Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) (23 page)

‘In truth, I
would
like to drink a little of your blood, child – I can smell its exquisite odour. But I am a haizda mage, and despite the temptation I am capable of disciplining myself. As for slaves, I have had a few – the minimum needed to comply with our laws. But I wish for no more slaves. The law will change and I will help to bring it about. I repeat – there is no need to be afraid,’ the creature rasped. ‘I only wish to speak to your master, the Spook called Ward – that is all. I have something to tell him that will be to his advantage. I have been following you for some time. I know that you are his apprentice. What is
your
name?’

‘Jenny,’ I replied, taking another sip from the cup.

‘My name is Slither,’ he told me. ‘Well, little Jenny, are you hungry? There is meat simmering in the pot. It is juicy and tender.’

The name Slither seemed familiar to me. Where had I heard it before?

‘Is it wolf meat?’ I asked, staring at the head.

‘Yes – a tender, delicious female. There is nothing wrong with eating wolf. They eat humans and Kobalos if they get the chance. Sometimes we are meat for the wolf. Now it is our turn. Why don’t you try some?’

He approached the bubbling pot and began to spoon stew into a bowl. Then he came round the fire and set it down on the snow-covered ground. Once he’d returned to his previous position, I came forward, picked up the bowl and tasted the stew. Wolf meat was delicious.

I began to spoon it into my mouth but paused nervously as Slither came to his feet – though he simply walked across to the wolf’s head, picked up one of the raw strips of meat and began to gnaw at it. More beast than human, he clearly liked his meat red and raw. But while he was eating, he was occupied, so I carried on eating too.

As I watched him, I remembered that Grimalkin had mentioned Slither. She had once encountered a haizda mage by that name. He had been her ally. Could this be the same one?

Once my belly was full, the warmth of the fire began to make me feel drowsy. I fought to keep my eyes open. I didn’t like the idea of being asleep and vulnerable in the presence of the haizda mage. I kept nodding off and jerking awake, but before long I drifted off to sleep.

The next thing I remember I was standing up. Someone was breathing gently into my face. The breath was warm and spicy and pleasant, and my knees suddenly became very weak. I would have fallen, but an arm went around my waist, supporting me.

I struggled to open my eyes, but the lashes seemed to be stuck together. When at last I prised them apart, I realized to my horror that I was staring up into the eyes of the mage.

‘There will be no pain,’ he rasped. ‘I will just sip a little of your blood and then you may sleep. And you will remember nothing of this in the morning. Then I will reunite you with your companions.’

I felt weak and helpless, unable to resist. He gently tilted my head back and I saw his teeth bearing down on my throat. It was then that I remembered something that Tom had once told me about haizda mages.

They took only a little blood and let their victims live. A haizda mage was a farmer; the humans who lived close by were his cattle and he took care of them. They were a valuable resource – he wanted to take blood from them again in the future. But sometimes a haizda mage’s desperate need for blood overcame his restraint.

Sometimes he drained the victim until the heart faltered and stopped. Remembering that, I was suddenly terribly afraid.

ALL AT ONCE
I was sent flying backwards. It wasn’t so much a physical contact as a displacement of the air; a powerful gust of wind. Now there was someone standing between me and the mage.

‘Keep your filthy hands off her!’ It was an angry female voice.

I knew who that voice belonged to. It was Alice.

She struck out at the mage with her left hand, her nails raking down his cheek. He staggered away with a gasp, blood trickling from the five deep scratches. Alice came over and put her arm round my shoulder protectively.

‘Take a deep breath, Jenny. This ain’t nothing to worry about. Stand behind me if he attacks,’ she said softly into my left ear.

And then, out of the darkness, Tom came striding towards the mage, the Starblade ready in his right hand.

‘Kill him, Tom!’ Alice commanded.

Suddenly I realized that the mage hadn’t drawn his sabre. Did that mean he didn’t want to fight? That he wasn’t our enemy? And he’d said he had something important to tell Tom.

‘No!’ I cried. ‘He said he has something to tell you – something to your advantage. His name is Slither! He’s the one Grimalkin told us about!’

Tom came to a halt and lowered his blade slightly. ‘You were an ally of Grimalkin,’ he said, taking another step towards the mage. ‘That would make you our ally. If so, why did you attempt to take Jenny’s blood?’

‘It is in my nature to do so,’ Slither rasped. ‘I only wanted to sip a little. She would not have been harmed. I intended to return her safely to you. But for me she would be dead now. I found her unconscious in the snow.’

‘That’s true enough,’ I said. ‘I fell off my horse and didn’t have the energy to rise. I fell asleep there.’

‘Let’s talk to him,’ Alice said. ‘Let’s find out what he has to say . . .’

We sat on opposite sides of the campfire, with me between Tom and Alice.

‘You are welcome to eat from the pot,’ Slither said. ‘It is good meat, freshly killed and cooked.’

‘It’s wolf meat,’ I said. ‘It’s tasty but I felt really sleepy again after eating it. Maybe he put something in it.’

‘You slept because you were weary, little Jenny. The meat is good. Eat or do not eat – it is up to you,’ Slither replied.

I noticed that the scratches on his face had dried to five thin crusts of blood. I wondered if Kobalos mages healed more easily than humans.

Tom stared at him across the flames before speaking. ‘Why are you here? What do you want to tell me?’ he asked.

‘You talked to Abuskai, the dead mage trapped in the tower. He told you there were groups amongst our people who are opposed to the present regime – is that not so? The Skapien are a secret group of Kobalos within Valkarky who are opposed to the slave trade in purrai. They are growing in number. My haizda magic allows me to talk to the dead mage and then liaise with such groups. You asked if he could contact those opposed to the Triumvirate, did you not?’

Tom nodded.

Slither licked his lips with his long tongue. ‘I am that contact. As they wish to kill all haizda mages, the Triumvirate are now my enemies. That makes us allies,’ he said, nodding towards each of us in turn. He was panting like a dog, though in truth he looked more like a wolf. When his gaze turned upon me, I flinched.

‘Lenklewth is dead. Will that make any difference?’ Tom asked. ‘Will the Triumvirate change when he’s replaced? Abuskai didn’t think it would.’

‘I agree with the dead mage, little human,’ Slither replied. ‘Each of its members is selected from the hierarchical pool of High Mages; most dream the same dreams of conquest and expansion. Abuskai is the only one I know who thinks differently. I have been communicating with him for some time. As I said, he is the link between me and other dissident groups.’

‘Would you fight against your own people?’ Tom asked.

‘I have already done so. Amongst those I have slain are Shaiksa assassins. They never forget. Even now they hunt me down. You too are marked for death because of the Shaiksa you killed. Grimalkin is also their target. They seek to kill the little witch too,’ he said, pointing at Alice. ‘But we haizdas do not behave in the same way. We put such things behind us. I know you killed one of our order back in your homeland, but I do not seek vengeance for that. What is done is done.’

Tom shrugged. ‘He was about to kill Jenny and would have killed me. I did what was necessary.’

‘You were in your rights to slay him – you acted within our laws.’ The mage stared at Tom, his eyes flickering with intelligence. ‘But he had no right to slay purrai so wantonly. He had killed three before you encountered him. A good haizda mage husbands his human herd carefully; if any die, it is usually by accident. The one you slew was young; he was only in the third year of his noviciate and may be excused.’

‘Then why did he come to the County alone, with his training incomplete?’ Alice asked, speaking for the first time.

‘He was escaping from our homeland,’ Slither answered. ‘We haizdas are being hunted down and exterminated by the agents of the Triumvirate. They do not like our independence. We operate far from Valkarky and they cannot control us. What they cannot control they wish to kill.’

‘You said you’d something to tell Tom,’ Alice said. ‘You’re our contact and ally, but there’s something else, ain’t there?’

Slither licked his lips. ‘The Kobalos armies have already crossed the Shanna River; as we speak, the humans are falling back in disarray. The steady advance into human territory will continue for months, right through the winter. But the Triumvirate will strike ahead of the battle front swiftly and without warning, using the space between worlds. Nowhere is safe from them. And you are their first target!’ Slither said, pointing at Tom. ‘You have slain a Shaiksa assassin and led a human army into their lands. You have also slain a member of the Triumvirate. They see you as a threat that must be eliminated, and will invade your homeland in order to finish off you and your people.’

Nobody spoke for a while. Alice simply reached across me to grip Tom’s hand.

Then Tom said something that made my heart sink.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t go back to the County,’ he said. ‘That way they’ll just come after me and nobody else will get hurt.’

‘It is impossible to hide from the Triumvirate. They will find you wherever you go. But that will not save the County: it is the home of Grimalkin, whom they also wish to destroy, and of you,’ he said nodding towards Alice. ‘They know of the power of the Pendle witches and will attack them too. They seek to conquer and rule the whole world, but the County is now their first target.’

‘Do you know when and how they will strike? Will they use warriors or mages?’ Tom asked.

‘I will try to find out,’ Slither replied. ‘If I manage to do so, I will warn Grimalkin, and she in turn will contact you through the little witch.’

Tom had told me that witches used mirrors to contact each other across long distances. This was how Grimalkin would inform Alice when the Kobalos planned to strike. I didn’t like it at all: we had witches for allies, and now this beast also seemed to be on our side. I’d known that being a spook’s apprentice would have its dangers, but I hadn’t foreseen anything like this!

‘I’ll ask you again, little humans – do you want some stew? Otherwise it will just go to waste.’

‘Yes,’ said Tom. ‘I’d like some stew, please.’

The mage turned his back on us and rummaged in a bag, giving me my first clear view of his long tail, which was covered with short hair and curved up almost to his shoulders. It emerged from a slit in the back of his long black coat. He held out two bowls to Tom and Alice.

I returned to my dark thoughts: I had assumed that we were returning to relative safety in the County. I had almost convinced myself that Grimalkin’s fears were unjustified; that the Kobalos would not defeat the human armies. I had hoped that I would now be safe and could continue my training.

But the moment Tom Ward had defeated and slain the assassin on the riverbank he had become a target for other members of the Shaiksa brotherhood. Then he had led the attack across the Shanna River; the Kobalos mages were aware of that – especially the Triumvirate.

Now I realized the horrible truth. Tom would never be safe. The war would come to us – and much sooner than anyone could have expected.

WE RETURNED TO
the County and I was as happy as Jenny to be home. There was the secure feeling of being back in that old house surrounded by a garden defended by the boggart. And I’d forgotten just how good a breakfast it could make. That first morning the bacon was perfect!

The weather was mild for early October and the sun still held some warmth. The icy grip of Golgoth had not yet penetrated this far south.