The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis (42 page)

BOOK: The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis

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‘Knocker said we had to get back to our own boroughs—he said it would be easy without the horse—back to being ordinary Borribles. He said we must tell the story of our Adventure, all of it, just as it
happened, whenever and wherever, to normal kids as well as Borribles. Look for people like Scooter, he said.’

‘Bloody Ninch,’ said Orococco.

‘We had to stop Sussworth turning Sam into catsmeat, whatever else we did,’ Chalotte went on. ‘Sam musn’t end up as cans on shelves in supermarkets.’

‘What else did he say?’ asked Stonks.

‘He said just to carry on, sharing out what we nick, keeping on running and hiding … Don’t be bullied. Stay away from work and money, he said, they’re the killers for Borribles. Be Borrible and live for ever.’

‘We’ve seen some things,’ said Sydney, and she glanced round her friends and they nodded.

Chalotte took a step forward and stretched her arms above her head and looked out across London, many square miles of it visible now where the rain clouds had risen, and the old grey daylight was diffused like silver over a million rooftops, picking out every tile and slate, every brick and chimney. She wiped her eyes clear, a new toughness shining through the grime on her face.

‘Knocker said we had to put all this behind us and make a fresh start. Put the grief away, he said, and remember only the good things; and the best things were to enjoy being here, enjoy being alive, enjoy being Borrible.’

Stonks got to his feet and came to stand by Chalotte’s side. The others stood also and gathered together in a group around the girl from Whitechapel. They gazed towards Sam and the other horses and beyond them to the furthest rim of the city, right to the edge where it became blue and indistinct.

Stonks put an arm across Chalotte’s shoulders. ‘Did he say what he’d do if he got caught?’ he asked, and his voice broke and he lowered his head and stabbed the ground with his toe.

‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘He said we weren’t to go looking for him. If he got away he would find us … and if he got caught he … There was something he was going to do.’

‘Do?’ said Vulge. ‘Like what?’

‘He said he was going to tell our story on the other side; it was the only thing left for him to do. Tell the story before being a Borrible
faded completely from his mind … You know, when they make him work.’

‘Sod it,’ said Orococco.

Chalotte shook herself free from Stonks’s arm and took a couple of steps away from the group and wept alone for a minute or two; then she swallowed big gulps of air in an attempt to stop the sobs coming. There was so much more she wanted to say.

The Adventurers did not move but stood each with his own tears facing London. The clouds were less dark now and a rough wind was beginning to tear them apart, slashing at them and laying bare the white light beyond, scouring deep tracks of fresh colour across the sky. The air was still damp and heavy but nowhere was it raining on the city, and there was the tiniest patch of deep blue out over the dullness above the River Thames.

‘He really was the best of Borribles, that Knocker,’ said Sydney. She shook her head furiously to clear her sight. ‘He saved Sam and got him here. He was the best of all Borribles.’

Chalotte placed her hands on her hips and slowly turned to face her friends, weary and bedraggled as they stood in that sad scattering by Mad Mick’s hut on the wasteland of Neasden. Her eyes were dry at last and alight with a strange and powerful smile.

‘Not
was,
Sydney,’ she said.
‘Is.
Remember that.’ She raised a hand and without looking she pointed behind her towards the great ugly mess of London. ‘Knocker is,’ she said. ‘Knocker is.’

THE BORRIBLE TRILOGY by Michael de Larrabeiti

Available from Tor Teen

Book 1: The Borribles

Book 2: The Borribles Go For Broke

Book 3: The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis

MICHAEL DE LARRABEITI
was brought up in Battersea. He is the author of two more books about the
Borribles—
The Borribles
and
The Borribles
Go For Broke—
as well as many other books. He has three grown-up daughters and lives with his wife in Oxfordshire.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE BORRIBLES: ACROSS THE DARK METROPOLIS

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781466821026

First eBook Edition : April 2012

ISBN 0-765-35007-6

EAN 978-0-765-35007-7

First Tor Teen edition: January 2006