Free Soul Splinter by Abi Elphinstone Page B

then come back here when you’re done and we’ll make a plan.’ She paused. ‘Coward.’
    Siddy sprang up, his face flushed. ‘Don’t you go treating me like I’m five, Moll! The things we’ve done – fighting off Shadowmasks and running from villagers with knives – it’s been
terrifying
! And you feel it too, even if you’re all closed up and you pretend you don’t. You’re scared, just like me.’
    ‘I’m angry,’ Moll muttered, scuffing her boot against the floorboard. ‘With you mainly.’
    Siddy threw his arms up. ‘You’re angry with the Shadowmasks for taking your parents away. You’re angry with the smugglers for locking us up. You’re angry with Alfie—’
    Moll stiffened.
    ‘—for leaving.’ Siddy lowered his voice and his words came softer. ‘I’m angry about all of those things too – and scared. Just like you.’
    Moll felt an unexpected lump lodge in her throat. ‘Don’t talk about Alfie.’
    Siddy sat down on the bed again. ‘I didn’t have to come with you to Inchgrundle for the amulet. But I did because you’re my friend.’
    Moll swallowed at the sudden kindness of the word ‘friend’.
    Siddy went on. ‘There are times when you annoy me so much I wish I could . . . lock you up in a box just to stop you charging into trouble. But I don’t go pointing that out every time things go wrong. We’ve got to work together.’
    Moll fiddled with her talisman. She and Sid were so different outwardly: she was plucky and bold while Sid was cautious. But Moll knew Sid was brave too; his was a quieter sort of courage – measured where Moll’s was reckless. Moll said nothing for a while, then she looked up at her friend. ‘I’m sorry I called you a coward, Sid. It’s not true.’
    Siddy smiled. ‘Good. Because I think there’s a difference between being scared and being a coward.’
    Moll nodded. ‘Yeah, but I’m afraid Hermit’s both.’
    They grinned at each other as the rain drummed against the windowpane.
    ‘So what are we going to do?’ Moll asked.
    ‘We need something to pick the lock.’
    They glanced around and Moll thought back to the time Alfie had used a rabbit bone to pick the lock on the cage Skull had trapped them in in Tanglefern Forest.
    ‘There’s nothing in here we could use,’ she sighed. ‘Nothing.’
    Siddy sat still for a few minutes, then he looked at Moll. ‘Maybe . . .’ He leapt up, ripped back the dusty bed sheet and tore at the mattress with his nails.
    Moll frowned. ‘What are you doing?’
    Siddy’s hand wriggled through the mattress and he yanked hard, then drew out a metal bedspring. ‘Looks like there’s something left in here to pick the lock with after all.’
    Moll beamed. ‘Nice one, Sid.’
    They huddled by the door as Siddy twisted the spring this way and that. At first, nothing happened, then there was a familiar click and the door creaked open. The corridor was dimly lit and empty – the Dreads would be out on the raid now – so Moll and Siddy crept along it, towards the staircase at the far end. But, just as they were about to turn down it, footsteps and voices clattered up. Moll yanked Siddy into the shadows as two drunken guests stumbled up the stairs and passed by the children. When the coast was clear again, Moll and Siddy tiptoed down.
    ‘Left at the bottom,’ Moll whispered. ‘Should lead us back towards the door out on to the harbour.’
    Eyes darting this way and that, Moll and Siddy stepped off the last stair and scampered down the passageway. It was dark save for the tiny lamps positioned on the walls above paintings of stormy seas and ships docked in the harbour, and, behind a half-open door, Moll and Siddy could hear rowdy voices and chinking glasses – a bar perhaps. Holding their breath, they raced past, on towards the wooden door at the end of the passageway.
    ‘Nearly there,’ Siddy breathed.
    They hauled the door open, felt the rain splatter against their skin, then they darted out into the night