B00DW1DUQA EBOK (37 page)

They paused for a moment to get their breaths back. A sharp pain thrummed in Finn’s shoulders but he knew they couldn’t stop. He grasped the hook and began to climb the steep slope of the reservoir. Diane joined him. It became harder and harder as they towed more and more of the chain. Between them, leaning into the slope, they inched their way upwards.

He didn’t think they were going to make it. Twice he slipped over and the chain rattled back down the slope a short way. They must have been heard by now even if they hadn’t been seen. But finally, Diane grasping the top of the wall with one hand, gritting her teeth, they managed to get the hook over the lip of the wall. Then it was a matter of hauling more and more of it over, link by link, until it reached a point where the weight of chain hanging down to the ground was enough.

‘Look out!’ Diane shouted.

The chain suddenly had a life of its own, rattling over the top of the wall at greater and greater speed in a cloud of dust. Then it stopped, held taut by the anchor point half-way down to the water.

Finn peered over the edge again. The chain was more than long enough to reach the floor. Its other end lay in coils on the dusty ground.

‘I’ll go first,’ said Diane. ‘Keep watch.’

She climbed over the edge of the wall and began to descend. The chain swayed as she worked her way down. She’d be completely vulnerable if the Ironclads came now, but there was no sign of anyone. Perhaps they really were going to escape.

Diane dropped the last few yards to the ground and looked up. ‘Come on, Finn. You now.’

Finn swung his legs over the edge and hooked an arm through one of the links. The chain swung around, bashing him against the wall, almost jarring him loose. He began to work his way down, feeling for each foothold. The muscles in his stomach and arms quivered from the effort of it. He had to carry on; he didn’t have the strength to climb back up again. When he was near enough the ground, he let go and landed in a heap beside Diane.

‘They’ll know what we’ve done,’ she said. ‘There’s no way we can get the chain back up.’

Finn nodded. ‘We’ll just have to get away as far as we can. Hope they don’t see us.’

Diane looked doubtful now. ‘I don’t think we’re going to get very far. You can see for miles across this plain. A few Ironclads on horses will catch us up easily.’

Finn said nothing, gazing around at the scene, trying to come up with a clever plan. He looked back at Diane. She looked exhausted, close to tears. He must look worse. But they couldn’t just give in now. They’d come so far.

‘There’s one place they wouldn’t think of looking for us,’ he said.

‘Where?’

‘Back inside. They’ll assume we’ve fled across the plain.’

‘Finn, no. I’m never going back in there. In any case, what are you going to do, shin back up the chain?’

‘No. But we could, I don’t know, walk around the walls, maybe find another way in.’

‘Well, I’m going to try and get away. I don’t care what happens.’

‘But we can’t just leave.’

She turned on him, angry now. ‘Listen, Finn, I know you’ve got these wild ideas in your head of destroying Engn, all these dreams you cling to of Connor and our silly game. But it’s not real, do you hear me? None of it is real. You can’t destroy all that. They’re going to try to catch us and kill us. And I’m going to try to get away. At least I’ll die free, in the open air.’

She turned and strode away from the walls.

‘Diane!’ Finn called after her, but she didn’t glance back.

He hurried after her. He could let her go, of course. But the thought of losing her again after all this time was too much. Perhaps she was right. At the very least, they needed to get out of sight, stop and think.

‘Look, you can’t just walk across the plain, out in the open like this,’ he said. ‘You’ll have no chance.’

‘I like it better than your plan.’

‘OK, but look. Let’s head for the line-of-sight towers.’

‘The towers?’

‘We can hide in the nearest one. Wait there until it’s dark, come up with a plan. Perhaps we can walk from one to the next, at night, so they won’t see us.’

‘What’s the point? They’re bound to check them.’

‘Maybe, but it’s better than walking across the plain in full view isn’t it?’

She stopped, then, and turned to look at him. ‘You’ll come too?’

He’d thought she’d wanted to get away from him. Now the look of frank fear in her face told him otherwise. What must it have been like all those years on her own, living in the wilds, always running?

‘I might,’ he said. ‘I don’t know. But we can’t stay here.’

‘Let’s go then.’

They broke into a jog, heading for the nearest line-of-sight tower. It would take them an hour or more even if they could maintain the same pace and they’d be visible from the walls all the way. As they jogged, Finn looked backwards, constantly expecting to see pursuit. There was nothing. But, of course, even if the Ironclads knew where they were they would have to leave Engn by a gate. They were probably galloping towards them even now, around the curve of the wall. They had to get out of sight.

He spurted forwards to try and hurry them on, although he didn’t have the energy to keep it up and soon slowed again. Diane jogged along beside him, panting heavily. When had they last eaten? He couldn’t even work it out.

From the reservoir wall the grass plain had looked featureless, stretching uninterrupted to the distant mountains. Now he saw there were undulations in it: dips and rises that became surprisingly steep when you tried to cross them. They reached the bottom of one of the dips and, looking backwards, Finn found he could no longer see the towers and wheels of the great machine. They were out of sight for the moment.

‘This way,’ he said, turning sharply left and following the line of the little valley. Perhaps it would confuse anyone following them.

‘It won’t make much difference,’ said Diane, her words punctuated by her laboured breathing. ‘They have dogs. They’ll track us.’

‘Perhaps we’ll find water,’ said Finn. ‘A lake or a river. Remember how you used the Silverburn to hide your trail when you came to the valley?’

She didn’t reply, too out of breath. Finn wondered how bad her injuries from her fall from the wheel were. They ran on for some way, going parallel to the walls of Engn. Sooner or later they would have to leave the fold of earth that hid them and strike out, towards the tower. He was just about to suggest it when the fold rounded a bend to reveal a ramshackle collection of wooden huts, five of them. Each had been cobbled together from branches and planks and sheets of rusting iron.

They stopped, glancing at each other, neither sure what they should do.

‘I can’t see anyone,’ said Finn. The houses looked deserted, roofs hanging off at angles, doors banging and banging in the slight breeze that blew up the valley. ‘Perhaps we could hide here until dark.’

‘No. They’d still sniff us out,’ said Diane. ‘Anyway, who lived here?’

‘People looking for their loved ones,’ said Finn. ‘I saw another village like this when they brought me in. Perhaps they’re dotted all around.’

‘Let’s go and see.’

They walked down towards the huts, always wary that someone could burst out at them. There was no-one. They stood in a rough little square surrounded by the broken hovels.

‘Perhaps we should look for food?’ said Finn.

‘No. Let’s get away. We’ll just be trapped here if they come.’

They set off, leaving the hovels behind them. Only then did they hear a thin voice, a hiss almost, calling out to them. ‘You two, come here. Quick.’

They turned but there was no-one in sight. The wind continued to lift and release loose roof-sheets and bang doors. Except that one of the doors didn’t swing shut. Finn was sure he’d seen it move but now it was held open. Inside he could see nothing but shadows.

‘They might be able to help us,’ said Finn. ‘Let’s see what they want.’

Diane looked doubtful. ‘I don’t like it. Whoever they are they’ll probably just try to hand us over to the Ironclads. Let’s go. I don’t like it here.’

‘But perhaps they can hide us. Perhaps they’re friends.’

She wanted to think they were, he could see, but her fear of being caught again was too great.

‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and talk to them. If it’s OK I’ll wave to you. Otherwise just get away, head for the tower.’

She looked doubtful, but nodded her head in agreement.

Finn walked back towards the hovels, towards the one whose door stayed open. It was, he noticed, the best-repaired of all the huts, its roof intact.

‘Hello?’ he said, approaching the open doorway. ‘Who are you?’

‘Come in, quick, before they see you.’

Finn pushed the creaking door further open and peered inside the darkness of the hut. It smelt of damp and rot. A grim place to live. Cracks and holes in the walls let in thin beams of light and Finn was reminded of the Switch House up on the hill, and Mrs. Megrim telling him off for his latest misdemeanour.

‘Who are you?’ he said again. He stepped just inside the doorway.

‘Running from the Ironclads are you?’

‘No,’ said Finn.

‘Course you are. Why else would you be out here? Come on, I can hide you from them. You and your frightened rabbit of a friend.’

‘Hide us? How?’

The voice collapsed into spluttered coughing for a moment. It was a man, Finn was sure, an old man by the sound of it.

‘I know how to hide from them. They ride through here but they never see me, never smell me out.’

‘How? Who are you?’

A face loomed out of the darkness then: sunken and wrinkled, like that of someone worn down by years of heavy labour.

‘Come on,’ said the man. ‘I won’t harm you. I’ve no love for the Ironclads either.’

‘Who are you?’ Finn repeated. ‘Why are you here?’

‘My son was taken inside,’ the man said. ‘I came here to wait for him.’

‘When did they take him?’

The old man looked down at the ground. ‘Oh. Years ago now.’

‘And you can hide us? Help us get away?’

‘Oh yes. There’s a way. That’s how we come and go, you see.’

‘Who?’

‘Lots of us here, living outside the walls, waiting and watching.’

‘But how? How can we get away?’

‘Down the well, see. The tunnels, the underground streams.’

‘What tunnels?’

‘Been here hundreds of years, the tunnels. We’ve found them all. Wells all over the place and the tunnels connect them, see. The first builders used to live out here and they dug wells, all around. Deep tunnels and caverns. You can use them to travel and not be seen.’

‘Show me how to get down there,’ said Finn.

‘You walked right past it!’ The man seemed delighted. ‘There, right out in the open.’

Finn looked back. A mound of rotting wood lay piled in between the houses. The man looked warily all around then stepped out of the house. He walked to the well and started lifting sheets up. Underneath lay a circle of worn stones set into the ground, the lip of a shaft descending downwards. From a distance, not moving, Diane watched them warily.

‘Hurry,’ said the man, pointing down the shaft. ‘They’ll see you. Get down quick before they come.’

‘You’re sure?’ asked Finn. ‘You can escape that way?’

‘Yes, yes. Head away from the machine. There’s another well-shaft further on. Climb back up there, they’ll never track you then.’

Finn stood, debating what to do.

‘We want to get to the tower,’ he said. ‘The line-of-sight.’

‘Yes, yes. Go that way. Through the tunnel and you’ll be there. Upstream. Left, left, right, straight, right, left. No time to teach you the song now, you’ll just have to remember the words. Hurry, before they come.’

‘Left, left … I don’t understand. What song?’

‘I told you. Tunnels everywhere down there. If you don’t know your way you could come up anywhere. We use the song-maps to find our way around in the darkness.’

‘Tell me it again.’

‘Upstream. Left, left, right, straight, right, left. Now go, before they come here.’

Finn came to a decision. They had little to lose anyway. He waved to Diane, telling her to come.

‘How many years?’ he asked

‘What?’ said the old man.

‘How many years have you waited out here for your son?’

The man paused before he spoke. ‘Nearly forty now.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Finn. I hope you find him soon.’

The old man didn’t reply. Finn turned away crouched down by the well. The old man disappeared back into his hovel as Diane approached.

‘What did he say?’ asked Diane. ‘What are you doing?’

‘We can get away this way,’ said Finn. ‘There’s a tunnel.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes. I think so. The old man told me.’

‘Can we trust him? Perhaps he’s just sending us back to Engn?’

‘Perhaps. But if he’d wanted us to get caught he could have just let us wander around the plain on our own.’

A line of iron hoops cemented into the wall of the well led into the darkness. Finn turned to let himself down. He could feel cold air breathing up at him, hear the distant chortle of running water from somewhere underground.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Hopefully it’s not too far.’

He began to descend. His breathing sounded heavier, rougher in the enclosed space of the shaft. He looked up at the circle of light, at the silhouette of Diane as she climbed over the edge of the well to follow him down. He felt for each rung with the tip of an outstretched foot, testing each one in case it had worn loose. It was easier than the chain, at least. He could see nothing below him. The rungs were slick with water or slime. He concentrated on taking each step downwards.

‘They’ll see the well,’ said Diane. ‘They’ll know we’ve come down here.’

She sounded very close in the confined space, her voice hollow.

‘He’ll cover it up again.’

‘They’ll still be able to follow our scent. The dogs.’

‘Not down here. It sounds like there are loads of tunnels. Streams, too. They won’t know where we’re going to come up.’

‘And you do?’

‘The man gave me directions.’

‘Did he now?’