SOLVED. Dystopian book series like Divergent but published at least 10+ years ago [s]

[Maxwell]

I read this book series when I was in secondary school in Year 9(10 years ago) so I was 13 years old, it was from my schools library. I've tried to find the book with Wikipedia and Google but that's not worked, so I think the book isn't well known. There is at least 3+ novels in this series. This is what I remember from the 1st book,

The two main characters were children a boy and a girl. The first thing I remember about the book is they had a faction system where the elite stayed in the Center of the city, and lower factions further out. (There was 5 factions?) each faction had a colour, and there was some social progression, so if you worked really hard you could get transferred to a higher faction. The outermost faction was the grey faction who did lowly jobs like being cleaners etc.

Under the city there was a factionless society (like divergent?) who rejected the system. The city was surrounded by deserts and bandits. I remember the boy & girl (and their friends they made along the adventure) leaving the city and going into the desert and after awhile they found a moving steampunk like city, that had thousands of mechanical legs. The city & it's people moved to find water or food.. (I can't quite remember).

I remember at the end of the 1st book the kids fought off some great evil in the north. It had lots of undead spirits, who chanted "we are legion" a lot. The kids defeated them because of love, and I think the boy had special psychic powers. ( I don't think he realised he had special powers in that book, I remember this story arc being developed extensively with other books in the series.)

I can't remember the Author, book title, or character names. They were quite young, in the latter books they do become teenagers, and I'm sure there was some type of romance arc in the latter part of the series.

I can't remember much else, apart from the fact that I loved the book series at the time. Any help would be appreciated,

[Andria]

I think this is the Wind on Fire series, starting with The Wind Singer

[Elizabeth]

Andria wrote: "I think this is the Wind on Fire series, starting with The Wind Singer"

I agree! I read the first years ago but never got my hands on the others. Forgot all about but your post sounded so familiar!

[Maxwell]

Elizabeth wrote: "Andria wrote: "I think this is the Wind on Fire series, starting with The Wind Singer"

I agree! I read the first years ago but never got my hands on the others. Forgot all about but ..."

Andria wrote: "I think this is the Wind on Fire series, starting with The Wind Singer"

Wow! I've been trying to find this title for the past 6 months, I didn't expect someone to solve it within 20 minutes. This is the right title, thank you very much for your help

[Andria]

You're welcome. Happy to help!