“Yeah,” Paul said, his face squeezed into a grimace of pain. “Ah, man, it kills!” Another tear slid down his cheek. Tick looked away, worried Paul would be embarrassed at being seen crying.

Sofia stood up, wobbling a second before she caught her balance. “We must have crashed or something. We’ve gotta get out of here, get Paul to a hospital.”

Tick joined her and together they walked across the curved wall to the door, which was about four feet in the air, sideways. It was twisted slightly, and it took both of them ramming it with their shoulders before it finally popped open and slammed against the crumpled white wall of the portal.

Tick and Sofia made surprised grunts at the same time when they saw where they were.

“What’s . . . out there?” Paul asked through clenched teeth.

Tick couldn’t answer, his eyes glued to the wall of thick, enormous trees beyond the doorway.

“We’re in a forest,” Sofia said.

As if the pain had finally sent him over the edge, Paul started laughing.

Chapter

31

~

The Sickness of Sato

Master George felt his heart breaking in two as he stared at Sato.

The poor lad thrashed in his bindings, twisting his arms and legs, arching his back as he strained against the ropes tied to his ankles and wrists. He lay on a bed in the holding cell, the sheets a jumbled mess from his spasms and fits of lunacy. Deep bruises marked where the ropes touched his skin, yet he didn’t stop his fruitless efforts to escape.

He had the illness, the disease.

Sato had gone quite insane.

Master George gripped his hands together, wishing so badly he could have just a few seconds of conversation with the real Sato, who was locked somewhere inside the mind infected by Chu’s mysterious plague. The bravery shown by the boy in entering that mountain insane asylum made Master George so proud it hurt. He also felt again the pains of losing Sato’s parents all those years ago, a dreadful death that still made him feel hot, as if the heat from the flying fires of that fateful day had never quite left his skin.

“We’re going to make everything right,” Master George said aloud, even though he doubted Sato could hear, let alone understand, his words. “Rutger and I are working on the antidote every second of the day. And we’re getting close, very close. Hang in there, lad, hang in there. Your suffering may be the very key that saves us all.”

Sato stilled, then, letting out an enormous sigh as his body came to rest on the sweaty, crumpled sheets of the bed. Master George leaned forward, terrified he’d made a huge mistake in saying anything.

“He’s back in my head,” Sato whispered in a chant-like voice that sent chills up Master George’s arms. “He wants to speak to you.”