Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) (28 page)

‘It’s good to see you, Meg. How long have you been back?’

‘Almost a month,’ the lamia rasped. ‘My, my, you’ve certainly grown, Tom. Where’s your master? Are the old fool’s bones too stiff to let him come down here?’

Tom shook his head. ‘I’m so sorry, Meg,’ he said, his voice gentle, a tone that puzzled me, ‘but I have some bad news for you. John Gregory is dead.’

To my astonishment, tears began to drip from the eyes of the lamia witch and splash onto the floor of the cellar. Why was she crying? Had she known John Gregory?

‘He died bravely, fighting our enemies. But now we have new enemies from far across the sea. That’s why we’ve come here. This is my apprentice, Jenny.’

The lamia witch didn’t even look at me. ‘Are these some of your enemies?’ she asked, scuttling backwards.

We followed her, and by the light of the candle, directly in front of the tunnel she must have dug to get to and from the cellar, I saw a terrible sight.

Three figures were dangling by their feet, each positioned with its head over a bucket. Two of the buckets were full of blood. The third was only half full: blood was still dripping from the corpse. All three were Kobalos warriors.

‘They taste better than sheep!’ rasped the lamia witch. ‘I would welcome more.’

Before we set off for the barrow, Tom explained what had happened in that isolated old house. He told me the story of how John Gregory had been in love with Meg, the lamia witch, and how they’d spent the winters here together; how they had eventually parted when she’d left for her homeland in Greece.

I suspect that he kept certain things from me but the most important thing, to my mind, had been revealed.

The Spook, John Gregory, had loved a witch; now history was repeating itself with Tom and Alice.

Surely no good could come of it.

LATER, AFTER I’D
escorted Jenny back to the kitchen, I went down to talk to Meg alone. She told me that her sister Marcia had died in Greece but seemed unwilling to spell out the circumstances so I didn’t press her.

Feeling lonely, she had returned to the County. She’d hoped to see John Gregory one last time; in order to meet him, she’d begun the slow process of transforming back to her domestic form. For a while she had survived on the occasional sheep, roaming widely to take her prey so as not to draw attention to herself.

Then she had noticed Kobalos activity around the barrow and had started to select her prey from the invaders. I told her of our intention to confront the Old God, Golgoth, and she offered her services as our ally.

I agreed readily, for I wondered whether Grimalkin would be in time to join us. I had hoped to find her already at the winter house. Who knew what opposition might face us in the barrow. We might have to manage without the witch assassin.

We needed all the help we could get.

Soon Alice returned with a brace of rabbits. While Jenny cooked our food, I told Alice about the encounter with Meg.

We set off about an hour before sunset. I wanted to walk beside Alice, but I’d things I needed to tell Jenny first.

‘When Alice and I go down into the barrow, I want you to keep watch outside.’

‘Keep watch?’ Jenny asked me with a scowl. ‘And if I do see a threat what on earth am I supposed to do? How will I let you know about the danger? You just don’t want me to go down there with you! You don’t expect to come back – you think you’ll die down there. Isn’t that the truth? You’re trying to protect me!’

‘Of course I’m trying to protect you. You’re my apprentice and I’m trying to keep you safe. Look, if we don’t emerge from the barrow before dawn, head back to Chipenden.’

‘And what would I do there alone?’ Jenny said, her eyes blazing with anger.

‘You could carry on your training with Judd. I’ll write you a letter to give to him. I know you don’t like him, but he’s a good spook and he’d train you properly.’

‘I want you to ask yourself something . . .’ Jenny looked straight into my eyes. ‘When you were with John Gregory, did he always keep you safe, or did he expect you to share the danger?’

I sighed. There was no point in lying. ‘Mostly he expected me to share the danger,’ I admitted. ‘It’s part of the training.’

‘Then I’ll share the danger too!’ she said defiantly. ‘Now, why don’t you go and walk with Alice? I know you’re dying to.’

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t fault her logic, but I didn’t like being spoken to like that by my apprentice. Angrily I went and joined Alice. We were at the far end of the clough now, at its deepest point, and I took the lead as we climbed the slippery stone steps that led up onto the moor.

We hurried towards the Round Loaf. The sun had set and soon darkness would come. The air was cold. Tonight there’d be a hard frost.

After a while Jenny came up alongside us. I thought maybe she’d come to apologize, but something else was on her mind. ‘There’s something following us,’ she warned. ‘I just caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye.’

I glanced back, hoping that it was Grimalkin, but spied Meg scuttling up the slope. ‘It’s the lamia witch. Meg’s going to help us,’ I explained.

‘Another witch!’ cried Jenny in a tone of exasperation.

Alice gave her a glare and hissed angrily. I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled to calm her down.

After a few minutes Jenny fell behind again. ‘Try not to get angry,’ I told Alice. ‘It’s only natural that she should find it strange that I should be in alliance with witches. After all, my own master, John Gregory, felt the same way about you.’

‘I understand that she feels that way,’ Alice replied, ‘but there ain’t no need to say things like that aloud. It’s bad manners. Have a word with her, Tom, when you get the chance.’

I nodded and promised to do so.

About a mile from the barrow we stopped and rested, having decided to approach once it was completely dark. It would be two hours before the new moon rose. At some time between then and midnight, the mages would appear within the barrow and open the portal for Golgoth. We needed to be in position to surprise and slay them. Then Alice would try to close the portal.

One moment there were four of us: Alice and me, Jenny and Meg; the next a fifth had joined our party, stepping out of the gloom like a wraith. It was Grimalkin.

I came to my feet to greet her. In many ways it was the Grimalkin of old. Her skirt was split and tied to her thighs to aid movement; leather straps crisscrossed her body, the sheaths holding blades – some short throwing knives, others longer, designed for combat at close quarters.

But there was something new too. It wasn’t just her gaunt face; it was the look in her eyes. She seemed utterly weary, as if she had glimpsed things that had changed her.

‘What’s wrong?’ Alice asked.

Grimalkin opened her mouth to speak, revealing those dangerous sharpened teeth. She hesitated, as if gathering her thoughts, then uttered words that were a torrent of bad news.

‘The end is approaching even faster than I feared,’ she told us. ‘The war will be lost within weeks unless we can deal with Golgoth here and now. There was one further battle after the two defeats I told you of. The formidable Germanic tribes were my greatest hope of halting the dark army of the Kobalos. They had formed alliances, uniting their strength. The mighty Kobalos still outnumbered them, but the tribes were fighting within their own vast forest; they were confident of victory. But the battle was over before it began. The Kobalos mages opened their portal to the dark and summoned Golgoth straight onto the battlefield.

‘He sent a searing blast of intense cold directly into the forest, where the Germanic tribes were gathered for battle. Whatever lay in its path – flesh, wood or bone – was instantly turned into shards of ice. I only survived because I was stationed to one side with the remnants of the Polyznian army. Thousands died, and the Kobalos cavalry galloped through, cutting our force in half and encircling the survivors.

‘For now Talkus, the new god of the Kobalos, is remaining in the background. But he is directing Golgoth against us. I see the Butcher God to be the primary threat both at the battlefront and here in the County.

‘I was lucky to escape. I came here as promised to join my strength with yours. There is one final line of defence before the Kobalos reach the northern sea that separates our land from the continent. It might hold, but not if Golgoth intervenes again. We
must
close that portal.’

‘That’s what we came here for,’ Alice said. ‘Once we’re down in the barrow, I’ll use a cloaking spell to hide us. It should work against Kobalos mages as long as we all keep perfectly still when they arrive. The moment they open the portal for Golgoth, I’ll raise my right hand. That’s the signal to attack and kill them. Not one must be allowed to escape. Once they’re dead, I’ll try to close the portal and seal it permanently.’

Cautiously, under cover of darkness, we approached the barrow from the east. Soon the distinctive oval mound was just visible against the sky. There were no Kobalos guards to be seen, but this was the time of greatest risk.

I hoped we’d be in position before the new moon rose – which gave us almost an hour to get into the barrow. The secret entrance was a flat stone. Last time we’d been here, John Gregory had covered it with loose earth and stones. Now grass had grown over it. I knew its approximate position, and by jabbing into the grass with the blade of my staff I was soon able to locate it.

It was clear that the Kobalos hadn’t been using this to get into the Round Loaf. As Grimalkin had warned us, they’d been leaping right to its very heart, using the space between worlds. The Kobalos warriors slain by Meg must have been brought directly to the moor outside it.

Soon I had lifted the stone onto its edge, and with Alice’s help I dragged it clear and peered down into the darkness. I looked up and saw the lamia witch staring at me.

‘Could you take the lead, Meg?’ I asked. ‘There may be blockages.’

When I’d last been here, the arrival of Golgoth had caused the tunnel to collapse, and although it had been cleared by Meg’s sister, Marcia, there might have been further falls since.

Without a word Meg scuttled ahead of us down the steps.

‘I’ll go first,’ I told the others. ‘You keep close behind me, Jenny. Alice will be behind you and Grimalkin at the rear to guard against attack from behind. Don’t light your lanterns until we are well below the surface. The barrow might be under observation and we can’t afford to show any light.’

I walked carefully down the stone steps. Only when my shoulders were well below ground did I light my lantern. Now I could see the slope of the steps and a tunnel of earth waiting at the bottom. Soon the light increased as Jenny and Alice lit their lanterns behind me.

Now I was on level ground, easing myself along the earthen tunnel, which was partly supported by wooden props. Some of the timbers had collapsed, and before long they disappeared completely. There was now little to hold up the weight of earth above us; we were in real danger. Ahead I could hear Meg digging, clearing sections of blocked tunnel.

Finally I reached the large oval chamber beneath the barrow. Little had changed. The walls and ceilings were clad in stone, and the floor was an elaborate mosaic depicting fantastical figures, from gigantic serpents to fabled creatures, half human, half beast, which my master had said did not exist.

Right at the centre, the largest area of the mosaic was a pentacle, a five-pointed black star surrounded by three concentric circles. This was where Morgan had summoned Golgoth. He had appeared alongside him, right at the heart of the defensive pentacle, and had frozen him solid. His body had shattered into pieces.

The thawed flesh had long since disintegrated or had been devoured by rats or insects, but I could smell the faint stink of death amidst the loam. His bones were still there – a mound of white and yellow fragments that filled the inside of the pentacle.

If things went badly, that would be our fate too.

WE MADE OURSELVES
as comfortable as possible and Alice performed the cloaking spell. After that, time seemed to pass very slowly. There was nothing to be said. The chamber beneath the barrow was silent, but we were vigilant, all listening carefully for any sounds of approaching enemies, awaiting the arrival of the Kobalos mages.