B00DW1DUQA EBOK (40 page)

‘Will you come now?’ he asked. ‘I know we don’t have much chance, that Engn is too big, too strong. But there’s a hope, at least. Maybe with Shireen’s help, or Connor’s …’

‘It’s madness,’ said Diane. But she sounded less sure of herself.

‘Please,’ said Finn. ‘You read what Mrs. Megrim said.’

‘I don’t know. It all sounds so incredible.’

‘Tell you what,’ said Finn. ‘You come with me to find Shireen, through this tunnel Mrs. Megrim mentioned. But if we can’t find it, if it doesn’t exist, I’ll give up and come with you.’

‘And what if we’re caught trying?’

‘What if we’re caught escaping? It’s dangerous whatever we do.’

She sighed and said nothing for a time. Finn thought she’d fallen asleep again.

‘Give me your ring,’ she said.

‘Huh?’

‘Your ring. The one I made for you that you managed to squash.’

‘Here.’

Finn fished out the knot of silver wire and handed it to her. Working in the near-darkness, Diane teased it back into a straight piece of wire, working out its kinks as best she could. Then she began to weave and knot it again until the ring, the original ring, was there once again. Only then did she speak.

‘Here, put it on.’

She took Finn’s hand and pushed it onto his finger, twisting it around to get it over his knuckle. Then she untied the string around her neck and handed her ring to him. He looked at her in the darkness.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘You’re supposed to put it on my finger. Idiot.’

‘But …’

‘Put it on me.’

Finn did as he was told, sliding Diane’s ring onto her finger. They held them up so a thin beam of light caught the silvery metal.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’ll come with you. We’ll try. And then, if it doesn’t work, when it doesn’t work, we’ll leave and never come back. Agreed?’

‘Agreed.’

The sudden touch of her lips on his was as unexpected as it was wonderful.

When it was finally dark they lifted up the hatch in the floor and peered outside. There was no-one in sight. They had checked all around using the ‘scope ports. Nobody had come near them all day. The glow from the machinery lit up the night, the incessant roaring and clanking filling the air. Hopefully they could cross the dark plain without being seen and reach the walls of Engn.

‘We should go to the well first,’ said Diane. ‘Get some water. We’re both dying of thirst.’

Finn nodded. There had been an old leather bucket tied to a rope there that had been used, at some point, to draw water. They could probably haul some up with that. He just wished they had something to eat. How did the people in the hovels out here, the old man who had helped them, survive? He wished he’d been able to bring some food with him, but he couldn’t see how it would have worked. They just had to hope that, once back inside Engn, they could find something to eat.

They set off back the way they’d come, holding hands again. Neither saw the shadow that lifted itself off the ground behind them. As they walked towards Engn the figure floated after them, a patch of darkness against the night. Finn heard nothing and saw nothing until a blow to his head sent the ground lurching up to hit him in the face. He turned over, tried to rise. A man stood there, club raised, silhouetted against the whirling stars. Another blow came and Finn knew no more.

‘Hello again, young man.’

Pain hammered through Finn’s head, dwarfing the distant voice. He recognized it, though. Thinner than it had been, sharper, but a familiar voice from his past. Who was it? He squinted open an eye briefly but the throbbing in his head redoubled and he shut them again. He tried to speak but couldn’t make the words come out, his parched lips sealed together.

Something cut into his back. He tried to wriggle away. Rough rope dug into his wrists. His hands were tied to something behind his back. He tried to speak again, shout out. He felt water being dribbled into his lips, seeping into his mouth, wonderfully fresh and cool. It made no sense. The person had knocked him out, tied him up.

He opened one eye again. The figure was a blur, right in front of him, watching him. More water was tipped into his mouth. He gulped it down. He looked around. Diane was next to him, also bound. They were back at the line-of-sight tower, tied to one of its legs.

‘Thought you’d got rid of me for good, didn’t you, eh? Afraid not, young man. Here I am, large as life.’

He looked much older, his podgy features sunken down to the lines of his bones. Finn’s mouth worked now. He whispered the name of his attacker.

‘Matt.’

‘Ah, so you do remember me? Good, good.’

‘How did you get here?’

‘Me? I’ve lived here for years. Nowhere else I could go, was there, once you had me thrown out of the valley? See, I know what you did, you and your father. Had plenty of time to work that out.’

‘What do you want? Why are we tied up?’

‘I wondered if it was you. The descriptions were vague but I thought to myself, perhaps it
is
him. Him and the girl, escaping from Engn. You always were slippery. So I came to see for myself. And here we are, just like old times.’

‘I don’t understand. What do you want?’

‘What do I want? Isn’t it obvious, young man? I want a life. I want a house and a bed. I want everything I had before. And with you to trade, the Masters of Engn will give it all to me.’

‘You’re going to turn us in?’

‘Waited years for a chance like this. I never thought it would actually happen.’

Finn closed his eyes again, trying to think of what he could say, of a way out. But the pain in his head was too large and there was no room left for thoughts.

‘Let Diane go at least,’ he said. ‘I’ll come with you.’

‘Such a fine, noble lad. Your father’s son, eh? But no. I think the price will be much better for the two of you. The two escapers captured. The masters will be very grateful.’

‘They weren’t grateful to you before. They just left you to die out here.’

The blow across Finn’s cheek stung briefly. The worst of it was the way it sent his brain thudding with pain again.

‘Now, now, there’s no need for that, is there young man?’ said Matt. ‘I’m just setting things straight. I’ve been wronged and you’ve escaped from Engn. This will put everything right.’

‘We won’t co-operate,’ said Diane. He turned to look at her. Dried blood matted her hair where she’d been struck. She scowled from the pain throbbing in her own head. ‘You’ll have to drag us to Engn.’

‘And if I threaten to cut some bits off you with my knife here?’

‘So what?’ she said. ‘It’s nothing compared to what will happen to us inside.’

Matt snorted with laughter, as if Diane had said something funny. ‘Good point, young lady. How about this then? If you don’t co-operate, I’ll take the knife to Finn here. And if he doesn’t come, I’ll cut you up. Oh yes, I’ve seen you together, holding hands. Two right little love-birds aren’t we?’

‘If you touch her again I’ll kill you,’ said Finn.

‘No you won’t,’ said Matt, delighted at Finn’s outburst. ‘You really won’t. Because I’m going to turn you over to the masters of Engn and be richly rewarded. And you will never be heard of again.’

Matt rose and walked behind them to work on their ropes, untying them from the leg of the tower.

‘Right, up you get. Time we were leaving. It’s a good day’s walk around the walls to the gate. We can be there before they close at dusk.’

He yanked on a rope that was tied around both of their waists.

‘Up you get or I’ll start using the knife. The masters want you alive, that’s all. But they won’t mind if a few parts are missing.’

Finn and Diane worked their way back up to their feet. Their hands were still tied behind their backs and their legs were bound together, too, so that they could only shamble forwards in tiny steps. No chance of running.

Matt walked away ahead of them, hauling them forwards by the rope. They half-stumbled and followed after him, unable to catch up, not daring to stop. Desperately, Finn tried to think of a way of escaping. Perhaps they could overpower Matt as they walked. Grab the knife and cut themselves free. But he couldn’t see how. They were too tightly bound.

As they stumbled their way towards Engn, Finn tried to understand what had happened. Had Mrs. Megrim betrayed them? Sent a message through to Matt, told him where they were? Or perhaps she wasn’t alone back there in the Switch House. Perhaps there were Ironclads with her, waiting for Finn to try communicating, telling her what to reply. But that made no sense either. If the Ironclads knew where he and Diane were they wouldn’t have sent Matt. They’d have come themselves.

Must have been the old man then, the one who’d shown them the tunnel. He’d betrayed them. Told everyone what he’d seen, what he’d done. He knew where they were going, anyone could have worked out where they were hiding. He told Matt and Matt had simply waited for them to come out. It was strange. They’d been so terrified the Ironclads would catch them. It had never occurred to him the old lengthsman from his boyhood would get them instead.

Eventually they reached the gathering of huts where they’d met the old man the day before. It was a lot nearer than Finn had imagined: the route they’d taken through the tunnels must have taken them far out of their way. Was that all a part of the old man’s plan? Delay them so he could set about betraying them?

Finn saw the old man squatting next to a smouldering pile of ash as they approached, the remnants of the night’s bonfire. The smoke was a thin column of grey climbing vertically into the still air. At their approach he looked up, startled, his hand reaching for a stick lying beside him on the ground. His response puzzled Finn. He carried on clutching his stick as they approached, as if frightened of Matt.

‘What do you want here?’ the old man asked. He stood up tall and straight, trying and failing to look fierce. His grey skin was little more than parchment stretched over a framework of bones. He looked ancient, as if one blow from Matt would crumple him to the ground.

‘Oh, nothing from you, old man. We’re just passing through. A bucket of water from the well is all we need.’

The man’s eyes were on Finn and Diane now.

‘Why are these two tied up? What are you doing with them?’

‘That’s none of your business, now, is it? said Matt. ‘You just sit there quietly and say nothing and we won’t have any problems.’

The two men seemed not to know each other after all. They certainly didn’t appear to be working together.

‘He caught us,’ Finn blurted out. ‘He’s going to take us to Engn, turn us over. Please, help us.’

Matt laughed and gave the rope a vicious yank, sending both Finn and Diane sprawling to the ground.

‘Now, now,’ said Matt. ‘This old bag of bones isn’t going to be able to help you. No-one is. We’ll take our water and be on our way to Engn. The gates will be opening soon.’

Finn scrambled back to his feet, Diane helping him upright. The old man sat there, clenching and unclenching his staff, his hands like the talons of a giant bird. But he did nothing to help them.

Matt made them haul up a leaking bucket of water from the well. He filled a flask, took a drink. He didn’t give any more water to them.

‘Well,’ he said. ‘Let’s be getting you to Engn, shall we?’

They set off again, over the grassy rise of ground, the pumping and whirring of Engn suddenly louder. Finn could see the six wheels, all of them turning now, looming beyond the wall.

They skirted around the edges of more and more clusters of houses. They seemed to huddle beneath the walls of Engn, sheltering from the winds, perhaps. Near these ramshackle little communities, Finn saw a few places where the land had been tilled and planted with vegetables. He also saw traps set out here and there like those back on Connor’s farm. Rabbits or rats. With what they could catch and their meagre crops and the water from the underground streams, the people here scratched out a living. This was how Matt must have been living all this time, seeing the gates to Engn open and close each day, waiting for his chance.

After a couple of hours of stumbling progress, Matt stopped and gave them each a sip of water. He took great gulps of it himself, spilling more to the ground than he let either of them have. Finn thought about his long journey to Engn years before, sitting inside the moving engine. Now here he was again, being taken to Engn, helpless. And this time there would be no bed or meal waiting for him. His stomach churned with anxiety at what lay ahead. For Diane as well. Somehow they had to get free. But he could see no way. They had nothing sharp they could use to cut the rope. Even if they did, Matt looked in better shape than either of them. He would soon catch them again. If they could incapacitate him, somehow, knock him out, then perhaps they could get far enough away. But he could think of no way of doing it. He glanced across at Diane, hoping she might have an idea, some plan to escape. But her head was down, watching the ground in front of them as they trudged along.

They stopped at around midday, the sun high in the blue sky, its heat pinning them to the ground. He could feel his skin burning. Too used to the dim chill of the caves. Matt had a rough hat, little more than a floppy cloth, that he draped over his bald head to keep the sun off. He gave them a few more sips of water and then began to chew on a lump of something he pulled from inside his jacket. He didn’t offer any to them.

Up ahead, the wall of Engn climbed upwards: a sheer, smooth cliff of grey rock. Another cluster of the little houses must be there too. It was invisible behind a rise in the ground but Finn could see another line of smoke, rising against the dark stone even in the noon heat. Why burn fires in this heat? It made no sense.

Glancing backwards he saw that all the other fires still burned too: indistinct plumes of smoke all across the plain. Most were solid lines but some had breaks in them where something had interrupted their rise. Realisation of what they really were came to him at the same moment as he saw the bulky, black figure atop a nearby rise. Another silhouette, but this one had the bulk and height of an Ironclad. The figure stood unmoving for a moment and then, weapon in hand, strode down the slope directly towards them.