Anthony Horowitz - Nightrise

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 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.”