What was it? I’d never encountered anything quite like it before. The growl came again, deeper and much more threatening. This was some dark entity drawn here by Lizzie’s meddling.
I had to act – and fast. Quickly I handed the candle to Horn, reached deep into my breeches pockets and filled each fist with the substances waiting there: salt in my right, iron filings in my left. I hurled both handfuls straight at that threatening shadow. They enveloped it in a cloud. There was a sudden agonized shriek, and then only the scattered salt and iron remained on the flags. Whatever had threatened us was no more. It had either fled in agony or been destroyed. But there might well be other similar dangers ahead.
I looked upwards fearfully. Would that noise have alerted the guardroom? The cry had certainly not sounded human. Perhaps it would be more likely to cause any there to flee than descend into the darkness and investigate.
Horn now took the lead. We passed through the section of tunnel under the moat, where the water was cascading down the wall and dripping from the ceiling, and then headed for the steps. We began to climb, pausing now and then to listen. When at last we reached the guardroom door, we put our ears to it, but there was no sound from within.
Horn handed me the candle, then eased open the door. The room was empty. There were pitchers of water on the far table and I seized one and took several desperate gulps, then helped myself to a crust of stale bread, which I softened with some of the water before swallowing. My body had an urgent need for energy, to replace what the buggane had taken. When I’d finished, the abhuman walked across to face me.
‘We should attack the witch now,’ he growled.
‘It’s probably better if we find Alice first,’ I told him. ‘She’ll be able to help.’
Horn nodded in agreement and we left the guardroom together and continued upwards.
We found Lizzie sitting on the throne, a smug look on her face. She clearly knew we’d escaped and had just been waiting for us to come to her. We were like two trapped flies going round and round in circles; we’d never even left her web.
Then I noticed the body of a yeoman behind the throne – and the blood on Lizzie’s lips. He must have been the one who’d carried me down to the dungeon. Now she’d killed him and drunk his blood. Although primarily a bone witch, Lizzie liked human blood too. She preferred children’s but would drink an adult’s if she was thirsty enough.
As Horn and I walked down the carpet towards her, I readied my chain, wondering if I’d have the strength to bind her this time. But before I could attack, Lizzie sprang to her feet and glared at Horn. She looked wild, close to insanity, and a mixture of blood and saliva dribbled from her mouth to ooze into the slime on her chin.
‘You’ve crossed my path once too often. You were meant to die a slow and painful death, but now you’ll die fast!’ she cried, raising her left hand, palm towards Horn, fingers spread wide. Then she closed her hand into a fist as if crushing something within it, while muttering an enchantment in the Old Tongue.
The abhuman screamed and buried his face in his hands. To my horror, I watched his head begin to crumple and collapse in on itself, rupturing and sending out gouts of blood. Horn dropped to the ground at my side like a sack of stones, his shrill, agonized scream giving way to a final gasp and then silence. His head was reduced to a bloody pulp.
I struggled to hold down the contents of my stomach and my knees began to tremble.
‘Now, where’s that daughter of mine?’ Lizzie demanded, a scowl furrowing her brow.
I found it hard to believe that she hadn’t found Alice. Where could she be? I took a deep breath to calm myself and shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I’m here to look for her,’ I said.
Lizzie pulled a sharp knife from the folds of her gown. ‘The buggane will have to manage without this time,’ she said. ‘I’ve had enough trouble from you so I’ll take your bones now. Come here!’
Against my will, I found myself moving towards her. I tried to draw the silver chain from the pocket of my cloak, but my arm was paralysed! I began to sweat and shake with fear. I took a deep breath to calm myself, but my legs were no longer under my control. I took another step, and then another, until I was so close to the witch I could feel her foul breath warm upon my face and I almost retched again.
Lizzie seized my left hand with her right and lifted it before me. ‘Take a last look at that thumb, boy. It’ll be boiling and bubbling in my cauldron soon!’
Was this it? Was I to die here after all I’d been through?
With her left hand the witch brought the knife down towards my thumb. I tried to break free of her grip but was powerless. I flinched, expecting to feel an agonizing pain. But the blade failed to make contact with my skin. Instead the torches flickered and died down, and a shimmer of light appeared. Suddenly, to my utter astonishment, Alice was standing there, in front of me, holding one of the shaman’s grimoires.
All at once I noticed that tell-tale shimmer of an apparition – it wasn’t Alice in the flesh; it was her spirit. She’d projected it here from somewhere else. I was filled with sudden hope. Was this a result of her study of the shaman’s books?
‘If you hurt Tom, you’ll never get your hands on this!’ Alice warned, her image flickering. ‘I took Barrule’s notebook and studied it. I learned that the really useful stuff is in this grimoire here!’
‘Might have known you were up to something, girl,’ Lizzie snarled.
‘Tells you in here how to tap the power of the cache directly, but he wrote it down in code. You’ve got to take bits from lots of different pages and link the spells together,’ Alice said. ‘Without this book and my knowledge you’ll never know what to do. You’d study for years and get nowhere. Ain’t that so?’
Lizzie’s face twisted with anger but she didn’t reply.
‘If you want this book and what I know, come and get it. I’m down in the long room where Lord Barrule and his gambling cronies used to have their fun and games. Bring Tom with you, but don’t you dare hurt a hair on his head or you’ll never get your mucky hands on this.’ Alice raised the book towards her mother.
She vanished and the torches flared up again.
Lizzie turned to me. ‘Looks like you’ll live a little longer, boy! At least until I get my hands on that book …’
Keeping a tight grip on my arm and holding her knife at the ready, Lizzie dragged me down the steps of the keep, through the guardroom and along the underground passages. As we passed the cells, I noticed that all the doors were now shut, as if they contained prisoners.