Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) (7 page)

‘Once we have the knowledge that will protect us against their magic, we will head directly for Valkarky again. Within weeks it will be ours and the Kobalos threat will be no more!’

After Grimalkin had translated these words, heads began to nod – even Prince Kaylar grudgingly conceded that this was the way to proceed.

Next, Grimalkin turned to face me and bowed.

‘I would like to offer a little military advice, if I may.’

‘Yes, go ahead!’ I commanded as we’d rehearsed in the event of Grimalkin feeling the need to add anything to what I’d said.

She bowed towards me again and then addressed the princes directly. I wondered what she was telling them, but again they nodded and exchanged satisfied glances.

Ten minutes later we were back in my quarters.

‘You did well,’ Grimalkin congratulated me. ‘You looked and behaved every inch a prince. If all goes well and our luck holds, we may return with valuable information and get most of those men back alive.’

‘What did you say to them at the end?’ I asked.

‘I told them that the Kobalos have two hearts: one lies in approximately the same position as a human one; the other is smaller but is close to the base of the throat. A Kobalos warrior may survive the piercing of his main heart because the secondary one maintains the blood flow of blood to the brain. A wound that would certainly finish off a human might leave a dying Kobalos conscious and still dangerous. So I recommended that they inform their warriors that decapitation is the preferred method of despatching the enemy or, failing that, a double piercing of the chest. You remember that it was in Browne’s glossary, and I advised you to kill the Shaiksa assassin in that way.’

‘Valuable information indeed.’ I nodded. ‘But haven’t you confirmed Browne’s notes are true in this matter? Your notes made no mention of investigations of that nature.’

‘My notes were a limited catalogue of my experiments with Kobalos battle-entities, not Kobalos anatomy. I have others that include my speculations on methods of countering their military might – you may read them if you are interested. Back in the County, I explored the information on the two hearts by dissecting the body of the haizda mage before I filled the grave with earth. I confirmed that finding by also dissecting the body of the Shaiksa assassin.’

I nodded. Grimalkin was thorough and painstaking in her efforts to learn how we might defeat the Kobalos. Everything was woven tightly into the tapestry of her schemes; everything including me. I felt trapped; bound within her plans, with no room for manoeuvre.

THAT SAME NIGHT
Jenny and I climbed the stone steps of the tallest north-eastern turret, heading for the attic where the prince said I’d find the ghost of the Kobalos mage. I was wearing the starblade at my hip, carrying a rowan staff and my pockets contained salt and iron. Hopefully such precautions were unnecessary but after Jenny’s experience I wasn’t taking any chances.

I found the ascent hard work and felt dizzy and breathless before we reached the attic. I was a long way short of returning to fitness. It was just a few days before we were due to cross the river and attack, and I really couldn’t see how I’d be able to ride out at the head of an army. Sooner or later I would have to confront Grimalkin and make that clear.

The keys weren’t marked and I had to proceed by trial and error. I tried five of the large keys before the sixth finally opened the door. Jenny was carrying the lantern and its light revealed a small anteroom with another door facing us. She had hardly spoken since we left my room. No doubt she was scared, which wasn’t really surprising after her terrifying encounter with the thing from the portal.

‘Is this anteroom similar to the one you passed through?’ I asked.

‘It’s identical,’ Jenny said, shivering. ‘It even had a table and two chairs coated in a thick layer of dust, exactly like the ones here.’

I could sense no warning chill telling me that something from the dark was close. Could Prince Stanislaw be wrong about this attic being haunted?

‘Do you sense anything from the dark?’ I asked. I wondered if my own gifts were working properly after the terrible experience that I’d been through.

She shook her head.

‘Neither do I. Let’s go into the inner room. We’re in unknown territory here so I won’t have much chance to explain things. I’ll need to concentrate, so the teaching must come second. Just listen carefully.’

Jenny nodded, and I opened the second door into the inner chamber. This was very different from the room that Jenny had described. There was no water dripping from the ceiling; no stone well.

It was very dusty and cluttered with books: vast leather-bound tomes lay on the floor in precarious piles; the shelves were full to capacity but shrouded by thick curtains of spiders’ webs. Long low tables set against the far wall were bowed with the weight of enormous glass jars containing brown or green substances: it reminded me of the lair of the haizda mage back in Chipenden. No doubt Jenny would recognize these too, and they wouldn’t help her get any calmer. She’d almost died at the hands of that mage.

Did those jars contain the seeds of monstrous creatures such as the ones Grimalkin had grown near the lair of that mage? For a moment I wondered why the room hadn’t been cleared. But it was obvious: terrified by the hauntings, humans had obviously abandoned and then sealed these rooms.

‘Turn the lantern down low, Jenny,’ I said softly. ‘Some ghosts avoid light of any kind and we don’t want to deter this one.’

She fiddled with the shutters and placed the lantern on the floor. It just cast a small circle of light onto the boards; the majority of the room was in darkness. It was now more likely that a ghost would materialize – though of course we were dealing with the unknown. If we did encounter a ghost, it would be the spirit of a Kobalos, and a mage to boot. Anything was possible.

Suddenly I felt an icy chill; the warning that something from the dark was drawing close. Slowly a faint column of light began to form in the right-hand corner of the chamber, close to a tall bookshelf. It flickered and shifted, taking on the shape of one of the Kobalos. This creature was larger and broader than the haizda mage I’d fought back in Chipenden before our journey up here had even begun; it wore heavy leather boots and a long gown not dissimilar to that of a spook – though the bare arms were covered in thick hair like the hide of an animal. The face had been shaved to dark stubble and the big eyes were staring at me. If I was reading its expression correctly, it appeared curious rather than hostile and showed a hint of sadness.

The shape flickered again; one moment it was grey and translucent and I could see the bookshelves behind it; the next, the crisp maroon material of its gown and its large brown eyes seemed solid and sharp: it could have been a living, breathing mage that we confronted.

‘What can you see, Jenny?’ I asked.

‘It’s one of their mages. But I don’t think he’s hostile. There are waves of sadness coming from him.’

Suddenly the ghost spoke in the guttural language of Losta. I couldn’t understand a word and hoped that this mage had the same language skills as the haizda I’d fought back in the County.

‘I’m going to ask it to speak in our language,’ I told Jenny. ‘If it does, I’ll question it and maybe send the ghost to the light – if it’s possible. So concentrate and listen carefully but leave the questioning to me.’

Jenny nodded, and I turned to the ghost.

‘I don’t speak your language. Can you speak mine?’

‘
You are brave to speak to me
,’ the ghost replied in a deep hollow voice. ‘
All the other humans ran. Are you a mage?
’

‘My name is Thomas Ward and I’m a spook,’ I said. ‘My job is to deal with ghosts and similar entities.’

‘
My name is Abuskai. I am a High Mage.
’

‘Do you realize that you’re dead?’ I asked.

That was the standard question a spook asked a ghost, the first step in preparing to send them to the light. But could a Kobalos mage be directed to the light? I wondered. Perhaps, like human malevolent witches and mages, he belonged to their equivalent of the dark. Or maybe there were domains completely unknown to us where the dark of the Kobalos gathered.

‘
Of course I do. I have been dead a long time
,’ the ghost of the mage replied. ‘
It wearies me to be trapped here. I seek release from my torment but cannot pass beyond this world.
’

‘What holds you back?’ I asked.

I was quite prepared to attempt to send this creature to the light by asking it to focus upon a happy memory from its life – the method that usually worked with the spirits of humans. But first I wanted to question Abuskai about the daemonic entity in the well.

‘
There are magical barriers in place that prevent my escape. Alive or dead, I am no longer needed by those who now rule my people. I am discarded. What a fool I have been! I was the one who helped to bring about the change in the first place!
’

‘What change?’ I asked quietly.

‘
The birth of our god, Talkus
,’ the ghost replied. ‘
I helped to bring it about. I created the foundation upon which he was constructed.
’

Talkus was the Kobalos god who’d been born as the Fiend died. The horned Fiend, once the most powerful of the Old Gods, had been bad enough. He had been able to make himself far larger than a human and halt time, making his victims powerless whilst he snatched their souls. He had been the source of power for many malevolent witches and other dark creatures and wished to dwell permanently on Earth and bring to it a new age of darkness.

However, Talkus was far worse. Whereas the Fiend demanded that humans submit to him, Talkus wished to destroy the human race – except for the females, who would be permanently enslaved to the Kobalos. He had the shape of a skelt, a creature with many legs and a bone-tube which it thrust into the flesh of humans to drain their blood. But perhaps the most terrifying thing of all was that because Talkus was a new god his powers were unknown. Talkus might be capable of anything and we might have no defence against him.

Destroying Talkus might well be the key to defeating the Kobalos. I needed to find out how that could be done.

‘What part did you play in his birth?’ I asked.

‘
Through magic, through belief, I shaped him and gave him substance. A god is born when enough believe; when enough desire; when an architect shapes their thoughts. I was that architect.
’

I was stunned. It had named itself the
architect
. Was I facing the Kobalos who had planned and created this new darkness that we faced? If so, Abuskai was a god-maker.

I realized that there was a potential for great danger here. Such a powerful mage, although a ghost, might be able to do us serious harm. We were dealing with the unknown. I would need to be careful not to anger it. I glanced sideways at Jenny. She seemed calm and was staring at the mage, who hadn’t acknowledged her presence in any way. Perhaps it was because she was female. To a Kobalos she was a purra, no better than a slave and unworthy of engaging in conversation.

I hoped that was all and Jenny was not in danger because she was female. For all I knew perhaps the ghost found her presence offensive. I was glad I had warned her to leave the questioning to me. It might not tolerate any interruption from my apprentice.

‘So what happened? How did you die? Why are you trapped here?’ I asked.

‘
Kobalos mages constantly form and re-form their alliances. Within Valkarky, power shifts. Alliances conspired against me, seeking to subvert what I was shaping to their own ends. I was betrayed and murdered. Soon afterwards, the king was also slain and a Triumvirate formed to rule in his place; they continued my work and brought the god Talkus into being, modifying my design and utilizing my magic for their own purposes. I have been cast aside without honour, slain and imprisoned here.
’

The Triumvirate was the group of three powerful High Mages who now ruled the Kobalos – I’d heard of them already. But Grimalkin had told me that it did not always contain the same three mages – she had slain one of them on her visit to Valkarky – though it had not changed their policy of seeking to make war upon humans. No doubt it had only increased their enmity. But next time it might be different. Slay one, and the arrival of a replacement might well cause a new Triumvirate to change its way of thinking. Could the war be halted by changing those who ruled the Kobalos? I wondered.

The ghost began to flicker and became insubstantial again, making me fear that it was about to depart. I needed to concentrate and keep the conversation going and speculate later.

Suddenly, despite my instruction, Jenny asked a question. ‘In one of the other attics in this castle there is a dangerous daemonic entity. What is it, and how can it be destroyed or driven away?’

The ghost gathered substance rapidly and looked solid enough to touch. Emotions flickered across its face: incredulity and anger. She really did need to listen to my instructions. I’d never have disobeyed my own master in that way. The ghost looked appalled at what she’d just said, and I grew afraid for her.