Joseph Delaney - The Spook's Curse

Alice walked up to stand at the edge of the water, keeping me between her and the Spook. She was staring towards the body of the Quisitor. There was a mixture of terror and triumph on her face.

‘You might as well take a good look, girl,’ said the Spook. ‘Examine your handiwork close up. Was it worth it?’

Alice nodded. ‘He got what was coming to him,’ she said firmly.

‘Aye, but at what cost?’ asked the Spook. ‘You belong more and more to the dark. Call the Bane once more and you’ll be lost for ever.’

Alice didn’t reply and we stood there for a long time in silence, just staring at the water.

‘Well, lad,’ said the Spook, ‘we’d best be on our way. Someone else will have to deal with the body because we’ve got work to do. As for you, girl, you’ll come with us if you know what’s good for you. And now you’d better listen and you’d better listen carefully because what I’m proposing is your only hope. The only chance you’ll ever have to break free of that creature.’

Alice looked up, her eyes very wide.

‘You do know the danger you’re in? You do want to be free?’ he asked.

Alice nodded.

‘Then come here!’ he commanded sternly.

Alice walked obediently to his side.

‘Wherever you are the Bane won’t be far behind so for now you’d better come with me and the lad. I’d rather know roughly where that creature is than have it roaming anywhere it likes through the County, terrorizing decent folks. So listen to me and listen good. For now it’s important that you see and hear nothing – that way the Bane will learn nothing from you. But you have to do it willingly, mind. If you cheat in the slightest way, it’ll go hard with all of us.’

He opened his bag and began to rummage about inside it. “This is a blindfold,’ he said, holding up a strip of black cloth for Alice to see. ‘Will you wear it?’ he asked.

Alice nodded and the Spook held out the palm of his left hand towards her. ‘See these?’ he said. ‘They’re plugs of wax for your ears.’

Each plug had a small silver stud embedded in it to make it easy to get the wax out afterwards.

Alice looked at them doubtfully but then she tilted her head obediently while the Spook gently inserted the first plug. After pushing in the second plug he tied the blindfold firmly across her eyes.

We set off, heading north-east, the Spook guiding Alice by her elbow. I hoped we didn’t pass anybody on the road. What would they think? We’d certainly attract a lot of unwelcome attention.

The Stone Graves It was daylight so there was no immediate threat from the Bane. Like most creatures of the dark it would be hiding underground. And with Alice blindfolded and her ears plugged, it could no longer look out through her eyes or listen to what we said. It wouldn’t know where we were.

I had anticipated another day of hard walking and wondered if we’d get to Heysham before nightfall. But to my surprise the Spook led us up a track to a large farm and we waited at the gate, the dogs barking fit to wake the dead, while an old farmer limped towards us leaning on a stick. He had a worried expression on his face.

‘I’m sorry,’ he croaked. ‘I’m really sorry, but nothing’s changed. If I had it to give, if d be yours.’

It seemed that five years earlier the Spook had rid this man’s farm of a troublesome boggart and still hadn’t been paid. My master wanted paying now but not in money.

Within half an hour we were riding in a cart pulled by one of the biggest shire horses I’d ever seen; driving the cart was the fanner’s son. At first, before setting off, he’d stared at the blindfolded Alice, a puzzled look on his face.

‘Stop gawping at the girl and concentrate on your own business!’ the Spook had snapped and the lad had quickly averted his eyes. He seemed happy enough to take us, glad to be away from his chores for a few hours, and soon we were following the back lanes, passing east of Caster. The Spook made Alice lie down in the cart and covered her with straw so that she couldn’t be seen by other travellers.

No doubt the horse was used to pulling a heavy load, and with just us three in the back was trotting ahead at a fair old lick. In the distance we could see the city of Caster with its castle. Many a witch had died there after a long trial, but they didn’t burn witches in Caster, they hanged them. So, to use one of my dad’s sea-going expressions, we gave it ‘a wide berth’, and soon we were beyond it and crossing a bridge over the river Lune, before changing our direction to head south-west towards Heysham.

The farmer’s lad was told to wait at the end of the lane on the outskirts of the village.

‘We’ll be back at dawn,’ said the Spook. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll make it well worth your while.’

We climbed a narrow track up a hill, with an old church and graveyard on our right. There, on that lee side of the hill, everything was still and quiet and tall ancient trees shrouded the gravestones. But on clambering over a gate onto the cliff top we were met by a stiff breeze and the tang of the sea. Before us was the ruin of a small stone chapel with just three of its walls standing. We were quite high up and I could see a bay below, with a sandy beach almost covered by the tide and the sea crashing against the rocks of a small headland in the distance.

‘Mostly, shores to the west are flat,’ said the Spook, ‘and this is as high as County cliffs ever get. They say this is where the first men landed in the County. They came from a land far to the west and their boat ran aground on the rocks below. Their descendants built that chapel.’

He pointed and there, just beyond the ruin, I saw the stone graves. ‘There’s nothing like them anywhere else in the County,’ said the Spook.

Carved into a huge slab of stone, right on the edge of a steep hill, there was a row of six coffins, each in the shape of a human body and with a stone lid fitting into a groove. They were different sizes and shapes but generally small, as if hewn for children, but these were the graves of six of the Little People. Six of King Heys’s sons.

The Spook knelt down beside the nearest of the graves. Above the head of each was a square socket and he traced the shape of it with his finger. Then he extended the fingers of his left hand. The span of his hand just covered the socket.

‘Now what could those have been used for?’ he muttered to himself.

‘How big were the Little People?’ I asked. The graves were all different sizes and, now that I looked closely I saw that they weren’t quite as small as I’d first thought.

By way of answer the Spook opened his bag and pulled out a folded measuring rod. He opened it out and measured the grave.

‘This is about five foot five long,’ he announced, ‘and about thirteen and a half inches wide in the middle. But some belongings would have been buried with the Little People for use in the next world. Few were above five feet tall and a lot were much smaller. As the years went by, each generation got bigger because there were marriages between them and the invaders from the sea. So they didn’t really die out. Their blood still runs through our veins.’

The Spook turned to Alice and, to my surprise, untied her blindfold. Next he removed her earplugs, putting everything safely back in his bag. Alice blinked and looked about her. She didn’t look happy.

‘Don’t like it here,’ she complained. ‘Something ain’t right. It feels bad.’

‘Does it, girl?’ the Spook said. ‘Well, that’s the most interesting thing you’ve said all day. It’s odd because I find this spot quite pleasant. There’s nothing like a bit of bracing sea air!’