Shade's Children Read Online Free PDF Page A

She came far faster than Gold-Eye and had barely swung in when she was testing the knot at the end and yelling at Drum.
    “Come on!”
    Drum was the real test of the rope. He pushed himself off with slow deliberation, looking like a cable car on maximum load…and the rope stretched and sagged still further.
    He was two thirds of the way across when the Ferrets came boiling up out of the broken trapdoor, moving together in a sinuous wave of spitting, hissing death. There were five of them, each as long as a car, but no wider round the middle than Gold-Eye or Ninde. Something between a snake and a stretched-out rat, with only their paw-hands evidence of human origin. That, and their clever minds.
    Rearing up a safe distance from the edge (for not even an Overlord could make them face such a height) they hissed together, showing long mouths with their rows of tiny teeth—and the two sharp fangs at the front. Hollow fangs, for drinking blood. Human blood, if they could get it. Otherwise, they resorted to rats, cats, and dogs…or each other.
    The rope held.
    “Right,” said Ella wearily as Drum swung into the room. “Let’s get six or seven floors higher up, in case they have another go before dawn. We could all do with a bit more sleep before we start back.”

VIDEO ARCHIVE—INTERVIEW 1906 • GOLD-EYE
    I am Gold-Eye.
    Ninde is angry because Shade does this video now, without months’ wait. He not say why.
    I remember Dorms. But not getting out. Petar and Jemmie took me.
    Petar did something. Here. No scar like Ella, but no lump for monitor. It went away.
    Petar said he was brother. My brother.
    Older, bigger. His job to look for me. He said.
    Jemmie was his friend.
    Myrmidons took them. The window too small for Petar and Jemmie. Petar push me through. Shout to run, hide.
    Wingers fly them away. I saw in the soon-to-be-now. The Meat Factory took them in.
    No more Petar and Jemmie.
    Only Gold-Eye. Running and hiding.
    Like Petar said.

CHAPTER FOUR

    Shade’s secret home was a submarine. Soon after the Change it had come away from its mooring and drifted in between two old, long, wooden finger wharves. Now the bow was wedged under the decking of one wharf, and the stern trapped against the other. Sand had built up on the seaward side, locking it in place.
    Shade’s children came and went via a torpedo tube in the bow, safely out of sight under the wharf. They could then wade between the piles up to a storm-water tunnel that led into the city’s network of drains.
    The drains had the advantage of being hidden from Wingers, Trackers, and Myrmidons, but it was always a gamble between two perils. Too much water in the tunnels meant a quick death by drowning—but a dry tunnel was nearly always infested with Ferrets. Even in their dormant stage during the day, they would still wake long enough to kill a careless human.
    Gold-Eye, Ninde, Drum, and Ella arrived under the wharf in midmorning. Exhausted from the night before and sodden from the neck, armpits, or waist down (varying according to their height) from the drains, they were not pleased to see that the tide was high.
    “The tube will be shut,” Ella said wearily. “We’ll have to wait a few hours for the tide to go down. It looks like it’s on the turn.”
    “Wait where?” asked Ninde. Like the others, she was hugging the rim of the storm-water tunnel, the water cascading around her legs before swooping down the short drop into the sea.
    “Here,” replied Ella. “Or we can swim out to the Sub and hang on. Stand or float. Your choice.”
    “I’ll stand,” muttered Ninde, in a tone that hinted things should have been better organized.
    They stood in miserable silence for another three hours. Gold-Eye almost fell off at one point, his leg muscle suddenly cramping and giving way, but Drum pulled him back and pushed him upstream. After that, Gold-Eye just sat in the water, letting it wash around his shoulders and under his chin.
    Finally Ella judged that the