Reckoning (28 page)

All the rules I have made for myself over the past few weeks are tossed aside as I knock on the door. My heart is pounding, partly because of the running, but mainly because of everything that has happened in the past few minutes. I can't stop thinking of the blood I had to step around. When there is no answer after a few seconds, I knock again, harder the second time. Probably luckily, when the door is opened, Faith is standing there. ‘Silver?'

‘Is Imrin in there?'

‘Imrin?'

‘Yes.'

‘The Indian guy?'

‘Yes.'

She looks at me confused, as if about to ask how I know him, but then she tells me to wait a minute.

When Imrin does appear in his kitchen uniform, he is furious – rightfully so.

‘What are you doing here?' he asks, desperately trying not to raise his voice. ‘It was your idea never to acknowledge each other.'

‘I know. It's Hart, he was hurt and caught and taken to the dungeons. The Minister Prime beat him unconscious.'

I'm not sure what I'm expecting, but Imrin certainly doesn't seem to share the concern I have. ‘What do you think we can do? We don't even know what it's like in the dungeons, let alone if there's a way to get him out. Did you get what you needed?'

‘Yes, but I'm not going anywhere without Hart.'

Imrin slams his hand into the stone wall. ‘What are you on about? It's going to be hard enough making this work as it is. I risked loads for you this morning already. We wedged the dorm's door shut from the inside with this scrap of wood we chipped out from one of the bed frames. When the Minister Prime showed up, he was furious. We were shouting through the door that we couldn't open it as he was bellowing and kicking it. Eventually, I grabbed the wood and pocketed it, then he burst through. He whacked one of the Kingsmen for being weak and then told us all that if he found out any of us were responsible, he would personally rip our arms off.'

I touch him on the shoulder but he shakes me off. ‘I can't go without him. It's my fault he's there.'

‘You know you're putting everyone at risk?'

‘I know.'

‘These should be things we're deciding together, not something that you go off on your own to do.'

‘Hart is going to die if we don't do something.'

‘
We
don't have to do anything – going to the Minister Prime's office was your idea. We could already have been out through the medical bay.'

‘You know why I went to the office.'

Imrin is pacing, exasperated and furious. I have never seen him like this. He takes a deep breath. ‘Do you think the King is going to kill him?'

I shake my head. ‘It's not the King, it's all the Minister Prime. He doesn't want the King knowing Hart might have been in his office, checking his files.'

Imrin stops walking back and forth and looks towards the door. ‘I've got to get back before I'm noticed.'

‘I know – but you're going to stick to the plan, aren't you?'

Imrin shrugs and, as I lean forward to try to kiss him, he pulls away, his eyes full of hurt and mistrust.

He opens the door and steps through, before poking his head back around to say one final thing: ‘You ask too much, Silver.'

I trudge away thinking through his final statement but it's hard to argue that he's wrong. It should have been our plan, not mine. Instead, I have ploughed ahead doing what I wanted to. He's also right that we could be out of the castle by now. If nothing else, there are enough sheets on the beds in the medical area to hastily put something together which would enable us to lower ourselves halfway down the wall until we can drop the rest. I make my way through the castle until I am at the laboratories but I can remember next to nothing about the rest of the day, except that Porter doesn't make a fuss about me being slightly late.

In the dorm that evening, I lie on my bed trying to think about what I can do with the information I now have. I want to examine the list of Offerings I took from the Minister Prime and find out as much as I can about the person listed as ‘AWOL'. Is it someone who escaped? If so what happened to their family and where are they now? As my mind drifts inexorably back to Martindale, I wonder if perhaps Imrin had the right idea – maybe we should have simply made a run for it and chanced the fact our thinkwatches would come to life outside the castle walls?

I feel tired as the door opens and Ignacia walks in. She tells us not to bother getting changed but to follow her as we are off to the hall again. It is not banquet night and I have only bad memories of the last time this happened, with Lumin humiliated and beaten in front of us. I don't even know if he is dead or alive; Porter has not mentioned him since that day.

Everyone seems to be sharing my unease as we move through the corridors in silence except for our footsteps until we reach the main hall. Inside there is no large table and the area is clear except for a row of benches. The boys are already lined up and we take our places. The Minister Prime is standing on the lower part of the floor with us, flanked by four Kingsmen. The lights are dim and the seats that stretch above us are as empty as the King's box.

The Minister Prime exchanges a glance and a nod with Ignacia as the hall's doors slam shut and he starts to pace in front of us, speaking crisply. ‘Many weeks ago, I reminded you that there are rules we must abide by and I told you that any untoward behaviour must be reported.'

He stops striding and turns to face us, running his eyes along the line. I feel certain he is about to reveal Hart and ask us what we know but instead he begins walking again, his words sharp and over-pronounced.

‘Now, before I need to force it, would any of you like to step forward and confess?'

At the far end of the line, among the boys, there is a shuffling but nobody stands. I have the overwhelming feeling that I am looking particularly guilty and can feel a bead of sweat tracing its way down my back and force myself not to shiver. The Minister Prime stops when he is back in the centre, again looking from one end of the line to the other, trying to make eye contact with us all. I match his gaze momentarily before he moves on.

As he reaches the end, his eyes narrow menacingly. ‘That was a very, very bad decision one of you just made. Luckily, somebody took my advice and stepped forward to report inappropriate and unpatriotic behaviour.'

I had been thinking Hart was to be paraded but instead the Minister Prime focuses his attention on the boys' benches. His next words make me shudder so badly that the bead of sweat turns into a waterfall.

‘Stand up, Imrin Kapoor.'

30

I try not to gasp as I look sideways to see Imrin rising to his feet. His eyes are locked with the Minister Prime's.

‘Imrin has a very interesting story to tell,' the Minister says.

I feel a hand on my back and turn to see Pietra's eyes wide. She nods towards the door as if to tell me to go but I turn back to see the stare-off between Imrin and the Minister Prime.

‘Would you like to repeat in front of everyone else what you told me earlier?' the Minister Prime says.

My heart is beating so quickly that I feel as if I could collapse. I try to breathe in but something isn't right and I end up struggling for breath. All I can feel is a sinking sensation as Imrin starts to speak, his words slow and deliberate.

‘I found a passage that leads out of the boys' dormitory, Sir.'

The Minister Prime purrs a response. ‘When did you discover it?'

‘A couple of days ago, Sir.'

A lie.

‘And what did you do about the tunnel?'

‘I followed it, Sir. It leads to a corridor somewhere between the male and female dorms.'

There is a stunned shock along the full length of the bench. Only three people that I'm aware of know about the tunnels: Imrin, Pietra and myself.

‘What did you find?'

‘A map.'

The Minister Prime spins and claps as a Kingsman steps forward and hands over a roll of paper. I don't need to look twice to know it is the map we created together. He unrolls it, stretching it out for everyone to see. He only has one of the pages – of the floor we are on with the hall, not the one above which includes the recently added medical area.

There are more gasps along the line although, strangely, they seem to be more in admiration than anything else. I hear someone say the word ‘camera' quietly before the Minister Prime rips the paper in half and tosses it to the ground.

‘Did you have anything to do with the creation of this map?'

‘No, Sir. I just found it.'

Another lie. Imrin is surprisingly good at it.

‘Why do you think somebody might be making a note of where all the cameras are on this particular floor?'

Imrin coughs but I can tell it is put on. ‘I don't know, Sir.'

The Minister Prime laughs heartily. ‘Come now, Imrin, an intelligent, honest young man such as yourself – you must have some ideas?'

It is as if the two are putting on a show for everyone, fake-laughing and palling around just to torture me for a little longer. I feel Pietra's hand on my back again but don't turn to face her this time.

Imrin stammers through his reply. ‘I guess … if someone was trying to escape, they might want to know where all the cameras were…'

An accepting nod. ‘Why would you want to escape from serving your King?'

‘I don't know, Sir.'

He points towards one of the other boys on the bench. ‘Would you want to escape?'

‘No, er, Sir.'

The Minister Prime jabs his finger towards three more Offerings and everyone responds that they wouldn't want to leave. If I wasn't so scared, the charade would be laughable.

‘So, what do we have here?' He holds out his gloved hands and counts on his fingers. ‘An attempt to escape, sneaking out of permitted areas, unauthorised materials. That is quite a list. I suppose the question is who is responsible for all of this?'

Imrin wipes his hands on his trousers but it gives me little comfort that he is sweating too.

‘Do you know?' the Minister demands.

‘Yes, Sir.'

‘How do you know?'

‘Because I saw the person. She forced me not to say anything.'

‘She?'

‘Yes, there is a second tunnel that leads to the girls' dorm.'

The girls are now shuffling uneasily. I can tell that, aside from Pietra, none of them knows about this.

‘Did you follow this second tunnel?'

‘Not really, Sir. She showed me where she had stored some blankets. I think she snuck out regularly.'

The Minister Prime scratches his chin, glancing along the line at us. I meet his eyes again because I don't know what else to do. Inside it feels as if my stomach has fallen out. There is an emptiness I cannot explain. I feel as if I am drifting again; watching myself from above. I am a scared, small girl who has almost certainly tried to do too much.

From above there is a clang as the door at the back of the royal box opens. The King staggers in holding a bottle of wine in each hand, clearly drunk. Behind him there are two Kingsmen, one of whom seems to be there to hold him up. For the first time, he is wearing something other than his usual robes – what looks like a pair of pyjamas; they are white and ill-fitting, with a crusty-looking red stain on the front.

He fumbles his way to the front of the box and looks down upon us before muttering something inaudible. The Minister Prime seems annoyed to have been cut off mid-flow but bows graciously. ‘Welcome, Your Majesty. I was just dealing with the matter at hand.'

The other Kingsmen move from Ignacia and the Minister Prime until two of them are standing behind our bench and the other pair are near the door.

The King mutters something impossible to hear but the Minister Prime ignores him.

‘I suppose there are only a couple more questions, Imrin. Firstly, how did she force you?'

Slowly Imrin raises his shirt to reveal the burns, bruises and scars underneath. Ignacia steps towards him to take a closer look. The Minister Prime is unmoved while the King doesn't appear to know what's going on; he is staring upwards towards the lights.

The Minister Prime nods slowly. ‘There can only be one final question: who did that to you?'

I hold my breath and try to imagine him saying any name that isn't mine but from the moment he stood, I knew what he was doing.

He turns, he trembles, he points, he lies.

‘It was her – Silver Blackthorn.'

Everyone turns to face me, but it is Faith's confused expression I notice first, staring as if to ask what's going on. Only Pietra understands but she says nothing. There is no point in both of us getting into trouble, especially considering it is nothing to do with her.

As I am grabbed roughly from behind and pulled to my feet, my eyes lock with Jela's. There is some sort of understanding, but it is mainly sorrow. She knows more than anyone the type of fate that could await me. The Kingsman behind has my hair and yanks me towards him. I hear the ripping sound before I feel the pain. I try not to scream but, perhaps to test my resilience, he slaps me across the back of the head. I manage to shake my head clear, although the Kingsman still has my arms pinned behind me.

‘He's lying,' I shout.

The Minister Prime looks to Imrin. ‘She says you're a liar, that you made all of this up.'

‘I didn't, Sir.'

He rubs his stomach for good measure, as if emphasising how I have somehow hurt him. The Minister Prime nods gently and places a hand on Imrin's shoulder.

‘You should all know that we have now blocked these passages. Any attempt to find or re-enter them will be dealt with extremely harshly.'

He tells Imrin to sit and then turns to the remaining girls on the bench. ‘How many of you knew about this?'

I know the answer is only Pietra but silently plead with her not to say anything. The Kingsman is pulling my arms further up my back until they feel as if they are going to be ripped out of their sockets. I try to push myself onto tiptoes to ease the pressure but cannot stop myself from squealing in pain. There is a grunt of enjoyment from behind as his knees connect with the back of mine, forcing me to stumble and increasing the strain on my shoulders.