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.
Ishould 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?’