Dark Spell (15 page)

“That was long ago. My spirits lie quiet with me now. We sleep the long sleep of death at last. Why should I disturb their peace for you? You and your ghost are nothing to me. I am sworn to protect those who already lie beneath the earth with me. That is all.” His tattered flesh, his rags of clothing blew away from him so that all that was left was his brown skeleton, bare, uncompromising.

“Leave me in peace. I will not help you.”

The Longman began to drift back into his grave.

“No!” yelled Rose and Bessie, but he paid them no heed as he faded away, and left them alone in the night.

“We’ve failed,” whispered Rose.

Josh’s head was full of mutterings. He tried to ignore them as they climbed back down the stone stair and moved towards the front door.

“Are you all right, Josh?” Callie asked anxiously.

He nodded, afraid to open his mouth in case someone else’s voice emerged.

For a couple of metres around the front door, the house was still her house. The hooks where all the keys hung were still there, including – thank goodness – the car keys.

Callie snatched them down and shoved Josh out of the front door. She closed it firmly behind her, placed her hand on the door and spoke to it.

“You will not open again unless I tell you to.”

Run
, said a voice in Josh’s head.
I can keep you safe from the witch.
With an effort, he ignored it, moving to the car like a sleepwalker.

“Get in,” said Callie tensely.

Josh opened one of the back doors.

“Get in the front,” she said as she opened the driver’s door.

He had to speak then.

“I don’t think I should, Callie. He’s talking to me, trying to persuade me to do things. What if he made me grab the wheel?”

Callie gave him a long look, then nodded, and they both got into the car. Josh belted himself in, hoping that Duncan wouldn’t know how to unfasten the catch. He saw Callie watching him in the rear-view mirror and tried to smile.

“It won’t be long, Josh. He’ll be gone soon.”

He hoped she was right. If he let his mind wander for a second he could feel Duncan Corphat simmering just under the surface. He tried not to listen to the words as Callie turned the car, a bit jerkily, and set off tentatively towards the coast.

“Wait!” yelled Rose. “We summoned you. You can’t leave like that.”

“I am not yours to command, witch-woman,” said the voice of bones from the grave.

“We’re not trying to
command
you,” said Bessie, thinking fast. “We ask this as a favour of you, Great Lord.”

The grave gave a laugh like the scraping together of stones.

“Flattery will not move me either, witch-woman. Get you gone from here and leave me to my long sleep.”

There was silence.

“Go faster,” said Josh.

“No.”

“Go faster.”

Callie glanced in the mirror. Blue eyes stared angrily back at her. Not Josh’s eyes, but Duncan’s. She didn’t dare turn round, concentrating on the road instead.

Surely the spell was strong enough to hold him? She looked at those eyes in the mirror again and found herself unsure.

Go faster
, he said into her mind.
End it. Drive into a tree, into a wall. You would have peace. I would have peace. Let me go.

“No!” yelled Callie. “I’m not listening.”

She began to speed up.

Lean over, boy
, said Duncan into Josh’s mind.
Do it for her. Your witch friend is too weak. She does not dare. End this for all of us. She has joined us together to make a monster. She cannot undo this. She lacks the power. This is the only way we can be free. Take the wheel. End it.

Josh unfastened his seatbelt.

“What do we do now?” Bessie asked, looking at the bones in the grave.

“What we told Callie. We’ll just have to let him loose out here. Take your last look at Dane’s Dyke, Bessie,” Rose said in a defeated voice. “We’ll not be visiting again for a long time.”

She looked, in vain, for any sign of car headlights.

“They’re taking too long. Something’s happened.”

“What are you doing? Josh, answer me!” Callie yelled.

“What you cannot,” said Duncan Corphat’s voice.

Callie looked round wildly and saw Josh reaching for the handle of the door. She slammed her hand down on the central-locking button.

“Fight him, Josh. Put the seatbelt back on.” She didn’t dare turn round again on this bit of road. In the rear-view mirror, Josh’s brown eyes looked back at her, and she felt a surge of relief. “That’s it, Josh. You’re winning,” she said encouragingly. “Put the seatbelt back on.” She slowed down for a tight curve. “We’re nearly there.”

She had to concentrate now so she wouldn’t miss the narrow turn-off. There it was. A few more minutes and she’d be able to hand all this over to Rose and Bessie.

The car bumped along the rough ground of the track that led to Dane’s Dyke.

“It’s just ahead, Josh. Josh?”

With a snarl, Josh threw himself forward and grabbed the wheel.

“There they are,” said Rose with relief. She and Bessie watched the beam of the headlights move jerkily towards them along the track for a few seconds, then suddenly swing wildly off to the right.

“Oh no,” Rose whispered. “Please, no.”

The car had come to rest with one of the back wheels in the ditch, bonnet pointing up at the dark sky.

As Rose and Bessie puffed their way towards it, the driver’s door opened a bit.

“Callie!” yelled Rose.

“I’m okay,” came the muffled response. The door opened a little more, and Callie pulled herself out.

Rose threw her arms round her granddaughter.

“Duncan – Josh – grabbed the wheel,” Callie said.

Bessie peered into the back of the car. Josh was sprawled on the floor, eyes open, looking dazed.

“Is he hurt?” asked Bessie.

Callie pulled herself away from Rose and hauled open the back door.

“Josh?” she said. He looked at her and rubbed his jaw. “I hit him,” said Callie to no one in particular. “Well, punched him, really. Duncan made him grab the wheel. I had to stop him.”

“That was quite a punch,” said Josh groggily, and started to pull himself out of the car. The others took a step backwards.

“It’s me,” he said reassuringly. “For now, anyway. He’s gone quiet.”

“You did it, you clever girl,” said Bessie. “Well done. We knew you had it in you.”

“Admit it, though – you had your doubts.”

“Yes, we did,” admitted Rose.

“We shouldn’t be standing around here talking,” said Callie, anxious to finish things as quickly as possible. “Did you raise him?”

“Yes,” said Rose. “But he refused to help.”

“Why?” asked Callie, aghast. She’d assumed that Rose and Bessie could do anything if they put their minds to it.

“He wasn’t exactly communicative,” said Bessie.

“Well, let’s try again now. Surely if we show him Duncan he’ll realise how important it is that he takes him?”

“He was pretty clear.”

“No. We have to try again.”

“You’re right, Callie. You’ve done what you had to,” said Rose. “We can’t give up now. Come on.”

Callie turned off the headlights and they made their way back towards the dyke.

“Josh – is it still you? Keep talking to me.”

“It’s me, but I know he’s still in here. I can feel him watching, if that doesn’t sound too crazy.”

“Tell me if anything changes.”

“Okay.”

They tramped along the dyke to the grave. It still lay open, abandoned in haste when Rose and Bessie had seen the car go off the road, the Longman’s skull grinning atop its pile of bones.

“Call him out again,” said Callie.

Rose and Bessie looked at each other and released the waking spell again. The spell sank into the Longman’s bones and the cold voice spoke once more as the silvery snake shape slipped out from his skull.

“You dare wake me again? You were warned to leave me in peace, witch-women.”

Rose opened her mouth to speak, but to her surprise Callie moved in front of her as the Longman stepped
from his grave again, rags and tatters blowing in a wind that wasn’t there.

“I made them call you back. You must take this spirit into your keeping.”

“
Must
? You try to command me, witch-child? Perhaps I shall take you down into the grave instead.”

“No you won’t,” said Callie steadily, as the others watched, astonished. “I
do
command you, by the power I bear. But more than that: if you refuse to do this then I say you are a coward. You are afraid of the spirit that I have imprisoned. Your power is no match for it, and no match for mine.” She hardly recognised herself as she spoke, had no idea where this bravery had suddenly come from.

Wind howled out of the grave, tearing at Callie’s clothes and hair.

“I fear no spirit!” thundered the apparition. “I fear no
witch
.” He spat out the final word, raised a ghostly sword, and strode towards her. “You are mine,
witch-child
,” he growled.

“No,” she said calmly. “You are
mine
.”

She raised her hands and let power flood into her.

“I command you by the power in my flesh, by the power in my blood, by the power in my bones,” she shouted, and the air around her ignited. “I command you by the power of the earth and of the air and of the sea.”

Rose gasped and started forward, but Bessie grabbed her arm to stop her.

“You can’t help her, Rose. She’s too deep in the magic.”

Rose said nothing, staring in anguish at her
granddaughter
.

A vortex of silver fire howled around Callie. She fought to keep her footing as the power funnelled into her and through her, streaming from her hands with a noise like a peal of thunder. It struck the Longman square in the chest, forcing him back towards his grave.

“Do as I say. Take Duncan Corphat down to the underworld and keep him there. Do as I say or I’ll blast your bones and your grave to dust and you will never know rest again.”

“Callie, he’s…” Josh’s voice was suddenly cut off, as Duncan Corphat, sensing the danger he was in, made one last bid to escape.

“Stop what you’re trying to do, girl.” Josh stepped in front of her. “I will be free, even if I have to kill your friend.”

In Josh’s hand was his Swiss Army knife, the open blade at his own throat. Duncan’s malevolent blue gaze was fixed on Callie’s face. Behind her, she heard Rose and Bessie gasp.

“Never mind your spells, you filthy witches. I can cut his throat before you can say them.”

The flow of power from Callie’s fingers slowly died away and for a moment there was perfect stillness. The Longman’s spectre hung suspended in midair. For a few seconds, Callie was frozen with fear for Josh then, somehow, she knew what she must do.

“Are you sure you want to be trapped in a corpse?” she asked Duncan coldly. “Kill him and I can’t break the spell that binds you to him.”

“Liar!” shrieked Duncan, but Callie saw doubt make his blue eyes waver for an instant to Josh’s brown ones.

“Put the knife down and I’ll undo the spell,” she said.

“Swear it!”

“I swear I will undo this spell as soon as you put the knife down.”

Duncan took the knife from Josh’s throat and lowered his arm, but he didn’t fold the blade away.

“Do it,” he rasped.

Callie stepped towards Josh and spoke the words to release the black armlet from his wrist. She slid it off and it blew away like smoke.

“There,” she said. “You’re free, just as you wanted.”

As Callie watched, Josh sank to his knees. Behind him stood Duncan Corphat in all his baleful, bloody power, blue flame crackling round him, a smile of ferocious joy on his ruined face. She turned to the Longman.

“Take him,” she commanded.

Duncan Corphat sprang snarling into the black air, but the Longman was on him before he had time to do anything. He swung his great shadow-sword straight through Duncan’s insubstantial body. For a second, nothing happened, then Duncan Corphat broke apart into a million tiny flakes of darkness that were sucked, shrieking, into the Longman’s sword.

The Longman regarded Callie from his empty eye sockets. “I have done your bidding. I have obeyed the Wild Magic. Do not presume to disturb my rest again,” he said.

He stepped into his grave, flesh and clothes and sword gone now, and his bones tumbled and settled
and sank into the earth. The stone slab lifted and tilted and crashed down to close the grave, and the Longman and Duncan Corphat were both gone.

It was a couple of minutes before anyone moved or spoke, then Callie turned round to face the others.

Rose and Bessie stared at her in frank amazement from where they stood. Josh was still on his knees. As Callie watched, he threw down the knife with a shudder. She walked to where he knelt, and dropped to the ground beside him. They threw their arms round each other.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t really understand about the power before. I never knew what he could do. I never knew what
I
could do. I understand now.”

He hugged her tighter for a few seconds, then pushed her away and held her at arm’s length.

I knew it,
she thought.
I’ve lost him. He hates me for letting that happen to him
. Then she realised he was smiling.

“That,” he said slowly, “was incredible.
You
were incredible. He’s gone. You made that… that… the Longman do what you wanted. Amazing.” He was staring at her as though he’d never seen her properly before.

With difficulty, she pulled her gaze away to Rose and Bessie. They were staring at her too. Suddenly she began to feel embarrassed, and was thankful that no one could tell in the pale witch light that her face was scarlet.

She slowly disengaged herself from Josh’s hands and got to her feet.

“What?” she said. “Stop staring at me as though I’ve got two heads. I just did what you taught me.”

“Nobody taught you to do that, child. Nobody could have,” said Bessie in wonder.

“No one has
ever
forced the Longman to do something against his will,” added Rose. “No one except you.” She shook her head as if she was dazed.

“See what happens when you surrender to the spell and let the power flow? That’s what we’ve been
trying
to teach you for months,” Bessie said, recovering herself.

Josh picked up his knife and closed it carefully, put it back in his pocket and got to his feet.

“We should go,” said Rose.

“What about our car?” said Callie, remembering suddenly.