Mr. P made it through and Spike’s heart lifted. “He might be okay.” But before he’d gotten to the end of his sentence, a second creature took the man down.

  The boos and hisses stopped, giving way to the screams and yells of the enraged creatures below. Many sounded frustrated at not being the ones to catch one of the two men.

  A matter of seconds later and the two diseased who’d tackled the men were on their feet again and wandering aimlessly. They had fresh blood around their mouths.

  The well-dressed man then twitched. Spasms snapped through his arms as he writhed and rolled on the ground. He moved as if his blood boiled. Mr. P then came to life too. The pair of them jumped to their feet in a snarling and hissing rage. Lines of claret already streaked down their faces and they bared their teeth, snapping at the air around them. What had once been Mr. P and his forbidden love had now been turned into another two wretched diseased to add to the countless army outside the city’s walls.

  When Spike’s dad nudged him, Spike blinked away the start of his tears and wiped his eyes.

  “You okay?”

  Spike nodded. “It’s all a bit overwhelming.”

  “I know. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

  “And I liked Mr. P.” Maybe the restaurateur had done something wrong; maybe he hadn’t. Either way, if Matilda came for him in the night, he’d now have no hesitation about leaving.

  Chapter 24

  Spike woke with a start, his head spinning as he sat up in bed. His heart pounded, pumping what felt like thick blood through his fatigued body. Still dark in his room, he looked around and couldn’t see any reason why he’d woken up.

  A heaviness in his eyelids pulled them closed and Spike gave in to it, falling back against his pillow. Once he’d lain down again, he heard it, the noise that must have awakened him in the first place. It drove any tiredness from his system.

  Then a third gentle tap at his window.

  Dressed in just his boxer shorts, the chill of the night clinging to his skin, Spike got out of his bed, pulled the curtain back, and smiled at the two faces staring in at him.

  Both Matilda and Artan waved. Their familial resemblance almost made him laugh. Their mouths were pulled tight and they had an identical furrow to their brows. After opening the window, he looked from one to the other. “So we’re really going to do this, then?”

  “Have you changed your mind?” Matilda said.

  A shake of his head, Spike then pointed at his packed bag in the corner of the room. After throwing his clothes on, he retrieved it, passed it out through the window, and stood up on his chair before climbing out after it. Just before he closed the window behind himself, he looked in the direction of his parents’ room. Hopefully they’d understand. They’d want him to be happy.

  Spike and Matilda walked hand in hand, but he waited until they were away from the houses and crossing one of the largest fields in the agricultural district before he spoke. He pointed over to a corner in Edin’s perimeter wall, their path lit by the moon. “That’s our way out of here.”

  Both Matilda and Artan looked where he pointed. Matilda’s grip tightened, but neither of them replied.

  The moist and uneven ground of the ploughed field made it tricky to cross. Spike’s feet twisted and turned, the cloying mud making his shoes heavier with every step. The field seemed to be questioning their decision to leave. When he looked at Artan and Matilda again, he said, “What’s going on with you two?”

  After a moment of silence, Matilda said, “I wasn’t going to come tonight, but before Dad went to bed, he told me he was going to kill Artan while I was away.”

  What looked like a continuation of a previous argument, Artan shook his head. “He can try. In fact, I’d like him to. I want another excuse to put him in his place.”

  Matilda turned her head away from him, her jaw set.

  “The man’s all hot air, Tilly. He only beat us when we didn’t fight back. He wouldn’t dare try it now.”

  They were about halfway across the field, the reek of damp mud in the air. Spike looked around to make sure they weren’t being watched. The shadows made it hard to tell, but it looked clear.

  “All I know,” Matilda said, “is I’m not spending the rest of my life working in ceramics. I managed to get out of the district tonight with Artan because I used this.”

  So dark, Spike hadn’t noticed she had another black scarf around her neck.

  “I made it out of an old dress. I got away with it because it’s night-time; otherwise they would have seen it for the fake it is. I told them I wanted to go for a walk with my brother before tomorrow. This is the last time I’ll be able to move through Edin so easily, so it’s our last chance to get out of here. I just can’t handle this place anymore. With the way they treat their citizens, it’s no wonder Dad’s lost his head. It’s enough to drive anyone mad.”

  To listen to her talk about how Edin treated its citizens took Spike back to earlier that evening. What would she say if she found out about Mr. P? Maybe she didn’t need to know about it just yet. “So you didn’t think you were going to leave before that?” They were close to the wall now.

  “No. But I can’t stay after what Dad said to him. If anything happens to Artan, I won’t forgive myself.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you?” Artan said. “I’ll be fine.”

  When they reached the edge of the field, Spike showed them where the two walls met. Stones poked out all the way up it like steps. “I reckon we can climb out here.”

  “And you think the other side’s okay?” Matilda said.

  Spike shrugged. “I dunno.”

  “Only one way to find out.” Matilda walked over to the wall and started to climb.

  When Matilda had held Spike’s hand, he felt like he could go anywhere and do anything. But now she’d let go, he saw the wall from a different perspective. She’d already climbed several feet up it. What if they didn’t have a way down on the other side? What if the diseased were waiting for them like they waited for the evicted? In Artan’s face, he saw his own worries staring back at him. “Tilly?” he said. “Are you sure you’ve thought this through?”

  Matilda stopped. “Are you changing your mind?”

  “I’ve told you countless times that I’ll be okay,” Artan said. “It seems a bit rash to run away.”

  “Saving your life seems rash?”

  Spike spoke before Artan could reply. “I’ll be the next protector.”

  “You might be. And if you are, it’s a year away.”

  “A year isn’t long to have freedom for the rest of our lives.”

  “And what if you don’t make it, Spike? What then? If you’re not the next protector, and you don’t become a politician, what does that make you?” She pointed up the wall. “We have an opportunity to get out of here tonight.”

  “But we don’t know what’s out there,” Artan said.

  “Exactly,” Spike said. “We know the rules in here. We know what I need to do.” He reached up to her. “You need to trust me, Tilly.”

  For a few seconds, she stared at his outstretched hand and shook her head. “You’re right, we don’t know what’s out there, but I know what life in here looks like if you don’t make it. I’d risk only lasting five minutes outside the walls over spending the rest of my life in ceramics. This is our best chance to get out of here.”

  Spike kept his hand reached out to her. “I’ll be the next protector. Trust me.”

  The pause seemed to last an age, and Spike listened to Artan inhale and then let his breath go as if he’d thought about speaking and then changed his mind.

  Matilda tutted and shook her head before she finally climbed down the wall, ignoring Spike’s hand as she jumped off. She landed in the mud with a squelch.

  Although Spike stepped towards her, she focused on the ground and walked past him. “I hope I don’t live to regret this choice. Come on, Artan, let’s go home.”

  Chapter 25

  “William!”

  Spike opened his eyes and gasped, his world spinning from the abrupt awakening. Not only had his mother’s shriek cut straight to his core, but the heat in his room pressed in on him like the ceiling had collapsed. An awful taste in his mouth, he ran his tongue across his teeth to try to get rid of the morning funk.

  “William!” Louder this time and more shrill. Even from the other room its bone-saw ring cut through him. He’d not had enough sleep because of their late night trip to the wall.

  Fully intending to get up, Spike lifted his head and dropped it again a second later. It felt too heavy for his neck. He clamped his hands over his eyes with a slap and let his exhaustion leak from him in what felt like the most appropriate sound for that moment. “Urghhhhhh.”

  The thud of angry steps made their way towards his room, culminating in his door flying open, his mum filling the doorway. A hand on one of her wide hips, the other leaning against the door frame, she glared at him, her face a taut mess of anxiety and stress. A usually kind-looking woman, her strained and crimson features banished any hint of the calm and compassionate mum he knew. “How many times do I have to call you, William?”

  “I don’t answer to that. It’s not my name.”

  “It’s the one I gave you, so it’s the one I’ll call you. You’re not a damn dog. Do you know what time it is?”

  Covering his face with his hands again, Spike groaned. “Too early.”

  When he heard his mum step aside, Spike pulled his hands away to see Matilda standing in his doorway. He double-checked to see the light of a new day on the other side of his curtains. “Are you okay now?”

  Matilda shrugged.

  “William,” his mum said, “the coach is outside!”

  The words lit Spike’s fuse and he jumped from his bed. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”

  “You’re in national service now, boy. Do you expect me to travel to the other side of the city to wake you up every morning there too?”

  Fire surged through Spike, but before he released it on her, he looked into her eyes. A glaze of tears covered them.

  His legs shaking from getting up too quickly, Spike rubbed his face hard. Instead of waking him up more, it just hurt. Dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts, he looked around the room for where he’d discarded his clothes when he came back from the wall. He’d rested his packed bag by the door.

  Before their kiss and their abandoned escape, Spike wouldn’t have thought twice about standing in front of Matilda dressed only in his boxer shorts. “Um …” He cleared his throat. “I’ll be ready in one minute.”

  They stared at one another for a few seconds, neither of them moving. Her face expressionless, he couldn’t get a read on her. It took for his mum to slap him on the arm and shout, “Hurry up!” to get him going again.

  While hopping on one leg and slipping the other one into his trousers, he glared at his mum. “It would have helped if you’d woken me up earlier.”

  Clearly too much for her, her eyes filled, her bottom lip bent out of shape, and she burst into tears. She pressed the back of her hand to her nose as if it would stop them. When it didn’t, she took a deep breath. “I was hoping they’d forget you, all right?”

  Spike pulled his other leg into his trousers. Just about to shout at her again, he looked at Matilda. She didn’t have a mum as kind as his. He shouldn’t be so ungrateful. He walked over and hugged his mum. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to be fine.” He looked at Matilda. “We’re going to be fine, and I’m going to be the next protectors’ apprentice. Just you wait and see.”

  Instead of replying to him, Spike’s mum leaned into his chest, her shoulders bobbing as her small body shook.

  Although Spike spoke to his mum, he stared at Matilda, whose face remained fixed. “I promise you. I will be the next apprentice.”

  Shaking her head, her tears flowing freely, Spike’s mum pulled away from him and left the room.

  Matilda had a distant look in her eyes, and her usually dark skin had turned pale.

  “Look, I’m sorry last night didn’t go how we planned, but I think you made the right choice. Everything’s going to work out.”

  The light caught the slight sheen of sweat on Matilda’s brow.

  “Are you okay?” Spike said.

  Matilda’s eyes widened, and before she could say anything, she heaved, her cheeks blowing out. A hand clamped to her mouth, she stared at Spike for a second before running in the direction of the bathroom. Although she locked herself in, the echo of her vomiting called through the house.

  Spike knew her well enough to leave her alone at that moment. While pulling his shirt from the back of his chair, shaking with his haste, he heard his mum knock on the bathroom door. “I’ve left a glass of water outside for you, dear. Just let me know if you need anything else.”

  The only response she offered came in the form of another booming heave followed by a wet splash as she filled one of the chamber pots. Good job Spike and his dad had emptied them the previous evening. Splash back from a full chamber pot could be brutal. The thought of his visit to the wall with his dad the previous evening came back to him. The thought of Mr. P and his lover. But he pushed it down. Whatever the reason for Mr. P’s eviction, he didn’t need to talk to Matilda about it. Not with the stress of national service ahead of them. Not with her worry about Artan.

  When Spike’s mum walked back into his room, her eyes were red and swollen, but she’d stopped crying. The warmth he associated with her had returned and her features had softened.

  “Everything will be okay, Mum.”

  Pursing her buckling lips, she replied with several jerking nods, a fresh glaze of tears covering her eyes. Although she straightened her posture, it did nothing to suppress her clear sadness. “I’m sorry. I’ve always hoped that national service would have been abandoned by the time you turned eighteen. I was even praying for it up until last night. You’re my baby boy. My only child. They shouldn’t be taking you from me.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve trained long and hard for this. I’m going in prepared. Not only am I going in prepared, but I’m going to smash through it. I’m going to be a protector.”

  She smiled through her sadness.

  Looking past her, Spike turned his palms to the ceiling. “Where’s Dad?”

  She shook her head and Spike’s stomach sank. She then pulled something from her pocket, her closed fist concealing it while she held it out to him.

  Spike opened his palm and she dropped a cold lump of metal onto it. It looked like a ring. Silver and chunky, it had a large skull on the front of it.

  “Your dad couldn’t be here. It was tearing him up too much. He really loves you. It’s just … well, you know how Dad gets. He didn’t want to make you feel any worse about today by breaking down in front of you.”

  Clearing the lump from his throat, Spike drew a deep breath. “If he didn’t want to make me feel any worse about it, why isn’t he here? I wanted to say goodbye to my dad.” Before his mum answered, he held a halting palm in her direction. “Don’t answer that. You don’t need to take responsibility for his actions. And thank you.”

  “Thank you?”

  “Thank you for being here for me. For always being here for me. Even when it’s hard for you.”

  Wringing her hands, Spike’s mum nodded while she looked at the floor. “Before he left for work, he asked me to explain why he’s given you his ring. It’s a silly thing, really, but he wore it all the way through his national service and he feels like it brought him luck.”

  Holding it up to the light, Spike then slipped it over his middle finger. Making a fist, he smiled. “I suppose this will be great for cracking the diseased’s skulls. I’ll think about you both every day.”

  Matilda reappeared in the doorway. Not quite as pale as before, she cradled the glass of water and offered Spike’s mum a weak smile as she took another sip. “Thanks for the drink, Jules.”

  “Are you feeling better now, dear?”

  Pushing her eyes closed, Matilda kept them shut for a few seconds. When she opened them again, steel had settled across her brown stare. She dipped one slow composed nod. “Yes. I am now. I just needed to get rid of my last-minute nerves.”

  “And Artan’s okay?” Spike said.

  Ice clung to her words. “He’s fine. Me being sick just then was about me and nothing else. It’s all out now. I’m ready.”

  Spike said, “Me too.”

  Spike’s mum then removed something else from her pocket as she stepped forward and tied Matilda’s hair in a topknot.

  Matilda lifted her hand to the metal clip and ran her fingers over the intricate design.

  Any trace of sadness left Spike’s mum as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest and beamed at Matilda. “Ah, it’s perfect. It suits you.”

  “What is it, Jules?”

  “It’s a hummingbird. I just gave William a ring from his father.”

  Spike lifted his hand to show her. “Cool, huh?”

  Matilda nodded and turned back to his mum.

  “Like Spike’s father wore the ring through his national service, I wore the hummingbird through mine. Call us silly, but we’re both quite superstitious. We think they helped us survive. I don’t have any other children, so I want you to have it. You’re like a daughter to—” Tears stopped her finishing her sentence.

  How could Spike be expected not to fall in love with her when his mother clearly already had? After shaking his head at his mum, he hugged her once more.

  Spike’s mum pushed him away after a few seconds, her cheeks sodden again. “Go, the coach is waiting.”

  After tucking his shirt in, Spike kissed his mum’s forehead, lifted his bag, and said, “Right, Tilly, let’s do this.”

  Chapter 26

 

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