Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) (32 page)

Vartek (pl. varteki): The vartek was the most powerful of the three types of entity that I grew from the material found within the lair of the haizda mage.

The fact that it can burrow through solid rock means that it could burst up out of the ground right in the midst of a human army, so that they scatter in terror. It has three bone-tipped tentacles, the ability to spit globules of acid that could burn flesh from bone, and fearsome teeth. It also has many legs and is capable of great speed. Although it is protected by black scales, its eyes and underbelly are vulnerable to blades. It is impossible to know what size a vartek would achieve once fully grown. It could be the most daunting of the battle-entities that the Kobalos may deploy against us.

Note: On the battlefield, the fully grown varteki were terrible to behold. Towering above the massed ranks of Kobalos warriors, tentacles writhing in the air, their breath formed clouds of steam above them. Fortunately, the Kobalos failed to deploy them correctly and our gunners slaughtered many of them from afar. Had they burrowed under our army, all would have been lost – Tom Ward

Whalakai:

Known as a vision of what is, this is an instant of perception that comes to either a High Mage or a haizda mage. It is an epiphany, or moment of revelation, when the totality of a situation, with all the complexities that have led to it, are known to him in a flash of insight. The Kobalos believe this is a vision given to the mage by Talkus, their God Who Is Yet to Be, its purpose being to facilitate the path to his birth.

Whoskor:

This is the collective name for the creatures subservient to the Kobalos who are engaged in the never-ending task of extending the city of Valkarky. They have sixteen legs, eight of which also function as arms, and are used to shape the skoya, the soft stone which they exude from their mouths.

Widdershins:

A movement which is anti-clockwise or against the sun. Seen as counter to the natural order of things, it is sometimes employed by a Kobalos mage to assert his will upon the cosmos. Filled with hubris, it holds within it great risk.

Zanti:

These were the first of the creatures that Grimalkin studied after creating them from the samples in the haizda mage’s tree lair back in Chipenden. Human in shape, they are extremely thin, with spindly scaled arms and legs. Their heads are covered in black scales rather than hair, and their eyes are positioned wide apart like those of a bird, which allows them to see ahead, to the side and behind them.

Zingi: These were the second of the creatures studied by Grimalkin. Covered in brown hair, each had six three-jointed, muscular legs. Their bodies were cylindrical and formed of three segments, each containing a heart and brain. From the first protruded what appeared to be a long, thin tusk and beneath this was a wide mouth. They did not have eyes or noses, and must have used other senses to locate their prey. They were also able to summon prey to their presence – Tom Ward

Joseph Delaney
lives in the heart of boggart territory – his very own village has one called the Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church. In fact, over the twelve years he has been creating the world of the County Spook, Joseph has encountered two boggarts, a ghast and a ghoul – all of which have provided ripe source material for his spine-chilling tales.

Many of the locations in the
Spook’s
books are based on real places in Lancashire, and the inspiration behind the stories often comes from local ghost stories and legends.

josephdelaneyauthor

josephdelaneybooks

BOOK ONE:
THE SPOOK’S APPRENTICE

BOOK TWO:
THE SPOOK’S CURSE

BOOK THREE:
THE SPOOK’S SECRET

BOOK FOUR:
THE SPOOK’S BATTLE

BOOK FIVE:
THE SPOOK’S MISTAKE

BOOK SIX:
THE SPOOK’S SACRIFICE

BOOK SEVEN:
THE SPOOK’S NIGHTMARE

BOOK EIGHT:
THE SPOOK’S DESTINY

BOOK NINE:
SPOOK’S: I AM GRIMALKIN