Renegade (9 page)

Inside, there is one large room made entirely of wood. It is empty aside from a few chairs and a table. The room is dominated by a large empty fireplace.

Standing in the corner staring at us is a man sporting a puzzled frown with his hands on his hips. Faith calls him ‘Daddy’ and they share the same eyes. All three of them are short
but where Faith is lithe, both of her parents are thickset, especially her father. His arms are bulky and he has greying hair that stretches to his broad, bare shoulders. His eyes are narrow and
disbelieving. As his daughter approaches him, he places an arm around her but instantly begins patting her on the back as if he feels uncomfortable.

The cabin is warm and I take my hat off, allowing my hair to fall loose. As I look up, I see both of her parents staring at me, their mouths hanging open. There is an uncomfortable silence
before Faith breaks it. ‘Mum, Dad, this is Silver and Jela. Without them, I wouldn’t be here.’

They are momentarily like statues until they both lunge forward at the same time, trying to shake our hands. Her mother tells us she is called Marion and that her husband is Burn. She then
begins to fuss, asking if we are hungry or thirsty and trying to make us sit down. I want to say that we should be going but Faith won’t catch my eye and I don’t want to be the person
who tells her she has to say goodbye.

Eventually, I give in, sitting against the edge of the fireplace next to Jela as we stretch our legs out. Marion insists on making us something to eat as Burn stands around awkwardly.

‘What would you like?’ Marion asks expectantly.

‘Anything at all,’ I say.

She glances to her husband. ‘Do you want to go to our store and get some meat?’

‘We don’t want to be any trouble,’ I interrupt.

‘Nonsense,’ Marion says. ‘If he sets off now, he’ll be back soon enough. Look at your arms.’

I feel uncomfortably self-conscious as I peer at the jumper covering the sticks connected to my shoulders. Burn nods an understanding and then stops to kiss Faith on the head before sending one
more puzzled glance in my direction and heading outside. Marion bolts the door behind him and then sits in a chair in front of us with Faith next to her. I feel uncomfortable as her eyes keep
darting towards my hair. In the end I put my hat back on, making the excuse that I am feeling cold.

Marion turns to her daughter and asks how she’s feeling.

Faith glances quickly towards Jela and me, not wanting us to know about this part of her life. She rotates the broken thinkwatch on her wrist, hiding the yellow colour and sickle imprint that
has branded her a Trog. ‘I’m fine.’

Marion turns to us. ‘Faith was such an active young girl – running, climbing, all sorts. Even when she was a child, she was far stronger than she looked. Then, a few months before
the Reckoning, she started to feel . . .’ Marion peers at her daughter, shrugging and struggling for the correct word. ‘. . .
weak
, I suppose. The doctors are expensive and,
well . . .’

‘I’m not ashamed of being a Trog, Mum.’

Marion casts a scolding glare towards her daughter before catching herself and softening again. This is not really a conversation to be had in front of others.

‘How did you end up coming this way?’ Marion asks.

Before Faith can answer, I cut in, saying that we are just passing through and giving a hazy response, making sure I say nothing about our journey towards Middle England. Knave and Vez were
right about one thing – there is no point in telling people more than they need to know.

‘You’ve been on the news every night,’ she adds. ‘I was so worried. They’re saying you tried to kill the King but you’re my little Faith and I knew you
wouldn’t be involved in anything like that.’

‘It’s not true, Mum,’ Faith says, before telling her how we were kept prisoner and badly treated. I rest my hand on the top of Jela’s as she shakes next to me. As Faith
speaks, I watch Marion and with each revelation, her eyes widen further.

‘I didn’t know,’ she whispers at the end of the tale.

‘How did you know you had to get away from your house?’ I ask.

Marion glances at her wrist. ‘Burn and I got messages on our thinkwatches. It hasn’t really been working since, but I’ll show you what it said.’

Adults’ thinkwatches are all the same colour, a grey-white, because they have not taken the Reckoning. She flicks through a few screens and then begins to read: ‘“The child
taken from you as an Offering is in trouble. Kingsmen will come. Take food, water and clothing. Go now and hide. Do not go back”.’ She peers back up to me and adds: ‘We
didn’t know if it was serious but didn’t want to risk it. We packed our things and then, when the screens turned on and showed us the King, we realised something wasn’t right. We
came here that night.’

I don’t remember the exact words I sent out but it sounded like the message I wrote. It is fair to assume that if Faith’s parents got the message, then all our relatives did.

‘Are you all right, dear?’ Marion asks as I break into a smile. I am thinking of my mum and Colt and the increased possibility they are safe.

‘I’m fine,’ I say but suddenly, with the burden lifted, the idea of food consumes me. My stomach gurgles greedily at the thought we will soon be eating.

‘How much longer will Dad be?’ Faith asks.

‘Not long. We left so quickly that we couldn’t manage everything. We hid some food in an old coal store. It’s around a half-mile to town and it helps us keep an eye on things
too, in case there’s anything going on.’

‘Is there?’ I ask.

‘Not that he’s said. I wait here.’

I wonder if that is because Kingsmen haven’t come here yet – or because they were never coming at all. ‘Has anyone bothered you here?’

Marion shakes her head and rests a hand on her daughter’s head. ‘Not at all. We’ve not seen anyone since we left.’

I peer at my watch and realise it has been two hours since we left the others. I glance towards Faith who looks away quickly but she knows what I am going to say. ‘We really have to be
going . . .’

Marion protectively moves her hand onto Faith’s shoulder. ‘Do you have somewhere to go?’

‘We really shouldn’t say. It might not be safe for you to know.’

She nods. ‘I understand, but Burn will be back any minute. I’ll make sure you’re well fed before you go on your way.’

This time it is me who won’t meet Faith’s stare. I can feel her imploring me to allow her a few more minutes. I make a point of looking at my watch again. ‘Okay, but we really
have to go soon.’

Faith wants to keep us occupied and is quickly on her feet. ‘I can show you my room if you like?’

She beckons us to follow, heading towards the back of the cabin into a bedroom. As she closes the door behind us, she grins sheepishly. From the contents of the room, it is no surprise. The
bedding is a faded pink with a selection of soft toys on top, all a similar colour.

‘I liked pink a lot when I was younger,’ she says, although, from the way she picks up one of the toys and smells it, I’m not convinced it was that long ago. Her eyes are
twinkling with happiness and she is a different person. Her bed is a little wider than mine in Martindale and although it is a tight fit, the three of us lie together enjoying the softness of the
mattress.

‘We really do have to go,’ I say.

Faith’s voice is gentler than usual. ‘I know . . . it’s just nice to see them again.’

‘At least we know the message got through,’ Jela adds.

‘My mum and dad are both Elites,’ Faith says, unprompted. ‘They do pretty well around the town and we always have a good share of rations. A few months before the Reckoning, I
started having these pains in my chest. I felt really weak all the time. I couldn’t go to school because I wasn’t strong enough to get through more than an hour or two.’

Although she once told me she had been ill, this is the first time she has mentioned any details.

‘How come you’re okay now?’ I ask.

‘I’m not sure. Our doctor couldn’t figure it out. I barely got out of bed for a month and then one day I woke up and felt almost normal again. No one seemed to be able to
explain it but it happened not long before the Reckoning. When I took it, the Reckoning hurt me: I could feel it in my mind, burrowing and scraping. I didn’t have the strength to stop it, let
alone answer the questions. I threw up afterwards and knew I’d be a Trog before the results came out.’

In everything we have gone through, the Reckoning is still the biggest mystery. We are each connected to modified thinkpads and yet everyone’s experience is different. Mine felt like a
two-way conversation in which I refused to give ground. Faith’s sounds like she was bullied.

She sighs in shame and I take her hand. ‘Out of everyone that came with us, you’re the one I trust the most.’

I move myself into a sitting position and see that Jela is holding Faith’s other hand. Jela nods at me to say that she understands why it isn’t her I singled out. She is resourceful
in other ways.

Faith doesn’t reply but she grips my hand so hard that I can feel the bones of her fingers. We stay silent for a few minutes more until Jela sits up as well. ‘We really have to
go,’ I say.

As she raises herself up, Faith nods. ‘I know. Just give me a minute to say goodbye.’

Jela stands first but, as she does, there is a loud bang on the front door. Faith reaches towards the bedroom door handle but I know something isn’t right and grab her arm. ‘If it
was your dad, he’d knock gently,’ I whisper.

Faith’s eyes widen in fear as I creep towards the back window and nudge the corner of the curtain to one side, revealing half-a-dozen Kingsmen lined up on the edge of the woods, their
swords drawn.

The front door bangs open and we hear a man shouting, ‘Where are they?’

Burn’s reply follows urgently: ‘They were here, honestly they were. Three of them.’

Faith’s entire body trembles as her father betrays us. Her bottom lip bobs up and down, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. I cannot begin to imagine what she is feeling but I am boiling
with a mixture of rage at what they have done and sadness I can barely start to understand. Neither of those emotions even approaches the fear rippling through me – we are surrounded by
Kingsmen.

‘They’re in her bedroom,’ Marion says. ‘I tried to find out if there were others but they wouldn’t say. Do we have the deal?’

‘Our Faith gets to go free, doesn’t she?’ Burn adds, voice wavering.

There is a shuffling of feet along with at least two other men talking over each other until Marion screams: ‘You won’t hurt her, will you?’

The bedroom door clatters open and there is a roar of fury from the Kingsmen. ‘Where are they?’

Marion stumbles over her reply. ‘They were there, all three of them, I watched them go in.’

There is more banging and the sound of glass breaking before we hear Burn’s voice. ‘That window has been sealed for years.’

As we crouch in the flood cellar underneath the cabin, I hold my breath. Faith showed us the hatch hidden under her bed which she found during a thunder storm when she was a kid. For whatever
reason, she never mentioned it to her parents but if they are aware of it, then the game is up.

‘Is there another way out?’ one of the men demands.

‘No,’ Burn replies.

It feels as if the whole cabin is shaking as a Kingsman explodes with rage. We hear boots stomping and wood shattering.

‘Was your Trog-scum daughter ever here?’ the voice shouts, before the crunch of fist on flesh blares.

I cradle Faith to my chest, silently imploring her to be quiet. She is shattered, not only from the betrayal but now from hearing her parents being beaten above us.

‘We just wanted our daughter back!’ Marion’s voice cries, but there is another vicious crack followed by a whimper.

‘Were they ever here?’ the Kingsman demands.

‘Yes!’ Burn replies, although there is a liquid sound to his voice that I recognise all too well, having tried to talk through a mouthful of blood when I was a prisoner at the
castle. The crunch of a boot connecting with bone is eclipsed by the shattering of ribs as he cries out in pain.

‘Send the men into the woods and get around the other side of the lake,’ the Kingsman orders someone above us. ‘They can’t have gone far. Take these two back to the town
– the Minister Prime wants someone for tonight’s broadcast, so it may as well be them.’

As footsteps boom on the creaking floor above, Jela and I sandwich Faith between us, whispering in her ear that we are there for her. She is shaking uncontrollably, unable to speak. There are
silent tears on Jela’s face and I know I have to be the strong one.

By the time the noises above us dissipate, it is over five hours since we left Imrin, Hart and Pietra on the far side of the town. With the Kingsmen searching the area, I hope Imrin has been
organised enough to have one person keeping watch.

As her sobs slow to a stop, Faith sits between us, her legs wrapped around me, arms clinging to my back, as if she is a child I am cradling.

‘Is there another way out, Faith?’ I whisper gently in her ear, but she doesn’t respond. Slowly, I disentangle us but her red puffy eyes stare right through me.

‘Faith?’

No response.

I turn to Jela and tell her to wait as I lift the hatch a sliver, peering at the carnage that was once Faith’s bedroom. The bed is no longer above us; instead it is on its side propped
against the wall. Every piece of furniture has been smashed. As quietly as I can, I slide the cover to one side and pull myself into the room. Both the bedroom and front door are open, allowing me
to see all the way through the cabin to the lake outside. I risk a look out of the back window and the Kingsmen seem to have gone, so I creep through the empty cabin to the front door.

The sun is as high in the sky as it is going to get but offers little warmth and any degree of mist or dimming cloud cover that would have been helpful has long gone. The only benefit to the
clear conditions is that it allows me to see there are no dark figures skulking around the edge of the water.