Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death.
Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is maste...
The following day was a Mornday, and the Scowerers embarked on a Lurk, Morndays being the day of the week allocated to Lurking activities.
It began with a hot shower – a new experience for Ward, who, on the rare occasions he had washed at all, had done so in the sea. An ingenious coal-powered heating system, devised by Nick himself, provided hot water to the dorms. Ward also witnessed the spectacle of Wrinkler shaving. It appeared to have no effect on the boy's appearance, but as Ward was reluctant to raise the subject while the razor was in Wrinkler's hand, he asked Mildew about it over breakfast instead.
"He's a Reverser," Mildew explained.
Ward looked down the line of trestle tables that had been erected in the Cathedral to where Wrinkler sat grimly shovelling bacon and eggs into his mouth. Over the noise of breakfasting Scowerers he wasn't sure he'd heard her right.
"Don't tell me you haven't heard of them either," she said.
Ward shook his head.
The clans took turns cooking and serving breakfast. This morning it was the Doodles' turn. They were an unkempt rabble who resided beyond a low tunnel west of the Cathedral. A filthy boy dropped a plate in front of Ward. "Your break-fass your majesty," he announced, performing an elaborate bow, and scurrying off to peals of laughter from the other Doodles. The food was good though: bacon and eggs and sausages and toast and tomatoes. Breakfast with Jaggles had consisted chiefly of oily fish, bony rabbits, and an unsweetened gruel made from whatever grain passing ships happened to be carrying. Nothing grew on the island.
"So what's a Reverser?" Ward said through a piece of toast.
"They start off normal," Mildew said, stabbing a sausage with her fork. "You know, they're born and grow up and everything. Then they get to about thirty, and something happens. They -" She bit into a sausage and chewed for a while.
"They what?"
"Start coming back."
"What?"
"They reverse." Mildew continued chewing, as if she had said nothing unusual.
"You mean they get younger? But then – how do they die?"
"Well it's obvious isn't it? They turn into babies, and get smaller and smaller until they can't eat or drink by their selves, then they die. I guess if you could keep em alive somehow -" she chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then swallowed. "Why, I reckon they'd a-ventually just vanish." She laughed.
"Oh," Ward said. He glanced up the table at Wrinkler, who was arguing with a big Scowerer. "And Wrinkler?"
"Oh he's on the way back for sure. But don't say nothing – he's real touchy bout it."
"Are there lots of them? Reversers?"
"Hard to know," Mildew said. "See, they usually don't realise they're one until they start growing young again, and then they keep hid. I mean, they a-spect they're a Reverser if one of their parents was one I guess, cos it's heredical. But they never know for sure til it happens."
"Why do they hide?"
"Brotherhood. Killed loads of em back in the old days. So they went into hiding. But Reversers're okay. I met a few."
"Where did they come from?"
Mildew shrugged. "Where do people with red hair come from? Who cares? Here, have the rest of my eggs, I'm full."
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