"Who are we going to trade with out here in the middle of the desert?" said George.

"The caravan," said Peter.

"What caravan?" said George.

"The one on the other side of that dune," said Peter, "approaching the oasis now." He winked at Tink.

In half an hour's time they had traded King Zarboff's carpet to the caravan merchants for five robes, some bread, and skins for carrying water. It was clear from the eagerness with which the merchants had accepted the trade that the children were getting a terribly unfair bargain, but they were satisfied. And so, as the afternoon sun burned in the desert sky, seven robed figuresa"and one camela"began trudging across the sand toward the spires of Maknar.

CHAPTER 42.

QUESTIONS.

LEONARD ASTER HEARD IT COMING: a wheezing sound in the dungeon pa.s.sageway. He'd been up all night worrying, awaiting the return of Peter and the boys. The barred hole in the dungeon wall allowed little light to penetrate their gloomy cell, but by his reckoning it was now broad daylight outside.

Too longa He leaned down and shook awake the dozing form of Bakari.

"Wake up," he whispered. "Ombra is coming."

As Bakari quickly rose, the dark shape glided into view, stopping in front of the cell. The air grew colder; the groaning voice spoke.

"Good morning, Lord Aster," said Ombra. "I trust you slept well."

"Where are the boys?" said Leonard.

"That is precisely what I am here to find out," said Ombra.

"What are you talking about?" said Leonard. But before he could answer, Ombra had stretched taller and thinner. He slipped through the cell bars, moving toward Leonard's shadow on the stone floor. Leonard took a step back, but Ombra was too quick, and there was no escaping it: Ombra touched his shadow. The last thing Leonard felt was intense cold, starting at his feet and quickly sweeping up through his body, as if his blood were turning to ice.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor.

"Are you all right?" asked Bakari, kneeling over him.

"Yes," said Leonard, struggling to get up. "Whata" He stopped, seeing that Ombra was still in the cell, standing in its darkest corner, away from the dim light seeping through the window.

"My apologies for your discomfort, Lord Aster," groaned Ombra. "I needed to find out if you have been in touch with your daughter."

"Molly? Where is she?"

"I do not know at the moment. When Zarboff's men reached the ship, she was gone. And then early this morning above the desert, a young lady appeared on a flying camel."

Leonard smiled despite himself. "Molly," he said.

"I a.s.sume so," groaned Ombra. "I was not there, but she fits the description given by the soldiers. She was with a young man. They caused some confusion, during which they managed to liberate the flying boy and his friends."

"They escaped," said Leonard, relief sweeping through him.

"Yes," groaned Ombra. "But it makes no difference now. We have the starstuff we need to carry out our plan."

Leonard's smile faded.

"I a.s.sume," groaned Ombra, "you saw the celestial display early this morning?"

Leonard nodded. "Rather impossible to miss. Starstuff, I a.s.sume. But how could it fall here in Rundoon? What kind of coincidence coulda""

"No coincidence at all," groaned Ombra. "We caused it. A rocket constructed by a scientist, Dr. Viktor Glotz."

"He caused a starstuff Fall?" said Bakari.

"Yes," wheezed Ombra. "It has taken years to perfect the techniquea"years we have spent patiently waiting. But nowa" He stepped slightly out of the shadows. "Now we have a great deal of starstuff. Now we are ready."

"Ready for what?" said Leonard. Ombra's hood turned toward him. He saw the eyelike spheres glowing red in the gloom; he felt the chill deepen.

"I have a question for you, Lord Aster," Ombra groaned. "Do you know what starstuff is?"

"No," said Leonard. "Only what it can do."

"Do you wonder why it falls to Earth?"

"Of course."

"I will tell you," said Ombra. "I do not have to, of course. But we have time, and I am eager to see your reaction when you grasp the scale of what is going to happen. You Starcatchers are but a very small part of a very large strugglea"a struggle as immense as the universe itself. Tonight that struggle will end." The red orbs inside the hood flashed even brighter. "Everything will change, forever."

The red orbs glowed brighter. The cell grew still colder.

"Everything," repeated Ombra. "Forever."

CHAPTER 43.

SHINING PEARL'S IDEA SHINING PEARL CROUCHED at the entrance to the cave, peering out through the rain. Behind her, the pirates sat in the dirt, exhausted, wet, hungry, miserable.

"D'you see anything?" whispered Smee.

"No," whispered Shining Pearl. "I think they're gone."

"Now what?" said one of the men.

It was a good question. The Scorpions seemed to be everywhere, patrolling in groups of four or five men, scouring the island's jungle hillsides and valleys. Twice in the past sleepless day the pirates had come very close to being spotted; they would surely have been caught by now, had it not been for Shining Pearl's intimate knowledge of the island's geography. But they could not run forever. Sooner or later, the Scorpions would find them. The pirates understood this now; Shining Pearl could see it on their faces. She judged that now was the time to tell them about her idea.

"We have two choices," she said.

They were all watching her.

"We can keep running," she said. "There are other caves. If we're careful, moving by night, keeping quiet, we might be able to avoid them for a while longer."

The men looked around at the dank, dark cave.

"What's the other choice?" said the pirate named Hurky.

Shining Pearl took a deep breath. "We attack them," she said.

Hurky laughed, a harsh bark. "Us, attack them?"

"Yes," said Shining Pearl.

"But," said Smee, "we don't haveathat is, what wouldaI meanaHow?"

"Do you have any clothing belonging to Captain Hook?" said Shining Pearl.

Smee frowned. "I b'lieve the cap'n's old pants is back at the fort. I made him a new pair from sailcloth, but I was going to patch his old ones." He frowned more deeply still. "But what does the cap'n's pants have to do with attacking them Scorpions?"

Shining Pearl explained her plan. When she was done, the pirates sat quietly for a moment. Hurky broke the silence.

"Seems to me," he said, "that it probably won't work."

The men nodded.

"But it also seems to me," said Hurky, "that it's better than spending the rest of our days hiding in caves, waiting for them to kill us."

The men nodded again. They turned to Smee, who looked back at them, puzzled, until it dawned on him that a decision had been made and that it was up to him as acting captain to express it.

"All right, then," he said to Shining Pearl, "let's carry out your plan."

CHAPTER 44.

A LEAK IN THE UNIVERSE.

THE FIRST THING YOU MUST UNDERSTAND," is that humanity is an accident. You, who think you are the center of creation, are in fact here because of a flaw in the cosmos."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Leonard.

"No," said Ombra, "you would not. You humans are so involved with the details of your tiny lives that you never notice the immense struggle beyond this insignificant speck you call the world."

"Then perhaps you will be so kind as to enlighten me."

"I will try," groaned Ombra, "though it will be difficult for you to comprehend, given the limitations of human thought and language. To put it as simply as I can: there are two conflicting sides in what you call the universe. On one side is creation, being, light; on the other side is destruction, nothingness, darkness."

"And you are on the side of darkness," said Leonard.

"I am not only on the side of darkness," groaned Ombra. "I am darkness."

"And the Others?" said Bakari.

"The humans that you call the Others are unimportant. They do what I wish them to do, without knowing why. Like you Starcatchers, they are p.a.w.ns in a game they do not understand."

"If we're so insignificant," said Leonard, "then why are you here, interfering in our affairs?"

"I will explain," groaned Ombra. "But you must first understand some history. The struggle between light and darkness has gone on since the beginning of what you call time. It was going on before there was time, though I do not expect you to know what I mean by that. What you need to know is this: for the past several billion of your years, light has been winning the struggle. The side of existence, of being, is expanding. The side of nothingness, of darknessa"my sidea"is retreating. We have survived in pockets, in voids of darkness; one such void isanot far from here. But we are losing. We are being driven back everywhere, by a force we cannot match."

"Starstuff," said Bakari.

"Yes," said Ombra. "Starstuff. It flows outward across the universe from a point called the Beginning. Where there was nothing, it creates something. It leaves stars in its wake, galaxies, structures bigger than galaxies, and structures bigger than those. Along the way it also leaves incalculable quant.i.ties of smaller, random clots of matter and gasa"comets, asteroids, rocks, dust particlesa"and planets. There are untold millions of planets about the same size as your Earth, did you know that, Lord Aster? I see by your expression that you did not. You humans believe you are unique. And in a sense, you are correct. Because of all these untold millions of planets, yours alone is located near the flaw."

"What flaw?" said Leonard.

"In the starstuff conduit," said Ombra. "It pa.s.ses very close to Earth. You cannot see it; it does not exist in the same way that ordinary matter exists. But it is there nonetheless, carrying starstuff from the Beginning to the remote reaches of the universe, as an aqueduct carries water. But there is a flaw, and sometimes it causes a leak in the aqueduct. This is known as a Disruption, and when it occurs, a tiny quant.i.ty of starstuff escapes and enters your reality."

"A starstuff Fall," said Bakari.

"Yes," said Ombra. "It has been falling here for quite some time. That is the reason life came to exist on this barren rock in the first place. That is the reason this life acquired intelligence. You humans, and what you call your civilization, are here because of a leak in the plumbing of the universe."

"And is that why you've come?" said Leonard. "To retrieve this leaked starstuff?"

"No," said Ombra. "We have come for far more than that. But to understand it, you will need to indulge me for a bit longer."

Leonard nodded.

Ombra continued: "As humans gained in intelligence, they began to understand the power of the starstuff. Some humans wanted to use it to dominate; other humans wanted to prevent them from doing so. This led to the struggle between the Others and you Starcatchers. This struggle went on for thousands of years before it was noticed."

"Noticed by whom?" said Leonard.

"By my enemies," said Ombra. "By the powers of light. Their attention had been focused elsewhere in the universe, on their struggle against my side, against darkness. When they finally saw what their starstuff Falls on Earth had causeda"the development of intelligent life and the conflict between the Starcatchers and the Othersa"they felt responsible and decided to intervene. Had my side been in control, we would have simply eliminated your troublesome planet. But the powers of light choose not to destroy life."

"Good for them," muttered Leonard.

"As you will see in a moment," said Ombra, "it is not good for them. But to continue: the powers of light felt responsible for you humans and chose to set up a mechanism to prevent you from using the starstuff to destroy yourselves. That mechanism was the Watchers."

"Watchers?" said Leonard, exchanging a glance with Bakari.

"Yes," said Ombra. "Watchers are beings with certain abilities, including the ability to sense an impending Disruption. These Watchers were put here on Earth, in very small numbers, to warn the Starcatchers, so you could retrieve starstuff Falls before the Others could get to them. Centuries ago the Watchers showed your ancestors how to return the starstuff. Your ancestors pa.s.sed this knowledge along to you, as I learned during our unpleasant encounter at Stonehenge, when you were able to return the starstuff that we retrieved, and that you Starcatchers managed to get away from us."