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    Silver on the Tree
    Silver on the Tree
    Silver on the Tree
    Ebook331 pages5 hours

    Silver on the Tree

    By Susan Cooper

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    This is the fifth and last book in "The Dark Is Rising" sequence. The Dark is rising in its last and greatest bid to control the world. The servants of the light: Will Stanton, the last of the Old Ones, the mysterious Professor Merriman, and the strange albino Welsh boy, Bran, are helped by three ordinary children in this last desperate battle.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
    Release dateMay 11, 2010
    ISBN9780689849183
    Silver on the Tree
    Author

    Susan Cooper

    Susan Cooper is one of our foremost fantasy authors; her classic five-book fantasy sequence The Dark Is Rising has sold millions of copies worldwide. Her books’ accolades include the Newbery Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and five shortlists for the Carnegie Medal. She combines fantasy with history in Victory (a Washington Post Top Ten Books for Children pick), King of Shadows, Ghost Hawk, and her magical The Boggart and the Monster, second in a trilogy, which won the Scottish Arts Council’s Children’s Book Award. Susan Cooper lives on a saltmarsh island in Massachusetts, and you can visit her online at TheLostLand.com.

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    Reviews for Silver on the Tree

    4/5

    52 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      With the sixth of the group needed finally found, Will Stanton, the Drew children, and others on the quest with them join to roll back the Dark for the final time. Great YA.
    • 3/5
      Harvesting hearts and other organs
    • 4/5
      [Spoilers] In this last book of the Welsh fantasy adventure, the 3 English children are instrumental in working with 'Uncle Merry' and the 2 boys, Will and Bran to achieve the success of the quest. Disappointed by the ending, because the English kids have their memory of the quest taken from them by the "old ones", which did not resonate with me and just felt really arrogant.
    • 4/5
      This is a very well written series in terms of writing, but the plot really lets it down. It's like a game of D+D where you're collecting a load of unrelated artefacts to save the world.Some of the descriptive text is beautiful and she manages a good feel for magic (in the sense of writing about magical places and mythical events), but I do so wish there had been a better, more connected story behind it all.
    • 5/5
      Just cruised through this book. 5 books later and I'm feeling great. A wonderful series.
    • 4/5
      3-1/2 stars, or somewhere between 3-1/2 and 4. There were places where this dragged a bit. It was perhaps a little longer than it needed to be. That's not an easy thing to decide with any conviction though as the mythical nature of the story and style of the writing begged for some drawn out vague (vague isn't the right word, maybe mystical) descriptions. Overall this series was an easy four stars. The Newbery winner, the fourth book, was definitely the best and the second book, the Newbery honor book, was a close second. And I really do believe that I agreed with those honors rather than being lead by them to fulfill the expectation. :)
    • 2/5
      Well it all comes full circle here. The last book in the Dark is Rising series is done. Yet, why do I feel so empty? I thought at first perhaps that this was part of the cost of re-reading a book or series again, that you had read the first time when you were much younger. But no, because thinking back now--this must have been what the longing I felt was all about. Things finally draw to a conclusion at the end of this book, and life moves on, but there's still that lingering "But..." that I just want to end all my sentences with. This was supposed to be the last great adventure, and there are parts that I like and love, but there are too many other things in hindsight that weighed down those feelings and just left me feeling... underwhelmed.

      I feel like magic in this series is a heavy burden. It doesn't come easily, and it doesn't even feel natural. It's a strain on everyone that uses it, and whenever it inevitably interferes with the normal world and people's lives, the solution is always wiping their memories. I don't know about you, but when I've fought that hard, struggled for so long, for a cause... I don't want my memories of what I fought for to be lost! And in a way, whenever they did that in previous books to other characters that started getting a hint of what was going on, I balked at it! I cringed and grit my teeth. How do you just do that?! Wipe my mind and pretend like it didn't happen! Like you're all too powerful for me to be of any use if I knew! I get it, the Light in this series is trying to protect humanity. But know what? We can fight for ourselves too! Otherwise you wouldn't have used Barney and Jane and Simon! It all started with them! And then we get everyone else just... treating them like they can't do anything in the long run. Worse, like they don't deserve the respect of remembering.

      ...you just don't do that. Messing with people's heads is one thing, but stealing their memories from them is taking away a part of who they are. Unless they willingly sought it, which I wouldn't praise or be happy about anyway, that's... not something you do.

      But going back to this book in particular, things are as they've been in the last few books. We get the entire battle of Light and Dark fought and ended. And it's an obvious ending. One would think it would be. It's again filled with so much going on that you're basically being dragged along for the ride without even getting a chance to experience what's happening. The empathy whenever it comes to these magical things... just isn't there. Whenever we focus on Will or the Light's dealings, even the Dark's dealings, it's cold. Distant. Unfeeling. You can't find anything to cling to that'll give you any feelings at all. Just like Jane, Barney, and Simon throughout many parts of this book: You're just standing there, quietly, watching all the important people talk and completely ignore you. And that's what a lot of this series is when it's all summarized. That is why it gets Two Stars from me. Is it alright? Yeah. It is. But the only good parts, and I mean, the really, actually enjoyable parts, are with the Drew kids. Will, the Light, the Dark, and what have you... they just... make you feel bland.

      I think if this story was written more from the Drew's adventures, it would have been far more pleasant and fun. But it just comes off as hard to connect to, full of fancy show and flashy stuff, but there's nothing really concrete or logical in the procession of anything. Things just HAPPEN because they DO and they come whenever they want. You're being dragged behind a speeding car, but you have no idea where you're going. They stop to ask your opinion every once in a blue moon, or during a pit stop, but then you're back in the trunk or something, stashed away until you're needed.

      Eh. It's a shame. Because there's a lot of stuff here that is lovely, but it's got no substance. It's just there, and you don't feel anything for it.

      So that's the conclusion for this series. It was fine. It was okay. But I wish you got a chance to actually feel like you experienced something worthwhile. Because you're hoping for it throughout the entire series and then... you just get... nothing really. Everything goes back to how it was before you ever started the series. As far as you're concerned, nothing's changed--because nothing feels like it changed.

      Give these books a shot if you want. But they're not the best. Definitely not as magical as I once thought they were. Funny that, all my memories from when I was a kid were of the parts where the Drew's or Bran was involved. Huh. Guess it goes to show you what really matters~ And in this case, it's worth it only for them, but even then, just barely. Take it out of a library, but don't buy this at first go. It's not really worth your money, I'm sorry to say.
    • 4/5
      My biggest memory from the first time I read this was of really hating Bran and being angry that Merriman sailed away on Pridwen while Bran got to keep on living. This time, however, I liked Bran much more. The ending of the book is quite sad--I mean, I don't really care about the Drew children, but it's very hard that Bran doesn't even get to remember what's happened, considering what an integral part of it he was. This does not strike me as appropriately respectful (which is not something you often hear me say with regard to children). And poor Will is all alone with his experience...not to mention that the most significant part of his life is over before puberty.

      I was really touched by the relationship between Gwion and Gwyddno. I hope they are having an awesome, happy afterlife with each other beneath the stars, among the apple orchards!
    • 1/5
      The book that ruined the series. Since everyone who might have learned something is forced to forget everything they've learned and done, the whole book (and the previous ones) become pointless.
    • 4/5
      All the characters from the previous books come together in this final installment to do battle with the Light against the Dark. This is a really satisfactory ending to the whole saga and various character's flaws and strengths are used excellently. I really appreciated Bran's choice at the end when he's offered to join his father and the other immortal characters. Really great YA series that mixes a lot of British mythology with the contemporary story line.
    • 5/5
      What can I say, I loved this book too..... :-) Oh, and every few years or so, I take these all out and read them again. Love them.
    • 5/5
      My favorite of The Dark is Rising series(I really need to re-read). There's something so magical about this book--it LINGERS with me, in a way that one of the other books in this series do. And yes, part of it is because of the haunting ending, which is definitely one of my favorite endings of all times.

      I haven't read these books since I was at least fourteen--I'm twenty-two now, and I still remember reading the last page so clearly. And THAT, I think, is a mark of good writing, and of being able to create something that stays with the teenagers or the children who read your work even as you become an adult, which Susan Cooper is marvelous at.
    • 5/5
      Silver on the Tree combines all the best of the other books of the sequence: the magic, the genuine moments of terror and alarm, the weaving of legends and the everyday, the mysteries that leave you to wonder, the sense of place... And more than any of the others it combines both sadness and joy; in that, it's the most adult of the sequence.I especially enjoy little touches like Bran getting to meet Owain Glyndŵr; one thing I did miss was Barney not having more of a reaction to actually meeting King Arthur who he's idolised since before the first page of the first book. I can't remember having noticed it before, but that jarred me, this time. Also, I remember someone mentioning to me how much it bothered them that this book plays into the betrayal of a woman theme (as does The Dark is Rising, in the form of Maggie Barnes, "a sweet face" to lure people into the Dark). Thinking about it this time, I see their point, even though the White Rider is otherwise ambiguously gendered. It's as if women can somehow hide their allegiance to the Dark behind womanly charms, where the men are immediately picked out (Mr Mitothin doesn't fool Will for a moment; Maggie Barnes, however, has to act wickedly to get him to realise, and "Blodwen Rowlands" fools John entirely until the very end). We do have some great female characters in these books -- the Lady and Jane, mainly, with Will's sisters, mother and aunt and other such minor characters -- but it's a bit nasty that the alluring side of the Dark is pretty unambiguously female.Still, that's not enough to ruin the books, and nor is it suggested as something all women could/would do. It's just something that may bother you, particularly if you forget how old these books are.I think I've ended my reviews of this book with this quotation before, but it's still true. The book ends with a call to arms to all of us, to stop relying on anyone else to change the world and know that we are, alone, responsible for our own choices."For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you."
    • 3/5
      It's a pity that this last book is relatively weak. Jane, Simon, Barney and Merriman have come all the way to Wales for climax of the series and, instead of some adventures with them, we get pages and pages and pages of Cooper's imaginative lost land. Yes, it's lovely. Yes, it would be great in the graphic novel. Cooper, who is so good at keeping action happening seems to drop the ball here.
    • 3/5
      The end of the series, but not the pinnacle.
      After re-reading the entire series, I understand why I don't re-read it regularly. It's too uneven, though 2 of the 5 books are brilliant. This volume flounders under the weight of both what comes before in Cooper's world and the canon of Arthurian Legend. At the end I find it well-done but somehow lacking. I don't know that I can be more precise, other than to say read this, and read The Mists of Avalon, and read Le Morte d'Arthur and read White's books, and read Mary Stewart. Read it all.
    • 5/5
      The last of the quintology, and the most eventful, and surprising, with an enemy lurking in the most unexpected character. I liked the way Cooper made me think about the meaning of words, and her interpretation of the nightmare, even if etymologically she is wrong. I slowed down my reading speed towards the end, not wanting it to come, and now it is there, and all is right with the world, I am feeling bereft. But it seems strange to think how much the real world has changed, since this was written, for today's children.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely love this series. I love the world Cooper's created, along with the characters. I love the fuzziness of good versus evil, along with the idea that some things are black and white (aka the light is good and the dark is bad) but not everything is (hence the fuzziness. I love Bran and Will, I love the Drews and I love Merry. I enjoy all the side characters who flit in and out of the books. In this final book, Cooper manages to write her characters as older and more mature (including the Drews). The ending, of course, broke my heart a little and it makes my heart ache to think about Will as the only one who remembers after everyone else has forgotten or is gone. I'm also very glad that I listened to these books, they were just as good as when I read them, but the experience was actually better on audio. I'm not sure if it was the reader(s) or what, but they were a pleasure to listen to.
    • 4/5
      **This review won’t make much sense if you haven’t read the rest of the series**This is the final book in The Dark is Rising series and I’ll admit, it was sad to say goodbye. Everything has been building to the final battle between the dark and the light and this book provided a satisfying conclusion. For me, the action sequences have never been the draw. It’s the relationships that make the series a success and in this book, all the characters are together for the first time. Of course, when everyone is finally together there’s a bit of rivalry, but that would happen with any group. Will has really grown as a character, balancing his life as a young man and as an Old One can’t be easy, but it seems like he has matured. His role in the series is actually pretty tragic. It broke my heart when Will tells his brother who he really is and his brother doesn’t believe him. He then has to make him forget what he said. It seems like the people who fight for what’s right often lead such lonely lives. This book features some wonderful new characters, like Gwion, and some intense scenes, like Will and Bran being chased by the skeletal horse. There’s also a great scene where Will and Merriman travel back in time to when the Romans were in Britain. Also, Jane’s role becomes vital in this book, because she and the Grey Lady are both females, so they have a special connection. One of the aspects I’ve enjoyed the most from this series is the way the “Dark” attacks people. It’s not about violent attacks or brute force; instead they plant seeds of doubt and prey on people’s fears. They manipulate and tempt and those are much more effective ways of getting what you want. It’s much easier to stand strong against a physical attack than it is to resist the idea that you aren’t good enough or that someone has betrayed you. One thing I wished I’d known about the series before I began it is that there is a central cast of characters, but they aren’t in every book. The main characters include Simon, Jane and Barney Drew, Merriman Lyon, Will Stanton, Bran and a few others. The first book features the Drew sibling, we don’t meet Will until the second book and the Drew siblings aren’t even in that one. Bran doesn’t show up until the fourth book, etc. It all comes together in the final book, but I think I would have enjoyed the second book much more if I had stopped waiting for the Drew siblings to appear.All-in-all, I really enjoyed the whole series, especially the references to the Arthur/Merlin legend. I wish I’d read them when I was young, but I’m glad to discover them now. “‘Why should some of the Riders of the Dark be dressed all in white and the rest all in black?’ Will said reflectively, ‘I don’t know. Maybe because the dark can only reach people at extremes, blinded by their own shining ideas or locked up in the darkness of their own heads.’” 
    • 4/5
      Love - or the ability to forge relationships that create loyalty and sacrfice - this is the deciding factor between light and dark. It's not an uncommon theme in fantastical novels. In the end, what saves the light are those bonds forged as people loved. I liked two parts in particular - when John rejects his "wife's" claim of possession declaring that people are free to choose. And again in the end when Merriman tells the children that the earth is left to men, who must choose against their own worst selves in order to keep themselves in the light.
    • 4/5
      The Silver On The Tree is the conclusion of the Dark Is Rising sequence. It wraps up all of the lose ends of the story so eloquently. The Drew children, Will Stanton, and Bran Davies all come together to turn back the rising of the dark. It was a great end to an epic journey, and last few pages are so well written I will definately pick this book up again just to re-read the resolution.
    • 4/5
      When I last read the dark is rising sequence as a child, the silver on the tree was my least favourite of the books. Rereading this now, I think it may actually be my favourite. Many of the scene and settings are incredibly vividly realised, and the tension in the book builds with ever increasing speed and intensity as the story progressed. Wonderful
    • 3/5
      Finally, I finished the Dark is Rising series! I thought the ending was alright, but once again, I’ll admit that Cooper’s non-direct style of writing sometimes bothers me. I like being told what’s going on in clear language, so there were places in this book that just annoyed me…but ultimately, I applaud her consistency throughout the series, and found the ending sad but necessary.It wasn’t my favorite of the series – I think that one goes to The Grey King – but on the whole, I’m glad I took the time to read the books and recommend them to enthusiasts of classic children’s literature or fantasy. Time well spent.
    • 4/5
      Spoilers ahead:I found this be a mostly satisfying conclusion to this series, even if it was a bit sad. The action was exciting the whole tone of the bookw as much darker than previous ones (with possibly the exception of the fourth book - The Grey King). Some parts of the book I found almost theatrical in nature. The scene where Will and Bran are in the maze of mirrors and all the glass shatters musically left me breathless.I do the ending was just a little disappointing, and perhaps this is because I'm not very familiar with Welsh mythology, but I didn't understand how the winner in the battle between the Light and the Dark could be decided by who slices through a bush of mistletoe on one special tree. It seemed a little...anticlimatic.The very end was also just a little bit sad. I mourned for Will because neither Bran nor the Drew children would remember any of their adventures or how much they helped the Light. I think the ending was supposed to be happy, but that's not how I saw it. Still, it was a very good book and I greatly enjoyed the series as a whole. It's a keeper and one that, at some point in the future, I hope to reread.
    • 3/5
      This is the last of the Dark is Rising sequence and, in keeping with my re-read of the Prydain Chronicles, this is probably my least favorite book, again because it is the most epic.In this last tale the Dark and Light are gathering for one last battle and Will Stanton and his Welsh friend, Bran, must gain the crystal sword and join with the Drew siblings to aid Merriman.Everyone is here, but for me the book is marred by the long section all about looking for the crystal sword through the Lost Land. The pace in this large section seemed off and I had trouble caring about what happened. The ending of this novel also feels off, somehow - like Cooper ran out of steam and worked to tie up loose ends all at once. Choices are expediently made or not made at all and Gummery, predictably, goes off to the Summer Country (or the Old One equivalent).Still and all this is a wonderful series for both children and adults (and excellent for reading aloud chapter by chapter)!
    • 5/5
      This is the best book in the Dark is Rising series since the one that bears that name. It is fairly long (compared to Greenwitch and The Grey King) and sometimes seems a little slow-going, but for the most part it kept me in suspense as it improved immensely upon my criticism of the previous books in the series that it seems like things happen too easily for the characters. For much of this story, the children have no idea what they're supposed to be doing next, but are figuring out how the bits and pieces of verses they've picked up throughout all their adventures fit together. All the children from the previous books come together in this one, and it really ties up all the loose ends from the earlier stories. My only regret about the plot is that it is hinted a few times that Jane might be special in some way, but there is never really an indication of what that might mean. The moral theme of free will in relation to fulfilling prophecy again plays a strong role in this book, and while I may not agree with the take on it presented here, it is at least elegantly addressed. This is a fitting conclusion to an enjoyable series, and one that leaves you disappointed to see it all end.
    • 5/5
      Possibly the best series of books I ever read. I have visited every location mentioned in the books! A powerful set of stories when I was younger, I would still enjoy them now. The movie is bound to be a huge let down - but I still can't wait to see it!
    • 4/5
      The last and longest book in the "The Dark Is Rising" series holds the reader’s interest and does not disappoint but it is not as tightly put together as the fourth book—perhaps because there were so many threads that had to be pulled together. All of the characters from the previous books have a part to play – for good or evil—in this final installment. For younger readers there are probably more surprises than for older readers who pick up on “clues” that are dropped, whether intentionally or unintentionally I’m not always sure. All in all it was a series which I enjoyed but will probably not read again.
    • 4/5
      A good ending to a good series.
    • 4/5
      This is the 5th and final book in the Dark is Rising series and it is for the final prize, winner takes all, will it be the Light or the Dark?. All of our favorite characters come back in this one to do their part to help the Light win. This is a neat set of books for young adults/Middle school kids. I read them when I was in Middle school and found them a little spooky, having reread them as an adult I found them an easy read and definitely written for younger readers. Great books to get younger readers interested in reading.
    • 4/5
      The fifth and best of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, bringing everything to what is for me a very satisfactory conclusion."... the Dark came rising." I've found very few more shiver-inducing sentences in all of children's fantasy literature.

    Book preview

    Silver on the Tree - Susan Cooper

    PART ONE

    When the Dark Comes Rising

    MIDSUMMER’S EVE

    WILL SAID, TURNING A PAGE, "He liked woad. He says—listen—the decoction of Woad drunken is good for wounds in bodies of a strong constitution, as of country people, and such as are accustomed to great labour and hard coarse fare."

    Such as me, and all other members of Her Majesty’s Navy, Stephen said. With great precision he pulled a tall, heavy-headed stem of grass out of its sheath, and lay back in the field nibbling it.

    Woad, said James, wiping a mist of sweat from his plump pink face. That’s the blue stuff the Ancient Britons used to paint themselves with.

    Will said, Gerard says here that woad flowers are yellow.

    James said rather pompously, Well, I’ve done a year’s more history than you have and I know they used it for blue. There was a pause. He added, Green walnuts turn your fingers black.

    Oh, well, said Will. A very large velvety bee, overloaded with pollen, landed on his book and waddled dispiritedly across the page. Will blew it gently on to a leaf, pushing back the straight brown forelock that flopped over his eyes. His glance was caught by a movement on the river beyond the field where they lay.

    Look! Swans!

    Lazy as the hot summer day, a pair of swans sailed slowly by without a sound; their small wake lapped at the riverbank.

    Where? said James, clearly with no intention of looking.

    They like this bit of the river, it’s always quiet. The big boats stay over in the main reach, even on a Saturday.

    Who’s coming fishing? said Stephen. But he still lay unmoving on his back, one long leg folded over the other, the slender stem of grass swaying between his teeth.

    In a minute. James stretched, yawning. I ate too much cake.

    Mum’s picnics are as huge as ever. Stephen rolled over and gazed at the grey-green river. When I was your age, you couldn’t fish at all in this part of the Thames. Pollution, then. Some things do improve.

    A paltry few, Will said sepulchrally, out of the grass.

    Stephen grinned. He reached out and picked a slender green stalk with a tiny red flower; solemnly he held it up. "Scarlet pimpernel. Open for sun, closed for rain, that’s the poor man’s weathervane. Granddad taught me that. Pity you never knew him. What does your friend Mr. Gerard say about this one, Will?"

    Mmm? Will was lying on his side, watching the weary bumblebee flex its wings.

    Book, James said. Scarlet pimpernel.

    Oh. Will turned the crackling pages. "Here it is. Oh loverly. The juyce purgeth the head by gargarising or washing the throat therewith; it cures the tooth-ach being snift up into the nosethrils, especially into the contrary nosethril."

    The contrary nosethril, of course, Stephen said gravely.

    He also says it’s good against the stinging of vipers and other venomous beasts.

    Daft, said James.

    No it’s not, Will said mildly. Just three hundred years old. There’s one super bit at the end where he tells you very seriously how barnacle geese are hatched out of barnacles.

    The Caribbean might have foxed him, Stephen said. Millions of barnacles, but not one barnacle goose.

    James said, Will you go back there, after your leave?

    Wherever their Lordships send us, mate. Stephen threaded the scarlet pimpernel into the top buttonhole of his shirt, and unfolded his lanky body. Come on. Fish.

    I’ll come in a minute. You two go. Will lay idly watching as they fitted rods together, tied hooks and floats. Grasshoppers skirled unseen from the grass, chirruping their solos over the deep summer insect hum: it was a sleepy, lulling sound. He sighed with happiness. Sunshine and high summer and, rarer than either, his eldest brother home from sea. The world smiled on him; nothing could possibly be improved. He felt his eyelids droop; he jerked them apart again. Again they closed in sleepy content; again he forced them open. For a flicker of a moment he wondered why he would not let himself fall harmlessly asleep.

    And then he knew.

    The swans were there on the river again, slow-moving white shapes, drifting back upstream. Over Will’s head the trees sighed in the breeze, like waves on distant oceans. In tiny yellow-green bunches the flowers of the sycamore scattered the long grass around him. Running one of them between his fingers, he watched Stephen standing tall a few yards off threading his fishing-line through his rod. Beyond, on the river, he could see one of the swans moving slowly ahead of its mate. The bird passed Stephen.

    But as it passed, it did not disappear behind Stephen. Will could see the white form clearly through the outline of Stephen’s body.

    And through the outline of the swan, in turn, he could see a steep slope of land, grassy, without trees, that had not been there before.

    Will swallowed.

    Steve? he said.

    His eldest brother was close before him, knotting a leader on his line, and Will had spoken loudly. But Stephen did not hear. James came past, holding his rod erect but low as he fastened the hook safely into its cork handle. Will could still see, through him, the forms of the swans as if in a faint mist. He sat up and stretched out his hand to the rod as James went by, and his fingers moved through the substance of the wood as if there had been nothing there.

    And Will knew, with dread and delight, that a part of his life which had been sleeping was broad awake once more.

    His brothers walked off to the river, moving diagonally across the field. Through their phantom forms Will could see the only earth that in this elusive patch of time was for him solid and real: the grassy slope, its edges merging into mistiness. And on it he saw figures, running, bustling, driven by some urgent haste. If he stared at them too hard, they were not there. But if he gazed with sleepy eyes, not quite focussed, he could see them all, sun-dappled, hurrying.

    They were small, dark-haired. They belonged to a very distant time. They wore tunics of blue, green or black; he saw one woman in white, with a string of bright blue beads about her neck. They were gathering bundles of spears, arrows, tools, sticks; packing pots into wrappings of animal skin; putting together packages of what he supposed was meat, in dry rippled strips. There were dogs with them: fullhaired dogs with short pointed muzzles. Children ran and called, and a dog lifted his head to bay, but no sound came. For Will’s ears, only the grasshoppers chirruped, over the deep insect hum.

    He saw no animals but the dogs. These people were travellers; not belonging here, but passing through. He was not even sure whether the land on which they stood, in their own time, lay in his own part of the Thames Valley or in some totally different place. But he knew one thing very clearly, suddenly: they were all very much afraid.

    Often they raised their heads, fearfully, and gazed away to the east. They spoke seldom to one another, but worked on, hastily. Something, someone, was coming, threatening them, driving them on. They were running away. Will found himself catching the sense of urgency, willing them to hurry, to escape whatever disaster was on its way. Whatever disaster… he too stared eastward. But it was hard to tell what he saw. A strange double landscape lay before him, a firm curving slope visible through the phantom misty lines of the flat fields and hedges of his own day and the glimmering half-seen Thames. The swans were still there, and yet not there; one of them dipped its elegant neck to the surface of the water, ghostly as an image reflected in a windowpane….

    …and all at once, the swan was real, solid, opaque, and Will was no longer looking out of his own time into another. The travellers were gone, out of sight in that other summer day thousands of years before. Will shut his eyes, desperately trying to hold some image of them before it faded from his memory. He remembered a pot glinting with the dull sheen of bronze; a cluster of arrows tipped with sharp black flakes of flint; he remembered the dark skin and eyes of the woman in white, and the bright luminous blue of the string of beads about her neck. Most of all he remembered the sense of fear.

    He stood up in the long grass, holding his book; he could feel his legs trembling. Unseen in a tree over his head, a songthrush poured out its trilling twice-over song. Will walked shakily towards the river; James’s voice hailed him.

    Will! Over here! Come and see!

    He veered blindly towards the sound. Stephen the purist fisherman stood casting delicately out into the river, his line whispering through the air. James was threading a worm on his hook. He put it down, and triumphantly held up a cluster of three small perch tied through the gills.

    Goodness, Will said. That’s quick!

    Before he could regret the word, James was raising an eyebrow. Not specially. You been asleep? Come on, get your rod.

    No, said Will, to both question and command. Stephen, glancing round at him, suddenly let his line go slack. He looked hard at Will, frowning.

    Will? Are you all right? You look—

    I do feel a bit funny, Will said.

    Sun, I bet. Beating down on the back of your neck, while you were sitting there reading that book.

    Probably.

    Even in England it can get pretty fierce, matey. Flaming June. And Midsummer’s Eve, at that… go and lie down in the shade for a while. And drink the rest of that lemonade.

    All of it? said James indignantly. What about us?

    Stephen aimed a kick at him. You catch ten more perch and I’ll buy you a drink on the way home. Go on, Will. Under the trees.

    All right, said Will.

    I told you that book was daft, James said.

    Will crossed the field again and sat down on the cool grass beneath the sycamore trees, beside the remains of their picnic tea. Sipping lemonade slowly from a plastic cup, he looked uneasily out at the river—but all was normal. The swans had gone. Midges danced in the air; the world was hazy with heat. His head ached; he put aside the cup and lay on his back in the grass, looking up. Leaves danced above him; the branches breathed and swayed, to and fro, to and fro, shifting green patterns against the blue sky. Will pressed his palms to his eyes, remembering the faint hurrying forms that had flickered up to him out of the past; remembering the fear….

    Even afterwards, he could never tell whether he fell asleep. The sighing of the breeze seemed to grow louder, more fierce; all at once he could see different trees above him, beech trees, their heart-shaped leaves dancing agitated in a wilder swirl than sycamore or oak. And this now was not a hedge-line of trees stretching unbroken to the river, but a copse; the river was gone, the sound and smell of it, and on either side of him Will could see the open sky. He sat up.

    He was high over the wooded valley of the Thames on a curving grassy slope; the cluster of beech trees around him marked the top of the hill like a cap. Golden vetch grew in the short springy grass at his side; from one of the curled flowers a small blue butterfly fluttered to his hand and away again. There was no more heavy hum of insects in valley fields; instead, high over his head through the stirring of the wind, a skylark’s song poured bubbling into the air.

    And then, somewhere, Will heard voices. He turned his head. A string of people came hurrying up the hill, each darting from one tree or bush to the next, avoiding the open slope. The first two or three had just reached a curious deep hole sunk into the hill, so closely overgrown by brush that he would not have noticed it if they had not been there, tugging branches aside. They were laden with bundles wrapped in rough dark cloth—but so hastily wrapped that Will could see the contents jutting through. He blinked: there were gold cups, plates, chalices, a great gold cross crusted with jewels, tall candlesticks of gold and silver, robes and cloths of glimmering silk woven with gold and gems; the array of treasure seemed endless. The figures bound each bundle with rope, and lowered one after another into the hole. Will saw a man in the robes of a monk, who seemed to be supervising them: directing, explaining, always keeping a nervous watch out over the surrounding land.

    A trio of small boys came hurrying up to the top of the hill, despatched by the pointing arm of the priest. Will stood up slowly. But the boys trotted past him without even a glance, ignoring him so completely that he knew he was in this past time only an observer, invisible, not able even to be sensed.

    The boys paused on the edge of the copse, and stood looking out keenly across the valley; they had clearly been sent to keep watch from there. Looking at them huddled nervously together, Will let his mind dwell on hearing them, and in a moment the voices were echoing in his head.

    No one coming this way.

    Not yet.

    Two hours maybe, the runner said. I heard him talking to my father, he said there’s hundreds of them, terrible, rampaging along the Old Way. They’ve burned London, he said, you could see the black smoke rising in great clouds—

    They cut off your ears if they catch you. The boys. The men they slit right open, and they do even worse things to the women and girls—

    My father knew they’d come. He said. There was blood instead of rain fell in the east last month, he said, and men saw dragons flying in the sky.

    There’s always signs like that, before the heathen devils come.

    What’s the use of burying the treasures? Nobody’ll ever come back to get them. Nobody ever comes back when the devils drive them out.

    Maybe this time.

    Where are we going?

    Who knows? To the west—

    Urgent voices called the boys back; they ran. The hiding of bundles in the hole was finished, and some of the figures already scurrying down the hill. Will watched fascinated while the last men heaved over the top of the hole a great flat flint boulder, the largest he had ever seen. They fitted it neatly inside the opening like a kind of lid, then unrolled over the top a section of grassy sod. Branches growing from surrounding bushes were tugged across the top. In a moment there was no sign of any hiding place, no scar on the hillside to show that the hasty work had ever taken place. Crying out in alarm, one of the men pointed across the valley; beyond the next hill a thick column of smoke was rising. At once, in panic, all the group fled down the grass-skinned chalk slope, slipping and leaping, the monkish figure as hasty and helterskelter as the rest.

    And Will was swept by a wave of fear so intense that it turned his stomach. For a moment he knew, as vividly as these fugitives, the animal terror of cruel violent death: of pain, of hurting, of hate. Or of something worse than hate: a dreadful remote blankness, that took joy only from destruction and tormenting and others’ fear. Some terrible threat was advancing, on these people just as on those others, shadowy forms he had seen in a different, distant past a little while before. Over there in the east, the threat was once more rising, roaring down.

    It’s coming, Will said aloud, staring at the column of smoke, trying not to envision what might happen when its makers came over the brow of the hill. It’s coming—

    James’ voice said, full of a curious excitement, "No it isn’t, it’s not moving at all. Are you awake? Look!"

    Stephen said, What an extraordinary thing!

    Their voices were above Will’s head; he was lying on his back in cool grass. It was a moment before he could recollect himself, and stop shaking. He heaved himself up on to his elbows, and saw Stephen and James standing a few paces away, their hands full of rods and fish and bait pails. They were staring at something in a kind of wary fascination. Will craned his head round to the hot humming meadow, to see what held them. And he gasped, as his mind was half torn apart by a great wave of that same blind terror that had swamped him a moment before, a world and ten centuries and yet no more than a breath away.

    Ten yards off in the grass, a small black animal was standing motionless, facing him: a lithe, lean animal perhaps a foot and a half long, with a long tail and sinuous, curving back. It was like a stoat or a weasel and yet it was neither. Its sleek fur was pitch black from nose to tail; its unwinking black eyes were fixed unmistakably on Will. And from it he felt a pulsing ferocity of viciousness and evil so strong that his mind rebelled against believing it could exist.

    James made a sudden quick hissing sound.

    The black creature did not move. Still it stared at Will. Will sat staring back, caught up in the unreasoning shout of terror that twanged on through his brain. Out of the corner of his eye he was aware of Stephen’s tall form standing at his side, very still.

    James said softly, I know what it is. It’s a mink. They’ve just started turning up round here—I saw it in the paper. Like weasels, only nastier, it said. Look at those eyes—

    Impulsively breaking the tension, he yelled wordlessly at the creature and slashed at the grass with his fishing rod. Swiftly, but without panic, the black mink turned and slid away through the field towards the river, its long back undulating with a strange unpleasant gliding movement like a large snake. James bounded after it, still clasping his rod.

    Be careful! Stephen called sharply.

    James shouted, I won’t touch it. Got my rod…. He disappeared along the riverbank, past a clump of stubby willow.

    I don’t like this, Stephen said.

    No, Will said. He shivered, looking at the place in the field where the animal had stood, staring at him with its intent black eyes. Creepy.

    I don’t mean just the mink, if that’s what it was. There was an unfamiliar note in Stephen’s voice that made Will abruptly turn his head. He moved to get to his feet, but his tall brother squatted down beside him, arms resting on knees, hands fiddling with the wire leader on a piece of fishing-line.

    Stephen wound the line round his finger and back again, round and back again.

    Will, he said in this strange taut voice. I’ve got to talk to you. Now, while James is off chasing that thing. I’ve been trying to get you alone ever since I came home—I hoped today, only Jamie wanted to fish—

    He floundered, stumbling over his words in a way that filled Will with astonishment and alarm, coming from the cool adult brother who had always been so much his symbol of everything fulfilled, complete, grown-up. Then Stephen brought his head up and stared at Will almost belligerently, and Will stared nervously back.

    Stephen said, When the ship was in Jamaica last year, I sent you a big West Indian carnival head, for a Christmas and birthday present put together.

    Well of course, Will said. It’s super. We were all looking at it only yesterday.

    Stephen went on, ignoring him. "I’d got it from an old Jamaican who grabbed me one day in the street, out of nowhere, in the middle of Carnival. He told me my name, and he said I was to give the head to you. And when I asked how on earth he knew me, he said, ‘There is a look that we Old Ones have. Our families have something of it too.’ "

    I know about all that, Will said brightly, swallowing the foreboding that hollowed his throat. You sent a letter, with the head. Don’t you remember?

    I remember it was a damn funny thing for a stranger to say, Stephen said. "Old Ones, we Old Ones. With capital letters—you could hear them."

    Oh not really. Surely—I mean, you said he was an old man—

    Will, Stephen said, looking at him with cold blue eyes, "the day we sailed from Kingston, that old man turned up at the ship. I don’t know how he talked them into it, but someone was sent to fetch me to him. He stood there on the dock, with his black, black face and his white, white hair, and he looked quietly at the rating who’d fetched me, until the boy left, and then he said just one thing. ‘Tell your brother,’ he said, ‘that the Old Ones of the ocean islands are ready.’ Then he went away."

    Will said nothing. He knew there would be more. He looked at Stephen’s hands; they were clenched, and one thumb was flicking automatically to and fro over its fist.

    And then, Stephen said, his voice shaking a little, "we put in at Gibraltar on the way home, and I had half a day ashore, and a stranger said something to me in the street. He was standing beside me, we were waiting for a traffic light—he was very tall and slim, Arab I think. Do you know what he said? ‘Tell Will Stanton that the Old Ones of the south are ready.’ Then he just disappeared into the crowd."

    Oh, Will said.

    The thumb abruptly stopped moving on Stephen’s hand. He stood up, in one swift movement like a released spring. Will too scrambled to his feet, blinking up, unable to read the suntanned face against the bright sky.

    Either I’m going out of my head, Stephen said, "or you’re mixed up in something very strange, Will. In either case you might have a little more to say to me than oh. I told you, I don’t like it, not one bit."

    The trouble is, you see, Will said slowly, that if I tried to explain, you wouldn’t believe me.

    Try me, his brother said.

    Will sighed. Of all the nine Stanton children, he was the youngest and Stephen the oldest; there were fifteen long years between them, and until Stephen had left home to join the Navy, a smaller Will had shadowed him everywhere in silent devotion. He knew now that he was at the ending of something he had hoped would never end.

    He said, Are you sure? You won’t laugh at me, you won’t… judge?

    Of course not, Stephen said.

    Will took a deep breath. Well then. It’s like this…. This where we live is a world of men, ordinary men, and although in it there is the Old Magic of the earth, and the Wild Magic of living things, it is men who control what the world shall be like. He was not looking at Stephen, for fear of seeing the changing expression that he knew he would certainly see. But beyond the world is the universe, bound by the law of the High Magic, as every universe must be. And beneath the High Magic are two… poles… that we call the Dark and the Light. No other power orders them. They merely exist. The Dark seeks by its dark nature to influence men so that in the end, through them, it may control the earth. The Light has the task of stopping that from happening. From time to time the Dark has come rising and has been driven back, but now very soon it will rise for the last and most perilous time. It has been gathering strength for that rising, and it is almost ready. And therefore, for the last time, until the end of Time, we must drive it back so that the world of men may be free.

    We? Stephen said, expressionless.

    We are the Old Ones, Will said, strong and self-confident now. There is a great circle of us, all over the world and beyond the world, from all places and all corners of time. I was the last one to be born, and when I was brought into my power as an Old One, on my eleventh birthday, the circle became complete. I knew nothing about all this, till then. But the time is coming closer now, and that is why you were given the reassurances—warnings, in a way—to bring to me, I think from two of the three oldest of the circle.

    Stephen said, in the same flat voice, The second one didn’t look very old.

    Will looked up at him and said simply, Nor do I.

    For God’s sake, Stephen said irritably, you’re my little brother and you’re twelve years old and I can remember you being born.

    In one sense only, Will said.

    Stephen stared in exasperation at the figure before him: the stocky small boy in blue jeans and battered shirt, with straight brown hair falling untidily over one eye. Will, you’re too old for these silly games. You sound almost as if you believed all this stuff.

    Will said calmly, What do you think those two messengers were, then, Steve? You think I’m smuggling diamonds, maybe, or part of a drug ring?

    Stephen groaned. I don’t know. Perhaps I dreamt them… perhaps I really am going out of my head. The tone tried to be light, but there was unmistakable strain in his voice.

    Oh no, Will said. You didn’t dream them. Other… warnings… have begun coming too. He fell silent for a moment, thinking of the anxious hurrying figures looming misty out of a time three thousand years past, and the Saxon boys, after that, watching terrified for the marauding Danes. Then he looked sadly at Stephen.

    It’s too much for you, he said. "They should have known that. I suppose they did. The messages had to come by word of mouth, that’s

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