I relived those awful moments when I thought the child was about to be murdered; every second of anguish and horror. Alice ran forward and kicked him hard, her pointy shoe burying itself so deep in his belly that only the heel was showing. My heart in my mouth, I watched as he dropped baby Mary. Just before she hit the ground, Alice caught her and carried her away to safety. Now it was my turn: I hurled salt and iron at him. With his head enveloped in a cloud of the mixture, he fell senseless at my feet.
It was happening all over again. Snout was unconscious on the ground, his eyes rolling up into his head, his apron stained with the blood of freshly slaughtered pigs. I watched Mother Malkin slither out of his ear and take shape again. She’d shrunk to a third of her former size and her gown was trailing on the floor. She started moving away.
I was filled with anger; a terrible rage at all I’d been forced to see over and over again. Previously, I’d let the witch go. Alice had run after her with a burning brand and I’d caught her and pulled her back. It seemed too terrible to burn Mother Malkin. I couldn’t allow it. But this time my anger transformed me. As before, I caught Alice as she ran by, but this time I snatched the burning brand from her and chased Mother Malkin across the farmyard.
Without hesitation, I set fire to the hem of her gown. It caught at once. Seconds later she was burning; shrieking as the flames consumed her. It was a terrible thing to do but I didn’t care. I had to get harder to survive; to become the spook I was destined to be. Then I heard somebody speak: this was no whisper. The voice was loud and insistent.
‘There’s darkness inside me too!’ it cried. ‘I can match anything you do. I’m the hunter, not the hunted!’ Only slowly did I realize that I was the one who’d cried out. And I knew that what I’d said was true. The abhuman had been right. I’d become corrupted by the dark and there was indeed a sliver of darkness within my soul. It was a danger to me, but also a source of strength. As Mam had once promised, the day was fast approaching when I would become the hunter. And then the dark would fear me.
* * *
An age seemed to pass while I floated on the edge of consciousness. Finally I opened my eyes.
I was shivering, my brow burning with fever, my throat parched. The buggane hadn’t drained me fully: I’d survived my first encounter with it, but how long would it be before it returned?
I felt weak and lethargic. I couldn’t think clearly. Painful images swirled sluggishly inside my head like a whirlpool that was sucking me down into its dark, churning spiral. It was then that I heard a voice from my right.
‘You’re the lucky one,’ Horn said. ‘It’ll be over for you soon. You’ll be dead. I have to sit here watching you and waiting my turn.’
Wearily I turned my head to look at the abhuman. He was naked from the waist up, but even in the dim light from the torch above him I could see the powerful muscles bunched at the shoulders. And suddenly I had an idea.
‘Do the iron manacles give you pain?’ I asked.
He shook his head.
Not all creatures of the dark were vulnerable to iron. It seemed that Horn had some resistance to it. So much the better …
‘Then why don’t you free yourself?’ I suggested. ‘You’re strong enough to do that …’
‘For what purpose?’ he asked. ‘The cell door is too thick for me to break through.’
‘Once you’ve freed yourself, free me too. Then we can venture into the tunnels together. I have weapons against anything that might threaten us – salt, iron and my silver chain. It’s better than waiting here for death.’
‘Free you? Why should I trust you? You’re my enemy!’
‘For now we need each other,’ I told him. ‘We’d be stronger together. Once we’re free we can go our own ways.’
For a long time there was silence. Horn was obviously considering my suggestion. Then I heard a long groan. Only when the sound was repeated did I realize that it was the noise of exertion rather than physical pain or mental anguish. He was tearing the links apart.
I licked my dry lips and my heart pounded. I was suddenly filled with hope.
Horn stood and came across to where I was chained. I could smell stale sweat and a rank animal odour. But there was no chill; no warning that I was close to something from the dark. Horn was nearer to the human than he appeared. Nonetheless, I had to be wary. Despite our fragile pact we were natural enemies.
Without hesitation, Horn reached down and seized my chain close to the iron ring in the wall. He groaned again as his muscles tensed, then stretched it until the links first elongated and then snapped. With the end free, it was the work of moments to unwrap its length from my legs.
‘Are you not blind?’ I asked, wondering about his seemingly sightless eyes and how he had reached directly for the chain.
‘I can see better than most, but not with these!’ he said, pointing at each of his milky eyeballs in turn. ‘I have a third, spirit eye. With it I can see the world, and even things beyond the world. I can peer into the darkness within people.’
I jumped to my feet, and my heart began to pound even harder. I felt weak and shaky, but I was free! We stood face to face. My enemy from the dark was now my temporary ally. Together, with the help of Alice, we might have a real chance against Lizzie.
My tinderbox was in my bag but I still had my candle stub, so I reached up and lit it from the torch. Carrying the candle in my left hand, I led the way into the tunnel, suddenly realizing that it might not be necessary to follow the buggane’s tunnels for very long: I remembered how cells that didn’t contain prisoners usually had their doors left ajar.
When I’d reached the end of the short tunnel, I turned right. About twenty yards on, I reached the access tunnel to the next cell and turned right again into it. The moment I emerged into the empty cell, my hopes soared. The door was ajar! We could reach the steps that led up to the tower.
Of course, it meant passing through the guardroom. Had the yeomen returned after being attacked by the birds? I wondered. If they hadn’t, who was it who had carried me from Lizzie’s room down into the dungeon?
The passageways were now in total darkness; nobody had been renewing the torches. Without my candle it would have been difficult to find our way.
We hadn’t gone far when I suddenly felt the special coldness that told me that something from the dark was near. I came to a halt and I heard Horn hiss. He’d sensed it too. There was a clicking, crepitating sound directly ahead, and then a deep menacing growl. Something was moving towards us. I held up my candle stub, and saw that there was a place low on the wall where the light seemingly couldn’t reach; a shadow darker than the other shadows. It moved towards us and started to grow.