Read Online Wintercraft: Blackwatch by Jenna Burtenshaw - Free Book Online Page A

asleep actually,’ she lied.
     
    ‘Glad you’re having fun.’
     
    ‘Go away. Before someone sees you.’
     
    ‘Give back my wire.’
     
    ‘No.’
     
    ‘Kate, come on. I’m trying to help.’
     
    ‘I don’t need your help.’
     
    Edgar fell quiet. ‘I’ve got it all planned out,’ he said at last. ‘We can get out of here. Find our way to the surface. I’ve even got supplies.’
     
    ‘No.’
     
    ‘Just think about this for a second.’
     
    ‘I have thought about it,’ said Kate. ‘Baltin was right. I don’t trust myself. Weird things keep happening around me, and I don’t want you to be caught up in it again. Maybe I am better off in here. Go and find your brother. Take him up to the surface if you want to. I’m staying here.’
     
    ‘No you’re not,’ said Edgar, walking away a few steps before coming back. ‘You think I need lockpicks to get you out? Well, I don’t. Baltin has the keys. Maybe I’ll just borrow them for a while.’
     
    ‘You can’t do that. You’ll get caught.’
     
    ‘And what? End up in there with you? It sounds like it’s all honey and roses from what you’re saying. Why should I be bothered about that? I’m getting that key and then I’m coming right back here, whether you want to be let out or not.’
     
    ‘Edgar, don’t. Edgar!’
     
    Edgar bolted across the cavern. The lights were still dimmed and the only people about were the two watchmen posted at the cavern’s only two ways out. He crept along the street, glanced over at the main door and saw a guard sitting with his back to the wall, eating sandwiches and reading newsposters smuggled down from the City Above. Just one minute and he could be in and out of Baltin’s house, keys in hand. No one would be any the wiser until it was too late. He and Kate would be long gone. He thought about his brother Tom. Tom had fitted in well with the Skilled. He had even shown some small ability to see into the veil. They were pleased with him, and he liked living there. Tom might miss Edgar for a while, but he was in the safest place he could be. Kate, however, was not.
     
    Edgar made his decision. He crossed the main street, found one of Baltin’s windows unlocked, and slithered his way in.
     

5
     
    Crossed Daggers
     
     
     
     
     
    Kate paced around her room, waiting for Edgar to return.
     
    At last a key scratched in the first door lock. One by one the locks turned and Kate stood in front of the door with her arms folded as it was pushed open. But the person on the other side was not Edgar. It was Baltin, wearing red pyjamas and a dressing gown and holding on to the doorframe for support. He looked tired. His face was an odd sickly green.
     
    ‘Baltin?’
     
    Edgar was there, holding a lantern a few steps away, and he shrugged his shoulders apologetically.
     
    ‘Miss Winters.’ Baltin bowed his head slightly and strode into the room. The bed sagged as he sat down on it. ‘Close the door,’ he ordered as Edgar followed him inside. ‘Close it, boy!’
     
    The door could not be locked from the inside, so Edgar stood with his back pressed against it instead.
     
    ‘What’s happening?’ asked Kate.
     
    Baltin shifted his weight on the edge of the bed, and sat there with his head in his hands.
     
    ‘I found him tied up in his house,’ said Edgar. ‘He won’t say who did it. He told me to bring him straight here. He didn’t even call the guards.’
     
    ‘Because the guards will be of no use to us,’ snapped Baltin. ‘An enemy is loose in this cavern, and I think Kate knows who it is.’
     
    Kate thought at once of Silas, but that was impossible. There was no way he would risk coming back to Fume with the wardens out looking for him.
     
    ‘The veil has pulled away from us,’ said Baltin. ‘I can’t see into it any more. Can you?’
     
    Kate could sense the veil all around her, waiting just beyond the reach of her ordinary senses. Nothing had changed so far as she could tell,