‘This is young Simon Sulby,’ explained the captain. ‘He was on his way to try and rescue his lady friend when the dogs sniffed him out and our paths converged, so it seemed wise to proceed in convoy. Sadly, it seems that we’re too late.’
‘I’ll head for the keep!’ said the young man, his face twisted with desperation. ‘I’ve got to try and save her-’
‘No, that’s madness,’ said Captain Baines, seizing him by the arm. ‘No good setting off alone and half-rigged.’
‘Aye, I agree with that,’ said the Spook. ‘But in the meantime we could all head towards Greeba. That will give us time to collect our thoughts. I’d also like to tell you all I know about bugganes – it might just help. And here, lad, you can carry these. I’ve lugged them around long enough!’
So saying, the Spook handed me both bags and my staff; then, after Alice had put her shoes on, we set off for Greeba Keep. The most direct way was to follow the narrow track the cart had used. But to avoid bumping into the yeomen, we took a more round-about route. The country was hilly, with mountains in the distance; the wooded valleys reminded me of the County. The journey was pleasant but overshadowed by Simon Sulby’s grief; he was near to despair. After all, what hope did he have of rescuing Adriana from those dungeons?
In the early evening we halted for the night in a small wood overlooked by Greeba Mountain. I made the fire, and Alice went off and caught three rabbits and a large hare. While she cooked them, we gathered around the fire and talked over what had happened in more detail.
‘So a real County witch came ashore,’ said the Spook. ‘One or more?’
Captain Baines shrugged. ‘Who knows? But there were two men dead, and it gave the Ruling Council just the excuse they needed to authorize the testing.’
‘And thumb-bones were taken, you say?’
‘Aye, and both fishermen were dead and drained of blood. Their throats had been cut.’
‘That could suggest two witches,’ said the Spook; ‘a bone witch and a blood witch…’
‘Or it could be Lizzie,’ said Alice, turning the hare on the spit. ‘She uses both blood and bone magic. She had a familiar once too, but it was killed. Maybe she was cut off from Pendle after she escaped from the pit – and headed west towards the coast!’
‘It’s a possibility, girl, I’ll grant you that, so we must be on our guard.’
Soon we were tucking into our supper – I shared the hare with Alice, but Simon stared at his rabbit for a long time before pushing it away.
‘Eat up, Simon. Try a little bit at least. You need to keep your strength,’ advised Captain Baines.
‘No,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘I’ve got to press on towards the keep. Once it’s dark, the buggane will go into the dungeons and Adriana-’
‘Sit yourself down,’ said the Spook. ‘She’s in no danger tonight – and perhaps not for several nights to come either. Trust me, although I’ve never had to deal with one directly, I know as much about bugganes as anybody. No doubt there are still things to be found out, but I know that they concentrate on one victim at a time and usually drain them over several days. How many prisoners have already been taken to the keep?’
‘They’ve been testing for almost a week,’ Simon answered. ‘At least seven or eight have been pulled alive from the barrels. A couple may have died of their injuries though…’
‘Are they all County refugees?’
‘All but Adriana. But for Lord Barrule’s interest in her she’d be safe at home.’
‘Well, that makes my mind up for me,’ said the Spook. ‘We need to help those people. I serve the County and its inhabitants, whether at home or abroad. It’s my duty.’
‘So we’re going to try and rescue them from the dungeons?’ I asked.
‘Maybe we will in time, lad, although at present I can’t see how. No, we’re going to make them safe from the dark in another way. We’re not going to the keep. If the ruined chapel is where the buggane is to be found, that’s where we’re going!’ After supper we sat around the embers of the fire and continued to discuss what we faced. The sun had gone down and the stars were starting to appear overhead. There was no wind and the wood was very quiet. The loudest sound was the panting of the dogs.
‘Just how dangerous is a buggane?’ Captain Baines asked.
‘Well, you might as well all know the worst,’ the Spook replied. ‘And you get your notebook out, lad, and jot down some of what I say. There are a few things that needed adding to my Bestiary so you don’t know it all. This is all part of your training…’
He waited while I got the bottle of ink, pen and notebook out of my bag, then he began.
‘Abuggane is a daemon that usually lurks near a ruin,’ the Spook began, ‘but it can roam quite a distance from this central point. They’re immune to salt and iron, which makes them hard to deal with – though they’re vulnerable to a silver-alloy blade. You have to thrust it into the heart of the creature when it’s fully materialized. The good news is that we spooks have such a blade…’
By way of demonstration, he reached across for his staff, and pressed the recessed switch so that the blade emerged with a click.
‘As my apprentice already knows, they usually confine themselves to two shapes – a black bull and a huge hairy man.’
‘What’s the main threat when it’s in the form of a bull?’ I asked.
‘It bellows loudly and the sound draws upon the dark energy at its disposal. It often fills its victims with such dread that they’re unable to move. Then it charges, goring and trampling anything in its path.’
The Spook fell silent and seemed deep in thought. After a while I prompted him: ‘What about the hairy man? They call it the Cruncher here.’
‘That’s an apt name for it, lad. The buggane takes on that shape to dig its tunnels. Its sharp claws and teeth can chomp through tree trunks or roots that it finds in its path. I’ve just been searching my memory for any snippets of information… That’s why the burning of my library is such a tremendous loss. There are things that only exist in my head now, and when I die, they’re gone for ever…’
‘Then you need to write ’em down again, Mr Gregory. Soon as possible,’ Alice told him.
‘Aye, you’re right, girl,’ the Spook acknowledged. ‘Just as soon as I get the chance, I’ll do exactly that.’ He sighed, then continued staring into space as he pulled the details from his memory. ‘The buggane does its most deadly work in its invisible, spirit form-’
‘It’s worse than just dying!’ Simon interrupted, his voice full of emotion as he thought of the fate that awaited Adriana. ‘The buggane sucks the victim’s soul right out of its body!’
The Spook shook his head. ‘No, that’s not so – even though it’s what most people believe. The soul survives and moves on. What the buggane sucks out is the animus, or life force, which is quite a different thing. It feeds on the energy that gives a body and mind strength; it consumes its vitality so that it dies. It’s just that the mind dies first, and that’s why the person seems to be just an empty vessel.
‘There are mages known as shamans who practise the same sort of magic, which we call animism. A buggane may gain strength from an alliance with a shaman: in return for human sacrifices it will destroy an enemy or share its store of animas with the mage.
‘And that’s what I fear most – that we may not just be dealing with a buggane alone. There may be a dark shaman involved. Let’s face it, in supposedly dealing with the dark – testing and killing falsely accused witches – the dark itself is being used: not only the buggane, but also an abhuman. So tell me, Simon, when did all this start?’
‘Well over twenty-five years ago, before I was born, a witch landed on our western shore in company with that abhuman. Turned out it was her son. She was fed to the buggane and he was imprisoned and used to hunt down other witches. Potential witches have always been tested using spiked barrels, but the guilty were formerly burned at the stake. They’ve always picked on foreigners – immigrants who’ve come ashore and tried to make this their home. Adriana is one of the first to be accused from among our own people…’
At that point Simon’s voice failed him and he choked back a sob. The Spook waited patiently for him to regain his composure before questioning him further.
‘I know this is hard, Simon, but anything you can tell me will give us a chance of dealing successfully with what we face. You say “they”, but who’s behind it all? Who’s in charge of what goes on?’
‘The head of the Ruling Council is Lord Barrule of Greeba Keep, the one who condemned Adriana. It was his decision to let the abhuman live and use him to search for witches. He also said that nothing could be done about the buggane; however, feeding it witches, rather than burning them, would keep it quiet, and our own folk safer.’
‘Then he could well be the dark shaman,’ said the Spook. ‘It couldn’t be worse – he’s a man of power and influence. But if we can destroy the buggane, that’ll undermine him. What sort of a man is he?’
‘“Cruel” is the word that best sums him up,’ Simon replied. ‘He’s a man who likes to get his own way – and he’s a big gambler. There are all sorts of tales about gambling parties in the keep. They often bet on fights between dogs. They say Barrule once had a bear shipped in and made it fight a pack of wolves.’
We all fell silent on hearing that. I hate cruelty to animals, and I was thinking of Claw and her pups being in that situation.
‘It must be terrible when the buggane approaches in its spirit form,’ I said at last.
‘In the open, your only hope is to get away from it just as fast as you can,’ the Spook told me. ‘Trapped close to one, you have no chance at all, lad. It whispers to its victims in a sinister human voice until they see images in their heads – pictures of the very worst things they’ve experienced or done during their lives. The daemon is sadistic – it loves to inflict pain – and it forces them to re-live those events over and over again.
‘You hear the whispering right inside your head. Some folks have been driven mad, forcing sharp sticks into their ears to make themselves deaf, but that doesn’t help – the whispering still goes on. Over the course of a few days the creature sucks out the whole of your life force. It stores the animas of its victims in an underground labyrinth.’