The Spook's Bestiary Part 4

Those cla.s.sified as domestic are human in appearance, but for a line of green and yellow scales that runs the length of the spine. They also use blood magic but augment this with bone magic; some even use familiars (see Witch Powers, page 120).

A Feral Lamia Lamia witches are slow shape shifters. Those who a.s.sociate with humans gradually take on the human female form. The opposite is also true. Bound in a pit, or somehow cut off from communication with humans, a domestic lamia witch gradually reverts to her feral form.

Some feral lamias, called vaengir,7 also have wings and can fly short distances, attacking victims from the air. These are relatively rare and seem doomed to extinction.

Hybrid lamias take many forms. Those born of human fathers are never totally human or totally lamia.

A Vaengir MEG SKELTON8.

One of the natural enemies of a spook is a witch, so it pains me to confess that the love of my life was the witch Meg Skelton. As a young man, I rescued her from a tower where she had been imprisoned by an abhuman who had been terrorizing the district, a fierce creature that I slew with my staff.

Finding Meg bound with a silver chain, I released her, and such was her powerful allure that I fell in love with her there and then. But when the morning came, I saw the line of green and yellow scales running the length of her spine and knew that Meg was a lamia witch in her domestic form, and that it was my duty to bind her in a pit. I dragged her to its edge, but finally could not bring myself to do it. Love binds a man tighter than a silver chain.

We walked away hand in hand and lived together for one happy month in my Chipenden house. Unfortunately Meg was strong willed, and despite my advice she insisted on visiting the village shops. Her tongue was as sharp as a barber's razor, and she argued with some of the village women. A few of these disputes developed into feuds. No doubt there was spite on both sides, but eventually, being a witch, Meg resorted to witchcraft.

She did no serious harm to her enemies. One was afflicted by nasty boils all over her body; one exceptionally house-proud woman suffered recurrent infestations of lice and a plague of c.o.c.kroaches in her kitchen. At first the accusations were little more than whispers. Then one woman spat at Meg in the street and received a good slap for her discourtesy. It would have stopped at that, but unfortunately the woman was the sister of the parish constable.

One morning the bell rang at the withy-trees crossroads and I went down to investigate. Instead of the poor haunted farmer that I expected, the stout, red-faced parish constable was standing there, truncheon in his belt and hands on his hips.

"Mr. Gregory," he said, his manner proud and pompousa"had I been a poor farm laborer, the weapon would already have been in his handa""it has come to my attention that you are harboring a witch. The woman, known as Margery Skelton, has used witchcraft to hurt some good women of this parish. She has also been seen at midnight, under a full moon, gathering herbs and dancing naked by the pond at the edge of Homeslack Farm. I have come to arrest her and demand that you bring her to this spot immediately!"

While Meg always gathered herbs at the new moon and did indeed dance naked, she had the power to ensure that, unless she wished it, n.o.body could see her. So I knew that the last of the charges was a lie.

"Meg no longer lives with me!" I said. "She's gone to Sunderland Point to sail for her homeland, Greece."

It was a lie, of course, but what could I do? There was no way I was going to deliver Meg into his hands. The man would take her north to Caster, where no doubt she'd eventually hang.

I could see that the parish constable wasn't satisfied, but there was little he could do. Being a local, he dared not enter my garden for fear of the boggart, so he went away, his tail between his legs. I had to keep Meg away from the village from that day forth. It proved difficult and was the cause of many arguments between us, but there was worse to come.

At the insistence of his sister, the constable went to Caster and made a formal complaint to the high sheriff there. Consequently they sent a young constable with a warrant to arrest Meg. I was concerned for his lifea"he was an outsider and might be stubborn enough to enter my garden. I'd been warned about this by the village blacksmith, so I was ready. With the smith's help I managed to persuade him that Meg really had left the sh.o.r.es of the County forever.

Disaster had narrowly been avoideda"but that decided me. My former master, Henry Horrocks, had left me another house on the edge of brooding Anglezarke Moor. I had visited it just once and found little about it to my taste. Now it could be put to good use. In the dead of night, very late in the autumn, Meg and I journeyed to Anglezarke and set up home there.

It was a bleak place, wet and windy, with the winter threatening long months of ice and snow. Even though I lit fires in every room, the house itself was cold and dampa"not a place where I could safely store books. We made the best of it for a while, but eventually the same problem reared its head when Meg insisted on doing the shopping.

I managed to persuade her to avoid Blackrod, a village where I had family, but she started to have problems in Adlington.

It began in a similar fashion to the difficulties in Chipenden. A few words were exchanged with the local women: accusations of using curses; a woman suffering night terrors; another too afraid to venture beyond her own front door. This time the local constable didn't get involved because the people of Adlington had a strong sense of community and believed in sorting things out for themselves.

I told Meg not to visit Adlington again and employed the village carpenter, a man called Shanks, to bring groceries up to the house. She was angry at that and we quarreled bitterly. After this, there was a coldness between us to rival that of the winter on Anglezarke Moor. It persisted, and three days later, despite my protests, Meg went shopping again.

This time the village women resorted to violence. Over a dozen of them seized her in the market square. Shanks told me that she'd fought with her fists like a man but also scratched like a cat, almost blinding the ringleader of the women. Finally they struck her down from behind with a cobblestone; once felled, she was bound tightly with ropes.

Only a silver chain can hold a witch for long, but they rushed her down to the pond and threw her into the deep, cold water. If she drowned, they would accept that she was innocent of witchcraft; if she floated, they'd burn her.

Meg did float, but facedown, and after five minutes or so became very still in the water. The women were satisfied that she had drowned, so they left her where she was.

It was Shanks who pulled her out of the pond. By rights she should have been dead, but Meg was exceptionally strong. To Shanks's amazement, she soon began to twitch and splutter, coughing up water onto the muddy bank. He brought her back to my house across the back of his pony. She looked a sorry sight, but within hours she was fully recovered and soon started to plot her revenge.

I'd already thought long and hard about what needed to be done. I could cast her outa"let her take her own chances in the world. But that would have broken my heart because I still loved her.

My knowledge of a special herb tea seemed to be the answer. It is possible to administer this to keep a witch in a deep sleep for many months. If the dose is reduced, she can be kept awake but docile: She can walk and talk but the tea impairs the memory, making her forget her knowledge of the dark arts. So this was the method I decided to use.

It was very difficult to get the dosage right, and painful to see Meg walking about so subdued and mild, her fiery spirit (something that had attracted me to her in the first place) now dampened. So much so that she often seemed a stranger to me. The worst time of all was when I left her alone in my Anglezarke house and returned to Chipenden for the summer. It had to be done, lest the law catch up with her. There was still the danger of her being hanged at Caster. So I locked her in a dark room off the cellar steps in so deep a trance that she was hardly breathing.

I left for Chipenden with a heavy heart. Although I'd experimented through the winter, I still worried about whether or not I'd gotten the dose right. Too much herb tea, and Meg might stop breathing; too little, and she could wake up alone in that dark cell with many long weeks to wait until my return. So I spent our enforced separation riddled with sorrow and anxiety.

Fortunately I had calculated the dose correctly and returned late the following autumn just as Meg was beginning to stir. It was hard for her, but at least she wasn't hanged, or exiled to Greece. The County was spared the harm she could inflict.

But a lesson must be learned from this, one that my apprentices should note carefully. A spook should never become romantically involved with a witch; it compromises his position and draws him dangerously close to the dark. I have fallen short in my duty to the County more than once, but my relationship with Meg Skelton was my greatest failing of all.

Water Witches These witches are far more animal than human and have mostly lost the power of speech. They dwell in marshes, rivers, ca.n.a.ls, and ditches, and, unlike human witches, have the ability to cross running water.9 However, they cannot use mirrors, either to com-municate or to spy on others. One name commonly given to water witches is greenteeth, because of the green slime that sometimes forms on their lips and teeth. Children are often warned by their parents to keep away from all places where greenteeth might be lying in wait.

Their noses are sharp and without flesh, while their canines are elongated into immense fangs. They hook their prey using razor-sharp taloned forefingers. Sometimes they strike into the cheek or ear, but their aim is to pierce the upper neck and wrap a finger around the teeth, taking a firm grip upon the jaw. That grip is almost impossible to escape from, as water witches are extremely strong. They drag their victims into marsh or water and drain them of blood as they drown.

A Greentooth MORWENA.

The oldest and most powerful of all the water witches is Morwena. She may be more than a thousand years old, and her father is the Fiend, her mother a witch who dwelt in the deepest and dankest caverns of the earth.

In addition to the attributes of a common water witch (with even greater speed and strength), she has a blood-filled eye with which she is able to paralyze her victims. There are limitations to her power, however: That eye can only be used against one person at a time. She must also conserve its strength, and when she isn't using it, she pins her top and bottom eyelids together over it with a piece of sharp bone. A further weakness is that, even more than other witches of her type, she may not stray too far away from her elementa"bog and watera"or her strength begins to wane.

For the definitive account of this water witch, refer to Bill Arkwright's book, Morwena.

Morwena Romanian Witches What sets these witches apart from those in other parts of the world is twofold: 1. The ability to project their souls far from their bodies while they sleep. These meet up with other souls in forest dells, taking the form of small orbs of flickering light that move together rhythmically in a dance. These disembodied covens are not always thirteen strong, which is usual elsewhere, but they are always odd in number, most frequently dancing in sevens, nines, or elevens.

2. If humans see the moving lights, they are drawn toward them and are soon in thrall to the witches. When the dance ends, the humans die, the witches having gradually absorbed their vitality.

Romanian witches use animism magic; which means that rather than using blood or bone magic they draw out the life essence of their victims and use it, along with rituals and incantations, to gather power from the dark.

They worship Siscoi, the Romanian Old G.o.d, and have the power to bring him through a portal into our world at midnighta"though he can stay only until dawn. They also form alliances with strigoi and strigoica, vampire demons, and can control Transylvanian elementals known as the moroi as an aid to draining humans of their life force.

The dark magical power gained is used primarily for the following: 1. To summon their vampire G.o.d, Siscoi, from the dark.

2. To kill their enemies.

3. To scry the future.

4. To control the humans who live within their chosen domain.

5. To gather wealth.

Romanian witches are very rich and live alone in big, isolated dwellings. They do not form clans, and the only time they meet is when they send forth their souls to combine temporarily in covens.

WITCH GROUPINGS.

Clans A witch clan is composed of family groups. Not all members of such a clan will necessarily be witches, but they will support those who are.

The three main clans in Pendle are the Malkins, the Deanes, and the Mouldheels. Witches often migrate to places that are a source of power or have the right ambience for performing dark magic. It was the brooding presence of Pendle itself that drew the clans to that area.

First came the Malkins, who now operate from their stronghold, Malkin Tower. They are not only the oldest, but also the most powerful clan. The original tower was owned by a local landowner called Benjamin Wright. He was a strong, stubborn man, and it took the witches three years to drive him out, using curses, poison, and finally the abduction of his eldest son. Once Benjamin Wright vacated the tower, his son was released. Unfortunately it happened too late: The boy was already insane and died within the year.

From then the building became known as Malkin Tower. The witches extended ita"mainly downward, where deep dungeons and an escape tunnel were excavated. The mortar that binds the stones of the tower is brown because it is mixed with human blood and powdered bone. Usually only the Malkin coven and a few supporters live in the tower. Most of the Malkins reside in the village of Goldshaw Booth.

The Deanes were the second group to migrate to Pendle. Their families came by boat from Ireland, the wet, misty land across the western sea. Bloodthirsty battles were fought against the Malkins in Crow Wood, but they failed to capture Malkin Tower. So they made their home in the village of Roughlee. The Deanes are the proudest of the main clans and are easily insulted. Sometimes they imagine grievances and become spiteful and vindictive. They still dream of making Malkin Tower their own. Although Celtic in origin, after centuries of life in the County they gradually changed their ways. Their families interbred, formed the Deane clan, and ceased worshipping the Morrigan.

Malkin Tower The Mouldheels, formerly nomadic, were the last of the main clans to arrive. These witches went barefooted, and behind their backs, some called them "stink feet" or "moldy heels," the latter evolving into their present name. The village of Bareleigh eventually became their home.10 The three main witch villages lie quite close together in an area sometimes known as the Devil's Triangle. There are other Pendle witch clans, but these are smaller and much less powerful. Among them are the Hewitts, Ogdens, Nutters, and the Preesalls. There are also some more recent incomer witches, although these are shunned.11 Covens A coven means thirteen witches gathered to use dark magic, usually at celebratory feasts such as Candlemas (February 2), Walpurgis Night (April 30), Lammas (August 1) and Halloween (October 31).

The covens gather at midnight on those feasts, and occasionally, drawing strength from the adulation of his worshippers, the Fiend materializes briefly to accept obeisance and grant dark power.12 Witch a.s.sa.s.sins Each Pendle witch clan (most notably the Malkin, Deane, and Mouldheel families) employs at least one witch a.s.sa.s.sina"whose primary role is to seek out and destroy their enemies. The successor is usually chosen by a challenge followed by mortal combat. The Malkins' a.s.sa.s.sin is easily the most formidable. Three challengers are trained each year and take turns fighting her.

The current a.s.sa.s.sin of the Malkin clan is Grim-alkin. Very fast and strong, she has a code of honor and never resorts to trickery. She prefers her opponent to be a real test. Although honorable, Grimalkin also has a dark side and is reputed to use torture.

All fear the snip-snip of her terrible scissors. She uses these to shear the flesh and bone of her enemies. She carves this sign on trees to mark her territory or warn others away. Grimalkin's favorite killing tool is the long blade, and she is a skilled blacksmith who forges her own weapons.

Grimalkin OTHER NOTABLE MALKIN WITCH a.s.sa.s.sINS.

The previous Malkin a.s.sa.s.sin was Kernolde the Strangler, who, in addition to blades, used ropes, traps, and pits full of spikes to capture and slay her enemies. Once victorious, Kernolde habitually hung her victims by their thumbs before slowly asphyxiating them. She always faced challengers in the Witch Dell, north of the Devil's Triangle. There she was aided by the dead witches who haunt that place, particularly Gertrude the Grim, who has been dead for over a century. Kernolde was finally slain by Grimalkin, who hung her by her feet so that the birds could peck her bones clean.

The a.s.sa.s.sin known as Needle used a long spear as her primary weapon. She impaled her victims and watched them die slowly. After losing an eye to a poisoned dart, she went into decline, finally being defeated in combat by Kernolde.

Dretch was one of the very first Malkin a.s.sa.s.sins, and the clan still talks of her to this day. She could stalk her enemies with such skill that it was impossible to hear her approach. Her primary weapons were her fingernails and her teeth. In combat, she would blind her enemy with her nails and bite savagely into the throat, tearing out an artery. She was ambushed by a dozen Deanes on Walpurgis Night, when there is traditionally a truce between the clans. After a fierce fight she was slain, but five of her attackers paid with their own lives. This began a year-long war between the Malkins and the Deanes.

Demdike was the only a.s.sa.s.sin ever to have been murdered by her own clana"the Mouldheels. She made powerful enemies by disobeying directives and insulting the Mouldheel clan leader to her face. At the Halloween sabbath they took her by surprise, stoned her, and threw her body into the fire.

Kernolde WITCH POWERS.

Animism Magic This type of magic is also practiced by the category of mages known as shamans, but its strongest adherents are the Romanian witches. They feed upon the animus, the life essence of a creature. This is not its soul; it is the vitality or energy that animates body and mind. They do not take blood but draw the animus forth directly by use of willpower and incantations, sometimes over many weeks or months. The body of the victim becomes gray and wrinkled and withers until the skin is like dry parchment over the brittle bones. Sometimes, in the later stages, the victim appears dead but still walks. He breathes and his heart beats feebly, but his eyes are unseeing and he cannot speak. At that stage, death is very close.

Very occasionally, when seven or more witches are gathered together, the victim drops dead within seconds. Again, the feeding is accompanied by exertion of the group willpower and incantations. Romanian witches never write down any of their spells; they are pa.s.sed through the generations and learned by heart.

Blood Magic This is the most basic of the types of magic practiced by witches. They may progress to the higher levels of bone magic or familiar magic, but all start at this stage and continue to use it from time to time throughout their lives.

Blood features in rituals, especially at the time of the four main witches' sabbaths (February, April, August, and October). Drinking copious amounts, especially the blood of children, increases the potency of dark magic. It enhances both scrying and cursing, the latter being used to bring about the death of an enemy from a great distance.

Bone Magic This type of magic is one level higher than blood magic. The bones of animals can be used, but human bones, especially thumb bones, are the most valued. The thumb bones of a seventh son of a seventh son are the greatest prize of all.13 Using bones in rituals can achieve a variety of things. One of the most notorious uses is to create a bone yard, a deadly place to trap the unwary. After drinking blood squeezed from the thumbs of a still-living victim, the witch invokes the dark, using incantations, then cuts away the thumb bones and buries them at the center of the yard.

When someone wanders into the boneyard, their own bones become very heavy and they are bound to the spot; slow starvation is the result. At the center of such a trap, the pressure exerted is so great that the victim's bones are broken and crushed. To reach that point is rare, however; it is a fate usually suffered by an animal such as a hare or deer that is moving very fast. Once the flesh has rotted and fallen away, the witch comes to claim her harvest.

When approaching the lair of a bone witch, always move with extreme caution. The first warning when entering a boneyard is a feeling of lethargy, soon followed by a sense that your whole body is becoming heavier. But it is important not to panic. To turn around can alert the witches that a victim is trying to escape and causes the pressure to intensify. So start to move backward very slowly, taking deep breaths. Once clear, find another route to the witch's lair, but beware of further traps.

Witches can also use bone magic to enslave graveside lingerers, ghosts bound to the scene of a crime or confused spirits wandering in limbo.14 Once a spirit is summoned, a witch enslaves it and can make it do her bidding, often using it to spy on or terrorize enemies.

Sometimes bones are ground down to a fine powder and mixed with blood before being sipped from a human skull. Not only does this provide an easy way to get bone into the witch's body, it adds an element of blood magic as well, thus heightening the power of the ritual.

Curses In conjunction with blood or bone magic, witches routinely use curses to kill their enemies from afar.15 The accurate use of words is vital, and sometimes the curse is actually written down and sent to the intended victim. In rare cases it is written on skin rather than parchment or paper.

A number of years ago, the three main Pendle clans, the Malkins, the Deanes, and the Mouldheels, came together and cursed me. The parchment they sent had spots of blood on it from victims who were probably murdered as part of the dark magical ritual. The leaders of the three covens also signed in blood. On the next page is that cursea"which I must confess did cause me a few sleepless nights.

By screeching owl, by toad and bat, By scuttling beetle, shiny black, We curse thy soul! Weall take thy life!

By bloodred moon and starless sky, By writhing bones and corpseas sigh, We curse thy soul! Weall take thy life!

By slithering snake and long-tailed rat, By mandrake root and familiar cat, We curse thy soul! Weall take thy life!

These words have been written in the blood of innocents.

Thus cursed you are by covens three: You will die in a dark place, far underground, with no friend at your side!

Darcie Malkin, Jessie Deane, & Claris Mouldheel Many years have pa.s.sed and the curse has still had no effect, but whenever my work calls me to venture underground, it always comes into my mind, and I am doubly on my guard.

Elemental Magic At its most basic level, this form of magic is usually practiced by novice witches being trained within a clan, or unaware witches who frequent lonely places where they feel in tune with nature. The latter often sense a presence close by: unknown to them, this is an emerging elemental spirit, feeding and growing as a result of contact with a curious human mind. By focusing on the outcome she desires, the novice malevolent witch can use the power of the elemental to ill wish.

The elemental will do her bidding and exert its power against the chosen victim. Death rarely results from such a malignant partnership, but night terrors, ill health, and infestations of lice are common.

Used by skilled and experienced pract.i.tioners, elemental magic is very powerful. Fully developed elementals such as barghests and moroi are used both as guardians and killers. The latter in particular are a deadly threat in Romania, where, under the control of demons, they possess bears and attack their designated victims with terrible fury.

Familiar Magic This is the most powerful of the three categories of magic used by the Pendle witches, although such pract.i.tioners may also use blood and bone magic from time to time. Magic of this type has tremendous and terrible potential.

The witch binds a creature to her will, at first feeding her own blood to her chosen familiar. Once it is bound to her, the blood of victims may be subst.i.tuted. The creature effectively becomes an extension of the witch's own body. It is as if she can detach her hand and have it operate at a distance. It becomes her eyes and ears. The possibilities afforded by this dreadful magic are numerous and varied, depending on what type of creature a witch chooses as her familiar. Often witches have more than one, each suited to a different purpose. A cat can be used to spy on an enemy witch or scratch out her eyes, or even kill her baby by sitting on its face and smothering it while it sleeps.

Bats and birds have the advantage of flight and can enable a witch to search for both enemies and victims. She usually chooses birds of the night, such as owls and corpse fowls.16 Cats, especially black ones, are probably the most popular familiars, and many witches choose them because of their own feline nature. Cats are quick and subtle, but also cruel: They play with their prey before devouring it.

Snakes are almost as common, not least because of their ability to kill. County snakes are not usually dangerous, but a.s.sociation with a witch increases the power of their jaws and endows them with a lethal venom they would not normally possess.

Toads are the least powerful of familiars, and are usually employed by very old, isolated witches (whose powers are waning and who merely want the latest gossip) and by those whose grasp of dark magic is extremely limited. However, they are the favorite familiars of water witches, well suited to the boggy terrain they inhabit, and their skin oozes a particularly virulent poison: The merest contact with it results in death.

Finally there are what we term higher-order familiars. These are ent.i.ties such as demons that would normally be considered too dangerous and power-ful to be employed as familiars. Only the very strongest witches dare to attempt this, and few can carry it off. Almost inevitably there is a power struggle, and the witch may become subservient to that which she sought to control.17 Mirrors and Scrying There are three ways in which the Pendle witches combine dark magic with the use of mirrors.

1. To communicate over a distance, either by lip reading from one another's reflected images or by writing. Most witches are skilled at lip reading, but sometimes they write on the mirror when communicating with others unused to the practice. Using dark magic, they can locate another mirror and their message appears there. A very skillful witch can even use a puddle or any surface of calm water.

2. They use mirrors to spy on their enemies or victims. As a defense against that magical art, many inhabitants of the Pendle district turn their mirrors to the wall after dark.

3. Some witches believe that they have the ability to use mirrors to prophesy. Using the blood of a victim as ink, they draw magical symbols along the edges of a mirror. Afterward, spells are chanted, and they supposedly see visions of the future in the gla.s.s. Such so-called scryers are almost certainly deluded. I refuse to believe that the future is fixed. Free will and choice shape what happens.18 Moon Magic This type of magic is mostly practiced by benign witches. Pract.i.tioners sometimes dance naked at the time of the full moon to strengthen the power of the herbs they gather for healing.

The moon is said to show the truth of things, and can sometimes counter spells of false appearance.

Sniffing Long sniffing is used by a witch to sniff out approaching danger.19 Seventh sons of seventh sons are immune to that power, but we must still beware of short sniffing; up close, a witch can use it to find out our strengths and weaknesses. The nearer she approaches, the worse it gets. Always keep a witch at bay with a rowan staff, and above all, never let her breathe into your face!

Spells of False Appearance Otherwise known as dread, glamour, and fascination, these spells allow a malevolent witch to hide what she really is.

Dread is used to change her appearance in order to terrify her enemies. Instead of hair, a nest of black snakes may adorn her head and her eyes may glow red like fiery coals. Additionally, her face deforms and becomes monstrous.

Glamour and fascination work together. The former makes a witch seem younger and more beautiful than she really is; fascination then forces a man to believe anything she tells him. He becomes like a rabbit in thrall to a stoat. But only the very strongest of witches can maintain such illusions in moonlight.

Sympathetic Magic This type of magic is usually used to kill, cripple, or seriously hurt the enemy of a witch. A clay or wax figure is modeled in the shape of the intended victim. Into it are mixed ingredients that make it more potent, such as the victim's blood or urine. If these cannot be obtained, a strand of hair or a small piece of material from the victim's clothing will usually suffice.

What happens next is bounded only by the imagination and vindictiveness of the witch. Any injury inflicted on the figure will result in the victim feeling that pain. The witch has created sympathy between the figure and the living person. So a nail driven into any part of the model's anatomy will be felt in the same place on the living being. If the head and heart are targeted, then death will come swiftly. Alternatively, the victim may be crippled. Melting part of the model might result in a wasting disease.

A witch bottle is often used as a defense against an enemy witch who is already using dark magic. Some of her urine is placed in the bottle, along with sharp stones, pins, and iron nails. Once corked, the bottle is given a good shake, then left in the sun for three days. On the night of the next full moon it's buried under a dung heap. The next time the witch tries to urinate, she finds herself in agony. Thereupon the witch is informed of what has been done, and in return for halting her own magical attack, the witch bottle is destroyed.