Cracks in Reality (Seams in Reality Book 2) (2 page)

* * *

Andrew looked across the valley with a feeling of accomplishment. He had crossed the white, turbulent waters of a river populated by zombie-sharks. He had successfully passed through a forest of trees which randomly lashed out at unwary travelers. He had traversed a desert made of sand which had the texture and stickiness of warm caramel. He had evaded marauding rock-trolls armed with flaming spears. Every obstacle had tested his limits physically and mentally.

He looked down at Charley who was slowly limping up the slope. Her long brown hair was tangled and dirty. One of her brown eyes was half-closed from getting hit in the face by a rock. She had lost a couple of teeth at the same time. Her black tunic and leather sandals provided little protection, and just about all of her exposed skin had bloody scratches. A particularly nasty gash on her knee went down to the bone. His beautiful girlfriend was a complete mess.

Andrew hadn't fared much better, but he refused to look down. He didn't need to inspect his many painful wounds. His assignment was to keep going as if nothing was wrong, and he would do so.

"This sucks," Charley said when she finally ascended the slope.

"What did you expect? A pleasant jog in the park?"

"It sucks even more than usual. I'm tired of being in constant pain. These sessions are getting utterly ridiculous. The carnivorous locusts were sadistic."

"That's the point, right?" Andrew said. "To break us?"

She rubbed her puffy eye.

"You can quit at any time. You know the way out. Of course, that would be admitting I'm better than you." He winked.

Charley sighed. "I'll keep going."

"We're almost to the temple. We'll be done in twenty minutes if we keep up the pace. Do you want to lean on my arm?"

"No. The ankle isn't that bad, and you look like you can barely stand up on your own."

The two apprentices hobbled over a ridge and looked down into a valley on the other side. An Aztec temple made of giant gold bricks stood before them. The stone path to the front door appeared unguarded, but Andrew had learned long ago to not trust appearances.

He looked harder. In this world, every puzzle had a solution and every obstacle could be overcome as long as he was smart. He couldn't allow excruciating pain and exhaustion to dull his mind.

"The paving stones are bigger than yesterday," he said.

"Trapdoors?" Charley said.

"Possibly."

"I don't like how that tall grass looks either. I think it's moving." She turned her head back and forth. "Hey, that could be useful."

Andrew followed her over to a giant fallen tree. The wood had rotted, and the smooth bark had peeled off in big sheets. He touched the bark and discovered it was as hard and dense as iron.

"Armor?" he said.

Charley shook her head. "No. A sled."

She struggled to move a big chunk of bark into position, and he squatted down to assist her. The bark was also as heavy as iron. Their many injuries made the task even more difficult, but eventually, the "sled" was balanced on the edge of the slope.

She sat on the bark, and he sat behind her. He gripped her hips with his knees and held the edges of the sled with his hands. The sensation of her body pressed against his made him smile despite the miserable circumstances.

Andrew used his hand to push off. They slid down the slope towards the temple, gathering speed quickly.

He glimpsed snakes in the tall grass, and their mouths were full of jagged teeth. The impossible creatures snapped at him and Charley as they flew past. He made sure his fingers and toes were tucked safely away.

The tall outer wall of the temple was approaching rapidly. The short trip would have a painful ending.

"We forgot to install brakes," Andrew said.

"I was just thinking that," Charley said. "Jump off on my count. Three... two... one... go!"

They rolled off the sled and continued to roll. The tall, stiff grass whipped Andrew's skin until he finally came to a stop. He stared at the purple sky for a moment as he tried to recover from the rough ride.

"Get up," Charley said. "Those snakes will eat us if we stop."

Andrew grunted and pushed himself up. Sharp pain in his right hand made him check it. His pinky finger was so badly dislocated, it was pointing sideways. He ignored the gruesome injury.
We're almost done,
he thought.

They staggered over to the giant wooden door of the temple. He didn't see a handle, but there was a ten by ten grid of square panels. Each panel had a number inscribed on it in order from one to a hundred.

"It's a puzzle lock," Andrew said.

"There must be a clue." Charley looked around. "There." She pointed down.

He looked at one of the big flat stones which formed the path leading to the temple. Chiseled words read, "One to one, sum to sum, triple and then you're done."

"I don't get it," he said.

She furrowed her brow as she stared at the clue. It was hard for him to look at her bruised, bloody face.

A hissing noise made Andrew look up. Toothy snakes were coming out of the grass and slithering towards the apprentices.

"You work on the puzzle while I fight the snakes," he said.

"OK," Charley said. "I think the first half describes the Fibonacci sequence."

"Right! And then multiply by three."

Andrew spotted a stick lying in the grass. He ran over, grabbed it, and started swinging at the snakes. They dodged and hissed.

In the meantime, Charley went to the grid of panels. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her pushing numbered squares.

"Three... three... six... nine... fifteen..."

"Hurry up!" Andrew said.

More snakes were emerging from the grass. He limped back and forth with desperate energy and swung his stick wildly. His dislocated pinkie wasn't helping.

"Twenty-four," Charley said. "Thirty-nine... uh."

Andrew tried to perform arithmetic in his head while fighting snakes. "Sixty-three!" he cried.

"Right!"

She pushed a square. A rumbling noise made the ground vibrate as the massive door swung open.

The apprentices ran inside the temple. Working together, they pushed the door closed and crushed a few snakes at the same time.

Sulfurous smoke made Andrew cough, and the air inside the temple was uncomfortably warm. "Lava," he said.

"That's good," Charley said. "Tonya always saves lava for last. One more puzzle, and then we're
done
."

They limped into the depths of the temple. Torches lit walls made of solid gold blocks, and smoke covered the high ceiling. Andrew didn't let his guard down just because they were near the end. Concealed traps were always a possibility.

Charley took a step, and the floor gave way beneath her feet. He grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She had almost fallen into a pit with rusty spikes at the bottom. A dusty skeleton was impaled on the spikes.

"Thanks," she said. "That would've hurt. The skeleton is a nice touch."

They side-stepped around the pit and continued through the temple. They eventually entered a chamber so vast, it was bigger than the temple that contained it. Andrew smirked at the physical impossibility.

Channels full of burning lava formed a grid on the floor. The channels were narrow enough to jump across but just barely. Marble statues on circular pedestals stood between the channels in some spots, and they were twice as tall as Andrew. The statues depicted six kings and six queens in traditional medieval costumes.

"Now what?" Charley said.

He looked for the inevitable clue and found it on the ceiling. He pointed at silver letters high above their heads. "There."

She read out loud, "'The lovers' eyes must meet.'"

Andrew turned his attention back to the statues which were facing random directions. The circular pedestals gave him an idea.

"I think it means we have to turn the statues so the kings and queens are looking at each other."

"Yes!" Charley said. "Let's try it."

They hurried to the nearest statue, crossing two lava channels along the way. Hot gases seared Andrew's unprotected legs and groin when he jumped across the lava, but he didn't let the pain slow him down. It didn't matter. It was all in his mind.

He and Charley tugged and pushed on the statue until it started moving. It continued to rotate smoothly on its own until it locked into a new position facing a different direction.

"Only certain directions work," Andrew said. "We need to try combinations until we pair up all the lovers."

He heard a splash and a sizzle. He looked down and saw a glowing blob of lava near his feet. He turned his gaze upwards and saw tiny holes leaking lava from the ceiling.
Of course,
he thought.
We wouldn't want to make it too easy.

Andrew and Charley scrambled to accomplish their task.

Remembering the directions each statue could face turned out to be the hardest part. Choices had to be made about which kings to pair with which queens, and usually those choices turned out to be wrong. They had to keep backing up and trying new combinations.

All the while, the leaking roof made the job harder and harder. The ground became a minefield of smoking hot blobs, and Andrew sandals were completely inadequate protection. A few times, lava fell directly on his skin causing ghastly burns. The smoke, heat, and pain made his eyes water constantly.

He and Charley pushed on relentlessly. The purpose of the training was building mental strength and discipline. He had to become an unstoppable machine capable of shrugging off any distraction. Only then would he be ready to face Blake.

Finally, the statues were in the correct position. Beams of white light shot between their eyes in a final flourish.

Then Andrew and Charley were back in the real world. The transition was jarring, but Andrew was used to it.

"Well done," Tonya said. "Both of you continue to impress me. I'm running out of horrors to throw at you."

Tonya was a master sorcerer and Andrew's instructor. She had never revealed her age, but he guessed she was in her mid-fifties. Blue eyes were an attractive feature, and straight blonde hair was another. She always kept it perfectly coiffed and trimmed to a medium length. Her round face had pale, clear skin with only a few wrinkles. She was wearing large pearl earrings and a black dress shirt buttoned up to the collar.

Andrew was seated at a wooden table with Tonya and Charley. Andrew instinctively checked himself for injuries even though he knew he was fine. All the pain and blood had been imaginary.

"How long were we in this time," he said.

Tonya checked her watch. "A full hour."

"Felt like a day. I'm worn out."

"When you're trapped in a delusion, the sensation of time tends to dilate."

She had used her powerful sorcery to create the world of nightmares for Andrew and Charley, but it had seemed completely real.

He looked over at Charley. He certainly preferred the real-world version to the battered woman in the delusion. Plastic clips held back her shiny brown hair. She was tall and thin with a narrow face. Her brown eyes always stared directly at him with an intensity he didn't normally see in girls. A green sweater fit tight enough to show off her curves.

"Are you OK?" Andrew said.

She nodded. "Just a little stiff from sitting without moving." She stretched her arms.

He stood up, and the sudden change in blood flow made him dizzy for a second. He leaned against the table to steady himself. He had been physically paralyzed the entire time he had been in the delusion.

The apprentices were training in the basement of the Fine Arts Building of Theosophical University. They had spent an enormous amount of time there lately. The seam chamber had practically become Andrew's home.

The Theosophical Seam dominated the room. Normal eyes couldn't see it, but to a sorcerer like Andrew, it was impossible to ignore. His inner eye perceived it as a pulsating black vortex. It had the general shape of a frozen lightning bolt except it constantly vibrated. An endless gush of chaotic energy poured out and provided the juice that made sorcery possible.

He didn't feel quite right, so he shuffled over to a complex machine in the corner and turned it on. Marbles began to roll out of holes on top. They shot down chutes, wound through corkscrews, bounced off plates, rode on conveyor belts, dropped into funnels, passed through hidden pathways, and performed dozens of other tricks. It was a symphony of basic physics. He and Charley had built the machine from individual parts, and they were still making tweaks. It was a fun project, but it also served an important purpose.

Sorcery tended to undermine the rational parts of the mind. Prolonged, intense exposure could cause a sorcerer to forget what was real. Andrew had gotten lost in his own imagination many times during his training, and in severe cases, the condition was life-threatening.

Watching the marble machine restored his sense of order. It was solidly grounded in laws that hadn't changed in 13.8 billion years. Unlike himself, the marbles followed predictable paths and could never go insane.

Charley joined Andrew in front of the machine, and they held hands. After a few minutes, he felt better. Memories of rock-trolls and a golden temple faded away.

He turned back to Tonya. "Are we done?"

"For now," she said, "but the session ran long, so you'll have to go straight to martial arts. No time for a break."

His shoulders sagged. His mind was exhausted, and his body would be next. He wasn't a great fan of martial arts.

"Get moving," Tonya said.

Andrew and Charley went to the solid steel door which protected the seam chamber. The door probably weighed a ton, and pushing it open took a lot of strength. The apprentices walked into the corridor outside.

Tan tiles covered the walls of the basement, and the floor and ceiling were just plain concrete. Decades of grime encrusted pipes and ducts hanging overhead. Florescent fixtures cast bluish light, and a few bulbs buzzed annoyingly. Mechanical equipment behind closed doors added deeper notes to the constant background noise. The basement wasn't very pleasant, but it was the perfect place for dangerous secrets.