As he spoke, the grown-ups realized that they had company, and they turned almost as one, fresh bloodlust lighting up their faces, and charged across the road.

If they thought they were going to have an easy time of it, they were sadly mistaken. The battle was over almost before it began.

Ollie’s team let loose a deadly volley. Six grown-ups went down straight away. Now Blue and Achilleus led the central group forward as Ollie’s team fell back. The surviving grown-ups carried on, too stupid to pull out of their assault. They were met by the fighters, who punched into them, weapons held high. Most grown-ups fell to the asphalt, but three escaped and ran off to the sides. Lewis’s team took down two. Ollie and Sophie got the other one. An arrow thudded into his back at the exact same moment a round from a slingshot got him in the head.

Achilleus and Mick finished off the wounded.

In a few seconds every one of the grown-ups lay dead on the ground.

Jester whistled. “That was well done,” he said. “Very well done.”

Ollie turned to Sophie. “You owe me some carrots,” he said, but there was no joy in it. The sight of the dead kids was too upsetting.

Blue called Lewis’s team over. “Go back for Maeve,” he said. “Looks like we’ll need her. Tell them it’s all clear, but hold the others back out of the way until we’ve gotten rid of the bodies. I don’t want the small ones to see this.”

While Achilleus and Mick organized the removal of the dead grown-ups, dragging them across the road and dumping them down the steps to the tube, Blue checked the kids.

The three lying down were well dead.

“Better get these out of the way as well,” said Blue. “No time for any fancy funerals.”

The bloodied girl was sitting on the ground now, cradling the boy in her lap. She was staring into the distance, her eyes empty. Blue spoke to her, but she didn’t respond. Her face was slashed, a flap of skin hanging down from her forehead.

“You’ll be all right,” said Blue. “You’re safe now.”

Again she didn’t respond.

Jester’s shadow fell across Blue.

Blue squinted up at him. “I thought you said there were no grown-ups around here.”

Jester shrugged. “This isn’t normal,” he said.

“If you’ve been lying to us . . .” said Blue.

“This isn’t normal,” Jester repeated, and bent to pick up the sword that the boy had dropped.

Maeve arrived, her medical kit already out. She knelt down and checked the girl over.

“I’ll need to disinfect that and put a bandage on it,” she said, unscrewing a glass bottle. “What about the boy?”