Nomad by R.J. Anderson

Book 2 of The Flight and Flame Trilogy

Summary:

Cast into exile, she must return to free her people.

Banished from her underground home by Betony, the queen of the Cornish piskeys, young Ivy sets out to forge a new life for herself in the world above. But a deadly threat lingers in the mine, and Ivy cannot bear to see her people suffer while Betony refuses to believe. Somehow she must convince the queen to let them go.

Her mission only becomes more complicated when Ivy starts to dream of the ancient battles between her ancestors and the spriggan folk. Who is the strange boy in her visions? Could her glimpses of his past help Ivy find a new home for her fellow piskeys?

To find the answers, Ivy must outfly vicious predators, outwit cunning enemies, and overcome her own greatest fears. And when evil threatens the people Ivy loves best, it will take all her courage, faith, and determination to save them.

Opening Lines:

"Knockers! The knockers are coming!"

The shout rang through the fogou, echoing off the rocky walls of the tunnel and into the chambers beyond. The boy had been drowsing curled on the earthen floor beside his clan-brothers; now he was shocked awake as his father seized his elbow and wrenched him to his feet. 

"Take this and hide it," he commanded, and the boy staggered beneath the unexpected burden of a sack almost as heavy as he was. As he floundered for a better grip, a coin tumbled out of the bag's mouth and rolled across the floor. Instinctively the boy stooped to retrieve it. 

"Leave it, " his father snapped, spinning him around and giving him a shove. "Get out of here! Quick!"