We settled ourselves down, staring at the water, and I waited for him to speak.
‘I have to begin by thanking you for my life, Tom. I would have died last night. At first they used to take only a little of my blood every seventh night – my body could just about cope with that. But that was the third time they’d fed since I last saw you.’
‘You mean they’d kept you in the pit before they sent you to Chipenden?’
‘They let me out so I could bring you here,’ Judd explained.
‘How long were you in the pit?’ I asked him.
‘A couple of months, give or take a few days. Strange, isn’t it? We spooks put witches in pits. I never thought I’d end up in one myself!’
‘How did you survive? What did you eat?’
‘Luckily it wasn’t the dead of winter or I’d have frozen to death,’ Judd went on. ‘But they fed me all right. They had to keep me alive in order to get the blood they needed. Each pair – each strigoi and strigoica – keep one or more prisoners whom they feed on. They’d really prefer to hunt and kill their prey in the surrounding countryside, but that would draw attention, and the military might be called in. As for food, they drop it into the pit raw. I’ve been living off raw mutton – sometimes offal.’
I pulled a face at the thought of eating raw offal.
‘What would you do, Tom?’ he asked, seeing my expression of disgust. ‘I had little choice – eat that or die. Without food to replace what I lost when they bled me, I’d have been dead within a couple of weeks.’
I nodded. ‘It’s true,’ I agreed. ‘We do what’s necessary in order to survive. I’d have done exactly the same.’
I knew that I was certainly not guiltless myself. Over the course of my three years as a spook’s apprentice, the morals and standards taught me by my dad and mam had gradually been compromised. I’d been less than honest with my master, using dark magic to keep the Fiend at bay.
‘Aye, it’s a long twisting road that brings you to such a situation,’ Judd murmured bitterly. ‘As I said, my travels eventually took me to Romania, where I learned all about Transylvanian creatures of the dark and how best to combat them. Fat lot of good it did me in the end!
‘They work together in that country, you see – elementals, daemons and witches plot and actively set out to destroy spooks. It wasn’t long before I became their next target. They watch and wait, working out the best way to hurt or destroy you. I was easy meat. I was in love, you see. Spooks in the County don’t usually take a wife, but in Romania the custom is different. I’d asked for a young woman’s hand in marriage and had been accepted. We were in love and looking forward to the wedding. But it was not to be.
‘A strigoica claimed her – they prefer living to dead bodies. You’ve met the daemon – she possesses the body of Cosmina Fresque.’
‘Mistress Fresque is the woman you love? And she’s host to the daemon?’ I said, thinking how pretty Cosmina was and understanding why Judd had fallen in love with her. ‘Isn’t there anything we can do? Can’t we drive the strigoica out of her body?’
‘I only wish that were so, but possession by a Romanian daemon doesn’t work like that – it’s not the same as in the County. It can’t be reversed. The soul is driven out and is unable to return.’ Judd shook his head sadly. ‘So consider her dead – I certainly do, and must learn to live with my grief. She’s gone off into Limbo. I just hope she can find her way to the light. I’ve lost her, and have had a long time to think of my folly and how I was so easily duped.’
‘So how did you end up here, back in the County?’ I asked him.
‘At first I was devastated by what had happened,’ he replied. ‘For almost a year I wandered like a man insane, unable to do my job. They could have killed me then – and would have, but for the Romanian spook who’d trained me. I didn’t even know he was there, but wherever I went, he followed close behind to defend me from the servants of the dark who wanted my life. Eventually I came to my senses, but then my mind was fixed only on vengeance. I wanted to kill that strigoica, or at least drive her from the body of my beloved Cosmina. I searched and searched but could find no trace of her – until at last I discovered that she had gone abroad with her strigoi partner. So I followed.
‘They had been warned by witches – I told you that they work together – and were ready for me. Like a fool, I walked straight into their trap and ended up in the pit – food for the strigoi. After a week or so they passed me on to their neighbours further up the valley. They swap victims in some sort of trade. I think the flavour of blood varies – they like a change every now and then.’
‘So did they promise you your freedom in exchange for luring me and the Spook here?’ I wondered.
‘That and something much more precious to me,’ Judd told me. ‘You see, I’m half Romanian and, as I told you, still have family back in that country – my mother and her kin. If I didn’t do as they said, they threatened to take their blood – to kill every last one of them. Of course they’d no intention of letting me go. After I left you I headed north, trying to put as much distance as possible between me and this cursed place. It hadn’t been dark for more than an hour when they caught me and dragged me back to that pit. I just hope my family are all right.’
I understood the pressure he’d been under and sympathized, but I was still far from happy. There had been times when I’d be threatened by the dark in a similar way. But the Spook had instilled in me a strong sense of duty and I’d resisted. How could I ever forget that Judd Brinscall’s betrayal had resulted in my master’s death?
It was quite a while before I broke the uneasy silence that had fallen between us. ‘Why are there so many Romanian servants of the dark here in Todmorden?’ I asked.
‘They came here to find space and fresh victims,’ Judd told me. ‘Romania has so many of their kind that whole areas, especially in the province of Transylvania, are under their control. They’ve been building up their numbers on the County border for years, but lying low so as not to draw too much attention to themselves. When there are enough of them here and they grow stronger, they will no longer be content to exist on the blood of victims confined in pits – they’ll expand westwards into the County, killing wantonly.’