Black Tide Read Online Free Page B

doorway and disappeared into the grey mistiness outside.
    Is this a trap? Should I go with this strange girl?
    She looked so weird, and how had she got into the guardroom? Could she walk through locked doors? Maybe she was a figment of his imagination. It could all be a dream. Maybe he was about to wake up to find himself being beaten up by a soldier with an enormous bearskin hat on his head.
    Staying here waiting for the men to come back and get me seems like a bad idea.
    Toby dragged his aching limbs to the door and, peeking out, saw a huge square of grass. On the other side sat a squat line of Georgian town houses, just like ones Toby had seen on a visit to Edinburgh once with his mum and dad. The grey slate roofs peaked up above creamy mist, which was shot through with blades of sunlight.
    This place is weird. It’s like a town inside a fortress. Now where’s that wolf-girl gone? She might know where Dad and Sylvie are. I’ve got to find them.
    Toby didn’t think it a good idea to wander into the middle of the square – he would be too visible. He clung to the walls. Just as he was passing a rusted metal door with Gaol House painted on it, he heard a noise.
    “Psst… in here,” the girl’s voice called.
    Toby ducked in behind the door.
    “What are you doing?” he whispered angrily at her.
    “We’re going to the ravelin and then down into the outworks. Later, we can get out of a sluice gate and onto the beach, then back to your boat.”
    “Whoa! What are you on about? The ravelin? What’s that? And I need to find my dad and my sister. I’m not leaving here without them… And how did you know I came in a boat?” Toby hoped it was his most commanding voice. He wasn’t going to take orders from a girl, especially one that looked like a wolf, and smelt like one too.
    “Get a grip!” the girl shook his sore arm. “You need to leave now if you want to live. Your family have already been moved to another station. And as for knowing how you arrived – you might as well have put the flags out! I could see you coming for miles.”
    “Oh,” said Toby lamely. Had he really been that useless? “What do you mean ‘station’? What is this place?”
    “Don’t you know anything?” she said crossly. “This is a collecting station – these men —”
    “I call them raiders,” interrupted Toby.
    “Whatever! Call them what you like, but they’re evil. Come on – I’ll explain later!”
    Just then a blood-curdling howl vent the air. It sounded very close.
    “The dogs are here?” Toby clutched at the girl’s grimy arm.
    “What are you talking about?” she looked at him as if he was the mad one. “We must go!”
    The girl slinked out of the door again and this time Toby made sure that he was right behind her.
    “I’m taking you to somewhere safe just now,” she crept along the wall. “This is a good time to move. Most of the men drink at night and are useless by morning.”
    Toby concentrated on following her closely as she slipped in and out of the shadows. Then they climbed up a grassy rampart, which took them onto the huge broad walls of the fort at the level of the house roofs.
    They silently trotted along the top of the wide parapet, carefully keeping to the wall on the seaward side. On the other side the grass fell steeply down a bank to land in the inner yards. They slowed to negotiate a slippery grass rampart that led to a smaller courtyard. In the centre was a large sandy-coloured church. The girl sprinted towards it, leaping over the grass and disappearing into a side porch. Toby followed, tumbling in behind her.
    “Wow!” he cried. Inside the church the hazy light streaming through the side windows lit clouds of dust, throwing a smoky aura down the transept. He ran to the end of the aisle and peered up at the stained-glass windows. One had a picture of an angel playing the bagpipes. It was a long time since he had been in a church and he’d forgotten how beautiful and peaceful they