'The half of the amulet that Gabriel gave you?' I say. 'That's one of the pieces?'

'Yes.'

'But not much use without the other half.'

'No. However, many years ago I learnt who had the other half and since then I've been searching for that person. A witch called Ledger.'

'And now you've found him? Her?'

'Yes.'

'And have you got the other half of the amulet?'

'It's not quite as simple as that. But I do believe the way to beat Soul is by using the amulet. If you have it you'll be protected as Linus was. You'll be indestructible.'

'If the amulet is ripped in half, how do you know it'll work? How do you even know these pieces are part of the Vardian amulet? It might all be a stupid old story anyway.'

Van's blue eyes seem to explode with sapphire sparks as she says, 'There are no guarantees, but I think Ledger will know how to make it work. She's a powerful witch. Possibly the most powerful ever.'

'More powerful than my father?'

Van takes my arm again and says, 'Ledger is very different from your father. She's unusual for a Black Witch and most people haven't even heard of her. She's extremely private, though I was honoured to meet her a few days ago. She has many Gifts and a vast knowledge of magic. She may be able to help you access your father's Gifts as well as find how to make the amulet work.'

'But why would she help me? And I can't imagine she's going to hand her half of the amulet over for nothing, if at all.'

'She might be persuaded. I told her about you and she was extremely interested in meeting you.'

I look at Van. She's as cool and sophisticated as always. The scars from her battle with Mercury are all but faded. She's not in one of the pastel-coloured suits she used to wear but dark casual trousers, jumper and winter jacket. And she's as hard to read as ever. I trust her, but I know she always has her own agenda.

'Why would Ledger want to meet me?'

'You'll have to go and see her to find out.'

'You say I'm taking risks; if she's so powerful, how do you know she won't just take Gabriel's half of the amulet and kill me?'

Van smiles faintly. 'I don't think murder is her style. And anyway I already gave it to her.'

'What?'

'It was a sign of good faith. Ledger will know how to make the amulet whole. She said she will do it for the right person. We simply have to hope that you are that person, Nathan.'

dreading you.

Van goes back to camp with Nesbitt, and me and Gabriel go for a run. I ask him, 'Are you bothered about Van giving away your half of the amulet?'

'Of course not. I gave it to her in exchange for helping me, for saving my life. It's hers to do with as she wants. And I told you back then, Nathan, I'm not interested in those things any more. I never was particularly to start with.'

'And do you think I should go for the amulet?'

'I'm thinking about that.'

So am I. Ledger sounds interesting and so does the amulet but if I'm doing that I'm not looking for Annalise. But I'm beginning to realize or rather I'm having to face up to what I've known for weeks now that Annalise has escaped from here. She could be anywhere by now.

We run for a couple of hours and then head back into camp. Greatorex, Van and Nesbitt are sitting with Donna and we go over to join them. Nesbitt is supporting Donna, who looks like she's going to pass out.

On the ground is one of Van's small stone bowls with dregs of liquid in it. Truth potion, I guess.

Van looks at me and then back to Donna and asks, 'Why do you want to join the Alliance?'

'I can do good if I join.' Donna's voice is slurred, like she's drunk.

'What sort of good?'

'Kill the bad guys.'

'Who are the bad guys?'

'The evil ones, the bad guys.'

'But who? Name one.'

'Bad guys.' Donna looks like she's going to sleep.

Van persists. 'Are the Hunters bad?'

'They kill the Alliance.'

'Yes, but are the Hunters bad?'

'They tied me up and starved me and gagged me.' Donna seems to focus on me for a second or two and says, 'He killed them.'

'Do you know the name of this person?' Van points at me.

'Nathan. Also known as Freddie.'

Van raises her eyebrows and looks at me. 'Freddie?'

I nod.

'Is Nathan a bad guy?'

'He killed the Hunters.'

'So does that make him good or bad?'

'Everyone says he's bad.'

'What do you say?'

'He let me have all the chocolate.'

Van blows her cheeks out. She looks tired. 'Are you a spy?'

'No.'

'Are you an assassin?'

'I'd like to kill the bad guys.'

'Who are the bad guys?'

'The evil ones, the bad guys.'

I get the feeling this is not the first time the questioning has gone round in circles and I leave them to it.

Later I ask Van how it went. She shakes her head. 'Difficult. To work best, any potion has to be tailored specifically to the individual. The one I used was a general truth potion, but even so everything she said should have been the truth.'

'So? What's the verdict?'

'I don't like the fact that her answers were always the same. They were honest but not open. But it's hard to judge. I'll need to make a potion specifically for her.'

Van offers me a cigarette and I accept it. I inhale the smoke and breathe out. I'm surprised that the cigarettes seem to be ordinary fain ones.

'American,' Van says, as if reading my thoughts.

'I don't suppose you've got any of that other potion, the one that helped me sleep.'

Van hesitates but asks, 'Bad dreams?'

I shrug. 'They're just dreams.' I wonder if I should tell her about my vision. Maybe another time.

'I've got this.' She reaches into her jacket and takes out a few small pieces of paper. Or, rather, pieces of paper folded over several times to make them small. She selects three. 'It's strong. Only one a night or you'll never wake up.' She holds them over my outstretched palm. 'You wouldn't be tempted to take all of them at once, would you, Nathan?'

I look into the blue of her eyes. I tell her, 'Most days I'm tempted.'

I don't tell her that the thought that stops me is of Annalise being out there somewhere, alive and free, and if she was alive and I was dead then the injustice of it would consume me in flames. Only when she's dead will I give up.

I've pretty much decided to go to see Ledger, but Greatorex wants me, Nesbitt and Gabriel to help secure the camp first. Greatorex is establishing a new routine of daily checks in the immediate vicinity and weekly checks in a wider area. Each Alliance camp is connected to one other by a cut, with one escape cut leading somewhere far away. Greatorex says, 'The network of cuts that link them allows us to keep the camps small and less visible but the cuts themselves may be a problem. There's at least one Hunter who can sense where they are.'

I nod. 'My father thought it might be best to fill the world with cuts. Overload the Hunters with information.'

'Nice idea, but at the moment we'll keep hiding and moving frequently.'

A few of the trainees are sent out close to the camp for the daily check, and I go further out with Nesbitt and Gabriel, looking for any signs of Hunter activity.

It's good to get out of the camp for a few days. Nesbitt, Gabriel and me agree on an area to cover each day, splitting up in the morning and meeting again in the evening. We take three days to make a wide circuit of Camp Three and find nothing alarming; on the contrary, it looks like a good place.

And every day I practise my Gifts. Invisibility, flames and lightning are all getting stronger and more controllable and I even think at one point that I'm on the verge of stopping time. Only I'm not stopping time. That isn't what my father did. He stopped the world, or slowed it down so much that it seemed to stop. And I do what I saw my father do, rub my palms together in a circle, and as I do that I think of the world turning and then I put the palms of my hands on my head, and as I do that I think of the world stopping but me carrying on moving. And I look up and see all is still around me. I turn to Gabriel and he's still, watching me. And then it starts again. Gabriel blinks.

'Did you notice anything?' I ask him.

'Something funny happened with your head,' he replies. 'One second you were looking away, then you were looking right at me.'

I grin at him. 'I think I've done my first ever stopping of time.'

'Do it again?'

And I try and it doesn't work, but I know that I just need to keep practising.

The final night before we head back to camp we're lying by the fire. Nesbitt's snoring is quiet, but I can't sleep with it so I sit up and poke at the embers.

Gabriel hasn't said much all evening; he lights a cigarette, which he must have got from Van, drags on it and passes it to me. He says, 'Your control over your Gifts has improved. Still not as strong as your father, but definitely better.'

I puff a smoke ring and then blow a narrow flame through the middle of it.

Gabriel says, 'Nice trick.'

I breathe out another smoke ring and try an even more delicate stream of flame through its middle.

'I'm not so sure you need any help from Ledger to improve your Gifts. I mean, she may be able to give you a few pointers but really all you need is time and practice.'

'Uh-huh.' I huff out a large ring of flame. 'I can do that and still go after the amulet.'

'And the amulet might work, but on the other hand it might not.'

'Are you trying to say I shouldn't go?'

'I'm trying to say that maybe we should think of other options.'

'Such as?'

He stubs the cigarette out on the ground and then turns to look at me. 'Leaving completely. Leaving the war. Leaving it all.'

'Like the other Black Witches have done? You tired of it too?'

'Of course I'm tired of it! I'm tired of the cold. Tired of being hungry. Tired of being afraid. Being out here these last few days has reminded me of what we used to be like. It used to be fun. You, in your own individual way, used to be fun.'

'It's war, that's what you said.'

'Yes, it's war and I'm tired of it. And ... I'm getting tired of you, Nathan. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I'm tired of your revenge, your anger, your hate. The war is killing you. Not your body but your mind, your soul. You've changed. I feel I'm losing you. Or you're losing yourself. You don't need Ledger or the amulet. You don't need to kill Annalise. You don't need any of it. What you need is to get away from it. Get back into nature like we have done these last few days, before the war turns you into something else ... something bad.'

'I thought you didn't believe in all the good versus evil stuff. I thought you said there was no good or bad in it.'