Renegade (29 page)

I look at the Minister Prime sprawled face-down on the floor. ‘You should go,’ I tell Porter. ‘He doesn’t know it was you who hit him. Don’t blow your
cover.’

Porter’s features relax slightly as he realises I am right. ‘Are you okay? You can barely walk.’

I crouch over Opie and gently poke at his face, trying to wake him.

‘Here,’ Porter says, taking a small caplet out of his pocket and handing it to me. ‘It’s pure adrenalin.’

I run a nail along the seam, letting me pull the sections of the capsule apart, and then empty the liquid contents into Opie’s mouth. Within seconds, his eyes are blinking awake and he is
on his feet staring at the carnage around him.

‘What happened?’

‘Just get me out of here,’ I say, thanking Porter one final time and telling him to stay safe.

Opie doesn’t seem to have any after-effects from being hit in the back of the head and I use his shoulder to half-rest, half-hop through the empty echoing corridors as we hurry back
through the castle with me trying to ignore the pain in my ankle.

Because of the time we have taken, I am expecting to see Faith and Imrin already waiting for us in the agreed place – the King’s dining area. I told Imrin about the private breakfast
the Northern Offerings had with the King in this room and he should remember where it is, but the room is empty.

‘Wow,’ Opie says, stepping inside.

I don’t blame him. The room is the most impressive I saw in my time at the castle. It is elegantly lined with drapes and wall coverings in the same regal red the King usually wears, with
an elaborate throne at the head of a long wooden table that is currently empty. On its own, it is memorable enough but it is the stained glass window at the far end which is truly stunning. It
stretches from the floor to the ceiling and the moonlight is streaming through, sending colours glistening into the corners around us.

Although it portrays the King standing over the slain leaders of the two opposing armies, something symbolic rather than accurate, the content is almost irrelevant. The sheer beauty of the
handiwork is almost hypnotic, the tiny raised portions of the glass and the subtleties in the colours from one section to the next truly captivating. It is only when my ankle collapses and I
stumble into Opie that I remember what I am supposed to be doing.

‘It’s amazing,’ Opie says, coming to his senses as I do.

‘It was made by an Offering. The King cut his hands off so he could never create anything to rival it.’

Opie doesn’t reply, he simply stands staring at the window.

‘They should be here,’ I say, checking my thinkwatch.

‘Could they have gone already?’

‘Neither Imrin or Faith would have been able to work the equipment. They wouldn’t have gone without us anyway. We only get one shot.’

I hobble to the door and check the corridor but there is no one there. When the Minister Prime comes around, he will surely raise the alarm, so we haven’t got much time.

‘We’ll have to go and find them,’ I say.

Opie doesn’t sound too impressed. ‘How? You can barely walk.’

‘And you don’t know where you’re going. We’ll have to go together.’

He seems reluctant and I don’t want to ask if it is because it is Imrin we are going to save. It looks as if he wants to argue but his only protest is a disapproving shake of the head
before he lowers his shoulder so I can lean on it.

We move as quickly as my ankle allows, up a twisting set of stone steps towards the dormitories. When we reach the top, I see Faith rushing towards us with a row of female Offerings behind her,
each looking more terrified than the last. They seem so young, most of them wearing pyjamas and still half-asleep. As everyone stops at the top of the stairs, one by one they notice who I am. I
hear my name being repeated in anguished whispers flittering up and down the corridor.

‘Did it go okay?’ I ask.

Faith is out of breath, her uniform looking more uncomfortable than ever. ‘We had to wait downstairs and then there were Kingsmen when we got up here. Imrin froze.’

I look over her shoulder towards the door that opens into the girls’ dorm – the place from which I thought I would never escape – and there are two guards lying facedown on the
floor. I don’t ask what happened.

‘What about the boys?’

‘Imrin’s on his way.’

I dig into the pouch on my belt and take out the sample Xyalis requested, handing it to Faith. ‘You take this, I’ve got the medicine. It’s best if I don’t hold onto
everything, just in case.’

She puts it in her own pouch as we hear a clatter of footsteps at the far end of the corridor, where there are two rows of boys, looking even younger than the girls, running in our direction. At
the back, I see Imrin cajoling them towards us.

‘Were there many Kingsmen?’

Opie heads back down the steps towards the King’s dining room, the girls following behind him. Faith touches each of them gently on the back as they pass. ‘None of the Kingsmen
downstairs paid us any attention. Whatever Xyalis has done to the cameras must have worked because there were only two up here.’

‘Can you help me?’ I ask, pointing towards my ankle.

Faith is the perfect height for me to lean on and helps guide me down the stairs just as the boys arrive and follow us. The girls whispered my name as if they couldn’t believe it was me
but the boys seem too stunned to say anything at all.

We trace our steps back to the King’s dining room, where Opie has already started to sort the girls into their Realms: North, South, East and West. I use the table to support myself until
I can reach the window that stretches from floor to ceiling and then find the box in the far corner of the frame running around the glass that Xyalis told me about. It is metallic and weighty but
otherwise unremarkable.

I check my thinkwatch for the list of codes Xyalis gave me as the room begins to feel full. Even though they are scared and shocked, it is hard to keep thirty children quiet – even the
older ones. As the boys finish filing in, Imrin closes the heavy wooden door and wedges a long strip of wood through the handles to try to stop anyone opening it from the outside. Opie has finished
sorting the boys and the girls as I quickly prise the back of the metallic box away and insert the connector that Xyalis gave me, snapping it into place as he instructed. I tap a code into the
number pad on the side of the box and flick the switch. A hum of electricity confirms it is working as I use a chair to pull myself up and then sit on it as everyone turns to face me, instinctively
going silent.

‘I’m Silver Blackthorn,’ I say, speaking too quickly but knowing we need to move. ‘You will have heard a lot about me but none of that is important now. You were all
brought here as Offerings a couple of days ago and you may already have realised that it isn’t safe here.’

As I look from face to face, I see a few of them nodding but there are mainly blank looks. On our first night, the King killed Wray but it seems they haven’t had an experience like that
yet.

The hum from the box behind me gets louder as the light flickers overhead, making everyone look up in anticipation. I turn and point towards the window.

‘A very clever man who used to work here began creating a teleportation device a long time ago. He was never able to finish it but neither did anyone else. This was the room where he
worked and the window frame has the remnants of what he was working on. He gave me the equipment to fix it so that you will be taken back to your Realms when you step through. There will be people
waiting there for you to take you somewhere safe. If you return to your families, none of us can stop you – but the Kingsmen will come for you. Tell them we forced you to do this.’

There is another roar, this time from the entire window as opposed to the box. It is humming like a swarm of furious bees.

I turn to Opie and ask him for the children from the East. They all seem scared but one of the older girls finally steps forward and says she will go first. I tell her to be brave and simply
walk towards the window. She tells me that her mum talks about me all the time and reaches out to touch my arm to make sure I am real. As she strides forward into the glass, she is hesitant,
expecting to hit something solid. Instead, there is an orange glow around her that shrinks quickly into the centre of her back until she is gone. There is an orange person-shaped haze against the
window that quickly fades.

Around the room, there is a gasp of awe and then, having seen it work, one by one the rest of the children from the East pass through.

I have to change the codes for each Realm but the South, West and North follow until it is just Imrin, Faith, Opie and I remaining. I switch the device off and start to reprogram it. Xyalis
talked me through the theory, and the code is on my watch, but my fingers have stopped obeying as I type incorrectly twice in a row. I am midway through it a third time when we all turn in unison
as something smashes into the doors. They bounce inwards but Imrin’s wooden barricade holds.

‘Quick,’ Opie says unhelpfully as I get the numbers wrong a third time.

Another almighty bang sounds as something hits the door.

I take a deep breath and start again, this time using my middle finger instead of my index. It is slow going but I put the final number in just as we hear a splintering from the door. The
barrier is still holding, but it is split along the centre and will only take one more hit. Imrin runs to the other end of the room and picks up a chair, shoving one of the legs width-ways into the
handles just as the loud humming sounds again around the window.

‘Go,’ I shout at Faith, heaving myself up and trying to balance. She asks if I need help, but I push her towards the window just as the doors clang open. Faith is looking backwards,
reaching towards us as she disappears into the orange light.

Kingsmen pour into the room, the one at the front grabbing Imrin by the throat as they turn to face myself and Opie at the other end of the room.

‘Go,’ I say to him but he doesn’t move.

From the front, the window looks normal but the hum is clear and the Kingsman holding Imrin cannot figure out what is going on.

‘Where are the Offerings?’ he demands.

‘Gone,’ I reply matter-of-factly.

‘Gone where?’

‘Home.’

He is confused as the lights flicker above us again. His grip tightens on Imrin.

‘Are you ready?’ I say loudly.

‘Ready for what?’ the Kingsman barks.

He doesn’t realise that I wasn’t talking to him but Imrin and Opie both take the cue, bracing themselves as I flick the switch on the grey and black device in my pocket that Imrin
stole from Rom’s office and gave to me as a Christmas present.

Xyalis invented it as a sonic weapon and the high-pitched shriek it emits sends the Kingsmen cowering to their knees in pain. The one at the front drops Imrin, reaching for his ears, although it
will do no good. Xyalis gave us earpieces that block the noise. We can only hear a small whistle; they are deafened and disorientated.

This time Opie does turn, grabbing my hand and jumping into the window. As I fall with him, I switch off the sonic device, twisting in mid-air, expecting to see Imrin next to me. Instead, the
Kingsman is covering one ear but using his other hand to hold onto Imrin’s foot.

I try to step back into the room but it is too late. The sensation starts on the outside of my skin, as if I am being tickled. Gradually it creeps into me, seeping into my pores until every part
of me is itching. I can no longer feel the pain in my ankle but realise it is because I can’t feel anything other than a scraping sensation. A bright orange fills my vision and I struggle to
breathe before there is a popping sound and I stumble forward into Xyalis’ main laboratory under Lancaster Castle. Faith is handing him the formula I stole and, as he notices me appearing,
Xyalis steps forward and slaps a button on the console.

It takes me a few seconds to catch my breath, readjusting to the room as I see Faith and Opie both looking beyond me. Somewhere during the journey, Opie has let my hand go. I follow their gaze
and am hit by a sickening feeling in my stomach that has nothing to do with the teleport.

Imrin didn’t make it and Xyalis has switched off the signal.

‘Turn it back on,’ I yell, but Xyalis is focused on the sample Faith has given him, grinning as he twists it in his hands.

‘Turn what on?’ he says, not looking up.

‘The teleport. Imrin didn’t get through.’

Xyalis glances up, narrowing his eyes and peering around the room, as if he expects Imrin to be in a corner hiding. His expression changes but it is with annoyance, not panic.

‘Why wasn’t he with you?’

My voice is trembling but getting louder. ‘One of the Kingsmen had him. You’ve got to start it again.’

He puts the stolen tube in a rack on his worktop and looks towards the dials next to a keyboard. ‘If you close a door, it takes time to start it again. It’s going to take a minute or
so to reopen and we can’t risk the Kingsmen invading here, not now you’ve got the sample.’

I take a step towards the console myself but forget about my damaged ankle and collapse on a step. ‘They’ll kill him,’ I say, the whimper in my voice surprising even me.

Xyalis checks the controls again. ‘Did the Offerings get away safely?’

‘Yes,’ Faith replies. ‘We told them people would be waiting on the other side.’

He nods. ‘The codes were for a central point in their Realms. Now our communications are working again, I sent messages to the closest rebel groups, so they know what to expect.’

He sounds pleased with himself but that only makes me angrier. ‘Why did you shut it off?’ I scream.

Xyalis points to Opie. ‘He said you had to use the sonic alarm, so I thought you were in trouble. I can’t risk anyone finding all of this. When I saw you, I thought that was
it.’ After a pause, he adds: ‘I’m sorry’, but it is hard to tell if he is.

I sit on the step staring across the room as it begins to sink in that Imrin is at the mercy of the King and the Minister Prime. Opie sits next to me but I shrug him away, not wanting to talk to
anyone, least of all him. If he had kept his mouth shut about the sonic alarm, this may not have happened.