eyes before answering. “Nathaniel believes that one word from him will be enough to bring his brother over from the side of darkness and into the light.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it?” Molly was confused. “Don’t you want Benjamin to join the Watchers?”
“Yes, it is what I want,” said Josiah. “More than anything. But Nathaniel has got his hopes up and I fear he might be terribly disappointed.” The Weeping Man sighed. “The human heart can be so difficult to predict.”
Molly still didn’t understand. “But it’s such an easy choice,” she said. “I came straight away, didn’t I?”
Josiah smiled at her and she felt a warm glow in her young heart. “Yes, you did, little one,” he said.
“And what about you?” she asked excitedly. “Was it a difficult choice for you?”
“No,” Josiah replied. “But you know that my heart is not human at all.”
For some reason, Ruby had stopped running.
Ben could see her a short way ahead of him, standing stock-still at the junction of three roads. From her expression, he guessed that she had found the Watchers. Or more likely the Watchers had found her.
A flutter of movement on the edge of his vision drew his eyes up to a chimney stack, three storeys above the ground. There was a rope tied around it and stretched out taut across the street to the two-storey houses on the other side. The shadowy movement came again, followed by a scuffing sound as spiked boots struck the tiles. As Ben stared, a Watcher took a running leap into the air and, with the fluidity of motion born of practice and great bravery, flung a small metal hook around the rope and clung to it with both hands. With the rushing noise of a sail unfurling, the Watcher flew over Ben’s head, riding down the rope to land, running, on the opposite rooftop.
Suddenly Watchers seemed to be appearing from all sides. Rope ladders clattered to the ground and figures dropped down them soundlessly, all dressed in the Watcher uniform of long coats and aviators’ goggles, faces hidden beneath scarves. They were only street kids like him, Ben reminded himself, but he was outnumbered. He wished that he had stolen something more useful from the Egyptian, like a cudgel so he could defend himself. What am I going to do with a telescope? Magnify them to death?
The Watchers regarded him coldly. Mickelwhite had led him to believe that the Watchers were cowards who would run rather than stand and fight. This lot seemed intent on proving Mickelwhite wrong, however, and as much as Ben would enjoy his beloved captain being mistaken, he was disappointed that he was going to have to take a beating just to prove a point.
“Ruby!” he shouted – there was nothing to be gained by being quiet any more. “Come on,” he urged her. “We can hold them off together while we wait for reinforcements.”
Ruby came running towards him then, her mouth set in a hard line. He knew that he could rely upon her. In seconds she was beside him. Ben flashed her a quick smile, but it fell completely from his face as Ruby reached inside her jacket and withdrew a long, thin knife.
Blimey, thought Ben, this could turn nasty.
The Watchers began to move in and Ben positioned himself so that he and Ruby were back to back.
“We can take ’em,” he said, more boastfully than truthfully, but it felt like the right thing to say. “You and me.”
“I’m sorry,” said Ruby. Her words scared him more than anything else; he had never heard her sound so defeated.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, still trying to have enough bravado for the pair of them. “There’s no one I’d rather have beside me.”
“No. You don’t understand. I’m sorry for this,” said Ruby as she grabbed him in a headlock from behind and held the tip of the knife hard between his ribs, ready to pierce his heart.
“This is Benjamin Kingdom!” she shouted to the Watchers. “If you want him to live, give me the Judas Coin!”
For a long cold second, nobody moved. And then it seemed as if everybody did.
Ben grasped Ruby’s knife hand and wrenched it away. Strangely, she hardly put up any resistance at all, as if the spirit had already gone out of her. He knew that the Judas Coin could only be the piece of silver that he had been clinging to as if his life depended on it. What he didn’t know was why everyone wanted