When the Spook had offered his condolences for the death of her mother, Adriana had wept bitterly.
‘Well,’ said my master now, sipping from his cup of mead. ‘I’ve tried to be patient but I can’t wait any longer. What are the strange tales from Greeba Keep that you mentioned in your letter?’
‘Terrifying things have been seen in the surrounding woods – all manner of monsters and daemons—’
‘The buggane can take on many different shapes,’ interrupted the Spook.
‘These things weren’t seen in the buggane’s domain,’ Adriana replied, ‘but much further to the north. Sheep and cattle have gone missing too. All that remained was small fragments of bone.’
The Spook pulled at his beard. ‘What about the sightings? Were the witnesses reliable?’ he asked.
Adriana shrugged. ‘Some are more reliable than others, but one was a forester, a dour, plain-speaking man not given to flights of fancy. He also saw strange dancing lights – he counted seven. When they approached him, he fled. Could they be the same lights we saw in the cavern?’
‘He did well to run,’ said the Spook. ‘That coven of witch spirits could have drained his life force in minutes. This is all very bad news. It means that denizens of the dark visiting the cache of animas can now use its power to wander far beyond it. They’re a threat to your whole island and possibly beyond.’
‘Can anything be done?’ asked Adriana.
‘Aye – killing the buggane would stop it. The cache is only attractive while it continues to grow. Without an active buggane, such power soon starts to diminish. What else?’ asked the Spook. ‘Is there any more news of the bone witch?’
‘She took her force of yeomen back to Greeba, but then paid them off and dismissed the majority within a few days, retaining only about fifty for guard duty.’
‘Well, Lizzie’s made a big mistake there,’ the Spook said. ‘Those men had permanent jobs under the Ruling Council. They’ll be disgruntled now and could become a force that can be used against her.’
‘It’s no mistake,’ said Alice, shaking her head. ‘I know Lizzie better than anyone, and that’s the scariest thing I’ve heard so far. She had lots of money; and even if she’d emptied that chest, she could have raised taxes if she needed some more. Ain’t bothered then, is she? Don’t need ’em. That’s how powerful she is now.’
The Spook didn’t reply but his expression showed that Alice’s words had disturbed him.
‘Since then some of those guards have deserted, terrified by the things that were happening in the keep,’ Adriana continued. ‘They heard voices when there was nobody there, and footsteps following them that stopped when they stopped, and strange shadows that could only be seen out of the corners of their eyes. Nowhere inside the keep was free of them. It was worse after dark, but these things could be heard and felt even in daylight. There were spots of intense cold too …’
I knew that was bad. The Spook and I, being seventh sons of seventh sons, feel a strange coldness when something from the dark is near; other people are not usually aware of it. If those men were aware of intense cold, then very powerful dark magic was involved.
‘By now the witch has probably no more than a dozen men with her – ones more scared of leaving than staying,’ Adriana went on. ‘She made threats – said that anyone else who left without her permission would die in their sleep, and sure enough, two were found dead … So what are we going to do now?’ she asked. ‘Lizzie’s got to be stopped.’
‘I’ve been racking my brains to come up with a plan,’ said the Spook. ‘With the reduced guard it’ll be easier to get near her, but what can we do in the face of such power? The first time I couldn’t even cast my chain true, and at St John’s she brought me to my knees. I was helpless.’ I’d never heard my master sound so hopeless, so defeated.
‘But it’s my duty to put an end to her’ – the Spook sighed – ‘and I’ll do that even at the cost of my own life.’
‘We need to distract her,’ said Alice. ‘Get the shaman’s thumb-bones away from her and she’ll be a lot easier to deal with.’
‘Horn said they were a conduit for her to tap that stored power. But that was then. By now, she may have direct access to it,’ the Spook pointed out. ‘She may not need them any longer.’
‘We have to do something,’ I said. ‘Distraction is a good idea. We should split up and come at her from different directions. It’s worth a try.’
‘Different directions?’ asked the Spook, draining his cup of mead. ‘We’ve only two. There’s the main gate or the buggane’s tunnels. The first will still be guarded. As for the second, the buggane will surely be Lizzie’s creature by now. I for one don’t relish the idea of confronting it down there. It doesn’t even need to attack directly. It could just collapse a tunnel and suffocate us.’
We were all tired and went to bed very early without having come up with a proper plan. I’d only just dropped off to sleep when I jerked awake, aware that someone was standing beside me. I sat up and someone whispered, ‘Shhhh! It’s all right, Tom. It’s just me, Alice …’
‘Something wrong?’ I asked.
Her hand found mine in the darkness. ‘Just wanted to talk, that’s all. Old Gregory ain’t going to do anything. Losing his house and books, and now failing twice to deal with Lizzie – it’s just about finished him off. He’s past it, Tom. He’s scared. I think you and me should sort her out. We’d be better off without him.’
I suddenly felt as cold as ice. ‘Don’t talk like that, Alice. He’s been through a bad patch, that’s all. He’ll recover and be back stronger than ever – just you wait and see!’
‘No, Tom. You got to face it: he’s finished. Still be able to teach you, he will, but it’ll be you doing the real work, the dangerous work, from now on.’
‘What are we supposed to do? None of us can think of a way to deal with Lizzie – it’s not just Mr Gregory.’
‘I can, Tom. I know a way. But Old Gregory wouldn’t approve. He’d never go along with it.’
‘Does it involve using dark magic?’ I asked.