Tick realized with a sinking stomach that Jane was telling him the truth.
“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. “Just sit down and relax. Neither one of us is going anywhere.”
“Sit down and relax?” Jane repeated, as if he’d told her to eat a live rat. But she sat down anyway, folding back into the soft cushions of her couch. “There’s no time for relaxation, boy. I first suspected something was wrong when we were in the Nonex and I saw the rift in the air that led to another world. Another Reality. For that rift to reach the Nonex, I knew it wasn’t as simple as a pathway between worlds. It had to be something much deeper. And then there was the incident with the earthquake and the subsequent uptick of craziness.”
Tick knew that the Nonex was a place where a gorilla could suddenly erupt out of the sand, then turn into a moth and fly away. All kinds of unexplainable stuff happened all the time, but Jane was right. The craziness had ratcheted up considerably right before they escaped.
“You do remember the rip in the air I saw?” Jane asked.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah. I do.”
“There was a boy and his father, or perhaps his grandfather, in a forest, looking back at me. And I knew something was off about it, something dangerous. I backed away, and just in time, too. A terrible storm of gray mist and thunderous lightning exploded within that rift, destroying whatever was close by on both sides of the rift. You saw what the area looked like afterwards.”
Tick remembered. It had reminded him of TV footage of a tornado’s aftermath. “So you’re saying that what you saw was the Fourth Dimension?”
“A better way to put it is that I saw what comes out of the Fourth Dimension. The Void of Mist and Thunder. It’s always been a rumor, a myth—pure speculation. Until now. I believe the Void is a living thing, but without conscience. The complete and pure power of creation. All it wants is to escape its prison and consume everything in its path. It’s mindless and hungry.”
“How do you even know about it? You already have a name for it, but you never told anyone about it. Why not?” Tick felt sick inside. Here was yet another thing that had gone wrong. And somehow it linked back to being his fault.
“I’m old,” Jane said. Her red mask had returned to a blank expression, but Tick knew anything could set her off. “I’ve researched the origins of our universe in hopes of making it better. That crotchety old George and I worked on this project together, years ago. Trust me, I’m sure he’s figured out what’s going on by now and is sweating a river.”
“What is the Fourth Dimension?” Tick asked. “I still don’t really get it.” He hated admitting that to her, but he had no choice.
“Well, you know what 3-D is, correct? Three dimensions?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the Fourth is named that because it’s a step beyond anything we understand in terms of vision and . . . placement. Three-D is exponentially greater than 2-D. And the Fourth is infinitely greater than 3-D. The power of the Void is much, much greater than any kind of energy we know in our own dimension. If unleashed, it will consume this world like food and use it to recreate another. And all of us will die along the way.”
Tick almost wanted to laugh. “You’re really clearing things up.”
The mask flashed to anger. “Stop it. Now. None of your childish sarcasm, do you understand me? What I’m talking about is very serious. More deadly than even my Blade of Shattered Hope. Do you understand?” She shouted the last question, making Tick lean back in his chair. “It was your meddling with that Blade that ripped open the Fourth Dimension in the first place!”
“Okay, I get it.” Tick was scared, but he didn’t want to show it. “But this isn’t the first time you’ve tried to work with me. The last time ended with you trying to choke me to death. Remember?”
“Oh, Atticus.” The anger and spirit seemed to drain straight out of Jane, her shoulders slumping and her mask melting into another frown. “Do you still really believe I was trying to kill you that day? We had to stop Chu, and at the time, hurting you was the only way to get you to release your Chi’karda. You couldn’t do it at will like you can now.”
Tick looked at the floor. Jane confused him so much. She seemed to have some good in her, but she’d also done some terrible, awful things. But could he really blame her completely after what he’d done to her?
“I don’t know what to do,” he said quietly. He was tired of thinking. “I just don’t.”
“Atticus,” Jane said, her raspy voice quiet, like a small clearing of the throat. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend that you and I are best friends. I resent you for what you did to me, though I know it was partly out of your control. I know you hate me. And I’m not making any promises to stop fighting for a Utopia for mankind. When this issue is dealt with, I’ll continue with my mission. I will do whatever it takes.”
Tick looked up sharply. “You will, huh? You’ll go right back to destroying entire worlds and throwing little kids into awful experiments? No skin off your back, right?”
Jane pounded a fist on her knee. “Yes! I will do whatever it—”
Her words were cut off by the door slamming open, the entire room seeming to tremble. Jane and Tick both shot to their feet to see who had come in.
It was Mordell, and her face was pale with fright.
“The Fourth Dimension has torn open outside the castle,” she announced in a shaky voice, as if she had to avoid shouting to preserve the dignity of her order. “The Void is attacking our creatures.”
Chapter 24
Fog and Thunder
Lorena had been holding Lisa in her arms—the girl had finally dozed off—when she heard the terrible sound in the distance. It was like a great, rushing wind, with cracks of thunder splintering it. And then she heard the screams. Unnatural screams that she knew came out of the mouths of Jane’s creatures.
Lisa’s head popped up immediately, her chance at slumber gone. “What is that?”
“I don’t know, sweetie.” Lorena’s heart picked up its pace, and a swell of panic bulged in her chest, making it hard to breathe. If something was making those awful monsters scream, then what would it do to them?
She heard the scuffle of feet running along the passage outside the Great Hall. Grabbing Lisa’s hand, she stood up, and the two of them went over to the arched exit to investigate. The two fangen that had been assigned to guard them were gone, and dozens of creatures were frantically scurrying past the opening, away from the shattered door that led outside to the castle grounds. Any noise of their passage was drowned out by the sounds of thunder crashing and booming, which were getting louder.
“What on earth?” Lorena whispered, barely hearing herself. She looked at Lisa, whose eyes were wide and scared.
“It sounds like a storm!” her daughter yelled to her. “But how could it be hurting all those people?”
“You mean creatures.” Lorena shook her head. “It has to be something more than a storm.”
“Let’s go look!” Lisa shouted.
Lorena frowned at her, thinking her daughter had surely gone nuts. That, or she was still young enough to let curiosity overrule common sense.
Lisa pulled her mom closer and spoke into her ear. “If it’s not just a storm, and if it’s hurting the bad guys, then it must be on our side. We need to find out who or what it is and let them know that Mistress Jane has Tick!”
Lorena had started shaking her head before Lisa even finished. “No way!”
“But this is our chance! No one’s guarding us!”
“No way,” Lorena repeated. But then she peered into her daughter’s eyes and saw that courage had replaced the fear to a degree. Motherly pride filled her chest and made her change her mind. “Okay, maybe just a peek. But we stop when I say so. Do you understand?”
Lisa smiled, a pathetic little effort. “Okay. I promise.”
Like two spies, they slipped out of the Great Hall and ran down the passage alongside the intern
al stream, toward the broken door and the gray wall behind it.
Sato pulled up short when he saw the strange anomaly appear right in front of the castle. They’d been marching for several hours, the sun sinking toward the forest on the horizon, the Fifth Army like a slow-moving tsunami behind their leader. Sato had promised them that one day soon, they’d return to the Fifth Reality and take back their world from the Bugaboo soldiers who’d gone insane and ruled with crazed minds.
But for now, the army was pledged to help the Realitants get things back in order. And before even that, Sato wanted to see his friend Tick again. See him safe and sound.
They were cresting the rise of a hill, the land sloping below them toward the castle, when Sato saw something that made no sense, made him doubt his own eyes. Made him wonder if they’d been working too hard and his mind was on the fritz.
Starting at a spot about fifty feet above the ground, close to the ruined castle itself, the air seemed to rip apart like a burst seam, the blues and whites and greens of the world replaced by a stark and empty grayness that spread in a line toward the grasses below. Lightning flickered behind the torn gash in reality, and even from where he stood a mile or so away, Sato could hear the rumbles of thunder. Not just hear it—the noise made the ground tremble and his head rattle.
Tollaseat stepped up beside him. “There’s been rumors of the like, there ’as. Fabric of the world rippin’ apart and whatnot. Sendin’ out destruction for the poor blokes who might be standin’ nearby.”
Sato nodded. He’d heard some of the soldiers whispering about it, but seeing it in person sent a wave of unease through his bones and joints. There was something terribly unnatural about it, and he knew it meant trouble.
“What should we do, sir?” Tollaseat asked. His voice revealed a trace of fear, but Sato knew the man and his fellow soldiers would storm the odd thing if he asked. Which he did.
“We need to know what that is,” Sato said, hearing the strong command in his own speech. “And we need to save Tick. One mission has become two.”
Tollaseat clapped him on the back. “We’ll roll it up and bottle it, we will. Take it back to old Master George with a wink and a smile.”
“That we will,” Sato agreed. “Let’s move out.”
The Fifth Army started marching down the hill.
Tick felt weird following Mistress Jane down the long, winding staircase. He felt weird about being around her at all. He was pretty sure two mortal enemies had never acted like this before, trying to kill each other one week, then chitchatting about the world’s problems before scurrying down some steps to investigate a bunch of noise and fog the next.
He was curious. Was it a coincidence that the Void Jane had spoken of—this beast of the Fourth Dimension that represented some kind of pure and powerful energy—would attack her castle just as they had begun to scheme against it? Or did it have more of a mind than Jane thought?
They reached the bottom of the stairs and stumbled out into the main passageway, which was flanked by a narrow river on one side and the castle’s interior stone wall on the other. It was a scene of chaos. Creepy chaos. Dozens of Jane’s creatures, mostly fangen, were running pell-mell along the pathway, many of them wounded, some falling into the water. If the creatures started chasing him, he thought he’d die of fright before he could even think to use his newfound powers. But they all just kept fleeing, heading deeper into the castle.
Jane stopped to assess the situation, looking in the direction from which all of her creatures had fled. Tick did the same, but all he could see was a gray light. A rumble of something loud and booming came from there.
“Come!” Jane yelled, sprinting toward the odd light and the noise. Her robe billowed out as she ran, and her hood fell back, revealing the scarred horrors of her head, where her hair had once grown healthily. Feeling another pang of guilt, Tick followed her.
Lorena pulled up short about a hundred feet from the jagged edges of the broken door, stopping Lisa with an outstretched arm. No matter how much bravery they’d found, the loss of caution would be absurd. They could see better now, and Lorena wanted to understand what they were running toward.
A mass of churning gray air hovered behind the wide opening of the doorway like clouds that boiled before unleashing torrents of rain. Streaks of lightning sliced through the grayness, illuminating the world in brilliant flashes of white fire. The thunder that pounded the air was deafening, making Lorena’s ears feel as if they were bleeding. All the fangen and their cousins had either fled or lay on the ground around the door, battered and dead. Which made her wonder what she and Lisa thought they were doing coming this close to the danger.
The booming sounds stopped so suddenly that Lorena’s ears popped, and the silence was like cotton that had been stuffed in her ears. There was the slightest buzz of electricity in the air, and the gray clouds behind the door were now full of tiny bolts of electricity, a web of white light. Lisa was about to ask something, but Lorena shushed her. Things were changing.
The churning, smoky cloud began to coalesce into sections, filtering and swirling, as if some unseen hand had begun to shape the substance like putty. Soon there were gaps in the mist, the green grass and blue sky shining through from beyond. The gray fog continued its shaping until several dozen oblong sections stood on end, scattered around like a crowd of ghosts. Then heads formed as the misty substance solidified into slick, gray skin. Arms. Legs. Eyes full of burning fire.
Oddly enough, they were roughly the shape of some of Mistress Jane’s creatures that Lorena had seen fleeing. Though these were bigger and more crudely formed.
The one closest to Lorena started walking toward her.
Chapter 25
The Voids
Sato was about a hundred yards away, Tollaseat and the rest of the Fifth Army right behind him, when the mass of fog and lightning in front of the castle started to shift and take shape. Dozens of shapes, bigger than most men, were continually refining themselves, their edges sharpening, until they looked like Mistress Jane’s creatures. Arms, legs, wings, the whole bit.
Sato realized he’d stopped without meaning to.
“What bloody kind of business is that, ya reckon?” Tollaseat asked him from behind, a deadly whisper that fit the mood.
“I have no idea,” Sato answered. “But there can’t be anything good about it. We need to get there. Come on!”
Sato burst into a sprint, and his soldiers followed, their feet pounding on the grass like the hooves of a hundred horses.
Tick rounded a bend and finally came into view of the busted door through which he’d been before, a long time ago. Outside of it, dozens of gray shapes that roughly resembled Jane’s creatures stood in the fields beyond the castle walls. He couldn’t quite compute what was happening—they looked similar to what Jane had created, but they were also bigger, and . . . different. More humanoid.
The few figures in the front were walking forward, through the door. Their eyes shone with brilliant displays of fire, as if they were windows into a furnace. Tendrils of lightning shot across the surface of their slick, colorless skin.
Then Tick saw two people standing between him and the oncoming creatures.
“Mom!” he yelled, breaking into a run to reach her. “What in the world are you doing out here?”
She turned to face him, as did Lisa, and Tick’s heart broke a little when he saw the fear in their eyes and expressions.
“We’re trying to figure out . . .” his mom began to shout, but didn’t finish. She pulled Lisa behind her and came toward Tick until they met. “It hardly matters. What are those things?” She gestured to the briskly walking gray people about fifty feet away.
Mistress Jane joined Tick, her red mask staring with a slight look of awe at the oncoming ghostly figures. The fire of their eyes reflected off the shiny, wet-looking surface of the red metal covering her hideous face.
Tick felt a shiver of panic, but he knew he had to put on a brave front for
his family. “It has something to do with the Fourth Dimension breaking into our Reality. It’s pure energy, so maybe it can take things from our world and recreate them. Don’t know, though. Come on.”
He pointed down the passageway. The creatures were coming straight for them, marching with purpose. Their faces had no distinctive features—just eyes full of flame. Their arms and legs bulged with gray muscle, and their shoulders and chests were broad, but the wings—on those that had them—were misshapen and barely hanging on. Trickles of electricity continued to dance across the surface of their skin.
The Voids—that’s how Tick thought of them, no other word coming to mind—had reached them and stopped. Now fully inside the castle, they lined up in several rows that reached back dozens of feet. There had to be at least fifty of the things. Eyes of fire, gray skin charged with lines of white lightning. But they were still now, staring at Tick and the others.
Mistress Jane spoke in a whisper. “The Fourth Dimension is even more powerful than I thought. What has it done to my sweet, sweet creations?”
When the gray creatures started entering the castle, Sato’s urgency picked up even stronger. Tick was in there somewhere, and these things looked like nothing but trouble.
He sprinted harder, hearing the thumping of his soldiers at his heels. They reached the torn land where the spinning mass of gray air had churned up the soil and ruined the grass. Sato ran across it, taking care not to trip over the divots and chunks of dirt. The inside of the castle was dark, but an eerie orange light shone from somewhere. Sato wondered if it might be coming from the faces of the creatures themselves, but they all had their backs to him at the moment.
Sato stopped at the threshold of the huge entrance and held up a hand. Tollaseat and the others stopped on a dime, and not a peep came from anyone.
The gray monsters had quit walking, and they huddled close together, watching something on the other side. Sato couldn’t see over their heads.