Read Online The Spook's Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney - Free Book Online Page B

and three hours later, we
will all be dead or the Ordeen will have been
destroyed.'
    'Do we really have a chance of success, Mam?' I
demanded. It was terrifying. So much depended on
what we were preparing to do.
    'Yes, son, we do. But it'll be a close-run thing. When
the Ordeen appears on the plain south of Kalambaka,
her intention will be to ravage that town, slay its
inhabitants and take their blood. Those who escape her
servants will be slain and devoured by the maenads.
None will escape.'
    'What about the folk from the town, Mam? Why
do they live there if this happens every seven years?'
    'Their homes are there, son, and they're poor. All
over the world there are people who live close to active
volcanoes or in areas afflicted by earthquakes or
floods. They have no choice. In Kalambaka at least
they know approximately when the danger will come
so they can flee the area. The roads will be thronged
with refugees. Of course, some leave it too late to
escape; others, the old and the sick, simply cannot
travel. And this time, because the power of the Ordeen
has increased so much, thanks to the Fiend, even the
monasteries will not be safe. The attack comes from
both land and air. Flying lamia witches, the vaengir,
will find the heights of Meteora no obstacle at all. The
Fiend has been sending increasing numbers of them to
the Ordeen's side, but at least my sisters won't be
amongst them. He is their enemy too.'
    'And what happens when the portal opens?' I asked,
filled with curiosity. 'Have you seen it happen?'
    'Once, son. Just once, many years ago, before I met
your dad. But I'll never forget it. First a pillar of fire
will extend from the ground to the dark storm-cloud
above. This usually fades to reveal the Ord within.
Then torrential rain will fall, cooling the stones of the
citadel. It is then that we must go in. All entities passing
through a portal from the dark need a little time to
adjust and gather their strength,' Mam explained.
'That was true of the Fiend last summer, remember. It
gave you time to flee from Pendle to the protection of
my special room in the farmhouse. So we must take
advantage of the same time-lag here. Before the
Ordeen and her followers have their full powers, we
must break into the Ord and destroy both her and
them. It's our only hope.'
     
    As our journey progressed, the crew's indifference to
their unusual passengers turned to open hostility. The
captain explained that they had begun to fear and
mistrust the Pendle witches. One of the sailors had
gone missing on night watch. It had been in the midst
of a storm and he'd probably been swept overboard,
but they suspected that the witches had taken the poor
man's life to satisfy their need for blood. So the voyage
grew increasingly uncomfortable and we were all
longing for it to be over.
    True to his word, the Spook had discontinued my
lessons and hardly spoke to me. Alice, he could not
bear to look at. Once, when we were talking on deck,
he raised his eyes, tutted and went back down to the
hold.
    So Arkwright took it upon himself to continue my
training, concentrating on physical skills as he had
back at the mill. But it was a whole new experience to
fight with staffs on a deck that pitched and rolled with
the swell.
    As we got closer to Greece and the temperature
increased, the Spook began to sleep up on deck, away
from the oppressive heat of the hold. And finally he
began to speak to me again. It started with a nod and a
half-smile, but before long he was giving me lessons
once more so I now had the benefit of two spooks
training me.
    'Get out your notebook, lad,' he said to me as, under
a cloudless evening sky and with a light following
wind, we sailed across the Straits of Otranto,
approaching the Greek mainland at last.
    'Well, I mentioned fire elementals to you back in the
County and said I'd tell you about them one day,' he
went on. 'We don't have them back home, probably
because the weather is so wet. Even in summer we
rarely go more than a