Resurgence (11 page)

I speak before any of the others can say something I’d rather Knave didn’t know. ‘When we were in the castle, I had a sonic weapon that affected everyone’s hearing. I
used it to help us get away from the Kingsmen. I assume he means that.’

Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, but it doesn’t much matter unless I can somehow get myself and Imrin away together. Nobody seems to want to speak until I have given an indication of
what I want to do. I can’t stop thinking about Imrin’s battered frame. He didn’t even open the one eye that hadn’t been beaten closed.

‘I’m going to Oxford,’ I say, breaking the silence. ‘We can walk during the day and explore tonight. I want to scout there first and find out what it’s like. Why
have they picked there instead of Windsor?’

Nobody replies for a moment. I’ve still not said what I intend to do about Imrin. I’m not sure if I know myself.

‘Vez is from Oxford.’

Knave’s reply takes the attention from me. Everyone turns to watch Vez move uncomfortably from one foot to the other as he stands in the doorway.

‘How far is it?’ I ask.

Vez doesn’t hesitate and I guess it is a journey he has made before. ‘Six or seven hours on foot.’

‘Will you take me?’

He scans the five of us, his gaze hovering on Opie for a few seconds longer than feels comfortable. ‘I’ll take
you
. I don’t know the others.’

I’m not sure if I’m comfortable going with someone I don’t really know, but there isn’t much choice. Opie and Hart huff in complaint, but it is too late as I tell Vez
that I’ll rest for a few hours and then we can set off to arrive in Oxford a little after sunset. That will allow us to scout around in the darkness and be back by morning.

Vez nods. ‘What are you going to do when we get back?’

‘I’m not sure.’

There is an uncomfortable silence and it feels as if the air has been sucked out of the room. Knave thankfully breaks it. ‘There are a few people who will probably want to see you again .
. .’

He leads the five of us through the corridors until we reach a workshop. Around the walls are various tools that look brand new. A young man is hammering away on a bench and doesn’t hear
us enter. It is only when he finally turns after a few seconds that I break into a grin.

‘Frank!’

The last time I saw him, he was in a hospital bed unconscious. His leg had been caught in a bear trap and we didn’t know if he would survive, let alone keep the limb.

‘It’s all mine,’ he says, shaking the leg my eyes were instinctively drawn towards.

He embraces Jela, Pietra and Hart and shakes hands with Opie.

‘You look so well,’ I say.

He rolls up his trousers to show a sore-looking criss-cross from where the jaws ate into his flesh. ‘I can’t stay in one place for too long,’ he says. ‘I don’t
sleep for more than a few hours at a time and usually do a lap or two around the corridors each day. Sometimes I go for a walk at night to keep myself moving. The leg won’t be fully healed
for a while but it can take my weight and feels all right most of the time.’

The dents are so imprinted that I can see the individual parts where the teeth clasped him.

‘It’s so good that you’re back,’ he says. ‘We’ve been following everything on the screens. It’s hard to know what’s accurate and what isn’t.
Bryony will be happy to see you all. And then the new Offerings haven’t stopped talking about you leading them through that window. It sounded amazing. I can’t believe you went back to
the castle.’

Frank speaks so quickly that it is difficult to keep up. Everything he’s said seems like it happened such a long time ago. I didn’t know him well enough when we escaped from Windsor
Castle together, but he rigged the weapons with which Imrin and I were forced to fight each other and it seems he is skilled at restoring and making tools and instruments. Frank swaps one of my
knives for something sharper and I give him one of the screwdrivers from Opie’s bag that I won’t need.

My idea to rest is immediately forgotten as we spend the morning catching up with the others of the party we left when we were here before. I didn’t want to take a large group of people to
Middle England, so some of those who escaped from Windsor with us remained. Pietra and Bryony disappear for a chat, which is heartening as it was Pietra who reported Bryony to the King for stealing
food. Any animosity is apparently long gone and by the time they return, they are chatting and swapping clothes as if old friends.

I knew when I chose Faith, Pietra, Jela, Imrin and Hart to go to Middle England with me that some of this group would not have been suitable for the journey, but it is great to see they have
found roles for themselves here and are contributing to Knave’s community.

Bryony leads me into a room that has been cleared and turned into a classroom. She tells me they have been teaching the Offerings who stayed. Much of our knowledge comes from what we have been
taught at school, but our education is ultimately controlled by the King and there is no way of knowing whether it is true. Instead, different adults have been telling the class of Offerings their
experiences from before and during the war. Bryony has been helping them improve their other skills.

As the Offerings arrive for the day, they swarm me, each wanting to touch me and make sure I am real. They are all under sixteen and I see them all as Colts and Imps, trying to give each of them
time with me, answering their questions as much as I can without traumatising them too much. They all miss their parents and want to know what has happened to them. It is an answer I don’t
have – but I do let them know they are as safe here as anywhere.

By the time I have finished giving everyone my attention, I need to wash and change before leaving with Vez. I should be tired but the day-long sleep I had is keeping me going.

Knave and Vez meet me inside the room the five of us are sharing. I’m busy checking my bag and belt as the others watch and listen.

‘I have a proposition for you,’ Knave says.

‘Okay . . .’

‘While you go with Vez, we’d like to start giving some of your friends some weapons training. Frank has made a cross-bow and arrows, plus we have spears, swords and knives. I know
you’ve done well so far but none of us knows what’s going to happen after Oxford.’

I don’t want to answer for them but there’s no need. Hart and Opie each murmur approval, even though they are annoyed about not coming with me. The girls are both delighted to be
trying something new. Jela in particular is enthusiastic to try out the crossbow. ‘I used to have a play set as a child,’ she says. ‘I was brilliant.’

As they chatter about the new things they’ll get to try, I leave them to it, offering a quick goodbye and slipping along the corridor. There’s still time for another uncomfortable
stare from Opie as Knave hugs me, and then Vez lifts the hatch and we are on our way from the church.

Vez doesn’t say much but walks purposefully and instinctively, apparently knowing the way without needing a thinkwatch. He already knows the tricks we have learned through travelling,
sticking to the woods and hedgerows where possible and avoiding anything that has the merest hint of danger.

I wonder how my mother, Colt, Imp and the others are doing in the gully. I’m sure they’ve found themselves a safe spot but it’s hard not to worry.

Vez walks quickly, his solid physique showing a natural fitness. He’s not much of a talker, only occasionally pointing out a puddle or tangle of wire before striding away. In the hours we
walk, he speaks barely half-a-dozen times and it’s hard to know if he’s like this only with me, or if this is how he is with everyone.

I surprise myself by keeping up easily and we make good time, arriving on the edge of Oxford just as the sun dips over the horizon. I follow him around the outskirts as we make our way to a
ridge with a good view of the area below. The moon is bright, the clouds of this morning gone, and I join him sitting on the grass as he takes out a tub of water and offers it to me.

He points to a spot of muddied grass. ‘That’s Wellington Square.’

It is surrounded by wreckage, the same as in so many places we have seen.

‘There was a massive university on this site,’ he adds, pointing to a few piles of rubble that are a lighter sandstone colour compared to the ones in the distance. There are still
remnants of towers and elaborate church-like buildings. Even from the remains, I can tell it would have once been an incredible sight.

On the far side of the green, there is a handful of workers erecting two massive screens. Behind that, there are piles of dark metal being fixed together into long, thin towers that I assume
will be hoisted up at some point. A few Kingsmen patrol in groups of two and three, their borodron armour swallowing what little light there is. We are hidden in the shadows on the ridge.

I gulp two mouthfuls of the water and hand the container back. ‘How long ago did you leave?’

Vez screws the top back on, not drinking himself. At first I don’t think he’s going to answer but then the reply comes. ‘I was born just before the war started. I turned
twenty-five last week. I lived here as a child through the war but don’t really remember it. It was destroyed in one of the final assaults and we left that night.’

‘You and your mother?’

He clicks his tongue on the top of his mouth, wondering if he should answer. He was the person who blindfolded me, separating me from the rest of the group when we were captured by the rebels.
He wanted me to be a figurehead and was annoyed when I said no. It has happened naturally anyway, so perhaps he was only foreseeing what I refused to. We’ve not discussed anything with each
other that hasn’t involved the rebellion.

‘I didn’t think I’d see you again,’ he replies eventually, ignoring my question. ‘Knave has a thing for you . . .’

‘I know.’

‘He was always sure you’d be back, despite everything on the news.’

‘What did you think?’

‘I couldn’t care less.’

His honesty is so refreshing that I burst out laughing and have to clasp a hand to my mouth to stop myself from making too much noise. The moonlight shows his lips angled into a grin that I
don’t remember seeing before.

‘Sorry,’ he whispers.

‘I prefer it when people tell the truth. All of my friends say what they think I want to hear. Imrin was the one who would be honest with me.’

‘You have feelings for him.’

It is not a question.

‘Yes.’

‘And for the tall, blond one who came with you.’

‘Yes.’

We sit in silence for a few minutes, watching the routes of the Kingsmen beneath us. The groups stop and talk to each other, making little effort to look anywhere other than in front of them.
They obviously aren’t expecting me until the day of the King’s ultimatum.

Vez eventually breaks the impasse, speaking softly. ‘My mother died as we were leaving and my father never returned from the war. I was brought up in a roomful of other children. When I
was sixteen, I was desperate to be an Offering just so I could be someone.’

‘What happened when you weren’t chosen?’

‘I just . . . couldn’t be bothered. I lived in a town further east but went off on my own. Obviously it’s dangerous to be out on your own, so I got used to sleeping in the
woods and hiding myself. I returned here to see what was left.’

‘Was it like this?’

He breathes out loudly and lies back on the grass, staring up to the sky. Perhaps it’s because of his sigh but I feel tired for the first time since waking up in the woods outside
Martindale. I lie back alongside him, blinking up at the moon and the stars.

‘More or less,’ he replies. ‘Over time a few more things have collapsed. I spent months here learning to fend for myself.’

I have to stifle a yawn. ‘How did you end up with Knave?’

‘There were a few of us in Oxford. Not a community as such, just a handful of people who wanted to do our own thing. When the Kingsmen came and burned the village where the hideout now is,
you could see the smoke for miles around. There was an orange glow in the sky. We stayed away until it was safe and then went there and helped the few people remaining. I didn’t know him then
but Knave was the only one managing to keep things together. We got on straight away.’

It is more or less the story Knave tells, except he doesn’t talk himself up as much.

‘What do we do now?’ I ask, propping myself up onto my elbows.

Vez pulls himself up and actually smiles. ‘Now we wait for you.’

‘What do you think I can do?’

He runs a hand through his dark, greasy hair and grins more widely. Suddenly he seems younger and I feel as if I am glimpsing the person he once was.

‘It’s not what you can
do
, it’s what you
are
. Everyone’s talking about you, from the rebel groups we talk to, to the civilians on the street. Whether they
love you or hate you, they all have an opinion. Even the King and the Minister Prime can’t stop.’

He’s only telling me what I already know but it feels more real with someone else pointing it out. ‘I never asked for this.’

He holds his hands up towards the skies. ‘None of us did.’

I’m not sure how to reply. He is right again and yet it is me so many people seem to be looking towards.

For some reason it feels soothing watching the dots of light shuffle around the remains of the city. I try to picture what this is going to be like in a few days’ time when Imrin is
here.

‘Are you scared?’

Vez speaks so softly that I barely hear him. His question takes me by surprise, but I don’t need time to think.

‘Only for other people. I worry about my mother and brother. I’m scared for Imrin. I hate having Pietra, Jela and everyone else around me because something could happen to
them.’

He rests a hand on the top of my arm, but not in the way Opie, Imrin or even Knave might – this feels brotherly and reassuring. I like it. ‘If you’re wondering why people are
waiting for you,
that’s
why. You carry around the weight of everything you’ve seen and done but you’re surrounded by people who would march into Windsor Castle and fight
for you.’