“If I’m not mistaken, it’s terrified,” said the Spook. “Watch out! Here comes another one!”
The next one passed, yelping like the first, its tail between its legs. Quickly, two more came by. Then, close behind, a fifth hound. All taking no notice of us but running headlong down the muddy path toward the tarn.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
“No doubt we’ll find out soon enough,” said the Spook. “Let’s just keep going.”
Soon the rain stopped and we reached the tarn. It was big and, for the most part, calm. But near us the beck entered it in a fury of white water, hurtling down a steep slope to agitate the surface. We stood staring at the falling water, where twigs, leaves, and even the occasional log were being swept down into the tarn.
Suddenly something larger hit the water with a tremendous splash. It was thrust deep under the surface but reappeared about thirty or so paces farther on and began to drift toward the western shore of the tarn. It looked like a human body.
I rushed forward to the water’s edge. What if it was Alice? But before I could plunge in, the Spook put his hand on my shoulder and gripped it hard.
“It’s not Alice,” he said softly. “That body’s too big. Besides, I think she called the Bane. Why else would it have left so suddenly? With the Bane on her side, she’ll have won any argument going on back there. We’d best walk round to the far shore and take a closer look.”
We followed the curved shore until, after a few minutes, we were standing on the western bank under the branches of a large sycamore tree, inches deep in fallen leaves. The thing in the water was some distance away but getting closer. I hoped the Spook was right, that the body was too big to be Alice’s, but it was still too dark to be sure. And if it wasn’t her, whose body was it?
I began to feel afraid, but there was nothing I could do but wait as the sky grew lighter and the body drifted closer toward us.
Slowly the clouds broke up and soon the sky was light enough for us to identify the body beyond all doubt.
It was the Quisitor.
I looked at the floating body. It was on its back and only the face was clear of the water. The mouth was open and so were the eyes. There was terror on the pale dead face. It was as if there wasn’t a drop of blood left in his body.
“He’s swum a lot of innocents in his time,” said the Spook. “The poor, the old, and the lonely. Many who’d worked hard all their lives and just deserved a bit of peace and quiet in their old age, and a bit of respect, too. And now it’s his turn. He’s got exactly what he deserves.”
I knew that swimming a witch was just superstitious nonsense, but I couldn’t get out of my head the fact that he was floating. The innocent sank; the guilty floated. Innocents like Alice’s aunt, who’d died of shock.
“Alice did this, didn’t she?” I said.
The Spook nodded. “Aye, lad. Some would say she did. But it was the Bane, really. Twice she’s called him now. Its power over her will be growing, and what she sees, it can see also.”
“Shouldn’t we be on our way?” I asked nervously, looking back across the lake to where the tarn rushed headlong into it. Beside it was the path. “Won’t his men come down here?”
“They might eventually, lad. That’s if they’ve still got breath in their bodies. But I’ve a feeling that they won’t be in a fit state to do much for a while. No, I’m expecting somebody else, and if I’m not much mistaken, here she comes now. . . .”
I followed the Spook’s gaze toward the beck, where a small figure walked down the path and stood for a moment watching the falling water. Then Alice’s gaze turned toward us, and she began to walk along the bank in our direction.
“Remember,” the Spook warned, “the Bane sees through her eyes now. It’s building its strength and power, learning our weaknesses. Be very careful what you say or do.”
One part of me wanted to shout out and warn Alice to run away while she still could. There was no knowing what the Spook might do to her. Another part of me was suddenly desperately afraid of her. But what could I do? Deep down, I knew that the Spook was her only hope. Who else could free her from the Bane now?
Alice walked up to stand at the edge of the water, keeping me between her and the Spook. She was staring toward the body of the Quisitor. There was a mixture of terror and triumph on her face.
“You might as well take a good look, girl,” said the Spook. “Examine your handiwork close up. Was it worth it?”
Alice nodded. “He got what was coming to him,” she said firmly.
“Aye, but at what cost?” asked the Spook. “You belong more and more to the dark. Call the Bane once more and you’ll be lost forever.”
Alice didn’t reply and we stood there for a long time in silence, just staring at the water.
“Well, lad,” said the Spook, “we’d best be on our way. Someone else will have to deal with the body because we’ve got work to do. As for you, girl, you’ll come with us if you know what’s good for you. And now you’d better listen and you’d better listen carefully because what I’m proposing is your only hope. The only chance you’ll ever have to break free of that creature.”
Alice looked up, her eyes very wide.
“You do know the danger you’re in? You do want to be free?” he asked.
Alice nodded.
“Then come here!” he commanded sternly.
Alice walked obediently to his side.
“Wherever you are, the Bane won’t be far behind, so for now you’d better come with me and the lad. I’d rather know roughly where that creature is than have it roaming anywhere it likes through the County, terrorizing decent folks. So listen to me and listen good. For now it’s important that you see and hear nothing—that way the Bane will learn nothing from you. But you have to do it willingly, mind. If you cheat in the slightest way, it’ll go hard with all of us.”
He opened his bag and began to rummage about inside it. “This is a blindfold,” he said, holding up a strip of black cloth for Alice to see. “Will you wear it?” he asked.
Alice nodded, and the Spook held out the palm of his left hand toward her. “See these?” he said. “They’re plugs of wax for your ears.”
Each plug had a small silver stud embedded in it to make it easy to get the wax out afterward.
Alice looked at them doubtfully, but then she tilted her head obediently while the Spook gently inserted the first plug. After pushing in the second plug, he tied the blindfold firmly across her eyes.
We set off, heading northeast, the Spook guiding Alice by her elbow. I hoped we didn’t pass anybody on the road. What would they think? We’d certainly attract a lot of unwelcome attention.
CHAPTER XIX
The Stone Graves
IT was daylight, so there was no immediate threat from the Bane. Like most creatures of the dark, it would be hiding underground. And with Alice’s eyes covered and her ears plugged, it could no longer look out through her eyes or listen to what we said. It wouldn’t know where we were.
I had anticipated another day of hard walking and wondered if we’d get to Heysham before nightfall. But to my surprise, the Spook led us up a track to a large farm and we waited at the gate, the dogs barking fit to wake the dead, while an old farmer limped toward us, leaning on a stick. He had a worried expression on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I’m really sorry, but nothing’s changed. If I had it to give, it’d be yours.”
It seemed that five years earlier the Spook had rid this man’s farm of a troublesome boggart and still hadn’t been paid. My master wanted paying now, but not in money.
Within half an hour we were riding in a cart pulled by one of the biggest shire horses I’d ever seen; driving the cart was the farmer’s son. At first, before setting off, he’d stared at the blindfolded Alice, a puzzled look on his face.
“Stop gawping at the girl and concentrate on your own business!” the Spook had snapped, and the lad had quickly averted his eyes.
He seemed happy enough to take us, glad to be away from his chores for a few hours, and soon we were following the back lanes, passing east of Caster. The Spook made Alice lie down in the cart and covered her with straw so that she couldn’t be seen by other travelers.
No doubt the horse was used to pulling a heavy load and with just us three in the back was trotting ahead at a fair old lick. In the distance we could see the city of Caster with its castle. Many a witch had died there after a long trial, but they didn’t burn witches in Caster, they hanged them. So, to use one of my dad’s seagoing expressions, we gave it a wide berth, and soon we were beyond it and crossing a bridge over the River Lune, before changing our direction to head southwest toward Heysham.
The farmer’s lad was told to wait at the end of the lane on the outskirts of the village.
“We’ll be back at dawn,” said the Spook. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it well worth your while.”
We climbed a narrow track up a hill, with an old church and graveyard on our right. There, on that lee side of the hill, everything was still and quiet and tall ancient trees shrouded the gravestones. But on clambering over a gate onto the cliff top, we were met by a stiff breeze and the tang of the sea. Before us was the ruin of a small stone chapel with just three of its walls standing. We were quite high up, and I could see a bay below, with a sandy beach almost covered by the tide and the sea crashing against the rocks of a small headland in the distance.
“Mostly, shores to the west are flat,” said the Spook, “and this is as high as County cliffs ever get. They say this is where the first men landed in the County. They came from a land far to the west and their boat ran aground on the rocks below. Their descendants built that chapel.”
He pointed and there, just beyond the ruin, I saw the stone graves. “There’s nothing like them anywhere else in the County,” said the Spook.
Carved into a huge slab of stone, right on the edge of a steep hill, there was a row of six coffins, each in the shape of a human body and with a stone lid fitting into a groove. They were different sizes and shapes but generally small, as if hewn for children, but these were the graves of six of the Little People. Six of King Heys’s sons.
The Spook knelt down beside the nearest of the graves. Above the head of each was a square socket, and he traced the shape of this one with his finger. Then he extended the fingers of his left hand. The span of his hand just covered the socket.
“Now what could those have been used for?” he muttered to himself.
“How big were the Little People?” I asked. The graves were all different sizes, and now that I looked closely I saw that they weren’t quite as small as I’d first thought.
By way of answer the Spook opened his bag and pulled out a folded measuring rod. He opened it and measured the grave.
“This is about five foot five long,” he announced, “and about thirteen and a half inches wide in the middle. But some belongings would have been buried with the Little People for use in the next world. Few were above five feet tall, and a lot were much smaller. As the years went by, each generation got bigger because there were marriages between them and the invaders from the sea. So they didn’t really die out. Their blood still runs through our veins.”
The Spook turned to Alice and, to my surprise, untied her blindfold. Next he removed her earplugs, putting everything safely back in his bag. Alice blinked and looked about her. She didn’t look happy.
“Don’t like it here,” she complained. “Something ain’t right. It feels bad.”
“Does it, girl?” the Spook said. “Well, that’s the most interesting thing you’ve said all day. It’s odd, because I find this spot quite pleasant. There’s nothing like a bit of bracing sea air!”
It didn’t seem bracing to me. The breeze had died away and now tendrils of mist were snaking in from the sea and it was starting to grow colder. Within an hour it would be dark. I knew what Alice meant. It was a place to be avoided after sunset. I could sense something, and I didn’t think it was too friendly.
“There’s something lurking nearby,” I told the Spook.
“Let’s sit over there and give it time to get used to us,” said the Spook. “We wouldn’t want to frighten it off.”
“Is it Naze’s ghost?” I asked.
“I hope so, lad! I certainly hope so. But we’ll find out soon enough. Just be patient.”
We sat on a grassy bank some distance away, while the light slowly failed. I was getting more and more worried.
“What about when it gets dark?” I asked the Spook. “Won’t the Bane appear? Now you’ve taken Alice’s blindfold off, it’ll know where we are!”
“I think we’re safe enough here, lad,” said the Spook. “This is possibly the one place in the whole County where it has to keep its distance. Something was done here, and if I’m not mistaken, the Bane won’t come within a mile of the place. It might know where we are, but there’s not much it can do about it. Am I right, girl?”
Alice shivered and nodded. “Trying to speak to me, he is. But his voice is very faint and distant. He can’t even get inside my head.”
“That’s just what I hoped,” said the Spook. “It means our journey here hasn’t been wasted.”
“He wants me to get right away from here. Wants me to go to him . . .”
“And is that what you want?”
Alice shook her head and shivered.
“Glad to hear it, girl, because after the next time, as I told you, nobody will be able to help you. Where is it now?”
“He’s deep under the earth. In a dark, damp cavern. He’s found himself some bones, but he’s hungry and they aren’t enough.”
“Right! Now it’s time to get down to business,” said the Spook. “You two settle yourselves down in the shelter of those walls.” He pointed toward the ruin of the chapel. “Try to get some sleep while I keep watch here by the graves.”
We didn’t argue and settled ourselves down on the grass within the ruins of the chapel. Because of the missing wall, we could still see the Spook and the graves. I thought he might have sat down, but he remained standing, his left hand resting on his staff.
I was tired out and it wasn’t long before I fell asleep. But I awoke suddenly. Alice was shaking me by the shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Wasting his time there, he is,” Alice said, pointing to where the Spook was now crouched down by the graves. “There’s something nearby, but it’s back there, close to the hedge.”
“Are you sure?”
Alice nodded. “But you go and tell him. Won’t take it too kindly coming from me.”
I walked over to the Spook and called out, “Mr. Gregory!” He didn’t move, and I wondered if he’d gone to sleep crouching down. But slowly he stood up and turned his upper body toward me, keeping his feet in exactly the same position.
There were a few gaps in the cloud, but those patches of starlight weren’t enough to let me see the Spook’s face. It was just a dark shadow under his hood.
“Alice says there’s something back there close to the hedge,” I told him.
“Did she now,” muttered the Spook. “Then we’d better go and have a look.”
We walked back toward the hedge. As we got nearer, it seemed to get even colder so I knew Alice was right. There was some sort of spirit lurking nearby.
The Spook pointed down, then suddenly he was on his knees, pulling at the long grass. I knelt, too, and began to help him. We uncovered two more stone graves. One was about five foot long, but the other was only half that size. It was the smallest grave of all.
“Someone with the old blood running pure in his veins was buried here,” said the Spook. “With that would come strength. This is the one we’re looking for. This’ll be the ghost of Naze, all right! Walk back a little way, lad. Keep your distance.”
“Can’t I stay and listen?” I asked.
The Spook shook his head.
“Don’t you trust me?” I asked.
“Do you trust yourself?” was his reply. “Ask yourself that! For a start, he’s more likely to put in an appearance with only one of us here. Anyway, it’s better that you don’t hear this. The Bane can read minds, remember? Are you strong enough to stop it from reading yours? We can’t let it know that we’re on to it; that we have a plan; that we know its weaknesses. When it’s in your dreams, rummaging through your brain for clues and plans, do you trust yourself not to give anything away?”
I wasn’t sure.
“You’re a brave lad, the bravest that was ever apprenticed to me. But that’s what you are, an apprentice, and we mustn’t let ourselves lose sight of that. So get back there with you!” he said, waving me away.
I did as I was told and trudged my way back to the ruined chapel. Alice was asleep so I sat down next to her for a few moments, but I couldn’t settle. I was restless because I really wanted to know what the ghost of Naze would have to say for itself. As for the Spook’s warning about the Bane rummaging through my mind while I was sleeping, it didn’t worry me that much. We were safe from the Bane here, and if the Spook found out what he needed to know, it would all be over for the Bane by tomorrow night.
So I left the ruins again and crept along the wall nearer to the Spook. It wasn’t the first time I’d disobeyed my master, but it was the first time so much had been at stake. I sat down with my back against the wall and waited. But not for long. Even at that distance I began to feel very cold and kept shivering. One of the dead was approaching, but was it the ghost of Naze?
A faint glimmer of light began to form above the smaller of the two graves. It wasn’t particularly human in shape, just a luminous column hardly up to the Spook’s knees. Immediately I heard him begin to question it. The air was very still, and even though the Spook was keeping his voice low, I could hear every word he said.
“Speak!” said the Spook. “Speak, I command you!”
“Leave me be! Let me rest!” came the reply.
Although Naze had died when he was young and in the prime of life, the voice of the ghost sounded like that of a very old man. It croaked and rasped and was filled with utter weariness. But that didn’t necessarily mean this wasn’t his ghost. The Spook had told me that ghosts didn’t speak as they had in life. They communicated directly to your mind and that was why you could understand one that had lived many ages ago, one that might have spoken a very different language.
The Last Apprentice: Complete Collection Page 36