Free B00DW1DUQA EBOK by Simon Kewin

Engn?’
    ‘Now, Finn, you mustn’t say things like that.’
    ‘I mean it. Why doesn’t every one get together and go there and tear it all down?’
    His mother sat up and turned to look at him, grasping his shoulders.
    ‘Now listen to me, Finn. You mustn’t say things like that. Not ever. Do you understand? If people hear you, you could get into trouble. Real trouble. You can’t trust everyone in the valley you know.’ Her voice was louder, urgent.
    ‘I know.’
    ‘You must promise me.’
    ‘I promise.’
    ‘Good.’
    She sighed and turned to sit next to him again. They sat together in silence.
    ‘It just isn’t that simple,’ she said after a while. ‘Engn is a special place. It’s vast and miraculous, a place of wonders. Generations of people have laboured to build it, not destroy it.’
    ‘Well I don’t like it.’
    ‘Oh, Finn.’ She hugged him close. ‘I know it all seems frightening. But you’ll think differently when you’re older. You can do things, become things, in Engn that you couldn’t out here.’
    ‘Did you ever want to go?’
    ‘Well, once, I suppose. But then I wouldn’t have been able to have you, would I?’
    ‘Or Shireen.’
    ‘Or Shireen, of course.’
    ‘I’m glad you didn’t go.’
    She squeezed him tighter for a moment. ‘Come on. It’s time you were asleep.’
    They sat like that for a long time, neither speaking, until Finn’s eyes drifted shut.

Chapter 6
    Three days later, Finn, Connor and Diane lay in the barn. The sweet, dozy smell of hay and cows filled the air. Bars of sunlight streamed in through the narrow windows, thick with drifting specks of light. Birds called from the nearby trees but otherwise there wasn’t a sound in the whole of the world.
    The three of them snoozed in the airless warmth, lying next to each other. The hay was prickly on Finn’s back. He and Connor planned to spend the night there themselves, when they could think of a suitable story for their parents.
    ‘So how did you know they were coming for you ?’ asked Connor.
    Finn opened his eyes a little to squint at Diane through the flickering haze of his own eyelashes, but the light was too bright and he closed them again.
    ‘My village isn’t like here, with mountains all around,’ said Diane. ‘We’re on the edge of the plain. We saw them approaching.’
    ‘But how did you know they were coming for you?’ asked Finn.
    ‘There was no-one else. They took my cousin five years ago and a friend a few years later. They must have been coming for me.’
    ‘So you just ran? Without telling anyone?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘I’d do the same,’ said Connor. ‘Definitely.’ Finn said nothing. He wasn’t at all sure he’d be brave enough.
    ‘So you knew all about Engn,’ said Finn. ‘I mean, about what they do to you there?’
    ‘Haven’t just heard. My cousin was with them when they came back for my friend. Only he’d become an Ironclad. He wasn’t the same person any more.’
    ‘Wait, so they aren’t machines then?’ asked Finn. ‘They’re just people?’
    ‘I suppose,’ Diane replied. ‘Mostly anyway. He took his mask and helmet off and it was definitely him.’
    ‘So what do you mean he wasn’t the same person?’ asked Finn.
    ‘My cousin wouldn’t harm a fly. We’d go fishing and he couldn’t even bring himself to kill the trout and salmon we caught. Didn’t even like putting the worm onto the hook. But not when he came back from Engn. My friend’s mother tried to stop him entering her house and my cousin just punched her, knocked her over. Broke her nose. And he didn’t speak the whole time. He didn’t say a single word.’
    Finn opened his eyes again and looked at Diane. She seemed so much older and wiser than even Connor was. He could tell Connor thought so, too. Since Diane had arrived Connor had changed. He’d become quieter, more thoughtful. Finn often caught him staring at her. He found himself staring at her, sometimes, too.
    ‘They’ll stop