Renegade by Kerry Wilkinson Read Free Book Online Page B

react.
    ‘Hey!’
    ‘You can have it back in a minute.’ He crosses to the table and picks up a thinkpad, pressing the two devices together and then returning my watch.
    ‘The Kingsmen caught some of our men overground a year or so ago,’ he says after sitting down again. He is staring at the pad, not at me. ‘They killed them on the spot but we
always assumed they would think there were more of us nearby. We have scouts out by the woods and Kingsmen come past every now and then. They have never found us. We’ve thought about moving a
few times but have a lot of what we need here – and as long as we’re sensible, we should be safe.’
    ‘I didn’t see anyone in the woods.’
    Knave smiles. ‘You wouldn’t have but they saw you. You’re lucky we found you and not the Kingsmen.’
    ‘Where are you from?’
    Knave stands and reaches out a hand. ‘Come with me.’
    Before I sat, my knees were hurting but now my thighs burn with exhaustion and flames dance along my lower back. Knave reaches out to support me, gently holding my upper arm and asking if I am
all right.
    ‘I’m fine,’ I reply, shaking him off and forcing my body to obey.
    Knave leads me into a corridor. ‘I think this was an old study,’ he says, closing the door behind us and moving ahead. Everything smells stale and damp and there are spots of water
dripping from the arched stone overhead.
    ‘After I jumped from the train, I was on my own,’ he says. ‘I come from the East and initially had the idea of returning home. I spent my first night in a hollow underneath the
train tracks and realised it would be the first place Kingsmen would start searching. I created a sling from branches and vines and followed a river until I found the village above us.’
    Knave is walking slowly, peering over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure I am still there. At an intersection, he leads me left. ‘It was a small community at the time, perhaps a
couple of hundred people, but there were farms on the outskirts that provided food and small industries such as bakeries that kept everyone well fed. I slept in someone’s barn for the first
night and then went into the centre of the village the next day. I didn’t know it then but everyone knew everyone else, so I stood out instantly. This old guy ushered me into the back room of
an inn and told me I was asking for trouble. I was ready to fight my way out but he laughed and told me not to be so silly.’
    We reach a large wooden door and Knave stands next to it, turning to face me. ‘No one ever asked any questions about who I was but within a day, someone had looked at my arm and someone
else had given me a room to sleep in.’
    ‘Did they know you were an escaped Offering?’
    ‘I don’t know how they would – they just weren’t bothered. A few weeks later, the person I was living with took me to a meeting in the village hall late one night. I
hadn’t known it before but they said they were a resistance group, opposed to the King. They didn’t know what was going on at the castle but had been unhappy since the end of the war.
They could see through Victor and the broadcasts but they were completely disorganised. They had no weapons, no knowledge of any other rebel groups and didn’t know what they wanted to do. I
think they found comfort in small acts of defiance against the Kingdom and that was their way of rebelling.’
    ‘What happened?’
    Knave pushes the door open, leading me into a large room where there are beds, blankets, cushions, pillows and other comforts dotted around. We stand in the doorway as a dozen or so people turn
to face us.
    ‘This is where most of us sleep,’ Knave says. ‘There are just over thirty of us in total. This is the crypt but we managed to dig through one of the walls to make it bigger.
It’s more comfortable than you might think, plus we manage to stay warm, even in winter.’
    I feel everyone’s eyes on me and turn to leave. Knave follows,