I squeezed my eyes tight shut, my whole body trembling. I took deep, slow breaths and tried to calm down.
I glanced to my right and saw that there was someone else chained directly under the torch. I immediately recognized the milky eyes; the two short horns protruding from the thatch of dark hair. It was Horn, the abhuman. When he sensed me looking at him, he growled deep in his throat. He sounded like a wild animal. Despite those blind eyes, I remembered, he somehow had the power to see.
I tried to speak, but my throat was parched and the words only came out at the second attempt. ‘I’m not your enemy,’ I croaked. ‘You’re wasting your time threatening me.’
‘You’d kill me or bind me if you got the chance!’ the deep, feral voice accused.
‘Look, we’re both in the same boat here,’ I said.
Horn let out a deep moan. ‘I thought I’d live my days serving Lord Barrule. He was a good master.’
‘Was he?’ I asked. ‘He killed your mother, didn’t he? That’s what I was told.’
‘My mother? My mother!’ Horn spat on the earthen floor. ‘She was a mother in blood and name only. She treated me cruelly and gave me pain beyond endurance. But I hate the Fiend even more than her, for it was he who fathered me; he who made me walk this world marked as a beast for all to see! Lord Barrule was the only person who’s ever showed me any kindness.’
Kindness? I remembered how Barrule’s guards had controlled him with the lengths of silver chain through each ear. That hardly seemed like kindness, but there was nothing to be gained from enraging the creature further.
‘I suppose the witch now controls the buggane?’ I asked.
I saw his head nod, the sharp horns glinting in the torchlight. ‘I fought with all my strength, but to no avail. She rules the buggane but struggles to control the animas in the cavern. She doesn’t fully understand my master’s ways. It is not her kind of dark magic.’
‘Who’s this, do you know?’ I asked, nodding to where the other prisoner was slumped.
‘Commander Stanton. He was cruel. My master listened to him, not me, and allowed him to bore the holes in my ears for the silver chains. Said it was the only way he could control me. Ask me, he’s got what he deserves. His mind has gone: he’s empty – the buggane has drained his animus. Soon it will come for his flesh and blood. After that it will be my turn …’
Commander Stanton! He had paid the price for his opposition to Lizzie.
My thoughts turned to Alice once more. She had done well to deprive Lizzie of the shaman’s notebook – it might have made all the difference. I didn’t know exactly what Alice hoped to achieve, but she’d once made a pact with the Bane, an even more powerful daemon than the buggane. It had almost led to her destruction, but she had managed to control it for a while. With the help of the shaman’s notebooks and the grimoires, maybe she could do the same here?
I felt weak with hunger and thirst, but worse than all that was a growing terror within me that I struggled to control. If Alice didn’t help me, I was soon going to have my life force sucked out of me. At least then, I thought gloomily, I wouldn’t be here to see Lizzie’s blades when she took my thumb-bones. It was a terrible thing to have to depend for my survival on Alice being involved with dark power like this, but for a moment it gave me some hope. Then I remembered that Alice might have been captured too …
My arms weren’t bound and I was able to check my pockets, which I found still filled with salt and iron; even my silver chain hadn’t been taken. It might be that Bony Lizzie couldn’t bear to touch it. Or maybe now, supremely confident of her power, she didn’t care. My special key was there too. It would open almost any lock, but when I tried my shackles, I couldn’t even get it in the keyhole. My sudden flare of hope was extinguished.
At least an hour passed while I worked through all the possibilities – all the things that might give me some hope of escape or of being rescued. Finally I thought about the Spook. Eventually he’d wake up and maybe work out what had happened. But he’d been powerless against Lizzie. The truth was, I had more faith in Alice.
From time to time Stanton gave a groan as if in pain, but it was just his body crying out, a reflex action; his mind was long gone, his flesh and bones now just an empty shell. Perhaps his soul had also fled.
Suddenly I heard a new sound. A sound that sent fear running down my spine. Someone or something was moving down the earth tunnel towards our cell.
I trembled as soil cascaded down onto the flags. Then the huge hairy head of the buggane emerged. Its large close-set eyes peered at each of us in turn and its wet snout sniffed the air before it pulled its bulk down into the cell. But it was not alone. Someone else crawled out of the tunnel behind it, a bedraggled figure with dirty clothes and mud-caked hair. It was a woman and she looked a sorry sight. It was only when she got to her feet and I saw the pointy shoes and wild glaring eyes that I recognized Bony Lizzie. Her tiara was still in place but almost invisible under the coating of dirt on her hair.
The witch ignored me and went over to look at Daniel Stanton. She knelt before him and I saw the knife in her hand. I averted my gaze as she began to cut away his thumb-bones. The commander cried out as if in agony, and I had to remind myself that it was just the reaction of his body; that his mind was no longer there to feel the pain.
Then Lizzie came across and crouched down to face me. She smiled, her hands covered in blood, still gripping the knife, hard eyes filled with malice. ‘It’s your turn next, boy. Right now I need all the help I can get. The bones of a seven times seven could make all the difference.’
I had to think fast. ‘I thought you wanted to be a queen,’ I said, trying to distract her, easing my hands into my pockets to grab some salt and iron. ‘I thought you wanted to rule this island. What’s happened to you?’
At that, Lizzie appeared bewildered, and an expression of pain and loss flickered across her face. Suddenly I could see Alice in her; the girl that the witch had once been. Then her face twisted into a sneer, and she leaned nearer so that her foul breath enveloped me.
‘There’s power here, boy, power beyond my wildest dreams; power that could give me the whole world if I wanted it. But first things first. In order to rule above, I need to control what’s in the cavern. It’ll take time, but it’ll be well worth it. And your bones are going to help …’