Page 1 of The Other Side

Prologue

The sun had barely climbed over the horizon when Drum went racing down the hill, brushing leaves out of his hair.

“Osian! Hurry up!”

Osian ran after him, laughing. “You said we were collecting berries!”

“We are. But we have to get there first to get the best ones.”

They ran through the meadow, their bare feet thudding over the soft grass. Drum didn’t have any magic yet, not even the tiniest spark. He suspected Osian did but was hiding it from him. Drum understood that was done out of kindness. Even so, he sometimes felt that if the two of them ran fast enough, they might grow wings. He couldn’t wait to get his. He wanted to skim over the tree tops, surf the waves with Osian at his side.

At the bottom of the hill, right at the edge of the Elderwood grove, just where he knew they’d be, were brambles laden with ripe blackberries.

Osian dropped to his knees. “Wow!”

Drum grinned. “See who can fill their mouth the quickest.”

Drum stuffed three fat berries into Osian’s mouth.

“Hey!” Osian spluttered and Drum pushed in three more.

They both dissolved into giggles, then ate until their bellies were full and their fingers purple.

Drum held up an enormous blackberry, the biggest they’d found, the biggest he’d ever seen, the size of a plum. “This is huge. For you.” He held it to Osian’s lips.

Osian shook his head. “No. You found it.”

“I want you to have it.”

Osian opened his mouth and Drum put it inside.

After Osian had chewed and swallowed it, Drum said, “I think I saw a caterpillar.”

Osian laughed. “As if you’d let me eat one. You’d have carefully moved it somewhere else and kissed it goodbye.”

Drum grinned.

They headed back up the hill, panting by the time they reached the top, then lay on their backs, looking up at the clouds scudding across the sky.

“Think we’ll get our powers soon?” Drum asked. “We’re nearly ten.”

“Maybe.”

“Not sure you don’t already have yours. You can make any seed grow, and I have the power to kill it just by looking at it. Does that count?”

Osian laughed. “You stepped on it.”

“Oh yes, sorry. It was an accident. Sorry, Oli!”

“Oli the oleander?” Osian sighed.

“Makes it sound less poisonous.”

Osian’s fingers slid into his.

For a while, Drum forgot all about home and the unkindness always waiting inside. He had his friend. The best friend ever. As long as he had Osian, he could cope with the shouting, with being locked in dark spaces, with the beatings, with all of it.

“Do you think we’ll always be friends?” Drum asked.