Kevin Tumlinson - Sawyer Jackson and the White Room

H es getting away ! Gram shouted. She leapt from the roof of a parked car with her butcher knifeactually her sword in disguiseraised high over her head and held firm in both hands. She sliced downward with all the force she could muster. Which, on the measure, was a lot of force.

But the blade passed harmlessly through empty air. The gap in the knotwork closed and restitched itself, and the Ink wed been chasing for half the day was gone.

I huffed, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath after chasing my not-so-elderly grandmother for about six blocks.

He got away! Gram shouted, and kicked the bumper of the car shed just used as a springboard. The alarm system had already starting blaring and bleating from the impact to the hood, which was pretty seriously dented. Someones premiums would go up.

Gram let out a yell that was filled with rage and frustration, then wheeled on me. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Gramps, also huffing to catch his breath.

I glanced back at Gram and then beyond her, where I saw Cenna and Tuck racing to catch up from the other direction. Tuck had his bow at the readythe knotwork bow that had no real bowstring, but could produce a knotwork string when he gave it a pull. I could see that there was a knotwork arrow already notched and ready to fire.

Cenna was lagging just behind him, and on either side of her were two very brutish looking menpuppets she had created from the knotwork, standing as guards but also ready to leap into the fray.

Everyone had circled the block from different directions to try to cut off the Inks escape, but it had somehow managed to open a seam in the knotwork and get away.

How had it done that?

Inks werent all that skilled with the knotwork. Most of the time, they made their way from layer to layer by sort of seeping through itsifting their way to a new reality and carrying along anything or anyone they happened to have in their grasp. It was an ugly way to move around in the Omni. It left a stain that I could see, now that I knew what to look for.

And though most people couldn't see the stain the way I could, there were a lot of people who could feel that stain. Gram could, for starters. Sometimes even if you werent a Teth, but just sort of sensitive to the knotwork, you could feel itthose little shivers you get when you walk through a room and hit a cold spot, or those moments when youre out for a walk and for no apparent reason you just get the creeps. You get goosebumps, or the hair raises on the back of your neck. Chances are an Ink or something like it has seeped its way through that spot at some point, and your own knotwork is reacting to the stain with revulsion.

Its funnybut I never noticed the stains until after we returned from the In-between. Until after my knotwork was suddenly bound up with the heart of Aeodymus.

He got away! Gram shouted again.

Yes, Liv, Gramps said quietly, his breathing finally calming enough that he could talk. We all saw.

But I almost had him! Gram said, turning on us, her face filled with fury and the butcher knife waving disconcertingly in our direction.

Yes, Gramps said. That seems to be the way it went. Now, do you think you could put away the sword? Or at least drop the glamour that makes it look like a butcher knife? Because its kind of making you look like a crazed housewife chasing a mouse or something.

Gram started to respond, but then her mouth clapped shut with an audible clack of her teeth. Her brow was set in that expression that I knew would mean some trouble for me and Grampsfor all of our little ragtag family, actually. But maybe not until later. Maybe shed calm down before she did or said something we'd regret.

Im sorry, Tuck said, jogging up to us as if the run had no effect on him. It probably didnt. He was kind of in Olympian shape, and had only gotten more Olympian since wed left the In-between. All of our running and fighting and dealing with tears in the knotwork had really helped him bulk up. Biceps, abs, broad shouldersthe whole package. Hed been kind of toned up before, but now he had the physique of a superhero.

I wasnt the only one who noticed.

More than once I caught Cenna staring at him, watching him as he did manly things around our campsites or while we traveled. If he picked up a log to move it out of our path, Cennas eyes were glued to him. If he pulled off his shirt and jumped into a stream to wash up a bit, her eyes were really glued to him.

But who could blame her? Tuck was this chiseled man-mass with bulging arms and Batman-like athletic ability. I was just this skinny kid who happened to be able to see and manipulate the oh yeah, rightthe invisible pattern of knotwork all around us and weaving through us. Trust me guys, its there and its awesome.

I might as well be invisible myself.

Cenna came to stand beside me. She gave me a strange look, but I didnt know what it meant. In fact, these days I didnt know what a lot of things meant. It seemed like the world got more confusing every day.

And for some reason that made me really angry.

Now what? Gramps asked. "What should we do next?"

Well I dont know, do I Drew? Gram said. We chased that thing for six blocks and it still got away. And it took the pen with it.

What did it want with that thing? I asked. I didnt see anything all that special about it in the knotwork.

It isnt the pen itself, Gramps said. Its the ink. Real ink, for writing, not the Ink thing that just Ok, for claritys sake, maybe we can just say pen ink? Because Im only a sentence into this and Im already confused.

Just tell the story, Gram said, sliding the butcher knife back into its scabbard on her belt, and then dropping to the ground to sit against the side of the car.

I watched her closely. She was angry, but there was something else. It was something that nagged at her all the time. I was tempted to look into her knotwork, to see if I could figure out what was bothering her based on her pattern, but I was trying to avoid violating peoples privacy like that, these days. It was a bad habit to fall into, and Id fallen into it, peeking at the secret story people have twirled around them, woven into their personal knotwork.

Bad wolf.

That was a familiar thought by nowa voice in my head that just kept reminding me when I was doing or thinking something wrong. Which lately seemed like all the time. So the voice was getting to be a bit annoying.

The pen can hold a special kind of ink, Gramps said. That ink comes from a well in the Long Land. Its where a lot of corrupt Teth the wizard variety

He glanced at Tuck, who nodded solemnly.

first start playing around with the dark knotwork. Your Gram and I have been talking about some of the history and mythos of the Long Land lately, running things by 8-Ball and Xander when we could, to get the facts straight. We think that using the ink from that well gives some Teth a sort of artificial leg up. But its a corrupting force.