‘I’m not going to kill anyone.’

Tatum laughed. ‘If I had a shilling for every time I’ve heard that.’

Thorn looked Blackmane up and down. ‘Do you think the children will trust you in that uniform?’

Blackmane shrugged. ‘They’ll respect me.’

‘We might have to settle for that,’ Tolly said. ‘At the very least, he’ll hold their attention long enough to share our plan.’

Thorn sat up a little straighter, peering through the branches. ‘Here they come.’

All four men looked towards the camp, watching in silence as children entered the enclosure in single file, some carrying infants seemingly too young to be separated from their mothers.

‘Ready for stage one?’ Tatum asked.

The men nodded and began to climb down, except for Thorn, who remained where he was. He would be their eyes above.

When they reached the bottom, they headed to the mouth of the cave, where the first runner was waiting. His job was to take the child to the safe zone when they surfaced.

‘There’s not a lot of airflow in there right now,’ Tolly said, ‘but it’ll improve when you open up the other end.’

Tatum clapped him on the back. ‘Don’t forget to smile for the children.’

Blackmane ignored him as he removed all of his weapons aside from one dagger, then picked up the trenching tool and tucked it into his trousers. He climbed down into the narrow shaft, dropping onto his hands and knees. The tunnel was around one hundred and fifty feet long, and it took him close to five minutes to reach the end. The air inside was foul and damp, the darkness the most difficult part. He had to use one hand to feel out his surroundings until he eventually reached a wall of dirt at the other end. He looked up, eyes narrowing on the small circle of light above. He waited for the signal that the guards had left the enclosure.

Clang, clang, clang.

Out came the tool, and he started to dig, guiding the dirt away from his face. He paused when he saw many curious faces peering down into the hole. It would only be a matter of time before one of the guards noticed the odd behaviour.

He tore the remaining edges away with his hand and looked between the faces. ‘I’m here to get you out. All the children first, then the rest of your families. To do that, I need someone to be my second-in-command.’ Blackmane’s voice was just above a whisper. ‘Which one of you knows what that means?’

‘Are you a defender?’ asked one of the girls. She was watching him with intense curiosity rather than fear.

‘Yes I am.’

‘Are we going to Chadora?’ asked a boy.

‘No.’

One of the girls, probably around five, brought her face close to his. ‘Do we get a sword?’