Nightrise (24 page)

Even so, he couldn't wait to arrive. He was still covered with the blood of the creature that had attacked him. He could feel it in his hair and taste it on his lips. How long had it been since he had eaten? He would have given anything for a rest, a meal, and a hot shower, but it was becoming ever more apparent that he wasn't going to be offered any of them.

And then there was the landscape. How could he measure his progress when everything looked the same and it was all so bleak and miserable? There was nothing for him to aim for. They were following the track but it was barely visible, beaten down by footprints — animal and human — until it had almost disappeared into the churned-up mud and grass. They were moving steadily toward the hills that Jamie had noticed when they first set off, but they never seemed to get any closer. A few clumps of ancient-looking trees broke up the countryside and now and then they came upon great chunks of granite, boulders that could have fallen there from outer space. But otherwise there were no features at all.

Jamie had no idea what time it was. His watch had been taken from him when he went into Silent Creek and it was unlikely that he would ever see it again. He looked up. The sky was getting darker but it would be difficult to tell when day became night; especially since there had been no sign of the sun to begin with. He was still cold. The older of the two brothers — Corian — had seen him shivering and had given him a jacket to wear. It was the same as theirs, reaching down to his knees. There were no pockets and no buttons. Jamie nodded his thanks and pulled the heavy fabric around him. He couldn't say it made a great difference.

They had been riding for about two hours, and apart from some of the trees bowing in the wind, Jamie had seen no movement at all. They had left the dead bodies behind but it seemed that there was nothing that was actually alive: no cows grazing in the fields, no birds even in the sky. There were a thousand questions that he wanted to ask but he knew this wasn't the time. Scar was still leading, with Finn next to her. Jamie wondered if he had disappointed her. She had come expecting to find someone who called himself

Sapling and instead she had found him. And yet, at the same time, she had accepted him and taken him with her. She had said they were going to bring him to Scott, even if she knew him as Flint. Sapling and Flint. What did it all mean? He wished she had told him a little more before they set off.

The track dipped down. Now they were passing through a natural basin with a stream flowing sluggishly alongside. The water looked dirty and uninviting, but Jamie was suddenly thirsty.

"Scar…" he called out.

She twisted round on her horse. "What is it?" She didn't sound pleased.

"Can we stop for a drink?"

"The water's poisoned." She said it as if it was obvious, and Jamie realized that Sapling would never have asked such a stupid question. Sapling would have known.

But next to her, Finn took pity on him. The big man had a water bottle attached to his belt and, glancing sourly at Scar, he unhooked it. "Take some of this," he said, holding it out. Jamie rode forward and took it. It was made out of animal skin.

He was just about to raise it to his lips when Finn froze. He had heard something but his senses must have been tuned to the finest degree because as far as Jamie was concerned, there were no sounds in any direction apart from the bubbling water and the faint whisper of the breeze. "Down!" he hissed. Then, to Jamie, "Don't say anything!"

Scar was already sliding down the side of her horse. She had begun moving even before Finn had spoken, meaning that she was as alert as he was. Finn and the two brothers followed her, pulling the horses down with them. Jamie was astonished to see that the animals had been trained to lie flat on their side. He did the same, rolling off the horse and then tugging at the bridle to bring it down with him. The horse crumpled as if it had died. Finn stretched out and rested his hand on its flank, steadying it. All of them lay still.

Very slowly, Jamie turned his head, trying to see why all this was necessary. In front of him, he saw Finn's eyes widen, warning him not to move, not to make any reaction. Nothing seemed to be moving.

There was no danger. He wondered what it was that had made them so afraid.

And then he saw it.

At first he thought he was looking at a column of smoke that might have been rising from a particularly dense bonfire except that there was no fire and the cloud wasn't moving up but down, twisting from the sky to the surface of the earth. Then he realized what it was. A swarm. Insects of some sort…beetles or flies. They were black and there must have been a million of them, pouring down as if tipped out of some giant glass container. At the same time he heard them buzzing as their tiny wings vibrated so fast that they were almost invisible.

What was it that they wanted? What had attracted them here? A minute later, with a sense of utter horror and disbelief, he understood why they had needed to hide.

As the insects hit the ground,, the column broke apart. For a few moments it was just a black fog. Then it reformed and solidified. And now Jamie saw that it had taken a shape. Standing in front of him was a group of ten warriors on horseback — but the warriors and the horses were made up entirely of flies. He wondered what would happen if he took a sword to them. The blade would presumably pass right through them. But what if they attacked him? Would a sword made up of flies be able to cut him or would they separate again and sting him to death? He didn't want to know.

The leader of the fly soldiers held up a hand, signaling the others to wait. He must have sensed something was wrong, that the enemy was near, His head turned slowly in their direction, his black eyes scanning the area. The other soldiers stayed where they were, shimmering a little but keeping their shape. Jamie felt his horse trembling and wondered if it was about to whinny. If so, it would kill them all. Finn stretched out his hand, stroking it, willing it to stay calm. The leader seemed to be staring right at them. Jamie wasn't even breathing. His nerves were screaming at him to get up and run away but he wouldn't have been able to move even if he had tried. Scar was lying on her stomach, her hand resting on her sword. She didn't look scared. She looked angry.

What was this place? First the man-scorpion, now this. What sort of nightmare had he landed himself in?

And then it was as if a decision had been made. The leader kicked at his horse — a horse that was in fact a part of him, part of the swarm from which he had come — and they jolted forward. The rest of the troop followed. Jamie saw them ride for about ten paces before — at the same instant — they all came apart again, separating into a million tiny pieces and dissolving into the air. Once again they were nothing more than flies, a huge cloud of them hanging over the ground. Then they were swept away as if by the wind and a moment later they were gone.

"Drink!" Finn nodded at Jamie, who was still holding the water bottle. He was squeezing it so hard, he was surprised it hadn't burst. He thought for a moment, then shook his head and handed it back. He was still thirsty but he doubted his ability to swallow anything. His entire body felt stretched. His heart was pounding and he had to concentrate to stop himself trembling in front of the others. Part of him knew that Sapling wouldn't have been afraid.

"The enemy is gathering for the last fight," Finn said. "The end of the war."

Scar nodded. "Will they attack tonight?"

"Who can say?" Finn thought for a moment as he clipped the water bottle back onto his belt. "They believe they have already won. They will be too busy congratulating themselves. They'll wait for the morning light."

"If we don't hurry, it'll be morning before we even get home." Scar pulled her horse up onto its feet.

"Let's move."

The others allowed their own horses to stand up, then they mounted and set off once again, moving —

much to Jamie's dismay — in the same direction that the fly soldiers had just taken. But by the time they reached the brow of the hill, there was no sign of them. If they were still flying over the vast landscape, there wasn't enough light left to see them.

But now .there were buildings. Looking down into a valley, Jamie saw that they had come to a small town, hexagonal in shape, surrounded by walls with oddly shaped towers at the corners. It was impossible to say when the town had been built. It looked new. And yet most of the buildings were low-rise and there were no modern roads, no 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 hill-side 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 terra-cotta tiles. The pathways had been brightly colored, 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 left and right in the square, part of a system of aqueducts. These had once brought water into the city but now there wasn't any 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. All four of diem 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 toward 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 on them 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 some of its old joy 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 on the square, calling out one name — his name — Sapling, their voices rising into the rapidly darkening sky.

***

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.