The Spook's Bestiary Part 6

1 The main exception to this rule is the demons that pa.s.s to and fro from the dark to our world through the fiery portal used by the Ordeen. It is the power of that G.o.ddess that makes such a thing possible. a"John Gregory 2 Seconded to Bill Arkwright, I helped hunt down a selkie far to the north of the County. Bill's poor dog followed it into the water and was seized and drowned. After killing the dog, the selkie escaped. a"apprentice Graham Cain Working with Bill Arkwright, I was also witness to the hunting of a selkie. The creature was living happily with a fisherman in the shape of a woman, and it seemed cruel and unjust that she should be driven into the sea, leaving him alone. The poor man was distraught. There are some jobs a spook shouldn't have to do. a"Tom Ward A Skelt.

Water Beasts.

Water beasts are to be found all over the known world in seas, lakes, rivers, marshes, ponds, and ca.n.a.ls. In the County they cause the biggest problems north of Caster. It is my hope that one day I will train an apprentice who will specialize in dealing with such creatures.1 Scylla.

Scylla are a type of fierce water beast to be found only in freshwater rivers and lakes in Greece. The creatures vary in size, but each of them has seven heads, two tails, and five limbs. Covered in green scales, they often hide in underwater foliage, then scuttle out at great speed to seize their preya"usually fishermen or unwary travelers. The first scylla is said to have been one of the children of the first Lamia. It inherited its mother's voracious appet.i.te, which has been pa.s.sed down to her descendants.

A Scylla.

Skelts2.

Skelts resemble huge insects, with long, thin, multi-jointed legs. Despite their size, they can fold themselves into very narrow s.p.a.ces. Their segmented bodies are hard and ridged like a crustacean and usually barnacle encrusted. They live close to water, often in caves, and emerge to feed on the warm blood of mammals. They have snouts but are toothless, and their most notable feature is a long, narrow, sharp bone tube, which they insert into their prey in order to suck its blood.

A Skelt.

A Water Witch Feasting on a Skelt.

The skelt is greatly prized by water witches, who use it in their rituals. They allow it to drink the blood of a sacrificial victim over a period of days. Once the victim is dead, the witches then dismember the skelt alive and eat it raw. This triples the power of the blood magic gained.

Sirens These female creatures use their powerful, enchanting voices to lure sailors to their deaths. In trying to reach the sirens, the mariners either plunge into the sea, where they are drowned, or sail their boats onto the rocks.3 It is believed that sirens feed upon the flesh of the drowned.

A Siren A Wight Wights A wight is another creature created and used by witches, usually as the watery guardian of some secret place.4 Wights are created using dark magic. A drowned sailor's soul is bound to his body, which then does not decay but becomes bloated and extremely strong. Although blind, their eyes having been devoured by fishes, wights have keen hearing and can locate their victims while still submerged. A victim may be totally unaware that a wight lies in wait in nearby water. The attack, when it comes, is swift. The wight seizes its prey and drags it down into deep water, where it drowns while being slowly dismembered.

Wights, like the witches who create them, can be repulsed and hurt by a staff of rowan wood. With a silver chain, they can also be dragged out of the water and finished off with salt and iron.

A Wight Wormes Wormes5 are dangerous creatures that range in size from that of a small dog to something as big as a house. Some have legs, most have tails, and all are vicious and bad tempered. Their bodies are sinuous and eel-like, but covered with tough green scales that are very difficult to penetrate with a blade. They have long jaws with a mouth full of fangs that can bite off a head or an arm in the twinkling of an eye. When on land, they can also spit a deadly poison that is quickly absorbed through the victim's skin, with fatal results. Some wormes have short stubby wings, and because steam often erupts from their jaws, they are sometimes mistakenly believed to be fire-breathing dragons.

Wormes They are mainly water dwellers, and although they prefer deep lakes, they occasionally make do with a marsh or river. Wormes are rare in the County but are to be found in its most northerly regions, ranging from the lakes down almost as far as Caster.

When they catch humans, they invariably squeeze their prey to death before eating them, bones and all, leaving hardly a trace. Sometimes they even swallow the clothes and shoes. But with animals such as cattle, they just bite deeply and drain them of blood.

Wormes are dangerous creatures to approach and are best dealt with by two people attacking the creature simultaneously.6 *

1 At last I have trained an apprentice from that northern region of the County who wishes to return there and deal with things that come out of the water. His name is Bill Arkwright. a"John Gregory 2 Skelts are extremely rare. One day I hope to see one! a"apprentice Bill Arkwright Bill Arkwright got his wish! He had one trapped in a water pit below the mill. When it escaped, it attacked me and started draining my blood. Bill saved me, killing it with a rock. When he was a prisoner of water witches, they used a skelt to drink his blood. Once he was dead, the creature would have been ritually slain. a"Tom Ward 3 On the Greek coast, the crew of our ship, the Celeste, suddenly found themselves in thrall to sirens who waited on a headland of jagged rocks. These creatures, because of the power of their song, appeared as great beauties. However, their true form was hideous, with huge fangs and swollen lips. As spooks, Tom Ward and I had some immunity to their allure, but only by pressing wax into the ears of the helmsman could we free him from their spell so that the ship could be steered to safety. a"John Gregory 4 A wight was used to guard the secret tunnel that led to Malkin Tower. It was slain by a lamia, which tore it to pieces. a"Tom Ward 5 The word worme is spelled with an e to distinguish it from the common earthworm. a"apprentice George Eccles 6 I faced a dangerous worme with Bill Arkwright. I helped to attract its attention while he stabbed it with his staff, then finished it off with his knife. Bill also demonstrated how a candle flame could be used to distract it .a"Tom Ward A Dragon.

Elemental Spirits.

As the name suggests, elemental spirits emerge from earth, water, air, or fire over a long period of time. The elements give birth to them, but they move only very slowly toward consciousness. It is in the early stage of their development that novice witches can use them to exert power; the older the spirit, the more aware it is. Once they have interacted with a fully fledged malevolent witch, their development is complete.

One plausible theory is that elemental spirits eventually evolve first into demons, then finally into G.o.ds. There is no hard evidence for this, but it does seem likely. Thus the Old G.o.ds are the result of a long developing process, the final catalyst being their worship by humans.1 Barghests.

Barghests are earth spirits that take the form of a huge black dog with fiery eyes and enormous fangs. Usually artificially bound to a certain location, they draw their strength from human fear, something they have in common with ghasts and boggarts. They are used and controlled by some witches to guard their homes, or places where covens gather. A spook can deal with them using salt and iron, but they can be a great danger to ordinary folk, projecting waves of fear that can stop a heart or drive the susceptible insane.

A Barghest.

Boogles.

Boogles are elemental spirits of earth that frequent caves and tunnels. Most are harmless, but they naturally make miners very nervous. They take the form of grotesque shadows that move extremely slowly. Occasionally they whisper or sigh. (Tappers are a much greater threat.) Dragons Dragons are mistakenly believed by many to be fire breathers with wings and talons. True dragons are very different. They are elemental spirits of the air, some so large they can coil themselves right round a big hill. They often sleep for centuries like that, covering it from foot to summit. They are invisible, so most people aren't even aware of them. The more sensitive may just shiver suddenly on a hot summer's day and think they're coming down with a cold. Big dragons are sluggish things. They don't move much, but if they do, it happens very slowly.

Their thought processes also seem slow, but that's because they experience time differently: A day seems of no more duration than a second. Thus to them humans are no more than tiny insects and they are hardly aware of our existence. In ancient times, spooks could communicate with such beings, but that art has been lost.

Some mages try to use the energy of a dragona"with mixed results. There is great danger in such attempts. The mage is sometimes trapped within the aura of the dragon and falls into a deep sleep from which he never awakes, the most famous example being Merlin (under Mages) who, it is said, still sleeps within a dragon's lair and will do so until the end of the world.

Fire Elementals Fire elementals are not found in the County because of its wet climate and prevailing westerly winds from the sea.2 In hot lands, however, they can be very dangerous, often taking the form of glowing orbs, some of which are translucent, others opaque. At noon they are usually to be found on rocks, from which they draw heat and power. Additionally, they may frequent ruined or abandoned buildings.

As a general rule, the opaque ones are hotter and more dangerous than translucent ones. Indoors these often float close to the ceiling but can move very suddenly, which makes them almost impossible to dodge. Contact with such a sphere can result in severe burns and a painful death. In more extreme cases, such elementals can reduce their victims to ashes almost instantly.

Other fire elementals called asteri are similar in shape to a starfish, with five fiery arms. These elementals cling to the surface of walls or ceilings and drop onto the heads of unsuspecting victims.

The most dangerous fire elemental of all is the salamander, a large lizard that basks in the heat of intense flames. These can spit streaks of fire or scalding steam.

A Salamander Fire elementals are notoriously difficult to defend against, but a metal alloy blade with the correct percentage of silver can sometimes cause one to implode. A spook's staff is particularly useful for this purpose.3 Failing that, water can seriously weaken a fire elemental and cause it to hibernate until drier conditions prevail.4 Water also offers a refuge when under attack.

Moroi These are vampiric elemental spirits found in Romania. They are sometimes controlled by the strigoi and strigoica, but even when operating alone are a considerable threat to travelers. In their disembodied form, they inhabit hollow trees and clumps of holly. However, they often possess bears, which crush and lacerate their human victims before dragging them back to their lair. Sunlight destroys them, and they are only at large after dark.

Moroi have one significant weakness: They are compulsive in their behavior and often linger close to their lair, counting holly berries, seeds, twigs, or even blades of gra.s.s, wasting the hours that would otherwise have been used to hunt human prey. By the time they have finished counting, it's usually almost dawna"which can be the most dangerous time of all for unwary humans, because the creatures are desperate to drink blood before the sun rises.

This weakness is exploited by Romanian spooks, who always have a pocketful of seeds or berries. Threatened by the moroi, they cast these toward it. Rather than attack, it is forced to begin counting again.

Tappers Tappers, distant cousins to the boggarts that plague the County, live deep within rock clefts and sometimes cause tunnels to collapse. County miners fear them more than anything else.

Tappers try to drive humans away from territory they have claimed as their own. First of all, they use feara"hence the mysterious and unnerving rhythmical tapping sounds that are typical signs of their presence. But if fear doesn't work, they bring down rocks and try to crush those they consider to be interlopers.

In an abandoned mine, huge numbers may gather unchecked over time, endangering the lives of any humans who venture there. Even many of them working together cannot cause a tunnel to collapse unless there is an existing fault line. However, if they do find a serious crack in the structure of the rock above, they can easily bring the ceiling down, either crushing or sealing victims underground so they perish from lack of air or water.5 Water Elementals.

Water elementals are mostly found in the north of the County, where the bogs, lakes, and coast are inhabited by other denizens of the dark, such as water witches. There is a dangerous type called a wisp, which appears as a spiral of light over dangerous marshes and lures travelers off the path to their doom. These are usually too elusive to be dealt with unless there is a severe drought (a rare thing in the County). Then a spook can bind one in a pit using the same method as he would for a boggart.

A Wisp.

Then there are banshees (also known as bean sidhe), which are female water spirits that warn of death. Mostly they are invisible: All you hear is a wailing cry, uttered just three times each night. If they are heard close to a house three nights running, it is said someone inside will die at the very moment the final wail is heard.

Sometimes banshees can be glimpsed apparently washing a burial shroud. If there is blood either on the shroud or in the water, then a violent death is predicted.6 They are not solid and do not leave footprints or any other evidence of their presence.

A spook has no means of dealing with banshees, but they react to future events rather than bringing them about, so are not in themselves dangerous.7 A Banshee.

1 There is some recent evidence to support this view. The Bane was once one of the Old G.o.ds, worshipped by the Little People. At the time of its unfortunate liberation from the catacombs under Priestown Cathedral, where it had little human contact, it had the strength of a demon. Gradually it then began to grow in power. I'm convinced that, using terror, it would eventually have forced people to worship it in great numbers. It would have become a G.o.d once more. It was destroyed by my apprentice, Tom Ward, just in time. a"John Gregory 2 No doubt the reduced danger was in part due to that, but we must not discount the recent arrival of these elementals through the portal. After reaching our world, denizens of the dark always need time to achieve their full strength. a"John Gregory 3 This proved to be the case when we were in Greece and encountered fire elementals. One of the asteri was cut in two by my staff's blade, but it was not the end of the elemental. It began to re-form, and we had to leave the location quickly. a"John Gregory 4 During our encounter with the Ordeen, a tremendous amount of water had fallen into the Ord, and this made some of the fire elementals less dangerous. a"Tom Ward 5 In a cave in the Pindhos Mountains, fleeing from maenads, Alice and I heard tappers all around us. They brought the roof down, and we only just escaped with our lives. a"Tom Ward 6 The predicted deaths do not always occur, leading me to suspect that coincidence may be involved, or that people simply die of fear, thereby fulfilling the prophecy. a"John Gregory 7 They are not to be confused with the Celtic witches (also known as banshee witches). Those mimic the action of a banshee but actually bring about the death of their chosen victim. These witches worship the Old G.o.ddess known as the Morrigan, who often appears in the shape of a crow. a"John Gregory The Cawley Stone Crawler.

Mysterious Deaths in the County.

Spooks catalog the creatures of the dark. Bit by bit, year by year, we learn more about the threats posed by the dark and develop ways in which to thwart or limit its effects. But there are still ent.i.ties out there that defy our attempts to take their measure. In the County there have been many mysterious deaths that so far have not been explained.

THE BLOATED BODY OF EMILY JANE HUDSON.

Emily Jane Hudson had lived in Ormskirk all her life but had taken to her sick bed two years before her plight was brought to my notice. Doctors had visited her regularly, attempting unsuccessfully to deal with her strange affliction.

Emily was still alive when I first saw her. I had been called to her bedside by Dr. Gill, with whom I'd worked many times in the past; he was a liberal and intelligent man who understood the part played in the County by the servants of the dark and routinely sought my advice.

At first I thought I was dealing with a woman who was extremely obese, but when the doctor lit a candle and pulled back the bedclothes slightly, I was astonished by the sight of poor Emily. Her face, shoulders, and neck were terribly swollen, but there was not an ounce of visible fat on her. The bright red skin was stretched tight by the blood beneath it. It was as if someone or something had forced blood into the s.p.a.ce between skin and flesh. To support that theory, there were two large puncture marks on her neck, and the same on each shoulder.

There are many cases in the County where blood has been removed from a living body. Witches who use blood magic do so routinely. Sometimes they drain their victim completely; at other times they draw blood in small amounts over days or even weeks. But never had I encountered a case where blood had been added rather than subtracted.

I was unable to help, and within two hours poor Emily was dead. Fortunately the local priest allowed her to be buried within the churchyard, which was of some consolation to her family.

Thus I was forced to record one more mysterious death in the County. I can only suppose that some unknown type of witch or dark ent.i.ty was using her body as a place to store blood for some future ritual. But although I watched over her grave for weeks, they never returned to take it.

THE CAWLEY STONE CRAWLER.

There have been many mysterious deaths near the outcrop of rock known as the Cawley Stone. At first it was animals being killed: sheep, rabbits, stoats, and squirrels. But twice I have been called to the area to investigate human deaths. The first was that of a hermit who lived in the woods nearby; the second time I traveled to view the remains of a shepherd who had pursued a stray lamb into the vicinity of the rock.

Both the lamb and shepherd were dead, but they had no marks on their bodiesa"not even the slightest sign of violence.

The Cawley Stone has one visible peculiarity. About six feet from the ground on its northern face, there is a shape that might be a carving carried out in the distant past. If so, it has been weathered and worn and the details are not sharp. Alternatively, the shape could be the result of natural erosion. Whatever the truth of the matter, it has the appearance of a head, with muscular shoulders, arms, and hands. In certain lights, particularly just before sunset, it appears to be climbing out of the rock. If so, let us hope that it never completes its slow escape, because there is something very frightening about the figure.1 Some say that it is indeed emerging very slowly and claim to remember a time when it had not climbed out as far. Human memory is fallible, so we must allow for that, but I happened to speak to Jonathan Brown, the oldest resident of the nearby village. He says that as a young man he approached the Cawley Stone crawler for a dare and spent some time examining it closely. He was an artist who specialized in drawing landscapes and landmarks such as churches, so he took the opportunity to make a sketch of what he saw, striving, as usual, for accuracy. That sketch was still in his possession after all those years, and he showed it to me.

In the drawing, the figure was much further embedded in the rock: only one hand had emerged. I looked at some of his other work and was impressed by his eye for detaila"particularly in his sketch of the gargoyle of the Bane, which is located over the main entrance to Priestown Cathedral. I was satisfied that he had rendered the crawler accuratelya"as it was then!

My suspicion is that we are dealing with some new type of earth elemental. It might well be that the rock face was worshipped in ancient times, sacrificial blood being splattered against it. That would have awakened the elemental, giving it strength and a sense of self. How it kills those who venture close, I do not know. But it is something to be aware of as it makes its slow escape from its rocky prison.

It may not need my attention again, but no doubt some future spook will be forced to deal with it.

THE MYSTERY OF THE CREEPING VINE.

Late in the August of my fiftieth year, I was called from my Chipenden home to view a death that defied explanation. A suspected witch, Agatha Anderton, had long been watched at a distance by wary and distrustful neighbors. I'd talked to her once and found no evidence to support their whispered accusations. Although advanced in years, Agatha was bright, alert, and in my opinion, completely without malicea"definitely falling into the category of witch known as the falsely accused.

This final time I was summoned because of the state of her house and garden. The latter had been overrun by a strange yellow vine that had displaced her herbs and flowers; worse, and far more ominously, it had grown over the exterior of her cottage, covering walls, doors and windows in a profusion of sickly smelling bloodred blossoms. No smoke had come from her chimney for days, and her neighbors believed that witchcraft was involved.

The vine was tough. Although it looked like fresh growth, the stems were woody and I had to use an ax to cut it away from the front door. Once inside, although it was just before noon, I was forced to light a lantern because the rooms were so dark. I gasped in shock, finding it difficult to believe my eyes.

The vine had apparently sprouted directly from poor Agatha's body before displacing the floorboards and splitting the wooden bed upon which the old woman lay. She was cold and dead and had been in that condition for some time; her corpse was severely decayed.

But the real horror lay in what the vine had done to her body. Buds erupted from her dead flesh; shoots sprang from her ears and eyes; tendrils snaked down her nostrils and coiled about her throat; her feet and hands were covered in red blooms. The creeping vine had used her body as its soil, a nutrient to sustain its prolific growth.

Though it was hard to cut her from the bed, it had to be done. A priest was called, but although he said a few prayers over the body, he would not allow her to be buried in holy ground. So with his grudging permission, I laid her to rest just outside the churchyard.

From her grave the vine continued to sprouta"but far more slowly than previously. Nevertheless, it's a dense, tangled growth from which both animals and humans keep their distance. After many years, it now covers a roughly circular area of approximately one hundred yards in diameter. I say circular, but it has extended in every direction but one; it has halted at the boundaries of the churchyard, almost encircling it but seemingly unable to encroach upon holy ground.

Why did it happen? It must remain one of the great mysteries of the County. I have no doubt that dark forces were involved. But whether it was conjured by Agatha Anderton or by some unidentified enemy, we will never know. If dark magic was used, it is a spell unknown to the witches of the County, suggesting that an incomer was involved.

1 I pa.s.sed by the Cawley Stone just before sunset with my master, John Gregory, and we examined the crawler. It did appear to be climbing out of the rock and looked very scary indeed. I noticed that while we were there, everything was very still; there wasn't a breath of wind and the birds had stopped singing. a"apprentice Henry Burrows

Final Words.

This Bestiary, my personal guide to the dark, is the last remaining book from the old spooks' library.

It is hard for me to convey the sense of loss I felt when the Chipenden library was destroyed. Up in flames went words written by generations of spooks, a great store of knowledge, the heritage of countless years of struggle against the ever-growing power of the dark. I was its guardian, and it was my task to extend and preserve it for the future. And now it is gone.

Its destruction filled me with a great sense of personal failure. It was a terrible blow that literally brought me to my knees.

Now I have had time to reflect, and I am filled with renewed strength and determination. My fight against the dark will continue. One day I will rebuild the library, and this book, my personal Bestiary, will be the first to be placed upon its shelves.

John Gregory of Chipenden.

About the Author and Ill.u.s.trator.

JOSEPH DELANEY lives in Lancashire and has three children and seven grandchildren. His home is in the middle of boggart territory, and his village has a boggart called the Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church.

JULEK h.e.l.lER has been creating acclaimed fantasy ill.u.s.trations for more than thirty-five years. His work appears in books such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Giants, and The Mammoth Book of Arthurian Legends. He also provides concepts and visualizations for film, television, and theater. Julek h.e.l.ler lives with his family in London.

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