Free B00DW1DUQA EBOK by Simon Kewin Page B

satisfied that Diane was beaten, turned to see if Finn was nearby.
    Finn lunged at Connor even as he turned. Connor’s branch whipped into Finn’s legs, a sharp, painful blow on his left thigh. But he had already touched Connor’s side as he turned. Finn had won.
    There was silence for a moment. Finn and Connor stood looking at each other. Connor still wore his stern, Ironclad face.
    ‘I got you first, Connor!’ said Finn. ‘Come on, you’re a wrecker now.’ Diane, watching them from the ground where she was rubbing her side, said nothing.
    Connor held the stick up behind his head again, ready to swing it at Finn. ‘You are an enemy of Engn and you will die!’
    ‘Connor! I got you first.’
    ‘No-one can defeat the Ironclads!’
    ‘Connor!’
    Connor’s arm flinched. Finn stepped backwards.
    ‘You’re not an Ironclad any more! Those are the rules.’
    With a roar, Connor leapt, but at the wooden building rather than Finn. He began to kick and trample the walls. Finn joined in with him, and, after a moment, Diane too. Soon they had reduced Engn to a tangle of branches on the forest floor.
    Afterwards, they sat among the ruins, Finn and Diane examining their wounds from Connor’s stick. Finn had picked up a splinter during the fight too. He tried repeatedly to pluck it from his palm with his fingertips, but couldn’t get it.
    ‘Here,’ said Diane to him. ‘Let me try. You have to get them out or it’ll get infected.’
    She held his hand in hers, turning it into the light, then lifted it to her mouth to try and pull the splinter out with her teeth. Finn could feel her warm breath on his skin, the moist tip of her tongue tickling him. Then she got it. She spat the splinter, a long, curving thorn, to the ground.
    ‘Better?’ she asked.
    ‘Better, thanks.’
    He grinned at her. She let go of his hand and nodded over towards the ruins of Engn.
    ‘You know something?’ she said. ‘If they ever do catch me and cart me off there I will join the wreckers. I’ll do whatever it takes to destroy it for real. So no-one else has to be taken.’
    She looked suddenly very serious, very grown-up. She looked scared.
    ‘Hey, I know, we should swear an oath,’ said Connor. ‘In blood, to make it unbreakable. We could swear that if any of us ever does get taken, that’s what we’ll do.’
    ‘You mean join the wreckers?’ asked Finn. A game in the woods was one thing. To do it for real was another.
    ‘Of course,’ said Connor. ‘Diane? What about you?’
    She nodded.
    ‘Finn?’
    He wasn’t going to be taken to Engn anyway; it didn’t really matter. And it was what he’d want to do, if he was brave enough. ‘OK.’
    They bunched into a circle, legs crossed, knees touching. Finn drew his knife from its leather sheath and examined the blade.
    ‘Use your hand,’ said Diane. ‘Not your wrist. If you cut your wrist you’ll bleed to death.’
    Connor held his knife over his palm, then glanced around at them.
    ‘This is our greatest secret,’ he said. ‘No-one else must ever know.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    ‘We vow to destroy Engn, by whatever means it takes.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    Connor drew the knife across his hand, scratching a red line that pooled blood into his palm. He passed the knife to Diane, who did the same. Finn, refusing to look afraid, refusing to cry out, opened the skin of his own hand too.
    The three of them placed their hands together, grasping each other, their blood mingling as it dripped to the woodland floor. The flap of skin on Finn’s palm, rubbed by the others’ grip, made him feel sick.
    ‘This oath is unbreakable,’ said Connor. ‘On pain of death.’ Diane and Finn repeated his words. They sat for a few moments, hands still touching, then let go.
    ‘I like your rings,’ said Finn.
    Diane wore intricate, knotted spirals of silver on several of her fingers, winding from her knuckle to the middle joint.
    ‘Everyone has them back home,’ she said. She