If he had waited another second, he would have been killed. As it was, the pointed beak of the hummingbird slammed into his horse, impaling it. The horse cried out – a terrible, deafening scream. Then the hummingbird pulled away. Jamie could feel the air being blasted by its wings as it hovered over them. The bird was searching for him, hoping to strike again. But then Erin appeared from nowhere and slashed at the bird’s face, using the five knives that were his thumb and fingers, aiming for its eyes. The bird reared back and flew off. The horse folded sideways and lay still.
Jamie had bitten his tongue when he fell and could taste his own blood in his mouth. Worse, he had lost his horse, his shield and his sword. He still wasn’t scared – there was no time for fear – but suddenly he wanted this to be over. Scar had been right about one thing. He had no idea how long he had been fighting. A few minutes or several hours? Either way, he was worn out. He’d had enough.
But he knew he had to find Frost. He was lost without it. He looked around – and there it was, lying undamaged on the ground. But as he leant to retrieve it, a man-pig holding a wicked-looking curved dagger scurried towards him. Jamie dived underneath it, grabbed Frost, then lunged upwards. The sword buried itself in the creature’s belly. Jamie jerked it out again, rolled over and got to his feet. There were bodies all around him. Men and creatures fighting. Knights and horsemen. Everything was a blur. His neck was hurting. He touched his fingers to it and saw red. The man-pig had managed to cut him but the wound couldn’t be too bad – there wasn’t enough blood. He let his hand fall. What now?
And right then it all became clear.
Ahead of him was an open space. It was as if the fighters had deliberately parted to create a circular arena. And in the middle of it, two figures stood facing each other. One was Matt. The other was the King of the Old Ones, the creature that had been given the name Chaos. Matt had a sword, but he wasn’t using it. Jamie could feel the power emanating from the first of the Five. Someone hurled a spear towards him but it never came anywhere near. The air shimmered around him. The spear shattered. The pieces were spun away.
“You cannot defeat me. Kneel before me and still I may let you live.” Chaos did not speak. Instead the words radiated from him, ice cold and poisonous. He towered over Matt. Was it Jamie’s imagination or had he grown since the fighting had begun, as if feeding on so much death?
Matt stood where he was. Jamie examined him properly for the first time. He was just a boy with square shoulders and short dark hair, but his face was much older than his fourteen years. He had the eyes of a man, full of wisdom and experience. He was dressed, like Jamie, in a coarsely woven grey shirt that hung down below his waist, crossed by a leather belt running diagonally across his chest. He had a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. The symbol that he had chosen was a fish.
Matt suddenly raised his hand, not attacking his opponent but pointing to the side. Two knights had been closing in but they were instantly thrown back, sent flying off their horses by an invisible force. Several humans – overlords and slaves – were hurled into the air. Matt had created a corridor in the fighting and a second boy stepped into it. Jamie looked across the clearing and saw what could have been a mirror image of himself. Or it could have been Scott. But he knew that it was Flint. Flint was bruised and exhausted from the battle, his clothes torn and his shield broken, but still quite obviously his identical twin.
Flint walked forward and at the same time Scar made her appearance, bringing down a man twice her size, stabbing a second and leaping over a third with her sword angled up in front of her, her eyes fixed on Chaos as if she planned to attack him all on her own. Now there were three of them surrounding the motionless figure, the black space at the centre of the conflict.
The King of the Old Ones was amused by the new arrivals. “Three of the Five. But not enough. Still not enough!” The words vibrated in the air. They made Jamie’s head ache. He felt sick.
He was about to step forward but before he could move, another boy ran past him, almost brushing his shoulder. It was Inti. He was soaking wet from the rainstorm and there was blood running from a wound on his cheek. He had lost his shield but he still had his sword.
“Four of you!” The words came hissing out of the darkness, full of contempt.
“Five,” Jamie said, and joined the circle.
Flint saw him and nodded, his face filled with delight. Inti and Scar smiled. Matt gave nothing away. He unsheathed his sword.
And that was when the King of the Old Ones knew that he had been deceived. The boy who was dead was somehow alive again. Inti had arrived, unseen, on the battlefield. Chaos was surrounded by the Five, who had been born for this very moment and sent to defeat him. Four boys and a girl. Each of them armed. The battle, raging all around them, was almost forgotten.
“Go back where you came from,” Matt said.
He took a single step forward and stabbed with all his strength, burying his blade in the creature’s heart.
The others did the same. First Flint, then Inti. The King of the Old Ones writhed as each blade went into him. His shape was shimmering like ripples on a pool of water. But three blows was not enough to finish him. Scar went next, burying her own sword up to the hilt. And at last the creature cried out, feeling pain for the first time.
Jamie was the last to step forward. Gritting his teeth, he plunged his sword into the blackness in front of him. He felt his arm freeze and wondered if the blade had shattered. At the same moment, he was deafened by the terrible death scream of the defeated king.
The five points of the five swords had touched.
Chaos had never been a man and at that moment he lost the pretence. He seemed to explode outwards, completely losing his human shape, becoming nothing more than a huge shadow, a sort of living night that was at last being torn apart by the coming of the day. He screamed one last time and his servants knew, right then, that the battle was lost. The sound reached the furthest corners of the world and still it didn’t stop. Every evil being in the universe heard it and knew that the end had come.
Jamie was paralysed. If Frost was still in his hand he couldn’t move it. He could feel the power of the Five now that they were finally together and, although he had never been stronger, at the same time he was overwhelmed. The power was intensifying and he was sure that it would break him apart. It was more than he could bear. He tried to look for Finn or any of the others but it was as if nothing existed outside the circle they had formed. He was aware only of four faces. Matt, Flint, Inti, Scar. They were all strangely alike, all fixed in silent concentration and he knew that they were feeling exactly the same as he was.
The King of the Old Ones was no longer there. It was as if he had been turned into smoke that was already drifting away. The Five were standing in a circle, their blades still touching, but with an empty space between them. And nothing could reach them. Although the fighting still continued all around, it was as if they were inside a crystal jar. Swords flashed but the blades broke in mid-air. Spears and arrows rained down on them but bounced off uselessly. The condor plunged towards them in a last, desperate attempt to reach them but its outstretched claws suddenly shattered and it was sent spinning away, a shapeless ball of feathers and blood.
Jamie wondered if he had been more badly hurt than he’d thought. Was he dying? All the sounds of the combat were very distant. There was a great rushing in his ears and a sense of something flowing through him. The Five were cocooned, completely safe, at the very centre of the battle but apart from it.
And now something even stranger was happening.
The five of them seemed to be moving, turning slowly as if on a merry-go-round. But it wasn’t they who were moving. It was the world that was moving around them. The field and the forest and the hill were spinning faster and faster until they no longer existed. They had become a blur, nothing more than a streak of colour that swirled around them with no beginning and no end.
There was an ear-shatte
ring crack. Jamie looked up.
The sky had opened. A chasm had appeared, the very fabric of the day peeling back to reveal a universe filled with stars. At the same time, the wind was howling. It had formed a tornado that was tearing up clumps of grass and pieces of earth. First, dead bodies and then living ones were being pulled into it and carried away through the vortex. With every second that passed, the process was becoming stronger and faster. One after another, the servants of the Old Ones were being taken, spinning helplessly as they were carried up. Jamie watched them as they were pulled into the void and knew that he was partly responsible for what was happening. It was his power that was doing this. He and the other four.
The remaining fire riders had gone, ripped off their horses and blown away like rags. The fly-soldiers had disintegrated. The spider and the hummingbird – all the giant animals – were no more than specks, spiralling ever further upwards. Finally, the dark shadow which was all that remained of Chaos was sucked in, following them into oblivion. And then at last it was over. The tunnel closed up behind them. The wind died down. There was a distant rumble of thunder and the sky rolled back, closing off the darkness, healing its own, self-inflicted wound.
The Five stood in silence.
“Sapling…” It was Flint who had spoken. But Matt raised a hand, holding him back. Not yet.
Scar stepped forward. She was staring at something high above her, shielding her eyes. Jamie looked up and saw that at last the clouds had parted and the sun had been allowed to show its face.
“So that’s what it looks like,” Scar muttered. “I always wondered.” She turned to Matt. “What does it mean?” she asked.
“It means that it’s over,” Matt said. “We’ve won.”
BENEATH THE STARS
They stood looking at each other, the five Gatekeepers: Scar, Inti, Flint, Matt and Jamie. None of them spoke. Too much had happened too quickly. Jamie only knew what Scar had told him, a very small part of the history that had brought them all here today. But he understood that a journey had just ended, and one that had taken their entire lives.
All around them, everything was changing. And it was happening with incredible speed. The Old Ones had brought the planet to the edge of destruction, polluting the water and darkening the sky. But now that they had gone, the world was restoring itself. The rain had stopped as quickly as it had started and the ground was already dry. The clouds had parted as surely as if they had been curtains waiting to be pulled and the sky on the other side was a dazzling blue, the sun already spreading its warmth over the ground. And with the coming of the sun, true colour had returned. The forest, which had seemed black and grey, was now many shades of green. The pine trees were somehow less threatening, the grass softer and more natural.
The three armies that had come together under the symbol of the blue star were only just realizing that the battle was over and the Old Ones had gone. They were still stunned, unable to take in what had happened. A hole in the universe had opened. The Old Ones had been sucked into it. The people were finally on their own, undefeated, and the world was theirs once again. Slowly they began to pick themselves up. Survivors found each other and embraced. Some people stood where they were and wept. Some threw down their weapons and laughed out loud. And many — the dead and the dying — lay where they were, scattered across the four corners of the field.
“Is it really over?” Scar asked. “Is this the end?”
“We’ve won the battle,” Matt said. “And tonight we’ll celebrate. But right now, there’s a lot we have to do.”
“There are many injured.” Inti spoke for the first time. Although he used the same language as the others, he must have learned it only recently. He had a strange accent and had to search for the words.
Matt nodded. “You must go to them.”
“I have been searching for you, Matteo. For many years. I am glad to have found you at last.” Inti nodded at Matt and at the others. Then he turned and walked away.
He was the first to break the circle.
“I shouldn’t have doubted you, Matt,” Scar said. “You were right. It all worked out exactly the way you wanted.”
“It wasn’t my plan,” Matt replied. “It was just the way it was meant to be.”
Scar slid her sword back into its sheath. “I have to find Finn,” she said. “He was hurt in the fighting and he’s going to need looking after.” She stood awkwardly, not wanting to leave but needing to find her friend. Then she hurried off.
Flint and Jamie found themselves face to face. The other boy was looking at him with a mixture of emotions.
Jamie wasn’t sure how to react himself. “You’re Flint … I suppose,” he said. “I mean … of course you are.” He noticed that Flint was carrying a sword that was identical to Frost. He wasn’t surprised. Everything about them was the same. “You look like Scott,” he said. “You sound like him too.”
“Who is Scott?”
“My brother.”
Flint nodded. “And you look and sound like Sapling.”
Jamie tried to smile, but it was difficult. “Is anyone ever going to explain all this?” he asked.
Both boys turned to Matt.
“We can’t talk now,” he said. “I’m sorry … but we have to make a start. There are people who need our help.”
“When?” Flint demanded.
“Tonight.”
Jamie looked around him. Only now was he aware of the scale of the battle he had just fought. It reminded him of what he had seen at Scathack Hill, only this was much worse. All over the field there were men and women with terrible injuries. They had begun to cry out in pain. Blood was everywhere.
“Inti has the power to heal,” Matt said. “But there’s too much for him to do on his own. People will want food and water. The physicians will need help with the stretchers. The questions can wait.”
Flint nodded. He took one last look at Jamie as if trying to work him out, then turned away.
Very quickly, the army had divided itself into different groups. Those who had not been hurt, or who had been hurt only a little, were helping those who had been less fortunate, carrying them to the field hospitals, bringing them water or just staying close by to comfort them. The dead were left where they had fallen. There was nothing that could be done for them: their one solace was that their suffering was over.
Jamie found work for himself, filling water bottles from a barrel that had been brought on a cart to the centre of the field, carrying them to those men and women who were unable to move and who had yet to receive help. The first person he came upon couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to live much longer. His chest had been torn open and his face was white. And yet when he saw Jamie he smiled. As Jamie trickled water between his lips, he held onto his arm and seemed completely at peace. It was as if he had wanted to meet Jamie all his life and now that he had, he was prepared to die.
It was the same, time and time again. Jamie noticed Matt walking among the wounded, stopping to clasp a hand or to kneel down and help someone drink. Everyone in the field seemed to know who they were — which was strange because Jamie wasn’t sure he knew himself. He went back to get more water, wishing that the day was over and they could all sit down and talk.
On the next journey he found Scar and Finn.
By now, Jamie could tell almost at a glance who was going to live to talk about this day and who was not. He could see at once that Finn was dying. The big man was lying with his legs outstretched and his back against the stump of a tree. Scar was kneeling beside him and Inti was there too. Corian and Erin were also near by, watching anxiously. Jamie was relieved to see that neither of the brothers had been hurt.
Inti had been leaning forward with his hands resting on Finn’s shoulders but as Jamie approached he straightened up and glanced at Scar, signalling that there was nothing more he could do. Jamie could see why. Whatever Inti’s power, he had arrived too late. Finn had
taken a terrible blow to the shoulder and lost too much blood. He was very close to the end.
Finn saw Jamie and managed to bend the fingers of one hand, gesturing at him to come closer. Jamie held out a water bottle but Finn shook his head. He no longer had the strength to swallow. Nor did he need to prolong what little life he had left.
“Sapling!” he said.
As Scar turned round and noticed him for the first time, Jamie saw that there were tears in her eyes.
“You did well.” Finn coughed and a few specks of blood flecked his lips. “I knew you would. Didn’t I tell you?”
Jamie nodded but couldn’t speak.
“Finn…” Scar began.
Finn took her hands in his. “You’re not to cry, Scar,” he whispered. “I’ve told you before. It’s not fitting.”
“How will I manage without you?” Scar exclaimed.
“Don’t be foolish. You have your friends. The Five…” Finn patted her hand. It was all the movement he could manage. “But we had adventures together, you and I. People will remember them and talk of them one day, perhaps.”
“Oh, Finn…” Scar couldn’t hold back the tears any more.
“You’re going to be on your own now. But you don’t need me any more. I’m not sure you ever did.” Finn reached up and gently stroked her hair one last time. “We won,” he said. “That’s all that matters.” Finn looked adoringly at her. Then his head fell back and Jamie knew that he would never speak again.
He couldn’t bear to see any more. He snatched up the water bottle and hurried away.
The day wore on, the sun set and at last all the activity began to wind down. The physicians had done what they could. The wounded were resting. And those that had been chosen to die had done so quietly and without complaint. Jamie was almost overwhelmed with tiredness. Part of it was the exhaustion of the fight and the long hours spent working once the battle was over. But he recognized that it was something more. It was a reaction to what he had been through — so much happening so quickly, so many deaths. He was emotionally as well as physically worn out.