"The Spook's Curse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Joseph)

CHAPTER 10

Girl Spit Without a second’s hesitation I grabbed the staff and blew out the candle, plunging the cellar into darkness, and moved quickly in the direction of the door that led down into the catacombs.

There was a terrible commotion behind: shouts, screams and the sounds of a struggle. Glancing back, I saw another of the guards carrying a torch into the cellar, so I slipped behind the wine racks, keeping them between me and the light as I headed for the door in the far wall.

I felt terrible leaving the Spook and Alice behind. To have come this far and still be unable to rescue them left me feeling wretched. I only hoped that somehow in the confusion they’d managed to get out. They could both see well in the dark and if I could manage to find the door to the catacombs, so could they. I sensed some of the prisoners moving with me, away from the guards into the dark recesses of the cellar. A few seemed to be in front of me. Perhaps amongst them were my master and Alice but I couldn’t risk calling out and alerting the guards. As I picked my way through the wine racks, ahead of me I thought I saw the door to the catacombs open and close quickly but it was too dark to be sure.

A few moments later and I was through the door. The instant I closed it behind me I was plunged into a darkness so intense that, for a few seconds, I couldn’t see my hand before my face. I stood there at the top of the steps, waiting desperately for my eyes to adjust.

As soon as I could make out the steps, I went down carefully and moved along the tunnel as quickly as I could, aware that, eventually, someone would probably check the door: I hadn’t locked it behind me just in case Alice or the Spook were close behind.

I’m usually good at seeing in the dark but in those catacombs it seemed to be getting darker and darker so I came to a halt and tugged the tinderbox out of my jacket pocket. I knelt down and shook a small pile of tinder out onto the stones. Quickly I used the stone and metal to create a spark and a few seconds later I’d managed to light my candle.

With candlelight to guide me I made better progress but the air around me grew colder with every step, and not far ahead I could see sinister flickerings on the wall. Again, white luminous shapes were moving in and out of the shadows but there were now far more than last time. The dead were gathering. My previous walk along the tunnels had disturbed them.

I stopped. What was that? Somewhere in the distance I’d heard the howl of a dog. I came to a halt, my heart pounding. Was it a real dog or could it be the Bane? Andrew had mentioned a huge black dog with ferocious teeth. A huge dog that was really the Bane. I tried to tell myself it was a real dog I was hearing, one that had somehow found its way down into the catacombs. After all, if a cat could do it, why not a dog?

The howl came again, and it hung in the air for a long time, echoing and reverberating down the long tunnels. Was it ahead of me or behind? In this tunnel or another one? It was impossible to say. But with the Quisitor and his men behind me I had no choice but to keep moving towards the gate.

So I walked quickly, shivering with cold, skirting the pressed cat, till I reached the point where the forked tunnels merged. At last I rounded a corner and saw the Silver Gate. There I halted, my knees beginning to shake, my mind afraid to go on. For ahead, in the darkness beyond the candle flame, someone was waiting for me. A shadowy figure was sitting on the floor near the gate, its back against the wall, its head bowed forward. Could it be an escaped prisoner? Someone who’d got through the door before me?

I couldn’t go back, so I took a few steps towards the gate and held the candle higher. A bearded face turned to me.

‘What kept you?’ called out a voice I recognized. ‘I’ve been waiting here five minutes already!’

It was the Spook, alive and well! I rushed forward, filled with relief that he’d managed to escape. There was an ugly bruise over his left eye and his mouth was swollen. He’d clearly been beaten.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked anxiously.

‘Aye, lad. Give me a few more moments to get my breath back and I’ll be right as rain. Just get that gate open and we’ll soon be on our way.’

‘Was Alice with you?’ I asked. Were you in the same cell?’

‘No, lad. Best forget all about her. She’s no good. Nowt but trouble and there’s nothing we can do to help her now.’ His voice sounded cruel and hard. ‘She deserves what’s coming to her.’

‘Burning?’ I asked. ‘You’ve never held with burning a witch, let alone a young girl, and you told Andrew yourself that she’s innocent.’

I was shocked. He’d never trusted Alice but it hurt me to hear him talk that way, especially as he’d faced such a terrible fate himself. And what about Meg? He hadn’t always been so cold and heartless…

‘For goodness’ sake, lad, are you dreaming or awake?’ the Spook demanded, his voice full of annoyance and impatience. ‘Come on, snap out of it! Get the key and open that gate.’

When I hesitated, he held out his hand towards me. ‘Give me my staff, lad. I’ve been in that damp cell far too long and my old bones are aching tonight…’

I reached out to hand it to him, but as his fingers began to close around it, I suddenly backed away in horror.

It wasn’t just the sudden shock of his hot, foul-smelling breath searing up into my face. It was because he was holding out his right hand towards me! His right hand, not his left!

It wasn’t the Spook! This wasn’t my master!

As I watched, frozen to the spot, his hand dropped back to his side then, like a snake, began to writhe towards me over the cobbles. Before I could move, his arm slithered and stretched to twice its normal length and his hand closed upon my ankle, holding it in a tight, painful grip. My immediate reaction was to try and drag it away from his dreadful grasp, but I knew that wasn’t the way. I kept perfectly still.

I tried to concentrate. I gripped the staff and tried to curb my fear, remembered to breathe. I was terrified, but although my body wasn’t moving, my mind was. There was only one explanation and it made me shudder with terror: I was facing the Bane!

Forcing myself to focus, I studied the thing before me carefully, looking hard for anything that might help me in the slightest way. It looked just like the Spook and sounded like him too. It was impossible to tell the difference, but for the snaking hand.

After watching for a few seconds I felt a little better. It was a trick the Spook had taught me: when face to face with our greatest fears we should concentrate hard and leave our feelings behind.

‘Gets them every time, lad!’ he’d once told me. ‘The dark feeds on fear, and with a calm mind and an empty belly the battle’s half won before you even start.’

And it was working. My body had stopped shaking and I felt calmer, almost relaxed.

The Bane released my ankle and the hand slithered back to its side. The creature stood up and took a step towards me. As it did so I heard a curious noise: not the sound of boots I was expecting, more like the scratching of huge claws against the cobbles. The Bane’s movement disturbed the air too, so that the candle flame flickered, distorting the shadow of the Spook cast against the Silver Gate.

Quickly I knelt and placed the candle and the staff on the floor between us. An instant later I was on my feet, my hands in each of my breeches pockets, grabbing a fistful of salt and one of iron.

‘Wasting your time, you are,’ said the Bane, its voice suddenly nothing like the Spook’s at all. Harsh and deep, it reverberated through the very rocks of the catacombs, vibrating up through my boots and setting my teeth on edge. ‘Old tricks like that won’t get me. Been around too long, I have, to be hurt by that! Your master, Old Bones, tried it once but it did him no good. No good at all.’

I hesitated, but only for a moment. It might just be lying – anything was worth a try. But then, amongst the iron filings, my left hand closed upon something hard. It was the small key to the Silver Gate. I couldn’t risk losing that.

‘Ahhh… got what I need, you have,’ said the Bane with a sly smile.

Had it read my mind? Or perhaps just read the expression on my face, or maybe guessed? Either way, it knew too much.

‘Look,’ it said, a crafty look on its face, ‘if Old Bones couldn’t fix me then what chance have you? No chance at all! Down here they’ll come, and be searching for you soon. Can’t you hear the guards now? Burn, you will! Burn with the rest! There’s no way out from here but through this gate. No way at all, see. So use the key now before it’s too late!’

The Bane stood to one side so that its back was against the tunnel wall. I knew exactly what it wanted: to follow me through the gate, to be free, able to work its mischief anywhere in the County. I knew what the Spook would say; what he’d expect from me. It was my duty to make sure the Bane stayed trapped in the catacombs. That was more important than my own life.

‘Don’t be a fool!’ the Bane hissed, its voice again far louder and harsher than I’d ever heard the Spook’s. ‘Listen to me and free you’ll be! And rewarded as well. A big reward. The same as I offered Old Bones many years ago, but he wouldn’t listen. And where has it got him, see? Tell me that! Tomorrow he’ll be tried and found guilty. The day after that he’ll burn.’

‘No!’ I said. ‘I can’t do it.’

With that the Bane’s face filled with anger. It still resembled the Spook but the features I knew so well were distorted and twisted with evil. It took another step towards me, raising a fist. It might only have been a trick of the candlelight but the creature seemed to be growing. And I could feel an invisible weight starting to press down on my head and shoulders. As I was forced to my knees, I thought of the cat smeared into the cobbles and realized that the same fate was awaiting me. I tried to suck in a breath but I couldn’t and began to panic. I couldn’t breathe! This was it!

The light of the candle was lost in the sudden darkness that covered my eyes. I tried desperately to speak, to beg for mercy, but I knew there would be no mercy unless I unlocked the Silver Gate. What had I been thinking? What a fool I’d been to believe that with a few months’ training I could fend off a creature as evil and powerful as the Bane! I was dying -I felt sure of it. Alone in the catacombs. And the worst of it was that I’d failed miserably. I hadn’t managed to rescue my master or Alice.

Then I heard something in the distance: the sound of a shoe scuffing against the cobbles. They say that, as you die, the last sense to go is your hearing. And for a moment I thought that the scuffing of that shoe was the last experience I’d have of this life. But then the invisible weight crushing my body slowly eased. My vision cleared and suddenly I could breathe again. I watched the Bane turn its head and look back towards the bend in the tunnel. The Bane had heard it too!

The sound came again. This time there was no doubt. Footsteps! Someone was coming!

I looked back towards the Bane and saw that it was changing. I hadn’t imagined it before. It was growing. By now its head had almost reached the top of the tunnel, the body curving forward, the face shifting until it was no longer that of the Spook. The chin was elongating, jutting outwards and upwards to form the beginning of a hook, and the nose was curving downwards to meet it. Was it changing into its true form – that of the stone gargoyle above the main door of the cathedral? Had it gained its full strength?

I listened to the approaching footsteps. I would have blown the candle out, only that would have left me in the dark with the Bane. At least it sounded like there was only one person coming rather than a troop of the Quisitor’s men. I didn’t care who it was. They’d saved me for now.

I saw the feet first, as someone stepped round the corner and into the candlelight. Pointy shoes, then a slim girl in a black dress and the swing of her hips as she came round the corner.

It was Alice!

She halted, glanced towards me quickly, and her eyes widened. When she looked up at the Bane, her face was angry rather than afraid.

I looked back, and for a moment the Bane’s eyes met mine. As well as the anger blazing in them, I could see something else, but before I could work it out Alice ran towards the Bane, hissing like a cat. Then, to my astonishment, she spat up into its face.

What happened next was too quick to see. There was a sudden wind and the Bane was gone.

We stood motionless for what seemed like a long time. Then Alice turned to face me.

‘Didn’t like girl spit much, did it?’ she said with a faint smile. ‘Good job I came along when I did.’

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t believe that the Bane had fled so easily, but I was already on my knees, struggling to fit the key into the lock of the Silver Gate. My hands were shaking and it was just as difficult as it had looked when Andrew did it.

At last I managed to get the key into the right position and it turned. I pushed the gate open, seized the key and the staff and crawled through.

‘Bring the candle!’ I shouted back to Alice, and as soon as she was safely through, I slid the key into the other side of the lock and struggled to turn it. This time it seemed to take an age; at any moment I expected the Bane to come back.

‘Can’t you go any quicker?’ Alice asked.

‘It’s not as easy as it looks,’ I told her.

Eventually I managed to lock it and let out a sigh of relief. Then I remembered the Spook…

‘Was Mr Gregory in the cell with you?’ I asked.

Alice shook her head. ‘Not when you let us out. They took him away for questioning about an hour before you came.’

I’d been lucky in managing to avoid capture. Lucky in getting the prisoners out of the cell. But luck has a way of balancing itself out. I’d been just an hour too late. Alice was free but the Spook was still a prisoner, and unless I could do something about it, he was going to burn.

Wasting no more time, I led Alice along the tunnel until we came to the fast-flowing river.

I crossed quickly but when I turned back, Alice was still on the far bank, staring down at the water.

‘It’s deep, Tom,’ she cried. ‘It’s too deep and the stones are slippery!’

I crossed back to where she was standing. Then, gripping her hand, I led her back across the nine flat stones. We soon reached the open hatch that led up into the empty house and, once inside the cellar, I closed the hatch behind us. To my disappointment, Andrew had already gone. I needed to talk to him: to tell him that the Spook hadn’t been in the cell; warn him that Brother Peter was in danger and that the rumours really were true – the Bane’s strength was back!

‘We’d better stay down here for a while. The Quisitor will start searching the town once he realizes so many of you have escaped. This house is haunted – the last place anybody will want to look is down here in the cellar.’

Alice nodded, and for the first time since the spring I looked at her properly. She was as tall as me, which meant that she’d grown at least an inch too, but she was still dressed as I’d last seen her when I’d taken her to her aunt in Staumin. If it wasn’t the same black dress, it was its twin.

Her face was as pretty as ever but thinner, and older, as though it had seen things that had forced it to grow up quickly; things that nobody should have to see. Her black hair was matted and filthy and there were smears of dirt on her face. Alice looked like she hadn’t had a wash for at least a month.

It’s good to see you again,’ I said. ‘When I saw you in the Quisitor’s cart, I thought that would be it.’

She didn’t reply. Just grabbed my hand and squeezed it. ‘I’m half-starved, Tom. Ain’t got anything to eat, have you?’

I shook my head.

‘Not even a piece of that mouldy old cheese?’

‘Sorry,’ I said. I’ve none left.’

Alice turned away and seized one edge of the old carpet that was at the top of the heap.

‘Help me, Tom,’ she said. ‘Need to sit down and I don’t fancy the cold stones much.’

I put the candle and staff down and together we pulled the carpet onto the flags. The musty smell was stronger than ever and I watched the beetles and woodlice that we’d uncovered scurrying away across the cellar floor.

Unconcerned, Alice sat down on the carpet and drew her knees up so that she could rest her chin. ‘One day I’m going to get even,’ she said. ‘Nobody deserves to be treated like that.’

I sat down next to her and put my hand on hers. ‘What happened?’ I asked.

She was silent for a while, and just as I’d decided she wasn’t going to answer me, she suddenly spoke. ‘Once she got to know me, my old aunt was good to me. Worked me hard, she did, but always fed me well. I was just getting used to living there at Staumin when the Quisitor came. Took us by surprise and broke down the door. But my aunt weren’t no Bony Lizzie. She weren’t no witch.

They swam her down at the pond at midnight while a big crowd watched, all laughing and jeering. Real scared I was, expecting it was my turn next. Tied her feet to her hands and threw her in. Sank like a stone, she did. But it was dark and windy and a big gust came the moment she hit the water; blew a lot of the torches out. Took a long time to find her and drag her out.’

Alice buried her face into her hands and gave a sob. I waited quietly until she was able to go on. When she uncovered her face, her eyes were dry but her lips were trembling.

‘When they pulled her out she was dead. It ain’t fair, Tom. She didn’t float, she sank, so she must have been innocent but they’d killed her anyway! After that they left me alone and just put me up in the cart with the rest.’

‘My mam told me that swimming witches doesn’t work anyway,’ I said. ‘Only fools use it.’

‘No, Tom, the Quisitor’s no fool. There’s a reason for everything he does, you can be sure of that. He’s greedy. Greedy for money. He sold my old aunt’s cottage and kept the money. We watched him counting it. That’s what he does. Calls people witches, gets them out of the way and takes their houses, land and money. What’s more, he enjoys his work. There’s darkness in him. He says he’s doing it to rid the County of witches, but he’s more cruel than any witch I’ve ever known -and that’s saying something.

‘There was a girl called Maggie. Not much older than me, she was. Didn’t bother with swimming her. Used a different test and we all had to watch. Quisitor used a long sharp pin. He kept sticking it into her body over and over again. You should have heard her shriek. Poor girl almost went mad with the pain. She kept fainting and they had a bucket of water by the side of the table to bring her round. But at last they found what they were looking for. The Devil’s mark! Know what that is, Tom?’

I nodded. The Spook had told me that it was one of the things witchfinders used. But it was another lie, he’d said. There was no such thing as the Devil’s mark. Anyone with true knowledge of the dark knew that.

‘It’s cruel and it ain’t just,’ Alice continued. ‘After a bit the pain gets too much and your body goes numb, so eventually when the needle goes in you don’t feel it. Then they say that’s the spot where the Devil touched you, so you’re guilty and have to burn. Worst thing was the look on the Quisitor’s face. So pleased with himself, he was. I’ll get even all right. I’ll pay him back for that. Maggie don’t deserve to burn.’

‘The Spook doesn’t deserve to burn either!’ I said bitterly. ‘All his life he’s worked hard fighting the dark.’

‘He’s a man and he’ll get an easier death than some,’ said Alice. ‘The Quisitor gives women a much harder time. Makes sure they take a long time to burn. Says it’s harder to save a woman’s soul than a man’s. That they need a lot of pain to make them feel sorry for their sins.’

That brought to mind what the Spook had said about the Bane not being able to abide women. The fact that they made it nervous.

‘The creature you spat at was the Bane,’ I told her. ‘Have you heard of it? How did you manage to scare it away so easily?’

Alice shrugged. ‘Ain’t too difficult to tell when something ain’t comfortable having you around. Some men are like that – I always know when I’m not welcome. I get that feeling near Old Gregory and it was the same down there. And spit sends most things on their way. Spit three times at a toad and nothing with cold damp skin will bother you for a month or more. Lizzie used to swear by it. Don’t think it’ll work that way on the Bane though. Yes, I’ve heard about that creature. And if it’s now able to shape-shift then we’re all in for some serious bother. I took it by surprise, that’s all. It’ll be ready next time so I ain’t going down there again.’

For a while neither of us spoke. I just stared down at the musty old carpet, until suddenly I heard Alice’s breathing deepen. When I looked back her eyes were closed and she’d fallen asleep in the same position, her chin resting on her knees.

I didn’t really want to blow the candle out, but I didn’t know how long we’d have to stay down in the cellar and it was better to save some light until later.

Once it was out I tried to get to sleep myself but it was difficult. For one thing I was cold and kept shivering. For another, I couldn’t get the Spook out of my mind. We’d failed to rescue him, and the Quisitor would be really angry at what had happened. It wouldn’t be long before he started burning people.

Finally I must have drifted off because I was suddenly woken by the sound of Alice’s voice very close to my left ear.

‘Tom,’ she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper, ‘there’s something over there in the corner of the cellar with us. It’s staring at me and I don’t like it much.’

Alice was right. I could sense something in the corner and I felt cold. The hair on the back of my neck was beginning to rise. It was probably just Matty Barnes, the strangler, again.

‘Don’t worry, Alice,’ I told her. ‘It’s just a ghost. Try and forget about it. As long as you’re not afraid, it can’t harm you.’

‘I ain’t afraid. At least not now.’ She paused, then said, ‘But I was scared in that cell. Didn’t sleep a wink, what with all that shouting and screaming. I’ll soon be off to sleep again. It’s just that I want it to go away. It ain’t right, it staring like that.’

‘I don’t know what to do next,’ I said, thinking about the Spook again.

Alice didn’t reply but her breathing deepened once more. She was asleep. And I must have gone back to sleep myself because a noise woke me up suddenly.

It was the sound of heavy boots. Someone was in the kitchen above us.