Preview
At
the age of five, Zachary Zimbalist meets a
Mexican ghost named Maria who tells him that
the nicho - a small alcove in the wall of his
Tucson living room - is a doorway to another
dimension. But by the time he’s twelve years
old, Zachary has forgotten about Maria. He’s
lonely and bored, and the only friend he has
is his cat, Eddy Aby. In an impulsive attempt
to keep a local gang from beating him up, Zachary
agrees to get a tattoo and unwittingly becomes
marked with the Rune of the Scatterers. The
Scatterers are malicious souls who love to
change history and create chaos in their wake.
They’ve decided Zachary and his powers belong
to them.
Maria
reappears in the nick of time to whisk him
off to the timeless land of Connedim - the
Connecting Dimension between past, present,
and future. In Connedim, Zachary finds out
Eddy Aby is really an Egyptian Pharaoh and
the founder of the Interhistorical Alliance.
Helped by his ghostly mentor Maria, Zachary
becomes an apprentice in the Alliance, defending
history from the Scatterers through his powers
of parlance. Between mastering his parlance
and dodging the Scatterers, Zachary finally
learns why he alone is marked with the Scatterers’
Rune. For only Zachary has the power to save
the history of the Alliance itself!

“The
main home of the Alliance is a place
called Craton,” Maria explained.
“Craton is a lot like the Grand Canyon
here in Arizona. It’s usually warm,
and there are lots of big cliffs
and plateaus. The Red River at the
bottom of the canyon is cold, so
it’s perfect for swimming when you
get too hot.” |
About
THE SCATTERERS' RUNE
A
simple pattern of lines swirled around itself
in a strangely hypnotic spiral, deteriorating
into scattered fragments on one side. It was
somehow both beautiful and horrible at the
same time. The longer Zachary looked at it,
the more he felt himself drawn to it, drawn
into it. The Rune almost pulsed off
the page. “This one,” he heard himself say
from a distance. “I want this one.”
“The Scatterers love chaos and pain, and the
power they have over others,” Eddy Aby said
softly. “They’ll do anything they can to distort
history. Their power of parlance warps into
fallacy, which is the power of miscommunication
and manipulation. Many Scatterers are gang
leaders. Some are even terrible tyrants, such
as Adolf Hitler. The Scatterers leave their
Rune behind as a sign of their success.”
Read
an Excerpt
"No.
Eddy Aby told me you can't take me against
my will, and I won't agree to go with youever!"
The
Scatterer's voice was amused. "My dear ZZ,
you've already agreed to be one of us. You
got yourself tattooed with the Scatterers'
Rune."
"They
made me do that," Zachary protested. "I didn't
want the tattoo."
She
kept laughing. "You paid with money out of
your own pocket. You chose the Rune out of
the book. You said 'I want that one.'"
She was right, and Zachary stared bleakly at
her. "I didn't know what it was," he finally
said.
She
smiled at him. "Somewhere deep inside yourself
you knew the Rune. You're a Scatterer at heart,
ZZ. Want to know why?"
Zachary
looked at her helplessly.
"Because
of your father."
"What
about my father?" he whispered.
"He
doesn't have to get hurt, you know." Her voice
softened. "You can go back to that single day
and change history so he doesn't end up with
brain damage. That's the beauty of the Rune."
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