Spook's Curse (17 page)

She smiled at me for the first time since I’d gone into the room, but it was a sad smile. Then, lifting the lid of the box, she held the candle up so I could see what lay inside.

A long silver chain with fine links gleamed brightly in the candlelight. ‘Lift it out,’ Mam said. ‘I can’t touch it.’

I shivered at her words because something told me that this was the same chain that had bound Mam to the rock. Dad hadn’t mentioned it being silver, a vital omission because a silver chain was used to bind a witch. It was an important tool of a spook’s trade. Could this mean that Mam was a witch? Perhaps a lamia witch like Meg? The silver chain, the way she’d kissed my dad - it all sounded very familiar.

I lifted out the chain and balanced it in my hands. It was fine and light, of better quality than the Spook’s chain, with much more silver in the alloy.

As if she guessed what I’d been thinking, Mam said, ‘I know your dad told you how we met. But always remember this, son. None of us is either all good or all bad - we’re all somewhere in between -

but there comes a moment in each life when we take an important step, either towards the light or towards the dark. Sometimes it’s a decision we make inside our head. Or maybe it’s because of a special person we meet. Because of what your dad did for me I stepped in the right direction and that’s why I’m here today. That chain now belongs to you. So put it away and keep it safe until you need it.’

I coiled the chain around my wrist, then slipped it into my inside pocket, next to the letter. That done, Mam closed the lid and I followed her out of the room, waiting while she locked the door.

Downstairs I picked up the packet of sandwiches and prepared to leave.

‘Let’s have a look at that hand before you go!’

I held it out and Mam carefully untied the threads and pulled away the leaves. The burn seemed to be healing already.

‘That girl knows her stuff,’ she said. ‘I’ll give her that. Let the air get to it now and it’ll be right as rain in a few days.’

Mam hugged me and, after thanking her once more, I opened the back door and stepped out into the night. I was halfway across the field, heading for the boundary fence, when I heard a dog bark and saw a figure heading towards me through the darkness.

It was Jack, and when he got close, I saw by the starlight that his face was twisted with anger.

‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ he shouted. ‘Do you? It didn’t take five minutes for the dogs to find them!’

I looked at the dogs, which were both cowering behind Jack’s legs. They were working dogs and weren’t soft, but they knew me and I’d have expected some sort of greeting. Something had scared them badly.

‘You might well look,’ said Jack. That girl hissed and spat at them and they ran off as if the Devil himself were twisting their tails. When I told her to clear off, she had the cheek to tell me that she was on somebody else’s land and it was nothing at all to do with me.’

‘Mr Gregory’s ill, Jack. I had no choice but to call in and get Mam’s help. I kept him and Alice outside the farm boundary. I know how you feel so I did the best I could.’

‘I’ll bet you did. I’m a grown man but Mam ordered me to bed like a child. How do you think that makes me feel? And in front of my own wife too. Sometimes I wonder if the farm will ever really belong to me.’

I was angry myself by then and I felt like telling him that it probably would and a lot sooner than he thought. It would all be his once Dad was dead and Mam had gone back home to her own land. But I bit my lip and said nothing about it.

‘I’m sorry, Jack, but I’ve got to be off,’ I told him, setting off towards the hut where I’d left Alice and the Spook. After a dozen or so steps I turned but Jack already had his back to me and was on his way home.

We set off without saying a word. I had a lot to think about and I think Alice knew that. The Spook just stared into space but he did seem to be walking better and no longer needed to lean on us.

About an hour before the sun came up, I was the first to break the silence.

‘Are you hungry?’ I asked. IMam’s made us some breakfast.’

Alice nodded and we sat down on a grassy bank and started on the food. I offered some to the Spook but he pushed my arm away roughly. After a few moments he walked a little way off and sat down on a stile as if he didn’t want to be anywhere near us. Or Alice at least.

‘He seems stronger. What did Mam do?’ I asked.

‘She bathed his forehead and kept looking at his eyes. Then she gave him a potion to drink. I kept my distance and she didn’t even glance in my direction.’

‘That’s because she knows what you’ve done. I had to tell her. I can’t lie to Mam.’

‘I did what I did for the best. Paid him back, I did, and saved all those people. I did it for you too, Tom. So you could get Old Gregory back and carry on with your studies. That’s what you want, ain’t it?

Ain’t I done the right thing?’

I didn’t reply. Alice had stopped the Quisitor burning innocent people. She’d saved a lot of lives, including the Spook’s. She’d done all those things and they were all good things. No, it wasn’t what she’d done, it was how she’d gone about it. I wanted to help her but I didn’t know how.

Alice belonged to the dark now, and once the Spook was strong enough he’d want to put her in a pit.

She knew that and so did I.

A
t last, with the sun once more sinking into the west, the fells were directly ahead and soon we were climbing up through the trees towards the Spook’s house, taking the path that avoided Chipenden village.

I halted just short of the front gate. The Spook was about twenty paces further back, staring up at the house as if he were seeing it for the first time.

I turned to face Alice. ‘You’d better go,’ I said.

Alice nodded. There was the Spook’s pet boggart to worry about. It guarded the house and grounds.

One step inside the gate and she’d be in great danger.

‘Where will you stay?’ I asked.

‘Don’t you worry about me none. And don’t go thinking I belong to the Bane either. I ain’t stupid.

Have to summon him twice more before that happens, don’t I? The weather’s not that cold yet, so I’ll stay close by for a few days. Maybe in what’s left of Lizzie’s house. Then I’ll most likely go east to Pendle. What else can I do?’

Alice still had family in Pendle but they were witches. Despite what she said, Alice belonged to the dark now. That’s where she’d feel most comfortable.

Without another word she turned and walked away into the gloom. Sadly, I watched her until she’d disappeared from sight, then I turned and opened the gate.

I unlocked the front door and the Spook followed me inside. I led the way to the kitchen, where a fire was blazing in the grate and the table was set for two. The boggart had been expecting us. It was a light supper, just two bowls of pea soup and thick slices of bread. I was hungry after our long walk so I tucked in straight away.

For a while the Spook just sat there staring at his bowl of steaming hot soup but then he picked up a slice of bread and dunked it in.

‘It’s been hard, lad. And it’s good to be home,’ he said.

I was so surprised that he was speaking again that I almost fell off my chair.

‘Are you feeling better?’ I asked.

‘Aye, lad, better than I did. A good night’s sleep and I’ll be right as rain. Your mam’s a good woman.

Nobody in the County knows their potions better.’

‘I didn’t think you’d remember anything,’ I said. ‘You seemed distant. Almost like you were sleepwalking.’

“That’s what it was like, lad. I could see and hear everything but it didn’t seem real. It was just like I was in a nightmare. And I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t seem to find the words. It was only when I was outside, standing there looking up at this house, that I found myself again. Have you still got the key to the Silver Gate?’

Surprised, I reached into my left breeches pocket and pulled out the key. I held it out to the Spook.

‘Caused a lot of trouble, this,’ he said, turning it over in his hand. ‘But you did well, all things considered.’

I smiled, feeling happier than I had in days, but when my master spoke again, his voice was harsh.

‘Where’s the girl?’ he snapped.

‘Probably not too far away,’ I admitted.

‘Well, we’ll deal with her later.’

All through supper I thought of Alice. What would she find to eat? Well, she was good at catching rabbits so she wouldn’t starve - that was one thing sorted out. However, in the spring, after Bony Lizzie had kidnapped a child, the men from the village had set fire to her house and the ruin wouldn’t provide much shelter on an autumn night. Still, as Alice had said, the weather still hadn’t turned cold. No, her biggest threat was from the Spook.

As it turned out, it was the last mild night of the year: the following morning there 
was
 a distinct chill in the air. The Spook and I sat on the bench staring towards the fells, the wind getting stronger. The leaves were falling in earnest. The summer was well and truly over.

I’d already got my notebook out but the Spook seemed in no hurry to start the lesson. He wasn’t recovered from his ordeal with the Quisitor. During breakfast he’d said little and spent most of the time staring into space, as if deep in thought.

I was the one who finally broke the silence. ‘What does the Bane want now that it’s free? What will it do to the County?’

‘That’s easily answered,’ said the Spook. ‘Above all it wants to grow bigger and more powerful. Then there will be no limit to the terror it will cause. It will cast a shadow of evil over the County. And no living thing will be able to hide from it. It will take blood and read minds until its powers are complete. It will see through the eyes of people who can walk in daylight while it’s forced to hide in the dark somewhere underground. Whereas before it just controlled the priests in the cathedral and extended its influence into Priestown, now nowhere in the County will be safe.

‘Caster could well be the next to suffer. But first the Bane might just pick on some small hamlet and press everyone to death as a warning, just to show what it can do! That was the way it controlled Heys and the kings who ruled before him. Disobedience meant a whole community would be pressed.’

‘Mam told me that it’ll be looking for Alice,’ I said miserably.

‘That’s right, lad! Your foolish friend Alice. It needs her to regain its strength. She’s twice given it her blood, so while she remains free she’s fast on her way to becoming totally under its control. If nothing happens to stop it, she’ll become part of the Bane and have hardly any will left of her own. It could move her, use her just as easily as I can bend my little finger. The Bane knows this - it’ll be doing all it can to feed from her again. It’ll be searching for her now.’

‘But she’s strong,’ I protested. ‘And anyway, I thought the Bane was afraid of women. We both met it in the catacombs when I was trying to rescue you. It had shape-shifted into you in order to trick me.’

‘So the rumours were true - it had learned to take on a physical form down there.’

‘Yes, but when Alice spat at it, it ran off. Perhaps she could just keep doing that.’

‘Yes, the Bane does find it harder to control a woman than a man. Women make it nervous because they’re wilful creatures and often unpredictable. But once it’s drunk the blood of a female all that changes. It’ll be after Alice now and give her no peace. It’ll worm its way into her dreams and show her the things she can have - the things that can be hers just for the asking -until finally she’ll think there’s a need to summon it again. No doubt that cousin of mine was under the Bane’s control. Otherwise he’d never have betrayed me like that.’

The Spook scratched at his beard. ‘Aye, the Bane will grow and grow and there’ll be little to stop it working its evil through others until everything becomes rotten in the County. That’s what happened to the Little People until, finally, desperate measures were called for. We need to find out exactly how the Bane was bound; even better, how it can be killed. That’s why we need to go to Heysham. There’s a big barrow there, a burial mound, and the bodies of Heys and his sons are in stone graves nearby.

‘As soon as I’m strong enough, that’s where we’re going. As you know, those who suffer violent deaths sometimes have trouble moving on from this world. So we’ll visit those graves. If we’re lucky, a ghost or two might still linger there. Maybe even the ghost of Naze, who did the binding. That might well be our only hope because, to be honest, lad, at the moment I haven’t a clue how we’re going to bring this to an end.’

With those words the Spook hung his head and looked really sad and worried. I’d never seen him so low.

‘Have you been there before?’ I asked, wondering why the ghosts hadn’t been given a talking to and asked to move on.

‘Aye, lad, just once. I went there as an apprentice. My master was there to deal with a troublesome sea wraith that had been haunting the shore. That done, on the hill above the cliffs we passed the graves and I knew there was something there because what had been a warm summer’s night suddenly became very cold. When my master kept on walking, I asked him why he wasn’t stopping to do something.

‘ “Leave well enough alone,” he told me. “It’s a bother to nobody. Besides, some ghosts stay on this earth because they’ve a task to perform. So it’s best to leave ‘em to it.” I didn’t know what he meant at the time, but as usual he was right.’

I tried to imagine the Spook as an apprentice. He’d have been a lot older than me because he’d trained as a priest first. I wondered what his own master had been like, a man who would take on an apprentice so old.

‘Anyway,’ said the Spook, ‘we’ll be going to Heysham very soon, but before that happens there’s something else that has to be done. Know what it is?’

I shivered. I knew what he was going to say.

‘We have to deal with the girl, so we need to know where she’s hiding. My guess would be in the ruin of Lizzie’s house. What do you think?’ the Spook demanded.

I was going to tell him that I disagreed but he stared at me hard until I was forced to drop my gaze to the ground. I couldn’t lie to him.

‘That’s where she’d probably stay,’ I admitted.

‘Well, lad, she can’t stay there for much longer. She’s a danger to everyone. She’ll have to go into a pit. And the sooner the better. So you’d better start

I looked at him, hardly able to believe what I was hearing.

‘Look, lad, it’s hard but it’s got to be done. It’s our duty to make the County safe for others and that girl will always be a threat.’

‘But that’s not fair!’ I said. ‘She saved your life! Back in the spring she saved my life too. Everything she’s done has turned out all right in the end. She means well.’

The Spook held up his hand to silence me. ‘Don’t waste your breath!’ he commanded, his expression very stern. ‘I know that she stopped the burning. I know that she saved lives, including my own. But she released the Bane and I’d rather be dead than have that foul thing loose and free to do its mischief. So follow me and let’s get it over with!’

‘But if we killed the Bane Alice would be free! She’d have another chance!’

The Spook’s face reddened with anger, and when he spoke there was a sharp edge of menace to his voice. ‘A witch who uses familiar magic is always dangerous. In time, in her maturity, far more deadly than those who use blood or bone. But usually it’s just a bat or a toad - something small and weak that gradually grows in power. But think what that girl’s done! The Bane of all things! And she thinks the Bane is bound to 
her
 will!

‘She’s clever and reckless and there’s nothing that she wouldn’t dare. And yes, arrogant too! But even with the Bane dead, it wouldn’t be over. If she’s allowed to grow into a woman, unchecked, she’ll be the most dangerous witch the County has ever seen! We have to deal with her now before it’s too late. I’m the master; you’re the apprentice. Follow me and do as you’re told!’

With that he turned his back and set off at a furious pace. With my heart down in my boots I followed him back to the house to collect the spade and measuring rod. We went directly to the eastern garden and there, less than fifty paces from the dark pit that held Bony Lizzie, I started to dig a new deep pit, eight feet deep and four feet by four square.

It was after sunset before I’d finished it to the Spook’s satisfaction^ I climbed out of the pit feeling uneasy, knowing that Bony Lizzie was in her own pit not far away.

‘That’ll do for now,’ the Spook said. ‘Tomorrow morning go down to the village and fetch the local mason to measure up.’

The mason would cement a border of stones around the pit into which thirteen strong iron bars would eventually be set to prevent any chance of escape. The Spook would have to be on watch while he worked to keep him safe from the pet boggart.

As I trudged back towards the house, my master briefly rested his hand on my shoulder. ‘You’ve done your duty, lad. That’s all that anybody can ask and I’d just like to tell you that so far you’ve more than lived up to what your mam promised ...’

I looked up at him in astonishment. My mam had once written him a letter saying that I’d be the best apprentice he’d ever had, but he hadn’t liked her telling him that.

‘Carry on like this,’ the Spook continued, ‘and when the day comes for me to retire, I’ll be sure I’m leaving the County in very good hands. I hope that makes you feel a little better.’

The Spook was always grudging with his praise and to hear him say that was something really special.

I suppose he was just trying to cheer me up but I couldn’t get the pit and Alice out of my mind and I’m afraid his praise didn’t help at all.

That night I found it hard to sleep, so I was wide awake when it happened.

At first I thought it was a sudden storm. There was a roar and a whoosh and the whole house seemed to shake and tremble as if buffeted by a great wind. Something struck my window with terrible force and I clearly heard glass crack. Alarmed, I knelt up on the bed and pulled back the curtains.

The large sash window was divided into eight thick, uneven panes so you couldn’t see that much through them at the best of times, but there was a half moon and I could just make out the tops of the trees, bowing and writhing as if their trunks were being shaken by an army of angry giants. And three of my thick windowpanes were cracked. For a moment I was tempted to use the sash cord to raise the bottom half of the window so I could see what was happening. But then I thought better of it. The moon was shining so it was unlikely to be a natural storm. Something was attacking us. Could it be the Bane?