The surprise disappearance broke my concentration and I lost my grip on time. I felt the breeze on my face again, heard it sighing through the branches; the moon sent brief shadows flickering across the ground before being obscured by cloud once more.
I stood there, letting my breathing return to normal after the exertion of the struggle. Would the creature rematerialize? I’d hurt it, but not that badly. Perhaps it had sensed what I was attempting to do with time; realized the threat I posed. Would it come back – this time in a more dangerous shape? Or would it whisper to me in its spirit form and start to drain my animus?
I glanced across at my master. He still wasn’t moving. How badly was he hurt? It was only then that I realized that there was no sign of Alice.
‘Alice! Alice!’ I called, but there was no reply. Fear clutched at my heart. Had the shaman seized her?
‘Alice!’ I shouted again, desperation in my voice. The only answer was a groan from the Spook, so I went over to see how he was.
As I knelt down beside him, he sat up with a grunt of pain. ‘Here, help me to my feet, lad …’
I laid my staff down on the ground, put my arm around him and helped him up.
‘How badly are you hurt?’ I asked anxiously. There was no sign of blood but he was deathly pale.
‘Fortunately the point of the horn missed me, but it whacked me hard on the shoulder and knocked me clean unconscious. I’ll live – but with a headache and a few bruises to remember it by. What happened?’
I told him about my fight with the buggane and how it had vanished. ‘But Alice is missing,’ I continued. ‘When you were down, the buggane was about to charge you again and she distracted it. She saved your life. That’s the last I saw of her. Maybe the shaman’s got her? That was the shaman next to the daemon, wasn’t it?’
‘Most likely it was, lad – especially as he vanished like that. But don’t worry about the girl. She can look after herself. If she’s got any sense she’ll put some distance between herself and the buggane. And so should we.’
‘But what if the shaman feeds her to the buggane?’
The Spook didn’t answer but we both knew he might well do that. After all, the abhuman had sniffed Alice and found darkness within her. But there was something more immediate that put a terrible fear into my heart. She was now beyond the protection of the blood jar.
Despite the Spook’s warnings of the risks, I insisted on searching the area but found nothing, and finally I was forced to abandon it.
I was scared for Alice – there was a lump in my throat as I left, following my master. The Fiend might appear at any time and take his revenge. He could slay Alice and drag her soul off into the dark for ever.
Back at the camp, racked by fears for Alice, I found it impossible to sleep. I thought dawn would never arrive, but at last morning came – a bright, beautiful one, totally unsuited to my mood.
The day started badly. No sooner was I up and about than I realized that the dogs were missing. Of Claw, Blood and Bone there was no sign – nor did they answer my call. They were generally obedient and it was unusual for them to wander off for so long. Was it the shaman’s doing?
There was no real breakfast – just a nibble of cheese. Everyone was in a sombre mood, and Simon Sulby in particular was desperate to do something, aware that each day that passed increased the danger to Adriana.
‘I can’t just sit around here!’ he said, his voice filled with anguish. ‘What if you fail again tonight?’
‘I can guarantee nothing,’ the Spook replied, clearly irritated, ‘but I’ll tell you one thing – go off alone in some foolish attempt to rescue her from that keep and there’ll be one more person in those dungeons, ready to feed to the buggane. And that’ll be you!’
‘I might have little hope of rescuing Adriana, but there’s one other thing I could do. I could walk to St John’s and appeal to the Tynwald.’
‘The Tynwald?’ I asked. ‘Is that the island’s Ruling Council?’
Simon shook his head. ‘No, it’s the Parliament, an elected body, but they appoint the Council and have the power to overrule them. They’ll be meeting in a few days in St John’s – the village by the witch tower where they imprisoned you. The Tynwald could order Lord Barrule to free Adriana.’
‘Are they likely to listen to you?’
‘They’ll listen, though they rarely interfere once the Council is appointed. But what else can I do? Citizens have a right to be heard by the Tynwald. Adriana’s not a witch and never was. She understands birds – that’s all. It’s a special talent and it worries some people. Why do things have to be like this? Why do people like Barrule make life so hard for others? Adriana and I just want to get married, have children and be happy. Is that too much to ask? I know one thing for sure: without her my life would be over. I couldn’t live without her.’
The Spook shook his head sadly and said nothing for a while. ‘Look,’ he said at last, ‘just give it one more night. If we can put an end to the buggane tonight, it takes her out of any immediate danger.’
Simon didn’t respond. He didn’t look convinced.
‘Do you think the shaman did capture Alice?’ I asked my master. I was sad for Simon and concerned about Adriana, but the plight of Alice was uppermost in my mind.
‘Could well be, lad. He might have lured her away somehow by using dark magic, but he couldn’t have physically carried her off. You see, he wasn’t there in person last night. That’s why he seemed to vanish. A shaman can project his spirit from his body, and to those like us with the gift to see it, it looks just like him. The dogs are a different matter, though: as I said, he has a special power over animals. Bill Arkwright had them well-trained and it’s not like them to go off like that.’
‘I’d like to visit St John’s myself to buy a few provisions,’ Captain Baines interrupted, ‘and I might be able to find out what’s going on.’
He left soon after that and then, despite all our attempts to persuade him otherwise, Simon set off for St John’s too, intending to find accommodation and work on his appeal. But before he left he drew us a map. He marked in Greeba Keep, the ruined chapel and Douglas. He also included the small town of Peel on the west coast of the island, indicating the mill where Adriana lived with her parents.