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and she cut the trouser legs. Then she deftly plaited the remains into a belt to hold the trousers up. The girl wriggled around in her new clothes. The fabric felt warm and dry against her skin. She looked regretfully at her pink dress discarded on the floor. She saw it was dark grey now.
    Kneeling, the woman looked up into the girl’s face. Emly saw her eyes were like flowers.
    ‘That’s better,’ the woman said gently.
    Then she stood, and the briskness came back in her voice. ‘Have you eaten enough?’ She glanced at the full pitcher of water. ‘Not thirsty?’
    Emly stared at her dumbly, then the woman shrugged and took her by the hand and led her out of the book room. They went down a wide flight of high stairs, Emly jumping down one at a time, then thewoman opened a narrow wooden door and they went down another long flight of stairs, winding round and round until Emly felt dizzy. Finally they came out in a corridor lit by torches. At the end of it was the room where the old man was talking to another woman. Emly wondered if it was his wife. She was glad to see him again. Perhaps he would take her back to Elija.
    ‘If the child has been fed I will take her and go,’ he was saying. ‘We must look for her brother. If we survived the floods he might still be alive too.’ Then he turned to her. Emly thought he looked older than she had ever seen him. He smiled, but his face was pained as if his tummy hurt too.
    The old woman said, ‘We are not, as Indaro said, an orphanage. But perhaps you should leave the child with me rather than take her back into the sewer.’
    ‘Why would I? I know nothing about you. You have answered few of my questions. Why would I trust you?’
    ‘Are you the child’s father, or her grandfather perhaps?’
    ‘No. But I saved her life. In the army, if you save a brother’s life, then you take responsibility for it. It is like that with this child. And I owe it to her to find her brother.’
    ‘You are not in the army and she is not a soldier.’ The old woman turned to Em. ‘Would you like to stay with us, child, or go with this man?’ she asked. Em immediately trotted over to Bartellus and thrust her small hand into his huge one.
    ‘First we will find her brother,’ the old man said, ‘then we will leave this place, all three of us.’
    Then together they left the room and went back into the dark.

CHAPTER FOUR
    THE BOY’S DREAMS were of darkness and fear. No green valleys or blue skies for Elija – he dreamed of the world he knew, and he whimpered in his sleep.
    When he awoke he was still in the nightmare. The darkness was complete. He opened and closed his eyelids a few times but could see no difference. One leg, caught underneath him in the tangle of ropes and wood, had gone dead. He dragged on the rope above to raise himself and free the limb. The ropes creaked and he heard wood cracking, but he did not care. Death in the stream rolling unseen beneath him would end his pain and terror. But the bridge held and he eased his leg into a new position where, after a while, it started to throb as blood flowed back through it.
    He felt around with one foot until it came across a loop of rope which felt secure. He tried to put his full weight on it, but it lurched sideways. It was only then he realized he was lying with his head down in the net of ropes. His tormented body had lost track of which way was up. He reached around and his hand found a piece of rough wood. He pulled on it and it came away. He heard it plunge into the stream. Carelessly he reached out and there was another piece. He rested his weight on it and it stayed in place. His spirits lifted a little and he tried to pull himself up. But his body was fixed in place and, hard as he tried, he could not move. He could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest. He pushed with his hand and found a thickhawser pressed across his body. It was firmly fixed in place by the tangle of ropes and, however the boy wriggled and