Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death.
Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is maste...
It can take someone years to realise they're no good at something. It took Ward one week to learn that he wasn't cut out for thievery.
"You know your problem?" Mildew said one morning. "You're too bloody honourable." It was like she was talking about a disease.
"I might get better -"
"Sloughs might fly."
The Okies were understanding. They accepted him as they would have someone with a missing limb, assuming that his predilection for honesty was not his fault – that someone could only have been born with such a disability.
It was with a kind of quiet relief that Ward found himself relegated to other tasks: maintenance around the tunnels, running messages between the clans, cooking, tallying up inventories of stolen goods, and acting as a lookout on the weekly Lurk. There were many jobs the Scowerers were only too happy to offload, and Ward soon found himself entrusted with an unusual number of responsibilities. Any other recruit would have endured a lengthy period of suspicion, but not only had Ward been spoken for by the Kidsman himself, his role in the street fight with the Hectors had become legend. At breakfast one morning he had overheard a Bargie telling his friends that Ward had thrown Bunker into a dustbin. There were jealous mutterings, but this was business as usual among the Scowerers. Thankfully, nobody but Mildew knew of the task Nick had given Ward.
And so he settled into his new life.
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Ward isn't particularly good at anything, which I'm sure makes it easy for you to relate to him.
