The Power of Five Oblivion

glanced at Jamie. He had sat perfectly still through all this but I could see he was thinking hard, as if he had no idea what was going on here but was doing his best to work it out.
    Sir Ian was still dithering. Whose side should he take? How could he get out of this without losing authority? In the end, Miss Keyland came to his rescue.
    “I don’t think it will hurt to let him speak, Sir Ian,” she said. “After all, these are exceptional circumstances. And the Traveller came here just like the boy. I agree with Mr Flint. We should hear what he has to say.”
    “Very well.” Now that someone else had made the decision for him, Sir Ian felt more comfortable. “But be brief, Traveller. Say what you have to and then leave.”
    Everyone took their places again. The Traveller had reached the open space in front of me and Jamie and stood there, surrounded by the Council members. Rita, wisely, had said nothing for the whole time. I knew she still had deep suspicions about the Traveller and her opinion hadn’t changed in all the seven years he had been here. “There was nothing chance about the way he arrived, slipping in in the middle of the night,” I’d once heard her say. “And what does he get up to on that boat of his? He says it won’t move. He says it’s stuck on a mudbank. But I wonder!”
    “He doesn’t have a horse any more,” I’d reminded her. “And anyway, why would he want to move?”
    “Why did he come in the first place? That’s what I’d like to know!”
    And here he was now, examining the Council with a glimmer in his eye, as if he knew a lot more than they did and a lot more than he was going to tell.
    “It’s very simple,” he began. “You said it yourselves when you were examining the girl. The only reason that this village has survived as long as it has is because nobody knows it’s here. You’ve got the forest and the river but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? How many years is it since you took down all the road signs and dug up the road so nobody would find their way through? You’ve even got watchtowers. You’ve taken a lot of care to make sure that you’re left alone – and quite right too.”
    “You found us,” Reverend Johnstone muttered.
    “I found you by chance, vicar,” the Traveller agreed. “And you were one of those who voted to let me stay. I’ll always be grateful to you for that. I like it here. I’m comfortable on the Lady Jane and I’m sure you’ll agree that I pull my weight in the village. I’d say I’m pretty much one of you now – which is why I don’t want you to spoil it. You contact the police, you’ll be telling them about yourselves. Worse than that, you’ll be inviting them here – and who’s to say what will happen as a result? Of course, they’ll take the boy. But are you so sure they’ll be grateful to you? You really think you’ll get their thanks?”
    “They offered a reward,” Dolan growled.
    “That’s easy enough to do, isn’t it. A hundred thousand pounds that you don’t need and that you can’t spend. And for that you’re willing to risk the life of every man, woman and child in this place?”
    “Why should we be afraid of the police?” Sir Ian asked. He had been one of those who had voted to send Jamie away.
    “Because if you’re afraid of everyone – and you’re right to be – you should be equally scared of the police.” The Traveller ran a hand across his cheek. It was dark with stubble. He was still shaving, although with blades that he must have used hundreds of times. A lot of the men in the village had given up when they ran out of razors and now had shaggy beards. “When I travelled here seven years ago,” he went on, “I passed through villages upriver, miles away. The buildings were still standing but there was nobody in them … not a soul. I found houses stripped bare and empty fields with nothing growing except weeds. What happened to those people, do you suppose? Maybe one of them decided to get in touch with the police for some reason. Maybe someone found out where they were.”
    He let those last words, ice cold, hang in the air.
    “The police could come here anyway,” Miss Keyland said. “They could find the boy quite by chance. If we were harbouring him, we could all be punished.”
    “Why should the police come here unless we call them?” Mr Flint said. He was obviously taking the part of the Traveller.
    “Even so, if the boy has committed some sort of