The Power of Five Oblivion

the same sword that the Traveller had been carrying when he had come to the rescue.
    “I think the kettle’s boiled.”
    Jamie spun round. The Traveller had appeared behind him, coming down through the galley without being heard. He was standing there, looking down at Jamie with a half-smile on his face.
    “Are you looking for something?” he asked.
    “I’ve already found it,” Jamie replied. He glanced in the direction of the stern. “Is Holly steering the boat?”
    “Yes. She’s taken to it very easily. And it may help her … take her mind off things. She and that boy were very close.”
    “I know.” Jamie nodded at the weapons. “Where did you get all these? How did you manage to keep them?”
    “I was supplied with them,” the Traveller said. “Before I arrived in the village all those years ago, I buried them in a field about a mile upstream. I guessed they’d want to search the Lady Jane and I was right. I left a certain amount of stuff for them to find … food, medicine, whisky. Seven years ago things weren’t quite as desperate and they were happy enough with that. They never imagined there might be more. They even ate my horse. Poor old Bree! But they never looked for the rest of it and once I’d been accepted, I went back to the hiding place and dug it all up again. Lucky I did. I think we’re going to need them.”
    “Who are you?” Jamie asked. “Why don’t you have a name?”
    “I do have a name,” the Traveller replied. “It’s Graham Fletcher.” He smiled to himself. “Do you realize that’s the first time I’ve actually spoken those words in more than seven years?”
    “Why did you never tell anyone?” Jamie asked.
    The Traveller was serious again. “Because I never wanted to be their friend,” he said. “I had to remind myself that I wasn’t part of their community, that I would never be one of them. I knew that one day I would have to leave.”
    “You know who I am, don’t you?”
    “That’s right, Jamie. I know all about you … and Matt and the others. The Gatekeepers.”
    “You’re with the Nexus.”
    Jamie remembered the organization he had met when he was with Matt in London … the men and women who had been waiting for them in the secret room in Farringdon. Graham Fletcher hadn’t been there. Jamie was sure of it. But on the other hand, ten years had passed since that meeting – at least, for him. The Nexus would have changed since then. It was surprising that it still existed at all.
    The Traveller nodded. “That’s right.”
    “So it wasn’t a coincidence that you were in the village. You were waiting for me.”
    “Waiting for you for seven years, Jamie. Away from my friends and family. You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
    So he had friends. A family! And he had been prepared to abandon them for all this time, simply to help him. Jamie suddenly saw the Traveller in a completely different light and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him. He wondered briefly if it was right to leave Holly outside. Shouldn’t she be hearing this? But it was probably better that way. After all she had been through, she needed time on her own.
    The Traveller must have been thinking the same thing. He lifted the kettle off the gas, then made three mugs of coffee. He took one up to Holly, returning almost immediately. Once again the two of them were on their own.
    “She’s doing a good job,” he said. “You’d have thought she’d been steering boats all her life.”
    “So are you going to tell me about yourself?” Jamie asked.
    “Of course.” The Traveller brought a second mug of coffee over to Jamie. “I work for a remarkable person,” he said. “I think you know her. Her name is Susan Ashwood.”
    Jamie recognized the name at once. Susan Ashwood was the woman who had once helped Matt. She was a clairvoyant, with the ability to see into the spirit world. She was also blind. She wasn’t the sort of woman it would be easy to forget.
    “She sent me to the village,” the Traveller went on. “She knew about the door in the church – and she also knew that the Old Ones hadn’t found it. She believed there was a chance that one of you would show up and she told me to go there and wait for you. I can tell you, there have been times when I’ve cursed her and cursed myself for believing in her. But now I’m glad. She was right all along.”
    “So the Nexus still exists,” Jamie said.
    “What’s happened in Britain – all