Text © 2010 James Dashner
Illustrations © 2010 Brandon Dorman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dashner, James, 1972–
The Blade of Shattered Hope / James Dashner.
p. cm. — (The 13th reality ; bk. 3)
Summary: Mistress Jane has tapped into the universe’s darkest secret to create the Blade of Shattered Hope, and in her quest to attain a utopian reality for the future of mankind she is ready to risk billions of lives to set her plan in motion.
ISBN 978-1-60641-239-8 (hardbound : alk. paper)
[1. Space and time—Fiction. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 3. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D2587Bl 2010
[Fic]—dc22 2009050165
Printed in the United States of America
R. R. Donnelley, Crawfordsville, IN
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Ben and the rest of the Egans.
So many memories—
most of them embarrassing,
all of them good.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Lake
Part1: The Dark Basement
Chapter 1: Two Very Different Missions
Chapter 2: The Kyoopy Quiz
Chapter 3: A Strange Guest
Chapter 4: Death by Water
Chapter 5: A Mother’s Love
Chapter 6: Finger on the Pulse
Chapter 7: Beneath
Chapter 8: Quite the Crowd
Chapter 9: Dead Ticks Everywhere
Chapter 10: Ribbons of Orange
Chapter 11: Latitude and Longitude
Part2: The Black Tree
Chapter 12: Sweet Digs
Chapter 13: Sleepless in the Dark
Chapter 14: Questions without Answers
Chapter 15: The Twelfth Blade
Chapter 16: A Diabolical Plan
Chapter 17: Tale of the Iron Poker
Chapter 18: Towers of Red
Chapter 19: The Black Tree
Chapter 20: Disturbances
Chapter 21: The Unleashing
Chapter 22: Lightning and Flame
Chapter 23: A Threat Reversed
Chapter 24: Colored Marble Tiles
Chapter 25: Silver-Blue Light
Chapter 26: Many Faces
Chapter 27: Soulikens
Chapter 28: Come Together
Chapter 29: The Only Hope
Part3: The Fifth Army
Chapter 30: A Bowl of Debris
Chapter 31: Making Plans
Chapter 32: Reunions
Chapter 33: Sending a Message
Chapter 34: The Way Station
Chapter 35: Darkness of the Way
Chapter 36: The Speech
Chapter 37: Shivers
Chapter 38: Smoky Embrace
Chapter 39: The Surge
Chapter 40: Frazier’s Good News
Chapter 41: An Interesting Gate
Chapter 42: Strips of Fire
Chapter 43: The Fifth Army
Part4: Chi’karda’s Power
Chapter 44: Talking with the Devil
Chapter 45: Splitting Up
Chapter 46: A Very Bad Smell
Chapter 47: Weapons of Mass Coolness
Chapter 48: The Factory
Chapter 49: The Miracle of Birth
Chapter 50: Holes in the Ground
Chapter 51: Flies in the Biscuits
Chapter 52: Creatures in the Dark
Chapter 53: Eternity
Chapter 54: Words on a Tree
Chapter 55: An Unearthly Shriek
Chapter 56: What Is Missing
Chapter 57: From Bad to Worse
Chapter 58: Family
Chapter 59: Fists of Chi’karda
Chapter 60: Ten Kids
Chapter 61: Collision
Chapter 62: The Detour
Epilogue: The Mission
A Glossary of People, Places, and All
Things Important
Discussion Questions
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank the following people for being really awesome:
My wife, Lynette.
My agent, Michael Bourret.
My editor, Lisa Mangum.
Chris Schoebinger and everyone else at Shadow Mountain.
Emily Lawrence and all the good people at Simon & Schuster for believing in this series enough to publish the paperbacks.
My incredibly supportive author friends: J. Scott Savage, Julie Wright, Sara Zarr, Anne Bowen, Emily Wing Smith, Bree Despain, Brandon Sanderson, Aprilynne Pike, and everyone in the Rockcanyon and Storymaker groups.
Angie Wager, for believing in my potential from the very beginning.
The people behind Lost. Best. Show. Ever.
The geniuses who invented cheddar cheese, potato chips, iPods, movies, books, and really soft couches. Oh, and lamps. I really love lamps.
But most of all, I want to thank you—the reader. Thank you for being here.
Prologue
~
The Lake
Bryan Cannon looked at the catfish—its bone-like whiskers, its slimy skin, its dark, unblinking eyes—and he saw death. For the creature, of course, not himself. Dinner would be fine and tasty tonight.
The day was beautiful. A slight coolness crisped the air, balanced perfectly by the brilliant sun shining down on Bryan’s boat, sparkling off the waters that surrounded him, dancing like fairies of light. Too bad this fish wasn’t enjoying things as much as he was.
Bryan had caught the fish in the little body of water in which he floated—called, quite pretentiously, Lake Norman. But if that tiny spit of rain-washed sludge was classified as a lake, then Bryan’s toilet at home constituted a big pond. He chuckled to himself, as he often did at his own jokes, and spiked another squirmy worm onto his hook. Bryan shifted to get comfortable then he cast the line.
His small canoe rocked at the movement, sending gentle waves rippling across the lake’s surface. He watched the
outermost wrinkle, enjoying how it traveled along like it didn’t have a care in the world. Bryan always loved it when he could keep his eyes trained on the tiny wave until it actually hit the shore. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, and his eyes watered with the effort.
There it goes, he thought, getting smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller . . . there! It hit right over by that sandy—
Splash!
A disturbance in the water, right where the lake met the shore. Then another splash, a huge one, that sprayed droplets all over the small beach. Bryan had been staring right at the spot, so he knew no one had jumped in.
Yet another splash. Then another. It looked like some kid thrashing about with his arms, trying to douse all of his friends in the face. Bryan used to love doing that when he’d been a kid.
There was only one problem. There wasn’t a kid anywhere in sight. Or an adult, for that matter. Nobody.
The disturbance continued. Curious, Bryan laid his fishing pole along the length of the canoe and reached for his paddle. Never taking his eyes off the white-water display, he lowered the tip down into the lake and began paddling his way over to check things out. He figured only one of three things was possible.
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One, they had themselves a ghost right here in Lake Norman.
Two, some vicious sea monster had found itself a way to the lake from the ocean.
Or three, Bryan Cannon had finally flipped his lid and gone bonkers.
The closer he approached, the worse the splashing. Great cascades of water shot up everywhere—five, ten feet in the air. A curtain of spray unfurled next to him as he rowed along, the water soaking him and sluicing down the sides of the boat. For the first time, terror crept through Bryan’s innards, and he realized it might not have been the smartest thing in the world to come so close to whatever thing was under the water.
He stopped paddling, slowing to a drift. As he did so, the splashing abruptly ceased. In a matter of seconds, the surface of the lake grew relatively calm, the small waves lapping against his canoe the only evidence anything had happened at all. If anything, the sudden stillness only scared Bryan more. He stared at the spot.
Something started rising out of the water.
Bryan shrieked as he saw what looked like an upside-down glass bowl break the surface of the lake like a bubble, shimmering like wet crystal. The bubble formed into the rough shape of a head, although there were no eyes or nose or mouth. Rising higher, the thing had a neck, and then shoulders, all made out of water. Up and up it rose, forming itself, growing out of the lake’s surface like a demon rising from its grave. Before long, a human-shaped creature of water stood in front of Bryan, floating on clear feet, the sun casting spectrum-colored glimmers of light as it shone through the apparition.
Bryan sucked in a huge gulp of air, ready to let out the biggest scream of his life. But before he could do it, the watery ghost held up its arms and a sudden wave of water exploded from under its feet, crashing forward and down toward the canoe. Hundreds, maybe thousands of gallons of water, slammed on top of Bryan like a deluge from ancient and angry gods.
Bryan Cannon would never eat a catfish again.
~
If the waterkelt had a brain, it might’ve been impressed with its display of power. If the creature had a heart, it might’ve felt ashamed for causing the death of an innocent person. It had neither, so it simply walked its way to the shore and up into the surrounding trees, leaving behind a wet and muddy trail.
It knew where to go and what to do when it got there. So did its companion, which had been created on the other side of the lake. Their bodies sparkled and flashed in the sunlight like glistening quicksilver as they marched toward their duty.
Only their creator, Mistress Jane, understood the irony of the situation as she observed from a place very far away. Water, the basic element which sustains all human life, was about to be used for quite the opposite.
First stop, the Higginbottom house.
And then—revenge.
Part 1
The Dark Basement
Chapter
1
~
Two Very Different Missions
Sato shivered, then grimaced. His rain-soaked clothes felt icky against his skin; it felt as if an army of leeches clung to him for dear life. He’d stood in the open for barely a minute, trying to figure out where he’d arrived exactly. Drenched already, he looked about, confused.
The air had the feel of twilight, though he knew it was almost noon in this Reality. The reason for the darkness floated above him—massive, heavy clouds of gray-black that were emptying their contents on his sopping-wet head. The clouds seemed close enough to touch. George had warned him that this Reality was a dreary, dreadful place where it rained constantly. Sato couldn’t have agreed more.
But he saw no tombstones, no plaques planted in the ground to mark graves. He stood on concrete—or something like it. Hard and flat, the ground was dotted with regularly-spaced holes to drain away the water as quickly as it fell. Sato was glad for that. He didn’t relish the idea of standing in a deep pool of water.
Why do I always get stuck with these jobs? Sato thought to himself. If it wasn’t a windy, snow-swept mountaintop insane asylum, it was a rainy parking lot supposedly full of dead people. Fun stuff.
He noticed a small, square building about forty feet away, a scarce shadow in the wet darkness. No lights shone from any windows or outdoor fixtures. Seeing nothing else in any direction except the flat expanse of hole-dotted pavement, Sato walked toward the dark building.
As he sloshed his way across the ground, he wished he had a companion with him. Grumbling alone was no fun. Why hadn’t George at least given him an umbrella? Maybe next time the red-faced geezer would send Sato to the middle of the ocean without a boat, or maybe to the desert without water, or skydiving without a parachute.
Sato shivered and kept walking, his socks soaked through from the rain. The squishy chill felt like he was smashing hundreds of iced shrimp below his feet. If no one answered at the building, he’d send the signal immediately for Rutger to wink him back. They might have found their first dead-end in Sato’s latest mission. A mission that creeped him out and left him in awe at the same time.
Oh, man, Tick, he thought. What in the world does this all mean?
As Sato got closer to the building, he noticed it had absolutely no markings of any kind—not a door, a window, or anything else he could see. It was made up of the same drab, no-color material of the ground, but smooth and unblemished. It was a perfect square, maybe ten feet in height and width.
He walked right up to the cube and put his hand out. Rain cascaded down the sides of the building in sheets, and when his hand made contact with the cool, hard wall, the water parted and washed across his skin, down his arm, and spilled onto the ground in tiny twin falls. Sato pulled his hand away and whipped it back and forth in a futile attempt to dry himself.
He was just about to call out the inevitable “Hello?” when he heard a loud thump and felt the ground tremble below his feet as if some giant beast from the underworld was trying to break free from its lair with a massive hammer. It happened only once, but Sato’s feet tingled from the vibration of the impact. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel afraid. Not yet, anyway.
There was a loud hiss, muted by the pounding rain, and then the wall directly in front of him began to move outward, toward him.
Sato felt anxiety grip his heart for the first time since arriving, and he stepped back, almost turned to run. But he quickly collected himself, reminding himself that George must have known where he’d been sending him after all. He had nothing to be afraid of.
He realized that it was only the bottom edge of the wall that was moving, swinging out and upward like an old-fashioned garage door. To his left and right, the side walls were doing the same, the groan of metallic hinges a faint squeal in the background. A soft light shone out from an unknown source, turning the thousands of raindrops into silvery sparkles. Sato could see through the cube to the other side where the fourth wall opposite him was opening up like its counterparts. Seconds later, the four walls locked into position parallel to the ground, and all movement stopped with a loud clank. Just a few feet above him, a wide shelter from the weather had formed, the doors and middle sections together now shaped like a square cross supported by four large metal pillars.
His fear gone, Sato stepped out of the rain toward the middle of what used to be a closed building and was now just a really fancy covered patio. He half-expected to see a picnic table or maybe a barbecue grill, but what he found instead surprised him greatly.
A hole.
A round hole, with a spiral set of stairs leading down into its depths and an iron handrail fastened to the wall. The light he’d noticed before was coming from somewhere at the bottom of the hole. Everything in sight was surprisingly dry. A small metal sign was bolted onto the floor right next to the first step, and several words had been stamped onto its surface:
Grace of Her Heart Cemetery
A prickle of fear raised bumps on Sato’s flesh, but reason calmed his nerves soon enough. In a place where rain was the norm, it made perfect sense for the dead to be
buried in some kind of vault or tomb instead of within the spongy, soaked, muddy earth. Dead people would be floating all over the place if they’d made that mistake. It was a cemetery after all—a normal, peaceful, full-of-bodies graveyard.
And over the last few weeks, Sato had become very used to graveyards.
Blowing a breath through his lips, he squeezed as much water as possible out of his clothes and hair, then set off down the stairs. With each step, an audible squish sounded, inexplicably making him want to laugh. Step by step, round and round, he descended into the hole. With every full circle he made, he saw a square light set into the wall, casting a warm glow—literally. Things heated up quickly and considerably.
After what felt like ten or so floors, Sato reached the bottom the of stairs and stepped through an open doorway. Unable to hold back a gasp of wonder, he gaped at the massive chamber in front of him. Row upon row of metal containers stretched as far as he could see, fading away into a shadowy mist in the distance. Large pillars supported the roof thirty feet or so above him, standing like iron angels guarding the dead.
For that’s what filled the room. The dead. In metal caskets, stacked five high, with barely enough room between them for Sato to walk. Sato calculated there had to be thousands of deceased in the underground cemetery. Thousands upon thousands.
It took him four hours and forty-five minutes to find what he was looking for.
The casket looked like every other one in the vast tomb. Made from a dark steel, the slightest shade of silver prevented it from being utterly black. The final resting place of two other souls lay on top, two more beneath, with hundreds to either side. A dirty bronze plaque named the person whose body was inside the casket. Sato reached forward and wiped away the dust, more out of respect for the dead than anything else; he could read the words imprinted on the tarnished plaque just fine.
This was the seventh Reality in which he’d read such words.
It was the casket for Atticus Higginbottom.
~
Frazier Gunn had grown weary of prisons.
He’d now visited eleven of them, each one more foul than the one before it. Dirty. Grimy. Full of people with no self-control, no humanity. Full of thieves and murderers.