A New Darkness (19 page)

There were also two sacks on the grass: one contained iron filings, the other salt.

“Use half a bag of each,” I instructed.

I was pleased with the way the practical lesson was going. John Gregory had taught me well, and I realized that I had a lot of information to pass on to my new apprentice.

Jenny tipped half a bag of each into the glue and then began to stir the thickmixture with a big stick. I made her persevere for a good ten minutes, until the salt and iron were properly mixed in. Then I helped her, using a rope to lower the heavy bucket into the pit. Jenny jumped down beside it and, using an ordinary paintbrush, began to coat the walls.

“You have to cover every inch,” I told her, “or the boggart will make itself really small and escape. If it was a ripper boggart, then you’d be the next person on the menu. It would drain your blood in less than a minute. If it was a stone-chucker, then it would probably come back with a small boulder and drop it on your head, cracking it open like an egg. Boggarts are dangerous, so you’ve got to do the binding correctly. Make one mistake, and you’re dead.”

After Jenny had finished the walls to my satisfaction, I took her hand and helped her climb out. Then I hauled up the bucket. Next I showed her how to tie the brush to a long stick, and she used this to reach down and paint the bottom of the pit with the mixture.

She’d almost finished when I heard a shout from the edge of the western garden. It was Grimalkin. I went and called out to the boggart, letting it know that she was not to be touched, and then escorted her back to the pit.

“I see you work your apprentices hard!” she exclaimed, watching Jenny. Then she turned to me. “Here.” She held out a sheaf of paper bound with string. “These are my findings and speculations concerning the haizda mage and the Kobalos creatures I studied. It is the sum of what I have learned so far. Study it well. I will return within the week, and we will talk again.”

“Are you heading north now?” I asked.

“Northeast,” she replied. “I have a few things to organize.”

When she had left, Jenny and I got cleaned up and went into the library. She spent the first half hour writing down what she’d learned about binding boggarts, while I began to read Grimalkin’s notes.

The Contents of the Glass Containers

These are all biological, and in most cases held within some preserving material, usually a gel. Some are seeds; others animal (mammalian or reptilian samples plus hybrids).

Many are still alive, held in a state of suspended animation. I believe that, if planted, the seeds would grow. The same is probably also true of the animal samples. (I tested only three, which confirmed this.) They are all capable of development and growth, but into what I cannot say without further dangerous experimentation.

However, we know that the Kobalos have used dark magic to create many special creatures, such as builders (the whoskor, which maintain and extend the walls of Valkarky) and fighting entities (such as the haggenbrood). They may well use similar creatures in war. It could be that the dead haizda mage was preparing to create such entities locally and hide them within our borders, ready for a preemptive strike.

The First Animal Sample

I removed this sample (labeled
ZANTI
on the jar) from its gel preservative and introduced it to a growth medium (two parts human blood, three parts ground bone of sow, two parts sugar, three parts human spittle).

The sample was placed within the most powerful containment environment that I could generate—a large pentacle whose inner circle was fifty feet in diameter—in a meadow at least two hundred yards
from the nearest tree. I also protected the pentacle from prying eyes and intrusion with spells of cloaking and menace.

I was impressed by Grimalkin’s methodical approach and attention to detail, but a chill ran down my spine as I read on. The witch assassin, for all her knowledge, intelligence, and courage, had been dealing with unknown forces, and as Jenny had pointed out the day before, she’d greatly underestimated the danger posed by the varteks—a mistake that might have resulted in many deaths in the County.

The first sample had been activated on the night of the full moon. There were lots of the small insectlike creatures. Just before dawn, they had burrowed into the soil, only to emerge again after dark the following day. At this point they were fewer in number, but the remaining creatures had grown to the size of a human finger, and Grimalkin believed that while underground they had been hunting and eating each other.

They carried on doing this until only two remained. She described them as very thin, but roughly human in shape, with long claws on their fingers and toes. Finally she entered the pentacle and killed them with her blades. Grimalkin was brave, but I thought that sometimes she had too much self-belief for her own good. She’d been dealing with entities with unknown fighting capabilities.

Not content with that, she repeated her experiments using a second sample from the jars. These new creatures chased and ate each other on the surface all day and night. These had long, cylindrical bodies in three segments like insects, although they eventually grew as big as a sheep, and much longer. They had a sharp protrusion on their foreheads, which they used to sting and paralyze their prey. Grimalkin nicknamed them stingers.

These stingers had the power to summon their prey, and this worked even though Grimalkin had fortified the pentacle with a spell of menace to keep animals and humans away. They summoned and killed crows, wood pigeons, seagulls, geese, ducks, magpies, rabbits, hare, and even a deer before finally focusing their attention on the witch assassin.

She’d felt their power as they tried to lure her into the pentacle. This time she had been wiser, slaying them from a distance with her throwing knives. After dissecting the dead creatures, she found that each of their body segments contained a heart, stomach, and brain tissue. A subsequent experiment showed that if one segment was destroyed, the creature could regenerate it. This made them fearsome entities indeed.

Her final experiment was with the varteks. It went wrong because, after the young had burrowed underground, only one apparently emerged alive; she didn’t realize that a second one had also survived. When she learned that the creature was capable of eating rock and soil, she resorted to scrying. The future she saw was of a lone vartek burrowing under the pentacle to escape. So she prepared a pit and intended to lure it to its destruction there. But Grimalkin hadn’t foreseen my arrival with Jenny at the moment it escaped. Nor had her scrying told her of the second vartek. Despite the terrifying nature of all that I was reading, I smiled toward the conclusion of Grimalkin’s account: she had completely failed to mention our part in slaying the creature. No doubt our untimely appearance was an annoyance that she preferred to forget. She hadn’t described the pursuit and killing of the second vartek, either.

I didn’t smile for long. I soon remembered that she had so nearly caused the deaths of many innocent men, women, and children. What was the future threat to the County from such creatures? Commanded by the Kobalos, they would cut swathes of death through any enemy that confronted them.

Suddenly I knew what book I could contribute to the Spook’s rebuilt library. Combining the information from Nicholas Browne’s glossary, Grimalkin’s notes, and whatever we learned in the future, I would write a Bestiary of the Kobalos. It would be something worthwhile to bequeath to those who followed in my footsteps.

I looked across at Jenny. She was staring into space, having lost concentration.

“That’s enough writing for today,” I told her. “Go back to the garden and practice lowering the bait dish into the pit!”

This was a tricky task that required a lot of skill. The dish contained blood, which was used to lure a ripper into a pit so that it could be bound there. This would keep her busy.

She obeyed, but she didn’t look happy. She’d probably have preferred to carry on daydreaming.

Once she’d left, I continued with my own studies.

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22

Times Are Changing

S
HAKING
my head, I read the final lines of Grimalkin’s report on the Kobalos for the third time.

I believe that this third creature, the vartek (plural form: varteki), is the most formidable of the three samples I investigated. There could also be something far worse within the jars that I did not study.

In view of our approaching conflict with the Kobalos, this does not bode well.

What the witch assassin had learned was terrifying. These savage entities would no doubt be used by the Kobalos against us. How could we defend ourselves against creatures that had been crafted to kill?

Prеviously I had looked upon the threat from the Kobalos as distant, both in tеrms of geography and time. I had managеd to convince myself that they dwellеd far from the County; it would be many yеars bеfore they could fight thеir way to thе eastern shorе of the Northеrn Sеa. Evеn thеn, they’d havе to cross that stormy еxpansе of water to reach us.

My opinion had now changеd completely. That haizda magе had rеached us alrеady; morеovеr, it had the mеans to givе lifе to creatures that could cause havoc in the County. Therе might be othеrs of his kind, as yet undetected, already living hеre and growing fеarsome creatures.

I neеded to clear my hеad, so I left Grimalkin’s report in the library and went out to sеe how Jenny was doing.

As I’d instructеd, shе was practicing lowering a bait dish into the pit. I watchеd hеr as she frowned in concеntration.

The mеtal dish was attachеd to a chain by thrее small hooks, each locatеd in onе of thrеe holes on its outеr edge. Usually, еspеcially when dеaling with a rippеr boggart, thе dish was filled with blood. For practicе sеssions, wе used milk. The first task was to lower the dish to the floor of thе pit without spilling a drop.

I smiled with satisfaction as Jеnny completed this stage perfectly. Of coursе, it was far more difficult on a rеal job. Nerves could be a problem; your hands might shakе and your palms sweat.

Jenny was still holding thе chain and concentrating. You had to relax the hooks a little, thеn give a flick. If you got it right, they camе frеe, leaving thе dish at thе bottom of the pit.

She gavе a cry of frustration. She was closе, but shе hadn’t yеt gottеn the knack. Two of thе chains had comе frеe; the othеr hadn’t. It tipped the dish ovеr onto its sidе, spilling all the milk.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told hеr. “Havе fivе minutes’ rеst and thеn try again. It took mе weeks of practice to get it right. Bettеr still, why don’t you go down into the villagе and collect this week’s groceries?”

Jеnny did just that, and on her rеturn successfully set the dish down on the floor of thе pit and releasеd the hooks. Not one drop of milk was spilled.

I was pleasеd. Her training was going well, and I likеd working with hеr. My loneliness was fading by thе day.

Our rеcent encountеr with Bibby Longtooth had beеn traumatic—еspеcially whеn we found thе bonеs of thе children in her cottagе afterward, some still wеt with blood. It had rеsemblеd a butchеr’s shop. For a fеw days I had wonderеd if Jеnny would еver get over the expеriencе, but now she seemed much more chеerful.

John Gregory had trained so many boys who didn’t make the grade; lots ran away and didn’t complete their training. I really wanted my first apprentice to become a spook. I wanted it to work out. It was still very early days, but I had high hopes for Jenny.

As she had promised, Grimalkin returned within the week. “You have read the notes I made on the investigations into the Kobalos war beasts?” she demanded.

I nodded.

“And you saw varteki in action—young ones, at that. So you see how dangerous the threat is . . . ?”

“It’s very much worse than I imagined,” I agreed. So it was that when she asked me once more to accompany her on her journey north, I found it difficult to refuse. It now seemed the right thing to do.

“We would be away for two months—three at the most,” she told me. “Surely you can spare that much time?”

“What about Jenny? It hardly seems fair to drag her off into such danger so early in her apprenticeship. She’s enjoying her training and making real progress,” I replied.

“Bring her with you. We will all learn together. Learn we must if we are to have any chance at all of defeating this terrible and powerful enemy. Or, if you prefer, give her the choice of staying here. You can continue her training on your return.”

As she’d once done before, when preparing for the Battle of the Wardstone, Grimalkin set up camp in the garden. Up in the library, I broke the news to Jenny.

“We’re going on a long journey with Grimalkin,” I told her. “We need to study the Kobalos so that we can discover how to defeat them. So we’re going to cross the Northern Sea and travel to the edge of their territory.”

“How long will we be away?” she said, looking far from happy.

“We’ll be back before winter really bites.”

She nodded but didn’t seem convinced.

“Can you ride?” I asked.

She looked puzzled. “I’ve ridden a horse at one of the farms where my foster dad works, but not recently. It was when I was little.”