Read Online Soul Splinter by Abi Elphinstone - Free Book Online Page B

colourful dress – and their dark features. ‘So what are a pair of gypsies doing in Inchgrundle then? Thought your lot were up in Tanglefern Forest.’
    Moll ran alongside him, remembering what Mooshie had said about keeping a low profile in the villages beyond the forest:
Don’t go shouting about being a gypsy; the villagers are a suspicious bunch – they think we’re all nasty curses and thieving silver
.
    ‘Oh, we’re not gypsies,’ Moll panted, thinking fast. ‘Sidney and me, we’re – we’re shepherds from the farm before Inchgrundle.’
    Smog snorted. ‘Pull the other leg, Bo Peep.’
    Moll hung back from Smog and Siddy shot her a look. ‘I got the name change,’ he whispered, ‘makes us less like gypsies and all that – but
shepherds
?’
    Moll scowled. ‘Meant to stop after “Sidney”, but the words just tumbled out.’
    Houses rose up either side of them, but lace curtains were drawn across most of the windows and the only inhabitant they could see was a stray cat slinking behind a dustbin.
    Without warning, Smog screeched to a halt.
    ‘What is it?’ Moll whispered.
    Three figures detached themselves from the shadows in front of them. They wore long black boots and the largest of them carried a crowbar in a clenched fist.
    Moll and Siddy staggered backwards, but Smog only smiled and dipped his head at the smugglers. ‘Morning, Grudge.’ He jerked his thumb towards Moll and Siddy. ‘As I promised – the gypsies.’
    Moll’s stomach dropped as she realised why she’d recognised Smog’s voice. ‘It was
you
!’ she hissed at him. ‘
Stop thief
. . . You called the villagers after us even though we’d done nothing wrong!’
    Smog blinked large, flickering eyes. ‘Shouldn’t go boasting about enormous jewels you’ve found in the forest then, should you?’ He smiled as Grudge dropped several coins into his grubby palm.
    ‘You were spying on us in the shipyard?’ Siddy spat.
    Grudge’s boys smirked. ‘We fancy ourselves one of those jewels, don’t we, Grudge?’
    Moll felt for her catapult and Barbarous Grudge stepped forward, his crowbar clanking on the cobbles. ‘Aye, we do.’
    Moll snatched a stone from the ground, set it to her pouch and fired. It struck the lanky smuggler in the shoulder and he doubled over, crying out.
    But Grudge only smiled, eight gold teeth shining between his gums, and brushed his dreadlocks back from his face. ‘Grab them,’ he growled.
    The children made to run, but in seconds hands clamped down on their shoulders, grinding them still. Siddy jabbed his knife at the larger smuggler, but one kick from his boot and it clattered on to the cobbles.
    Moll eyed the knife desperately, writhing beneath the lanky smuggler’s hold – she’d lent it to Siddy for the journey but it had belonged to her pa once and it was the one thing left that linked him to her. ‘There aren’t any more jewels in the forest!’ she snarled, slotting a stone to her catapult.
    Grudge yanked the catapult from her hand and hurled it to the ground, then he stooped low so that one dark eye loomed against Moll’s. ‘Ahhh, but there’s this amulet, I hear.’
    Moll struggled against the smuggler, then spat on to Grudge’s boot. Grudge grinned as he grabbed hold of Moll and flung her down. She felt a sharp pain as her head hit the cobbles, then her vision blurred and the alleyway vanished from sight.

I t was the sound of rain pattering against a window that finally brought Moll round. A strange numbness enveloped her body and it rested on her eyelids and weighed heavy on her limbs. But it couldn’t block out the pain. Her head throbbed from where she’d hit the ground and, raising a hand to her brow, Moll felt a lump.
    Forcing her eyes open, she saw that she was in a dimly-lit room, lying on floorboards riddled with woodworm and layered with dust. There was a fireplace next to her that looked as if it hadn’t been used in years, and Siddy lay before it, fast asleep. Moll