evidence of traffic or urban life. Everything seemed to have been constructed around an interlocking system of waterways with narrow footbridges leading from one side to another.
The City of Canals. But it was no city and the water had been drained out of the canals. As they rode down the hillside, Jamie realized that the place had been almost completely destroyed. The surrounding walls were breached. In places it had collapsed. There were scorch marks suggesting a recent fire. Perhaps this was the source of the smoke that had spread out across the sky, swallowing the sun.
They rode through the remains of an entrance shaped like a giant keyhole, and at once Jamie saw the scale of the devastation. Broken doorways, shattered walls, burnt grass and trees that had been reduced to stumps. The canals were full of rubble. He tried to picture what this city might once have been like but it was simply beyond him. Most of the buildings had been made of red brick with roofs of terracotta tiles. The pathways had been brightly coloured, finished with mosaic. But the simple truth was that no city like this had ever existed in America and even at school, looking in picture books, he had never seen anything like it. It wasn’t modern. It wasn’t medieval. For the first time Jamie began to wonder if he was even on the planet Earth.
They followed a street between the remains of two matching pagodas and entered a wide empty area. Ahead of them stood a circular temple – it could surely be nothing else – with white columns placed evenly around it, supporting a dome-shaped roof. A series of arches stood at the left and the right in the square, part of a system of aqueducts. These had once brought water into the city, but now there was none left to bring. There were two fountains, one on either side of the temple, and a series of flower-beds that would have made this a pleasant place to walk. But everything had been destroyed. Some of the columns had been smashed, there were great holes in the temple roof, the fountains were dry and there were craters everywhere, suggesting that the whole place had been bombed from the air.
Scar lifted a hand, reining in her horse. The other four stopped. She turned to Jamie.
“Don’t do anything,” she warned him. “Don’t say anything. Just play your part. It’s important.”
Jamie wanted to snap at her. He was worn out after the long journey. His throat was parched and he stank of his own sweat and the man-scorpion’s blood. He was fed up with being pushed around. But he nodded, forcing himself to stay in control.
People had begun to appear, moving slowly towards them. At first there were just a handful of them – four or five here, another few on the other side. But as Jamie watched, more and more of them came forward, closing in from all sides. They were all dressed in the same manner with long jackets, headdresses and leather belts, although some of the women wore wide-sleeved, embroidered gowns that came down to their feet. Many of them carried curving swords and round, pointed shields. They were every age, some as young as eleven and twelve. Soon there were more than a hundred of them, filing into the square, nobody making any sound. None of them looked even slightly welcoming. Their movements were heavy, their faces tired. It occurred to Jamie that they didn’t need to prepare for battle. These people were already defeated.
But as they drew closer, an extraordinary change came over them. It was almost as if a magic wand had been waved. They had seen something and they couldn’t believe it. A sense of excitement rippled through them. Jamie saw it in their faces. With every step they seemed to find new strength. They were gazing at something with a sense of shock and wonder, and now they were smiling. Some of them were raising their hands in salute. And then Jamie realized what they had seen.
Him.
Scar pulled herself up to her full height. “Do you believe me now?” she called out. “We told you the truth. He’s here. We found him.”
“Sapling!” someone shouted.
And at that, the entire crowd began to cheer. Swords were raised and banners appeared as if out of nowhere, the blue five-pointed stars fluttering as they were waved above their heads. All of the people were hurrying forward, wanting to be the first to reach him, the children at the front, the adults looking up at him with new hope alive in their eyes. At that moment, Jamie was grateful to Scar. He had no idea what was going on but she had warned him what he had to do. Play the part. Explanations would come later. He raised a hand, acknowledging the crowd, and the cheers grew louder, bouncing off the remaining walls so that it almost seemed as if the city had come alive once again, as if some of its old joy had returned to the streets.
Scar kicked her horse and they jolted slowly forward, the crowd parting – but only reluctantly – to let them pass. They dismounted at the circular temple and went in. The cheering crowd followed them as far as the columns but stopped here as if this was a line they were not allowed to cross. Jamie and his four companions were on their own once again, but he could still hear the people out in the square, calling out one name – his name – Sapling, their voices rising into the rapidly darkening sky.
“All I’ve ever known is war,” Scar said.
They had lit a fire. There was plenty of wood to salvage in the ruined city and Finn, Erin and Corian had piled it up so that it looked almost like a funeral pyre. Jamie was afraid that it might attract the enemy. Perhaps the fly- soldiers might return. But Scar had assured him that they were safe. The outer walls would hide most of the light and the sky was dark enough to hide the smoke as it trickled out through a hole in the roof.
There was nothing inside the temple. They were in a round space – it reminded Jamie of a circus – protected by brick walls that rose up about fifteen metres all around them. There had been frescoes once: strange symbols and pictures of animals and birds. But they had worn away. Or perhaps they had been purposely erased.
Jamie had at last been able to wash – using water drawn from a well. Nobody had offered him any privacy and he had been reluctant to undress, especially with Scar around. Fortunately, she had disappeared for a time and none of the men had so much as glanced in his direction. The water was muddy before he even got in it, but even so he had been grateful for it, washing away the grime and the blood that covered him. There were no towels. He had pulled on his trousers and dried himself in front of the flames.
After that, he had been fed. Corian had cooked some sort of meat over the fire. It tasted like chicken but it was tougher, harder to chew. Jamie had no idea what it was and decided it might be better not to ask. It had been served with beans and solid slabs of bread. He had been given a bowl of steaming liquid to drink. It tasted bitter and sweet at the same time and Scar – who had returned in time for the meal – had told him that it was made with acorns and honey. Jamie was glad to have it. Just holding something warm between his hands made him feel better.
And now they were talking. The two brothers were resting against a wall, leaning against each other, shoulder to shoulder, with their legs stretched out in front of them. Finn was squatting on a broken piece of column, gnawing at a bone, his fingers covered in grease. Scar and Jamie were sitting cross-legged in front of the fire. As Scar spoke, Jamie could see the fire’s reflection dancing in her eyes.
“Finn has often told me that the world wasn’t always like this,” she said. “A long time ago there were no shape-changers and death squads and overlords and fire riders and all the rest of them. But this is all I’ve ever known, so don’t ask me for a history lesson. I never met my mother or my father. By the time I was born, most people never knew their parents. All I can remember is being carried around by different people. Someone would take me with them and just when I was getting to know them and think that they were kind, they’d be killed and someone else would take their place. And everything was always ruined, like this city. I don’t think I ever spent more than a few days in a house before it was broken to pieces or burned down.” She raised her bowl in mockery of a toast. “Welcome to the end of the world, Jamie. Because that’s where you are.”
“You called me Jamie.” Jamie wasn’t sure where to begin. It was all too much to take in. “But before you said I was Sapling.” He glanced in the direction of the main square. “They called me Sapling.”
“There is no point calling you Sapling,” Scar replied. “Because you’re not him, even if you do look exactly like him and all those people think you are him.” She gestured in the direction of the square. “I imagine you’re confused.”
“You could say that.”
“Well, so am I. I just hope Matt will explain it all eventually, although he can be very annoying at times and never gives you a straight answer to anything.”
“You mentioned Matt before,” Jamie said. “Who is he?”
“Matt’s the one in charge. He’s our leader. The first of the Five. He’s the one who’s supposed to understand
