Midnight Train by Angie Sage

Author:Angie Sage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published: 2020-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Unwanted Guests

BENN WAS CROUCHING BESIDE ALEX in the middle of a circle of hostile villagers. Alex was still spluttering and spitting out water, which Benn took to be a good sign—the less water inside Alex the better. But she had also started to shiver uncontrollably, which Benn thought was not good at all. She desperately needed to be somewhere warm, not out on a harbor wall with the wind beginning to get up. But it was not looking good. The young woman who had rescued them—Kirrin, he thought her name was—wanted them gone. And it seemed she was in charge.

Kirrin looked down at Benn, her eyes narrowed with mistrust. “The rowers have gone to fetch your boat. You must leave at once.”

Benn stood up and faced Kirrin. “But Alex just nearly drowned. She’s freezing cold. Look how she’s shaking. She needs to get warm again. And dry. You can’t send us out to sea now. She’s too cold. She . . . she won’t make it.” Benn’s voiced faltered as the truth of what he was saying sunk in. Alex would not survive a night in an open boat.

But Kirrin was determined. “You’re not welcome here. You’re bringing the Xin down among us. You are both going right now. Your only choice is whether you get in your boat or we chuck you off the harbor wall.”

“But they’re just kids. Same age as my grandkids,” one old fisherman protested.

Kirrin rounded on the dissenter. “Okay then. You take them in. And if Netters Cove gets infested with Xin tonight we’ll all know who to blame, won’t we?”

The old fisherman mumbled awkwardly and looked at his boots. But others in the crowd took over. We’d be as bad as the Xin if we turn them out to sea tonight . . . Brr, it’s bitter out there. . . . Wind’s getting up now . . . Do we want Netters Cove to be known as the place that sent two defenseless kids out into the night in a leaky old boat?

Benn wanted to protest that Merry was neither leaky nor old, but he thought better of it.

“You’re putting us all at risk,” Kirrin said.

“Vote!” said a voice, and a chant was taken up. “Vote! Vote! Vote!”

“Very well,” Kirrin said. “As harbormaster I declare an impromptu vote. Those in favor of keeping Netters Cove safe—”

“Shame on you, Master!” a young man called out. “That’s a loaded question. We all want our village safe. Just not at the price of the lives of two innocent kids.”

“You propose the vote then,” Kirrin retorted, annoyed.

All eyes turned to the young man and his face reddened. But he stood his ground. “All those in favor of letting the kids stay tonight, raise your hands.” All hands were raised but Kirrin’s.

“Those against.”

Kirrin raised her hand.

“Sorry, Harbormaster,” the young man said. “The kids stay tonight.”

“Who with?” asked Kirrin. “So who wants the Xin tapping on their windows tonight?”

Benn looked at the sea of faces, suddenly thoughtful in the lantern light.

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