Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) by Joseph Delaney
Authors: Joseph Delaney
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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.
TOM WARD
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
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.
TOM WARD
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
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