packed inside a mall—many of them huddled together as if they were cold, several views of lands with broken trees or floods.
Tick’s mind was overrun with all the information he was witnessing. He tried to process it, understand it. A blue river of light that hovered above ground, creatures from the Void, Reality looking warped and weird, churning clouds and lightning and tornadoes, rips in the air that led to other Realities, more earthquakes. His Chi’karda being held back from him somehow. What did it mean? What did it all mean?
Someone shook his shoulders and snapped him out of the trance he’d fallen into, gaping at the gashes in the air. He looked up to see Jane, her red mask pulled tightly into a look of concern.
“We need to get out of here,” she said, her scratchy voice somehow cutting through the din of terrible noises that rattled the world around them.
“What’s happening?” Tick asked. In that instant he almost forgot all the things he hated about the woman kneeling beside him and holding on to him with scarred hands.
Her mask relaxed into a neutral expression, but with her so close, Tick could see directly into her eyes behind it. And there was cold, hard fear there. She leaned in closer to whisper in his ear.
“I can sense a force here that we studied long ago. A project that I was led to believe had been abandoned because of its danger. Apparently not. And that only makes our mission more paramount.”
After a long pause, the noise and shaking and ripped seams in Reality glaring at the forefront once more, she finally spoke again. And even though Tick didn’t really know what she was talking about, the icy tone in her voice made his blood run cold.
“It’s Karma, Atticus. Karma’s been unleashed. And it’s only making things worse.”
Chapter 58
A Reason
Mothball gawked at the tornadoes and the splits in Reality—at a brief glimpse at one of the impossible gashes that showed a boy and a girl running down a beach, a moving image that hung right in the middle of the air—as she and Sally fought to protect Master George from the onslaught, taking him to the wall of the canyon.
The rents in the air—long gashes that appeared to be windows to other Realities—were all over the place, as if the world was a sheet of canvas and someone had taken a sharp knife to it, slashing uncontrollably. Behind each rip was a different scene. Forests and oceans. Cities and farms. Close-ups and faraway views. The people she saw looked frantic and scared, often running from or toward something. It was all a big nightmare.
But at least the creatures from the Void had all vanished. Sato stood nearby, his soldiers lined up behind him, facing the valley floor.
“Those tornadoes are dropping,” Sato announced. “I don’t know how to fight tornadoes.”
Mothball glanced up and saw them, dozens and dozens of spinning coils of gray air. Even as she looked, she felt their wind against her face and clothes. And it was getting stronger. They had maybe two minutes before most of them touched down.
“I don’t either,” Master George said glumly.
Jane moved surprisingly fast, saying that they had to get farther out of range. She yelled at Tick that they needed Chi’karda so they could wink away before it was too late. The three of them—Tick, Jane, and Chu—ran across the dusty land, ignoring the rents to other Realities that floated magically around them, glimpses into an endless display of worlds and settings.
Tick moved as close to Jane as possible without a risk of his legs getting tangled with her robe as it swished, swished, swished.
“What’s keeping us from Chi’karda?” he yelled at her. “We could use it just fine back at your castle!”
“It has to be Karma,” she replied without slowing or looking his way. “It’s a power that’s both unpredictable and immense. If it’s suppressing Chi’karda, then it has a reason. Either way, we need to hurry and get where we’re going. I think we’re almost far enough out.”
Tick knew exactly where they were heading. Felt it in his bones. “We’re going back to the Thirteenth Reality.”
This time, she did turn her head toward him, a look of surprise on her mask.
“Yes, Atticus. We need to go back to the source of it all. To its heart.”
They kept running.
Chapter 59
Wall of Wind