what’s going on.”
The Five. When he was at the prison, Joe Feather had said he was one of the Five. Had Joe known something about this world and the events that had taken place here?
“Tell me about Matt,” Jamie said. He pictured someone like Finn; grey-haired and battle-scarred. “Is he old?”
Scar laughed. “No. He’s the same age as us. Do you really not know who we are? You and Flint and me and Inti and Matt?”
“Flint is my twin.”
“Yes.”
“Then he’s Scott. I was looking for him when I was shot. That’s how I ended up here.” It still made no sense to Jamie, even as he tried to explain it. Then he remembered. “I have seen you before,” he said. “But it wasn’t real. It was in a dream.”
He thought Scar would laugh at him, but she nodded, perfectly serious. “People used to think that dreams didn’t mean anything,” she said. “That they were just things that happened when you went to sleep. But we use them all the time. There’s a dream world that we visit sometimes and that’s how we found out who we were. That’s how we found each other in the first place.”
“You should start at the beginning,” Finn called out. He had finished his food. He threw the bone onto the fire. The flames devoured it as if they were as hungry as he had been. “You’re a rotten storyteller.”
“There was no beginning for me,” Scar retorted. “Or if there was, I don’t remember it. Matt’s the only one who knows the whole truth and he never tells us anything.”
“Start with the Five!” Finn insisted.
“All right. All right.” Scar sighed. “But don’t interrupt me, Finn. You only make it more difficult.”
“Adults taking second place to children!” Finn shook his head in despair. “That’s what I really call the end of the world.” He fell silent.
Scar turned to Jamie. “I’ve only been alive for about fifteen years,” she said. “And this war has continued for more than fifty. So that’s why I say that, for me, there’s never been a beginning. I wasn’t even in this country. I was far away, on the other side of the world, and when I was about nine years old, the village where I was living was burned down. All the old people were killed. The children were sent to the mines.”
“Wait a minute.” Jamie was already lost. “This world you live in… is this my world? What year is it? I don’t even know where I am!”
“And I don’t know where you’ve come from so I can’t help you. You’re just going to have to listen to my story. If you keep interrupting, we’re not going to get anywhere.”
Jamie sighed. “Go on.”
“We were digging for precious stones. There were thousands of us… working deep underground. They used the children to burrow into the smaller tunnels. It was terrifying. There were cave-ins. We were always wondering when we were going to be buried alive.”
“Who made you do it? Who were you working for?”
“We were working for the ruling classes. The overlords and the advisors. And behind them, of course, the Old Ones.”
“Who are they?” Jamie remembered the old man talking to him before he had turned into a scorpion. He had asked if Jamie served the Old Ones.
“They’re the enemy,” Scar replied simply. “Matt says that they are the first and the greatest evil, that they were born the day the world began. They want to destroy us. That’s the only reason they exist. But they want to do it slowly, one step at a time. You see, they feed on human misery. It’s what nourishes them. In the end, they’ll kill all of us, but they’ll make it last as long as they can.”
“Where did they come from?” Jamie asked.
“I don’t know,” Scar replied. “You’ll have to ask Matt.”
Erin had fallen asleep, leaning against his brother. His long fair hair had fallen across his face and his metal hand was stretched out in front of him, the fingers curled and pointing up. Corian was lying still, careful not to wake him, listening to Scar tell her tale.
“I suppose it must have been about a year ago,” she went on. “I don’t know because time doesn’t really mean very much any more. When you’re a slave, being beaten and forced to work in the darkness, every day is the same. Anyway, about a year ago I found out that I was different. I was told that I was one of the Five.”
“Matt told you?”
Scarlet nodded. “Yes. Well, he came to me in a dream. Or maybe I went to him. It’s very difficult to explain. But you say you’ve had dreams too. You must know what I’m talking about.”
“I think so.” Jamie thought back. “There’s a sea with black water. And the stars are shining but it’s not exactly night…”
“There’s an island.”
“Yes.” Jamie was excited. She knew what he was talking about. “And two boys in a straw boat.”
“Matt and Inti.” She looked at him curiously. “Have you been to the library?”
The question was so unexpected that Jamie was taken aback. “What library?” he asked.
“In the dream world.”
“No. I never saw any buildings.”
“Forget it.” Scar had lost her train of thought. She gazed into the fire as if she might find it there, then went on. “Anyway, that’s how I first met Matt. He came to me in a dream and he explained everything to me. There were five of us in different countries. He was here. I was where I was. You and Flint were on the other side of the world and Inti… I don’t know where he came from and neither does he. But the point was, we’d all been chosen. We all had these powers and if we could just find each other and come together, we’d have the strength to beat the Old Ones and give the world a new start.”
It hadn’t occurred to Jamie that he might still have his power, that it might have returned to him after the shock at Silent Creek. Could he use it now? Could he reach out to Scott? He decided not to try. In this world, Scott was someone called Flint. He didn’t want to reach him yet. He was afraid of what he might find.
“There were people fighting already,” Scar went on. “People like Finn and Erin and Corian and all the others. There were resistance groups. But they needed us. It’s funny, isn’t it, but it’s like Finn said. They were all adults but they needed five children if they were going to survive. And we needed each other. So we set out to find each other. And that’s how we got here.”
“You’re not making any sense!” Finn taunted her.
“I’m doing the best I can!” Scar snapped back.
She turned to Jamie. “Matt told me I had to escape from the mine, so I did. It was very close. I nearly got caught. But it’s a long story and I’m not going to tell it tonight. All you need to know is that I got away. And at the same time, the others were doing the same thing. Flint and Sapling in one kingdom. Inti in another. We were all leagues away from each other. We’d never met. We hadn’t even known that the others existed. But we used the dreams to speak with each other and Matt told us where to go and eventually four of us met close to a river not far from here, on the other side of the hills. Matt is waiting for us there now. Flint is with him.”
“Where’s the boy you call Inti?”
“He’s not there yet. He had the furthest to travel. But he should arrive with the break of day.”
“And then…?” Jamie asked the question but he already knew the answer. There was a queasy feeling in his stomach.
“There will be a battle. It’s been predicted for ages. If the five of us can reach one another, we will win. If we can’t, the world will come to an end.”
She reached out and Finn threw her a water bottle. In that single movement, Jamie saw how well the two of them knew each other. She hadn’t asked. He had known what she wanted. She hadn’t looked round. Yet she knew he would have it ready for her.
“How did you find me?” Jamie asked. “The fortress or whatever it was. You came there… and it was like you were expecting me.”
“We weren’t expecting you,” Scar replied.
“Then why were you there?”
She took a long drink, then used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth. When she continued talking, her
