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...
They bumped into Lightfinger back at the Cathedral. Ward introduced him to Carmen. A pantomime followed, culminating in a re-enactment, by Lightfinger, of the fight between Ward and Wrinkler. Lightfinger's version of the fight was more terrible than Ward remembered, and what with the boy playing the parts of both Ward and Wrinkler, and attempting to beat himself up, he succeeded in reducing Carmen to tears of laughter and Ward to an excruciating degree of embarrassment.
"We should check Flag Wood," Carmen said as they emerged from an abandoned building into the city, Grim following at a discrete distance. "It's not far. Slops might've changed his mind and gone back."
But Flag Wood was empty. The wind had dropped to nothing, and even the birds seemed to be asleep. The city's noise was like waves on a distant shore.
"Where now?" Ward said.
"Slops's place I guess." She looked at Ward.
"What?" he said.
"Do you trust Nick?"
"I guess."
"Why?"
He shrugged.
"He's very clever," Carmen said, but that was all.
They left the wood.
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