Renegade by Kerry Wilkinson Read Free Book Online

really bad thing, I would surely be dead already, but that could mean that Kingsmen are on their way. The only thing I can
have any degree of certainty about is that at least some of the final banquet from the castle was broadcast.
    Eventually the ground becomes solid, with the footsteps of a couple of dozen people reverberating around concrete streets. Under my blindfold I can see the grey of stone but there is nothing
that tells me where we are. We are told to stop walking and I hear a clatter I can’t identify before someone tells us to move slowly. Gradually we edge down what sounds like a set of stone
steps.
    ‘Are you going to seal it?’ a voice asks behind me, before someone else queries where we should be taken. When the floor levels out again, I feel a hand on my arm guiding me quickly
until I realise too late that I am being led away from the sound of the others.
    I fight to yank my arm away but a hand grips me tighter, making me gasp and telling me to keep moving.
    ‘Where am I going?’ I ask.
    I recognise the man’s voice as the same one from the woods. ‘Keep moving.’
    ‘Where are my friends being taken?’
    He doesn’t reply but a gentle push in the bottom of my back is enough to keep me walking. I hear a door being opened and can tell we have entered a large room because the echo of our
footsteps lasts for a fraction of a second longer.
    Through the gap at the bottom of my blindfold, I can see a faint glow of orange light on a floor I think is wooden. The man who has been guiding me moves away, before there is a second male
voice. ‘I thought I told you to deal with it?’
    ‘They were just kids and said they were travellers. One of them was caught in one of our traps, so we brought him here. We were going to send the others on their way after scaring them a
bit.’
    There is a sigh before the second man lowers his voice and hisses aggressively. ‘So why did you bring them here?’
    I feel a hand on my head as the hat is wrenched away. My hair is uncomfortable as I shake my head, disorientated from the blindfold.
    ‘Is that . . . ?’
    ‘She says her name is Silver Blackthorn,’ the voice from the woods says. ‘There are twelve of them in total, so the numbers are about right.’
    There are faint whispers but nothing I can hear clearly. Suddenly the blindfold is pulled away, leaving me blinking painfully into the light of the room. The dazzling green stars take a few
moments to disappear as the shapes of two men slowly swim into focus. I can see the man from the woods more clearly in the light, his eyes a piercing brown in a face lined by zigzag scars around
his ears. The other man is taller and less well-built, with blond hair and blue eyes. He is smiling.
    ‘
You’re
Silver Blackthorn?’ he asks.
    My legs sag uncontrollably at the knees as I struggle to remain standing. The dark-haired man scrapes a wooden chair along the floor, placing it next to me. I can’t control my sigh of
weary relief as I finally lean back and take in my surroundings. The room is square with a low stone roof and a thick wooden table pushed against the far wall. Lining each side are wooden chairs
like the one I have been given. It smells of damp, like the back room of Opie’s house where the ceiling leaks.
    ‘Yes, I’m Silver,’ I reply.
    The blond man is trying to control his excitement but failing. ‘So you actually escaped?’
    ‘What gave me away?’
    ‘I’m sorry about the blindfolds,’ he says. ‘It’s a necessity – if people knew where we were, we wouldn’t be around any longer.’
    ‘Who are you?’
    The two men exchange a look, before the blond one nods slightly. ‘I’m Knave and this is Vez. We have our own community underground here.’
    ‘Where are we?’
    Knave points to the door behind me. ‘Back there is the original crypt from a village church. Overground it’s covered with rubble – you’d never know we were here. There
was a large cellar and a few other basement