The Spook's Nightmare Part 16

'You're the lucky one,' Horn said. 'It'll be over for you soon. You'll be dead. I have to sit here watching you and waiting my turn.'

Wearily I turned my head to look at the abhuman. He was naked from the waist up, but even in the dim light from the torch above him I could see the powerful muscles bunched at the shoulders. And suddenly I had an idea.

'Do the iron manacles give you pain?' I asked.

He shook his head.

Not all creatures of the dark were vulnerable to iron. It seemed that Horn had some resistance to it. So much the better ...

'Then why don't you free yourself?' I suggested. 'You're strong enough to do that ...'

'For what purpose?' he asked. 'The cell door is too thick for me to break through.'

'Once you've freed yourself, free me too. Then we can venture into the tunnels together. I have weapons against anything that might threaten us salt, iron and my silver chain. It's better than waiting here for death.'

'Free you? Why should I trust you? You're my enemy!'

'For now we need each other,' I told him. 'We'd be stronger together. Once we're free we can go our own ways.'

For a long time there was silence. Horn was obviously considering my suggestion. Then I heard a long groan. Only when the sound was repeated did I realize that it was the noise of exertion rather than physical pain or mental anguish. He was tearing the links apart.

I licked my dry lips and my heart pounded. I was suddenly filled with hope.

Horn stood and came across to where I was chained. I could smell stale sweat and a rank animal odour. But there was no chill; no warning that I was close to something from the dark. Horn was nearer to the human than he appeared. Nonetheless, I had to be wary. Despite our fragile pact we were natural enemies.

Without hesitation, Horn reached down and seized my chain close to the iron ring in the wall. He groaned again as his muscles tensed, then stretched it until the links first elongated and then snapped. With the end free, it was the work of moments to unwrap its length from my legs.

'Are you not blind?' I asked, wondering about his seemingly sightless eyes and how he had reached directly for the chain.

'I can see better than most, but not with these!' he said, pointing at each of his milky eyeb.a.l.l.s in turn. 'I have a third, spirit eye. With it I can see the world, and even things beyond the world. I can peer into the darkness within people.'

I jumped to my feet, and my heart began to pound even harder. I felt weak and shaky, but I was free! We stood face to face. My enemy from the dark was now my temporary ally. Together, with the help of Alice, we might have a real chance against Lizzie.

My tinderbox was in my bag but I still had my candle stub, so I reached up and lit it from the torch. Carrying the candle in my left hand, I led the way into the tunnel, suddenly realizing that it might not be necessary to follow the buggane's tunnels for very long: I remembered how cells that didn't contain prisoners usually had their doors left ajar.

When I'd reached the end of the short tunnel, I turned right. About twenty yards on, I reached the access tunnel to the next cell and turned right again into it. The moment I emerged into the empty cell, my hopes soared. The door was ajar! We could reach the steps that led up to the tower.

Of course, it meant pa.s.sing through the guardroom. Had the yeomen returned after being attacked by the birds? I wondered. If they hadn't, who was it who had carried me from Lizzie's room down into the dungeon?

Chapter 27.

The pa.s.sageways were now in total darkness; n.o.body had been renewing the torches. Without my candle it would have been difficult to find our way.

We hadn't gone far when I suddenly felt the special coldness that told me that something from the dark was near. I came to a halt and I heard Horn hiss. He'd sensed it too. There was a clicking, crepitating sound directly ahead, and then a deep menacing growl. Something was moving towards us. I held up my candle stub, and saw that there was a place low on the wall where the light seemingly couldn't reach; a shadow darker than the other shadows. It moved towards us and started to grow.

What was it? I'd never encountered anything quite like it before. The growl came again, deeper and much more threatening. This was some dark ent.i.ty drawn here by Lizzie's meddling.

I had to act and fast. Quickly I handed the candle to Horn, reached deep into my breeches pockets and filled each fist with the substances waiting there: salt in my right, iron filings in my left. I hurled both handfuls straight at that threatening shadow. They enveloped it in a cloud. There was a sudden agonized shriek, and then only the scattered salt and iron remained on the flags. Whatever had threatened us was no more. It had either fled in agony or been destroyed. But there might well be other similar dangers ahead.

I looked upwards fearfully. Would that noise have alerted the guardroom? The cry had certainly not sounded human. Perhaps it would be more likely to cause any there to flee than descend into the darkness and investigate.

Horn now took the lead. We pa.s.sed through the section of tunnel under the moat, where the water was cascading down the wall and dripping from the ceiling, and then headed for the steps. We began to climb, pausing now and then to listen. When at last we reached the guardroom door, we put our ears to it, but there was no sound from within.

Horn handed me the candle, then eased open the door. The room was empty. There were pitchers of water on the far table and I seized one and took several desperate gulps, then helped myself to a crust of stale bread, which I softened with some of the water before swallowing. My body had an urgent need for energy, to replace what the buggane had taken. When I'd finished, the abhuman walked across to face me.

'We should attack the witch now,' he growled.

'It's probably better if we find Alice first,' I told him. 'She'll be able to help.'

Horn nodded in agreement and we left the guardroom together and continued upwards.

We found Lizzie sitting on the throne, a smug look on her face. She clearly knew we'd escaped and had just been waiting for us to come to her. We were like two trapped flies going round and round in circles; we'd never even left her web.

Then I noticed the body of a yeoman behind the throne and the blood on Lizzie's lips. He must have been the one who'd carried me down to the dungeon. Now she'd killed him and drunk his blood. Although primarily a bone witch, Lizzie liked human blood too. She preferred children's but would drink an adult's if she was thirsty enough.

As Horn and I walked down the carpet towards her, I readied my chain, wondering if I'd have the strength to bind her this time. But before I could attack, Lizzie sprang to her feet and glared at Horn. She looked wild, close to insanity, and a mixture of blood and saliva dribbled from her mouth to ooze into the slime on her chin.

'You've crossed my path once too often. You were meant to die a slow and painful death, but now you'll die fast!' she cried, raising her left hand, palm towards Horn, fingers spread wide. Then she closed her hand into a fist as if crus.h.i.+ng something within it, while muttering an enchantment in the Old Tongue.

The abhuman screamed and buried his face in his hands. To my horror, I watched his head begin to crumple and collapse in on itself, rupturing and sending out gouts of blood. Horn dropped to the ground at my side like a sack of stones, his shrill, agonized scream giving way to a final gasp and then silence. His head was reduced to a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp.

I struggled to hold down the contents of my stomach and my knees began to tremble.

'Now, where's that daughter of mine?' Lizzie demanded, a scowl furrowing her brow.

I found it hard to believe that she hadn't found Alice. Where could she be? I took a deep breath to calm myself and shrugged. 'I don't know. I'm here to look for her,' I said.

Lizzie pulled a sharp knife from the folds of her gown. 'The buggane will have to manage without this time,' she said. 'I've had enough trouble from you so I'll take your bones now. Come here!'

Against my will, I found myself moving towards her. I tried to draw the silver chain from the pocket of my cloak, but my arm was paralysed! I began to sweat and shake with fear. I took a deep breath to calm myself, but my legs were no longer under my control. I took another step, and then another, until I was so close to the witch I could feel her foul breath warm upon my face and I almost retched again.

Lizzie seized my left hand with her right and lifted it before me. 'Take a last look at that thumb, boy. It'll be boiling and bubbling in my cauldron soon!'

Was this it? Was I to die here after all I'd been through?

With her left hand the witch brought the knife down towards my thumb. I tried to break free of her grip but was powerless. I flinched, expecting to feel an agonizing pain. But the blade failed to make contact with my skin. Instead the torches flickered and died down, and a s.h.i.+mmer of light appeared. Suddenly, to my utter astonishment, Alice was standing there, in front of me, holding one of the shaman's grimoires.

All at once I noticed that tell-tale s.h.i.+mmer of an apparition it wasn't Alice in the flesh; it was her spirit. She'd projected it here from somewhere else. I was filled with sudden hope. Was this a result of her study of the shaman's books?

'If you hurt Tom, you'll never get your hands on this!' Alice warned, her image flickering. 'I took Barrule's notebook and studied it. I learned that the really useful stuff is in this grimoire here!'

'Might have known you were up to something, girl,' Lizzie snarled.

'Tells you in here how to tap the power of the cache directly, but he wrote it down in code. You've got to take bits from lots of different pages and link the spells together,' Alice said. 'Without this book and my knowledge you'll never know what to do. You'd study for years and get nowhere. Ain't that so?'

Lizzie's face twisted with anger but she didn't reply.

'If you want this book and what I know, come and get it. I'm down in the long room where Lord Barrule and his gambling cronies used to have their fun and games. Bring Tom with you, but don't you dare hurt a hair on his head or you'll never get your mucky hands on this.' Alice raised the book towards her mother.

She vanished and the torches flared up again.

Lizzie turned to me. 'Looks like you'll live a little longer, boy! At least until I get my hands on that book ...'

Keeping a tight grip on my arm and holding her knife at the ready, Lizzie dragged me down the steps of the keep, through the guardroom and along the underground pa.s.sages. As we pa.s.sed the cells, I noticed that all the doors were now shut, as if they contained prisoners.

The long room was almost in darkness just a couple of torches were flickering in their rusty wall brackets. Lord Barrule still lay there on the stone floor, and the place reeked more strongly of death than ever.

Alice appeared, walking out of the shadows to face Lizzie. She was carrying the grimoire in her left hand and my staff in her right.

'Let Tom go and then I'll tell you what I know and give you the book,' she said calmly, the corners of her mouth twitching up into a grin.

Lizzie pushed me roughly towards Alice. 'Give me the book and start talking! Make it fast. My patience is stretched to breaking point!' she snapped.

'You're welcome to the book,' Alice said, and she tossed it towards her.

Lizzie reached out to catch it, but before her fingers closed on it, with a loud whoosh, it burst into flames. The witch flinched away and it fell at her feet, the pages curling and blackening.

Her expression was now black as thunder but Alice was smiling, a look of triumph on her face. The witch arched her back, pointed her finger straight at her daughter and muttered some words in the Old Tongue. For a moment I was horribly afraid for Alice, but nothing happened and her smile grew even wider.

'Used the cache to protect myself,' she said to Lizzie. 'You can't hurt me, and now Tom's at my side you can't hurt him either! But I can hurt you. Push me and I can hurt you really badly. If you weren't my mother, I'd kill you now! But you're going to do as you're told and do it right away. Give me the shaman's thumb-bones! Hand'em over now!'

Lizzie began to shake, and beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. Her face was twisted with the effort of trying to resist Alice's command but she wasn't strong enough. I remembered how she had controlled us, but now things were reversed. Now she was forced to do Alice's bidding, reaching into the pocket of her dress and pulling out the bones that she'd cut from the dead body of Lord Barrule. They were white now, clean bones, the flesh boiled off as part of the ritual to tap into their full power.

Alice held out her hand to receive them, and once more Lizzie tried to resist, her whole body shaking with the effort, but then, with a gasp, she finally let them fall into Alice's palm.

That done, with a shriek, the witch ran towards the underground tunnel and scrambled inside.

Chapter 28.

'We must go after her, Alice,' I said, heading for the mouth of the tunnel. 'We can't let her escape. It's my duty to bind her.'

Alice shook her head. 'Sorry I let her go, Tom. Could have killed her then but despite what I said, I wasn't hard enough to do it. She's my mother after all. What kind of girl would kill her own mother ... ?

'It ain't safe to follow her through the tunnels now. Even though I was stronger just then, Lizzie still controls the buggane. She'll be able to find a way to the surface but she can't return to the keep. Locked all the cell doors, I have, just to make sure she don't try to double back. I'll lock the door to this room too,' she said, holding up a key.

'Then we should head to where we left Adriana and Simon and try to cut her off!'

Alice nodded but her eyes were fearful.

'What's wrong?' I asked her.

'The further we get from Greeba Keep, the less I'll be able to draw on the power of the cache. After a few miles it'd just be me against Lizzie, and she's bound to be stronger.'

'All the more reason to deal with her before she gets too far away,' I said.

We hurried out of the keep; it was deserted and we headed directly for Adriana and Simon. They were still waiting at the edge of the trees, so we quickly explained what had happened and made our way towards the chapel, watching closely to see if Lizzie emerged.

But we watched and waited in vain. Two hours later there was no sign of the witch and we began to grow dispirited. Had she already escaped?

'Can't you sniff her out, Alice?' I asked.

She shook her head. 'Been here before, she has, and her stench is everywhere. Can't tell what's fresh 'cause there's so much of it.'

It was then, as the light began to fail, that I saw a figure approaching in the distance and my heart sank right down into my boots. There'd be a reckoning now all right.

It was the Spook, and as he drew nearer, I saw that he was scowling.

It was Adriana who spoke first. She stepped forward, placing herself between him and us. 'It was my idea,' she said. 'We had to try and deal with Lizzie. I knew you'd never agree. It's all my fault.'

The Spook nodded. 'Aye,' he said angrily, 'you've put a bad taste in my mouth in more ways than one. But we'll deal with all that later.' He turned to me, his expression grim. 'We need to get down to practicalities: tell me what happened and make it quick ...'

After I'd finished, my master shook his head. 'It's a bad business. We need to follow the witch and deal a with her once and for all. But now that she's gone and no longer has access to the power here, our first priority is the buggane. I've been thinking and if we can destroy it, eventually the tunnels will collapse and the cavern with that cache of power will be buried. That'll stop servants of the dark from visiting it in spirit form. They'll no longer be able to tap into it directly. And that includes you, girl!' he said, turning on Alice. 'Deals with everything nicely.'

'That's not fair! I'd be dead by now but for what Alice did,' I shouted.

'She still used dark power and not for the first time, as you well know. But we won't speak of that now. We'll go directly to the chapel that's at the centre of the buggane's domain. It'll sense us there and attack.'

'What about the dogs won't they help us?' I asked my master.

'There's no time for that now, lad. I left them at the mill, and we've got to deal with this creature.'

The Spook turned and began to walk away. Alice and I were at his heels, with Adriana and Simon close behind. Suddenly my master spun round to face them.

'This is spook's business,' he said, holding up his hand. 'Dangerous work for just me and the lad. It's best if you wait here until we've dealt with the daemon. And that means you too!' he said, glaring at Alice. She opened her mouth to protest, but then shook her head. There would be no arguing with my master after what had just happened.

So the Spook and I headed directly for the chapel. Despite his wishes, I hoped Alice wouldn't be very far behind. She couldn't afford to distance herself from the blood jar. We arrived at the ruins and waited just inside the trees, within sight of those crumbling dark stone walls. The minutes pa.s.sed but nothing happened; Lizzie would be getting further and further away with every second, I thought.

It was a cold, crisp, clear night and the gra.s.s was white with h.o.a.r frost. Half a waning moon cast dappled shadows on the ground. Occasionally an owl hooted, but apart from that all was silent; there wasn't even a breath of wind.

'Why doesn't the buggane attack?' I asked.

'It's nearby I can feel it in my bones but it's not showing itself,' the Spook answered. 'Most likely it'll be down the slope close to the water's edge a place we want to avoid. It'll take the shape of a worme on that marshy ground, and wormes are hard to kill. But what choice do we have? Let's get it over with!'

I followed my master towards the incline. I was gripping my staff nervously. The last thing I wanted was to face a worme again. I remembered the way they could spit poison and bite off an arm or leg with those rows of sharp teeth.

As we descended, the slope became steeper and our boots squelched in the soft ground. I soon found it hard to stay on my feet. Below, the murmur of the river was ever louder, though as yet I couldn't see it through the trees. They grew closer together here, interspersed with dense bushes and saplings, making our progress difficult and forcing us to make frequent detours.