Alice came to my side; she was holding my staff. The click I'd heard was her releasing the blade, which was now covered in blood. Now the Spook and Arkwright came running back into the chamber. They looked at the dead creature and then at Alice.
'Looks like Alice just saved your life, Master Ward,' Arkwright said as I climbed shakily to my feet.
The Spook said nothing; as usual he begrudged Alice any praise. Just then there was a groan from the far corner of the chamber: another of the Ordeen's servants began to stir.
'Those witches haven't been as thorough as we thought,' John Gregory observed. 'Let's move on. There's no sense in staying here a moment longer than we need. Time is short – and who knows what lies ahead?'
Beyond the door was another passageway, which led upwards once more. We began to climb, the Spook in the lead. Suddenly he raised his hand and came to a halt, then pointed to the wall on our left. A small glowing sphere, a bubble of translucent fire, was floating there at head height. It was no bigger than my fist, and at first I thought it was attached to the wall. As I watched, it floated across the passage and disappeared into the stones.
'What was that?' I asked. 'A fire elemental?'
'Aye, lad, I suppose so. Having lived in the wet County all my life, I've not set eyes on one before. From what I've read they can be very dangerous indeed, but because of all the water that's fallen on the Ord – and found its way inside – it should be some time before they become fully active. All the more reason to press on just as fast as we can! Where's Seilenos? He knows all about such things . . .'
'He's dead,' I explained, shaking my head sadly. 'Despite Mam's warning, he ate the food and drank the wine at the table, and he was killed by one of the daemons.'
'Greed killed the poor man,' said the Spook gravely. 'The County way is the best when facing the dark. It's a pity. We badly needed his expertise here.'
The passage continued to rise even more steeply, and once again we encountered a stone wall barring our way with an opening to the left. Inside the next chamber the lantern revealed more stone slabs with daemons lying upon them. All had been slain in the same way as the others and there was a lot of blood, but as we advanced between the slabs, Alice gave a gasp of horror.
This time, the witches hadn't found things so easy. One of their own number was dead. There wasn't much left of her either. All that remained was her legs below the knees and her pointy shoes. Above them her body had been reduced to black ashes, which were still smoking. The air was tainted with the stench of burned flesh.
'What did that?' I asked. 'That glowing orb we saw before?'
'That or something like it, lad. Some sort of fire elemental for sure. Let's hope it's moved on elsewhere. The Ord is coming to life faster than we hoped,' said the Spook, and then his eyes widened in alarm.
A ball of fire had appeared in the air five paces ahead of us. It was much more threatening than the translucent orb we'd seen earlier. This was slightly larger than a human head and was opaque, throwing out flames, pulsing rhythmically, alternately expanding and contracting. It started to glide towards us, growing rapidly as it did so.
The Spook struck at it with his staff and it retreated a little way before approaching again. Once more he thrust at it, missing it by less than an inch, and it shot forward over our heads at tremendous speed and broke against the far wall in a shower of orange sparks.
Striding quickly forward, the Spook led the way out of the chamber. I glanced back and saw that the fiery orb had re-formed at the base of the wall and was starting to float towards us again. Beyond the doorway, stone steps led steeply upwards and we climbed as fast as we could. I glanced back again anxiously, but the elemental didn't seem to be following us. I wondered if it was confined to the chamber in some way. Maybe its duty was to guard it?
The steps curved up in a spiral. Were we already inside one of the three spires? I wondered. There was no way of telling because there were no windows. I was becoming increasingly nervous. Even if we did succeed in destroying the Ordeen herself, this route was full of elementals . . . and who knew what other creatures? We'd have to come down these steps again, and by then anything that lurked in the shadows would probably be fully awake and dangerous. How could we make our escape?
Moments later we encountered another threat. A dead Mouldheel lay before us on the stairs, identifiable from her bare feet and ragged dress. Where her head and shoulders had been, a glowing orange fire elemental shaped like a starfish writhed and crepitated, moving slowly downwards to consume the remainder of her body. It was one of the asteri the Spook had warned me about.
'Looks like it dropped onto her head as she passed beneath it,' he observed. 'Not an easy way to die . . .'
Pressing our bodies back against the stone walls, we went on, giving the dead witch and her terrifying slayer as wide a berth as possible. But then the Spook pointed ahead. There were four or five similar elementals clinging to the high ceiling, pulsing with fire.
'Not sure whether it's best to move slowly or run for it,' he muttered. 'Let's try it slowly and keep close together. Ready with your staff, lad!'
The Spook took the lead, with Alice following him and Bill Arkwright bringing up the rear. We held our staffs at the ready. My mouth was dry with fear. We climbed slowly and steadily, passing beneath the first two star-shaped elementals. Perhaps these were still dormant or had been affected by the deluge? We could only hope . . .
Just when we thought we'd escaped the danger, we heard a hissing sound and a large elemental dropped straight towards the Spook's head. He whirled his staff, and with a shower of sparks the blade cut it into two pieces. They fell onto the steps behind us. I glanced back to see them crawling towards each other, attempting to re-form into one creature again.
We hurried on but kept checking the ceiling for danger. At last we reached a landing. Facing us were three cavernous doorways, and I realized that these must be the entrances to the three towers.
'So which way is it to be?' asked the Spook, staring at each flight of steps in turn.
'It's anybody's guess!' Arkwright replied with a shrug. 'This place is so big – we'll run out of time before we can search it all. It doesn't look good.'
'Alice could sniff out the danger,' I suggested.
The Spook frowned – clearly he considered that a use of the dark.