Read Online Wardstone 7 - The Spook's Nightmare by Joseph Delaney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Joseph Delaney
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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 abear 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.’
‘You mean a labyrinth like the one behind the silver gate under Priestown Cathedral?’
‘No, lad, this is very different. The Bane was bound there, and that labyrinth had been dug out by the Little People and lined with cobbles. A buggane digs its own labyrinth, which weaves in and out between the roots of trees. It controls the trees and makes their roots move – sometimes with devastating effects for those who are close by. The first time I attempted to deal with the Bane, as a young man, I tied a ball of twine to the silver gate. I unravelled it as I explored the tunnels and followed it back again. But you couldn’t do this here: those buggane tunnels shift and change, sometimes overnight. They can also collapse, suffocating any who venture inside. There’s one record of a buggane being slain by a spook far to the south of the County. About three months after the daemon died, its tunnels collapsed, causing subsidence over the whole area.
‘A buggane should never be confronted in its tunnel system,’ continued the Spook, ‘so going undergroundis the very last thing we should be thinking about! It won’t show its face in the daytime, but just venturing near the chapel after dark should be enough to tempt it out into the open. So that’s what I intend to do …’
I slept well that night before being woken a couple of hours before dawn to take my turn on watch. I thought the dogs would be sufficient to keep guard, but the Spook was taking no chances. He said that shamans had a special power over animals and, no matter how well trained they were, could force them to do his bidding.
At last the sun came up through the trees to the east and soon the birds were singing, the wood slowly coming to life around us.
There was no sense of danger at all. It was hard to believe that, just a mile or so to the north, we would enter the domain of the buggane. We had a late breakfast – some mushrooms, again supplied by Alice. It was too risky to buy food in a tavern; neither theSpook nor I ate much anyway. We were about to begin a fast, our preparation for facing the dark.
Later, the four of us set off for the chapel. Captain Baines was to stay behind with the dogs.
‘Stealth is the key to success here,’ my master told him, ‘and I don’t want those animals anywhere near the ruin in case a shaman is involved. However, I’m reasonably confident that the buggane poses no threat during the hours of daylight. We’re just going to observe for now, so that we’re better prepared once night falls.’
By the time we
‘“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 abear 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.’
‘You mean a labyrinth like the one behind the silver gate under Priestown Cathedral?’
‘No, lad, this is very different. The Bane was bound there, and that labyrinth had been dug out by the Little People and lined with cobbles. A buggane digs its own labyrinth, which weaves in and out between the roots of trees. It controls the trees and makes their roots move – sometimes with devastating effects for those who are close by. The first time I attempted to deal with the Bane, as a young man, I tied a ball of twine to the silver gate. I unravelled it as I explored the tunnels and followed it back again. But you couldn’t do this here: those buggane tunnels shift and change, sometimes overnight. They can also collapse, suffocating any who venture inside. There’s one record of a buggane being slain by a spook far to the south of the County. About three months after the daemon died, its tunnels collapsed, causing subsidence over the whole area.
‘A buggane should never be confronted in its tunnel system,’ continued the Spook, ‘so going undergroundis the very last thing we should be thinking about! It won’t show its face in the daytime, but just venturing near the chapel after dark should be enough to tempt it out into the open. So that’s what I intend to do …’
I slept well that night before being woken a couple of hours before dawn to take my turn on watch. I thought the dogs would be sufficient to keep guard, but the Spook was taking no chances. He said that shamans had a special power over animals and, no matter how well trained they were, could force them to do his bidding.
At last the sun came up through the trees to the east and soon the birds were singing, the wood slowly coming to life around us.
There was no sense of danger at all. It was hard to believe that, just a mile or so to the north, we would enter the domain of the buggane. We had a late breakfast – some mushrooms, again supplied by Alice. It was too risky to buy food in a tavern; neither theSpook nor I ate much anyway. We were about to begin a fast, our preparation for facing the dark.
Later, the four of us set off for the chapel. Captain Baines was to stay behind with the dogs.
‘Stealth is the key to success here,’ my master told him, ‘and I don’t want those animals anywhere near the ruin in case a shaman is involved. However, I’m reasonably confident that the buggane poses no threat during the hours of daylight. We’re just going to observe for now, so that we’re better prepared once night falls.’
By the time we
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