ELDESTS! blared one of them. YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU.

ARE YOUR NEIGHBOURS FOLLOWING THE EDICT? BETTER TO SPY THAN TO DIE!

BRING YOUR LAMP AND COME TO CAMP. THE BEST TIME YOU’LL EVER HAVE!

WORK THE LAND – LEND A HAND.

And, tucked down at the bottom: WANDERERS ARE SQUANDERERS.

Mayor Anderson huffed some more.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

She got up, took her lamp and went through the second door, on the other side of the desk.

Darkness.

Alone.

Did she take the keys?

I reached up.

I patted the desktop.

I felt around.

Nothing…

Nothing…

There!

Something lumpy. Metally. Spiky.

I pulled the keys down and grabbed a billy lamp off the pile.

My lamp glowed in the corridor.

I walked past the doors, quiet and soft.

There were sounds.

Murmuring.

Praying?

Crying.

And something else. Humming? No – singing, soft as you like.

I carried on past.

There. A small brassy nine on a door to the left. I knelt down, held the keys up to the lamp and searched through them. They had numbers etched into them.

Here, number nine.

I opened the door.

“Una! It’s me – it’s Maggie!”

She didn’t leap up.

She didn’t smile.

She didn’t do anything at all.

“Come on.” I got hold of her arm, good and tight.

Just like Mayor Anderson.

“We’ve got to get out.” I pulled her up.

The window at the end of the corridor was still dark. We tiptoed towards it. Soft, soft, soft.

But listen.

That singing again.

Ever so quiet.

Ever so soft.

“In the southside fields where the clover grows

I’m calling out for my Evie-oh.”

“Grey Willow”. It was coming from door number two.

“Can she hear me now? Can she see the fields?

Under the shadow of the grey willow.”

I knew that voice.

Been hearing that voice since I was knee-high.

Lindi.

I scrabbled with the keys.

Number eight, number ten, number three – where was two? Where was it? I dropped them on to the stone floor – cher-clink!

I scooped them back up again.

Number four, number one – here – number two.

I pushed it into the keyhole.

Lindi blinked in the sudden light.

There was someone else there – lying on the floor, head in her lap. She was stroking his hair.

“Jed!” I dropped on to my knees. “Is he OK?” I grabbed his hand. “Are you all right, Jed? Lindi? Is he OK?”

Lindi stared at me. “What … how are you here, Maggie? How did you find us?”

“Is Jed OK? What’s wrong with him?”

Lindi looked down to her lap. “He tried to stop them pushing me around. They hit him. Here, right across his eye.” She smoothed her hand over his forehead.

I held up the lamp and peered at Jed. He scrunched up his face and turned away.