Spook's Destiny (27 page)

As I neared the summit of the hill, I sensed some unseen person watching me. However, the first eyes I saw weren’t human. I looked up. The trees above were full of crows. I noted their sharp beaks and glossy black feathers, the razor-sharp claws cutting into the branches. My heart began to beat faster. Was the Morrigan here? I wondered. The birds were still, but when I lowered my gaze, I saw something that made my mouth go dry with fear.

Directly ahead of me, a man was sitting on the ground with his back against a tree trunk. He seemed to be staring at me, but his eyes were dark hollows. I took a step towards him, then another. With a shock I realized that he was dead. His damp, mildewed clothes were green, which marked him out as one of Shey’s guards. It had to be the man who’d gone missing about a week earlier. He had been tied to the tree and his eyes had gone. The crows had feasted already.

At least this man was now dead and beyond further pain. And there was no sensation of cold to tell me that his spirit still lingered nearby. No, the cold only gripped me when I continued beyond him towards the next tree. Alice was sitting there in the same position, back against the trunk, wrists tied to it with twine, forced upwards at an angle of forty-five degrees. The bindings were very tight – I could see them cutting into her flesh. Additionally, her snow-white hair had been twisted into a knot and nailed to the tree, pulling her neck round at an awkward angle. She was moaning softly.

I rushed towards her and saw the blood congealed on the twine. She looked up at me then. Her eyes were still there, but they saw no more than the empty sockets of the dead man. She gazed right through me as if I didn’t exist. When I knelt down before her, she whimpered. Her whole body was trembling. I touched her brow gently. How could I untie her arms without hurting her?

‘Alice,’ I said softly. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ll try to help but this might hurt a little …’

Suddenly the sensation of cold down my spine intensified. Something from the dark was approaching.

‘Try feeling sorry for
yourself
, boy!’ someone shouted behind me. ‘Soon
you’ll
be hurting too!’

I whirled round, recognizing the voice, and came face to face with the witch, Scarabek; Konal was now strapped to her back, his strangely ancient features leering at me over her shoulder. Behind her stood half a dozen bearded mages armed with swords. I heard sounds to my left and right: more armed men were walking towards me out of the trees. I was completely surrounded.

‘Seize him!’ the witch commanded.

Mages rushed forward, and I struck out at the nearest with the branch, brandishing it frantically to make him keep his distance. But it was useless against men with swords. Two cuts and I found myself holding just a short wooden stump in my hand.

‘Drop it, or the next cut will sever your arm!’ the nearest mage warned.

I obeyed and tossed it away, and was immediately seized roughly, my arms twisted painfully behind my back. I was then dragged towards the tree opposite Alice and pushed down into a sitting position so that I was facing her. Scarabek loomed over me.

‘The goddess Morrigan is angry!’ she cried. ‘You have dared too much! You weakened her in the Hollow Hills, and she will not forget it. Since then you have bound the Fiend – a deed that has hurt all those who serve the dark. For that, she commands that you shall die a slow, painful death. Not for you the quick death of my loyal husband, Shaun. We shall tie you to this tree and let the Morrigan’s crows peck out your eyes. After that we will cut you away piece by piece, starting with your fingers. We will sever them knuckle by knuckle, a morsel for each hungry beak that waits above! We will strip the flesh from your bones until only your skeleton remains! Bind him to the tree!’ she ordered.

I fought with all my strength, but there were simply too many of them. They ripped the sleeves from my shirt, then held me against the trunk and pinned my arms back around it. Twine was bound very tightly about each wrist, and my arms were almost wrenched from their sockets as the two ends were pulled together and knotted behind the tree. It took all my willpower to stop myself from crying out. I didn’t want to give Scarabek the satisfaction of knowing that I was in pain.

I looked up and saw the witch standing before me. ‘My Shaun is dead because of you,’ she snarled. She was holding out her left wrist like a falconer. But it wasn’t a falcon that was perched there. It was a huge black greedy-eyed crow, its beak agape.

‘We’ll start with the left eye first,’ she said.

Then, from behind her, someone else spoke. It was Alice.

‘Poor Tom!’ she cried. ‘Poor Tom’s hurt!’

‘Aye, girl,’ said Scarabek, turning to sneer at her. ‘He’s hurt, all right, but this is only the beginning.’

The crow unfurled its wings and flew onto my left shoulder. I felt the sharp pressure of its claws as the cruel eyes stared into mine. I tried to turn my head away, but it hopped nearer and its beak jabbed at my left eye.

I SQUEEZED MY
eyes shut and leaned as far away as possible, twisting my head to make it difficult for the crow to reach its target. But I knew it was useless. Within moments I’d be blind.

Suddenly Scarabek shrieked, and I felt the crow relax its sharp grip on my shoulder. The pressure was gone. Had the ugly bird flown away? I wondered. I opened my eyes cautiously and, to my surprise, saw it lying on the ground at my side. It wasn’t moving. Its eyes were wide-open but looked like glass. What was wrong with it? Was it dead?

‘Tom’s hurt!’ cried Alice again. ‘Don’t hurt him any more!’

The witch was staring down at the dead crow, a look of incredulity on her face. Then she turned to Alice. ‘You!’ she cried. ‘
You
did that!’

‘Ain’t right that you hurt Tom,’ Alice retorted. ‘He don’t deserve that. Why don’t you try picking on me instead?’

Scarabek pulled a knife from her belt and took a step towards Alice. ‘I’ll do just that, girl!’ she said with a snarl. ‘I’ll attend to you myself!’

‘You can’t hurt me,’ Alice told her. ‘You ain’t strong enough.’

A couple of the mages laughed, but not that heartily. Bound to the tree and helpless, taunting a witch armed with a knife, Alice’s words seemed insane. Her pretty features were twisted into a sneer – the expression I’d seen on the face of her mother, Bony Lizzie, before she cast some dark, malevolent spell.

Then I felt it. It was as if someone had stabbed a shard of ice into my spine. That chill always warned me that something from the dark was close – I’d felt it as the witch and the mages had approached. But this had a strength and intensity beyond anything I’d experienced before.

And then, to my astonishment, Alice ripped her hands free of the twine that bound her to the tree, reached up to pull her hair clear of the nail and stood to face the witch. There was blood dripping from her lacerated wrists, but she didn’t seem to feel any pain. She was smiling, but it wasn’t a pretty smile. It was filled with malice. Scarabek hesitated and lowered her blade.

Then Alice turned back, bending her head down towards the tree trunk. What was she doing? When she turned to face the witch again, however, she was scowling.

Scarabek gave a sudden shriek of anger and ran straight at her, knife raised. I didn’t see what happened next because she was obscuring my view of Alice. But she suddenly threw up her hand and gave a cry of pain, then stumbled to her knees. Alice laughed hysterically as Scarabek twisted towards me and staggered to her feet again.

The witch seemed to have forgotten all about Alice. She was now approaching me very slowly, unsteadily. But she was still holding the blade and her intent was clear. I noticed the mages staring at her with looks of utter horror on their faces. She was going to cut me – no doubt keeping a thumb-bone for herself. I was terrified.

But then I glanced up at her face and immediately saw why she had screamed. A nail had impaled her green left eye, and blood was running down her cheek. Alice must have pulled the nail out of the trunk with her teeth and had spat it into the witch’s eye with great force and accuracy.

Scarabek staggered again, still lurching towards me. As she did so, Konal gave a blood-curdling squeal. Whether mortally wounded or not, the witch still had enough life in her to wield the blade. It seemed as though nothing could save me.

Then I heard a rumble from somewhere deep within the ground, and all at once the whole world began to move. Above my head the branches bounced and writhed as if the tree trunk was being twisted and shaken by a giant’s hand. The witch’s gaze left me and she glanced upwards fearfully. But the danger came from the other direction.

A huge crack suddenly opened in the earth. With a grinding, splintering roar, it gaped wider, moving towards Scarabek faster than a person could run. At the very last moment she tried to leap clear, but it was too late. The earth swallowed her up and closed with a deep reverberating thud, leaving only the fingers of her left hand visible.

With harsh cries, the flock of crows quickly took flight; then the ground beneath my feet began to buck and shake, and the surface became as liquid as an ocean, with waves rolling across the forest floor. They seemed to be radiating from where Alice was standing, and even above the noise I could hear her chanting a spell in the Old Tongue. Mages and their servants were now running in all directions.

The trees were leaning at crazy angles, their roots dislodged by the violent movement. Then, suddenly, everything became still and quiet again, as if the whole world was holding its breath, appalled at what had happened. Now there was only one thing moving; one new sound to fill the silence.

Alice was spinning, dancing across the grass with her arms extended, blood still dripping from her wrists. Her eyes were closed, and she was smiling and humming something under her breath. She spun faster and began to sing just loud enough for me to hear the words:

‘
A ring a ring of roses, a fist full of thorns
,

A ring a ring of roses, a head full of horns
.

I’ll give a laugh and then a frown

So they all fall down!’

She giggled and repeated the last line as if it pleased her: ‘
So they all fall down!
’

At that, Alice seemed to lose her balance, and fell down hard, giggling. Then she put back her head and laughed loudly, and it was a long time before she stopped. Finally she was quiet, and a solemn expression settled upon her face. She began to crawl towards me, coming so close that our faces were almost touching.

‘I can make ’em all fall down, Tom. Ain’t that true? Even Grimalkin, the strongest of ’em all – I could do it to her too. Don’t you believe me?’

She was staring intently into my eyes. I nodded in agreement, simply to humour her. My wrists were still burning and throbbing, and I felt as if I was going to be sick any moment, the bile rising in my throat.

Alice now moved her head up and brought her mouth close to my left hand. She gripped the twine binding my wrist with her teeth and bit through it. I gasped with pain. Then she did the same to my right wrist.

I lowered my arms, relieved to be free. No matter what dark powers Alice had used, at that moment I truly didn’t care. I had my life back when I thought I’d lost it.

Next Alice circled my left wrist with her fingers and thumbs. There was a sudden sharp pain, followed by a tingling sensation that radiated from her thumbs to my fingers and then up through my wrist and arm. And the throbbing pain began to lessen. She did the same to my right wrist, then leaned down and put her arm round my back, easing me to my feet.

‘Think you can walk, Tom?’ she asked.

I nodded.

‘Then it’s best we get away from here. The ones who got away won’t stay scared for ever. They’re mages and used to dealing with the dark.’

I stared at Alice. Apart from the colour of her hair, she seemed almost back to normal. ‘Are you better, Alice?’ I asked.

She bit her top lip and shook her head. Her eyes brimmed with tears. ‘Better? I’ll never be better now, Tom. But I want to be with you. I want that more than anything else in the world. It’s what’s just saved us both.’

I sighed and shook my head. ‘We need to talk about all this. Where did you get the power to do that?’

‘Not now, Tom. I need some time. We’ll have no peace when we get back – not after all that’s happened – but come to my room tomorrow night and I’ll tell you what I can. Is it right what you said yesterday? Did you really manage to bind the Fiend?’ she asked me.