Wardstone 7 - The Spook's Nightmare (13 page)

It was easier to cast a chain about a witch when she was moving right, left or away from you. But Lizzie
was attacking again, running straight for me: this was the most difficult shot of all. I had no choice but to attempt it, so I cracked the chain, sending it spiralling towards her.

It dropped over her head, then down over her body, bringing her to her knees. The remaining knife fell from her grasp as the chain tightened. It wasn’t a perfect shot because it had dropped over her from shoulder to knee, leaving her head free. Usually a spook needed to bind a witch’s mouth so that she couldn’t chant dark magic spells, but this time it didn’t matter because her mouth was already stitched shut. A wave of relief washed over me. Under the circumstances the shot wasn’t so bad after all. I’d won. Throwing the chain was a skill I had honed to a fine art. All those long hours of practice with the post in the Spook’s garden had paid off again.

And then there was a brief moment of doubt. Had it been a little
too
easy? I thought to myself. Was this defeat serving Lizzie’s purpose in some way?

‘Kill her!’ shouted the Lord Barrule, rising to his feet.

I lifted my staff and pointed the blade at Lizzie’s
heart … But then I hesitated … I couldn’t do it. I’d killed other creatures of the dark before, but never in cold blood like this. Usually, whether bound or not, they’d still presented a threat to me and I’d had to do it quickly. But Bony Lizzie was secure. There was no way she could hope to free herself. Not only that – she was Alice’s mother. There was no love lost between them but it made it hard. So I lowered my staff …

Well done, boy!
I heard Lizzie hiss.
Now see what I’ve got planned!

I looked up at Lord Barrule, who was shaking his head. ‘Can’t bring yourself to do it?’ he called out, his voice echoing around the chamber. ‘I’m surprised. What sort of master trained you? What kind of a spook’s apprentice are you? That was our bargain: kill the witch to gain what I promised. Now you’ll have to do something else to earn your freedom. You’ll fight the witch’s pet!’

My heart sank right down into my boots. He was going to make me fight Alice and there was no way out of it. Two yeomen went over to the far cage. I stared in
horror as they pulled her out. The sight of her twisted my insides, wrenching my emotions. Her eyes were wild and full of pain, and what had been done to her mouth was cruel beyond belief. The twine that bound her lips together was cutting into the soft flesh, making them red and swollen.

They dragged her into the circle of spears to face me. Lizzie’s blades were pushed into her hands. There was a murmur of conversation from the gamblers and the chink of money as the bets were placed once more. I struggled to think of some way out of our predicament but nothing came. It seemed hopeless. Whatever happened, one of us would die.

Our eyes met. Alice’s were glistening with tears. Blood was still running down my forehead and I brushed it away with the back of my hand. How could I fight Alice?

The shaman clapped his hands three times to signal the beginning of the contest. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. Alice raised her blades, then rushed towards me as if to take me by
surprise. I couldn’t believe it. Would she really hurt me after all we’d been through together?

Horrified, I stepped back, instinctively holding my staff across my body, preparing to meet her attack.

I
should have known better than to think Alice would attack me.

I wasn’t called on to use my staff because she simply brushed past me to reach Lizzie, who was still bound by my silver chain. She knelt down beside her and, before I could react, used a blade to slit through the twine that stitched her mother’s lips together.

Had Lizzie been waiting for this to happen all along? If she’d tried to free her own lips with her knife during our struggle, I’d have immediately attacked her with my staff. Had she planned to wait for Alice to do it?

The witch was still on her knees, still bound with my silver chain, but a gloating expression now settled
across her face. It puzzled me – for despite her predicament and the armed yeomen who surrounded us, it was a look of triumph.

The yeomen tightened their circle, moving towards us with spears at the ready.

‘Kill them all!’ shouted the shaman. ‘All bets are off. Take no chances. Kill them now!’

In response, Lizzie uttered just one word, almost under her breath. It was indistinct but it sounded like something from the Old Tongue.

Immediately a wave of cold fear rushed towards me – though this was nothing compared to its effect upon the guards around us. Rarely have I seen such panic and terror on so many faces. Some threw down their spears and ran. Others simply fell to their knees and started to sob. All the dogs started whining at once, and there were shouts and cries of fear from the gamblers to my right.

Whether it was a more powerful form of
dread
or some other spell, with just one word Lizzie had, in the space of a few seconds, reduced the yeomen to a
cowering rabble. She was now staring at Lord Barrule. I followed her gaze and saw that apart from us three, he was the only person in the room not gripped by terror. Instead he was glaring at us, his face twisted with malevolence. What would he do – use his own dark magic against us? Maybe summon the buggane to his assistance? The threat was palpable in the air. Lizzie hadn’t won yet …

‘Release me from the chain!’ she shouted, turning her attention back to me.

It was a command; there was no magic involved. But I didn’t hesitate. Instinctively I knew it was the right thing to do. Lizzie represented the only hope Alice and I had of getting out of Greeba Keep alive. I went over to her, picked up the end of the chain, flicking it to uncoil it from her body. She was on her feet even before I’d returned it to my pocket.

With the long nails of her left forefinger and thumb, like a bird tugging worms from wet soil, Lizzie drew the two pieces of twine from her flesh; first the top, then the bottom lip. Next she licked away the drops of
blood, pointed her forefinger towards the ceiling and arched her back. Then she shouted three words and stamped her foot.

Instantly there was a crackling roar like a thunderbolt right inside the room. All the torches flickered and died, and we were plunged into absolute darkness. For a moment there was silence; then a small light flared close by. Lizzie was holding a black candle. The dogs started barking and I heard running feet receding into the distance. The yeomen and gamblers were fleeing for their lives – but what about Lord Barrule? Had he gone too, or was he still lurking in the darkness?

‘We’ll leave by the tunnel, boy!’ Lizzie said, taking a step towards me.

‘What about the buggane?’ I asked.

‘Leave the worrying to me,’ she replied.

I looked at Alice. She was using one of the blades to cut the twine from her own lips. With a groan of pain she tugged it out. Beads of blood oozed from the wounds.

Lizzie led the way towards the tunnel entrance. What had happened to Barrule? I wondered. Had the witch defeated him so easily? I could see nothing beyond the small circle of yellow light cast by the candle. But as we passed the cages that held Arkwright’s dogs, I hesitated. I wanted to free them and take them with me.

When I reached Claw’s cage, however, she snarled and hurled herself at me in a fury and was only prevented from sinking her teeth into me by the bars.

‘Leave her here, Tom,’ Alice said, gripping my arm. ‘Ain’t worth the risk. We’ll find a way to get ’em all out later.’

I nodded and followed her into the tunnel. The three dogs were still under the control of the shaman. The danger in leaving them behind was that he might still make them fight to the death – probably against each other – in revenge. But what choice did I have?

We started to crawl forward along the earthen tunnel. I couldn’t see much – Lizzie had the only candle, and she and Alice ahead of me were obscuring
most of its light. I still had my candle stub but hadn’t time now to use my tinderbox to light it. For the witch it had been but the work of a second to ignite hers by means of dark magic.

The tunnel twisted and turned and went up and down, sometimes quite steeply. Occasionally the roots of a tree would almost block our way, huge woody claws grasping the soil. At one point I thought I saw a thin one twitch. It was probably just my imagination, but I remembered what the Spook had said about the buggane’s tunnels moving or collapsing suddenly. I thought I glimpsed bones too – it was hard to tell in the dim flickering candlelight – but at one point I felt sure my fingers had brushed against a cold human skull.

Finally the tunnel headed up towards the surface and we emerged inside a hollow tree. We sat down facing each other with our backs to the inner trunk. There was a smell of damp rotten wood. Above us, patterned with dead flies, spiders’ webs hung like curtains, while below, insects scuttled away from the flickering candle.

Lizzie had clearly known exactly where she was heading. ‘We’re safe enough now!’ she said. ‘Nowt can get at us here.’

‘Not even the buggane?’ I asked.

The witch shook her head and gave me an evil smile. ‘Find us it will eventually, but I’ve hidden this place well – right in the middle of its labyrinth. There’ll be time enough to sort it out. Though first I’ll put an end to its master. Are you hungry, boy?’

I shook my head. I’d eaten a little before the fight with Lizzie, but now I needed to fast to ready myself for any dark magic she might use against me.

‘Well, I certainly am. I could eat a bullock, hooves and all!’ She pointed upwards into the darkness. ‘Climb up there!’ she commanded: I could feel the compulsion in her voice and had to resist. ‘It’ll bring you out onto a branch. It’s just a short drop to the ground. Bring me back a couple of rabbits – and make sure they’re still alive—’

‘No, Tom!’ Alice cried in alarm. ‘Don’t listen to her. She’s created a bone-yard here and this tree’s right
at its centre. You’ll be crushed as soon as you touch the ground!’

Although I’d never encountered one, I knew what a bone-yard was from my reading of the Spook’s Bestiary. Crafted by dark magic, it made the bones of any creature that entered it very heavy. They were unable to move and were trapped until the witch came, either to collect them for food or harvest their bones for dark magical purposes. Near the centre, the pressure was so great that the victim was crushed to death – though only something very fast, like a hare, would get that far before the magic forces took effect. But here we were right at its centre, in its
eye
– safe from its forces. If I left the hollow tree, however …

‘You’ve got a big gob on you, girl!’ Lizzie said angrily. ‘Wants stitching up again …’

Alice ignored her and pulled a small leather pouch from the pocket of her skirt. It contained the herbs she used for healing. She crawled towards me and peered closely at my forehead.

‘Nasty cut, that, Tom,’ she said. The inside of the tree
trunk was wet in places and Alice collected some moisture with her fingers and used it to dampen a leaf before pressing it firmly against my skin. ‘That should do it, keep infection away – but you’ll have a scar. Nothing I can do about that.’

So I’d have another scar to add to the one on my ear where Morwena, the water witch, had once hooked me with her finger, driving the nail right through the flesh. It was all part of the job; to be expected when training for the dangerous job of spook.

Next Alice licked her lips and pressed small pieces of leaf against the holes around her mouth left by the twine. When she’d finished, she held a leaf out towards her mother, but Bony Lizzie shook her head.

‘I’ll heal myself, girl. Don’t need your help,’ she sneered, getting to her feet. ‘I’ll go and get my own rabbits. You two stay here if you know what’s good for you!’

With that she began to climb up the inside of the tree, pushing her head through the curtain of spider webs. She was soon lost to view in the darkness, but we
could hear her pointy shoes scrabbling on bark, and then a soft thud as she dropped to the ground outside. Lizzie would be safe enough in her own bone-yard: a witch usually left a secret twisty path so she could move through it unharmed. She could also guide others through – but how could we force her to do that? Our only real option was to go back into the tunnels, but I didn’t fancy our chances against the buggane one bit.

‘Oh, Tom, is the blood jar safe? Do you still have it?’ Alice asked, her eyes full of anxiety.

‘Yes, it’s safe. I wasn’t searched. Barrule even let me keep my silver chain – but how were you caught, Alice?’ I wondered. ‘I saw you roll over and avoid the buggane, but then you just disappeared.’

‘I hid behind a tree so it couldn’t charge me again, but then Lizzie stole up on me – clamped her hand over my mouth, she did. I never sensed her coming – must have used some really powerful magic. She dragged me away and brought me here. Before that she’d been hidden here for days. They’d never have found her, but
she took a risk because she wants Old Gregory really badly. Wants him dead, she does, in revenge for binding her in that pit in his garden. Wants to give him a slow, painful death.