‘Do you think when it comes to the sacrifice that you will be able to endure the pain? When they cut the bones from your hand, your body may disobey you and cry out anyway. To be human is to be weak – for you creatures some things are simply impossible to bear.’
‘Just do my best – that’s all anybody can do, ain’t it?’
Pan nodded, and for the first time he didn’t look quite so angry. When he replied, his voice was gentler.
‘You may be foolish, human, but you are also brave. I will escort you across my land and start you on the next stage of your journey.’
We travelled in silence, Pan about five paces ahead, striding out through the trees. All was still and our journey seemed endless, for it was difficult to judge the passing of time in the dark. And that was a worry.
From my last visit I knew that time behaved differently here: it seemed as if I’d spent long years as a prisoner of the Fiend, but on my return to earth I found it had been mere weeks. I knew the reverse could happen too. For all I knew, time might be passing more rapidly back in the County, where now only four months remained before Halloween. Even if I did succeed in retrieving the dagger, it might be too late.
The forest was beginning to thin out now, the large ancient trees giving way to saplings and scrub. Directly ahead I could see what appeared to be a vast, featureless plain divided by a path that began just beyond the final tree. Beyond the green glow from the forest the land was dark – but for this narrow path, which was formed of tiny white stones.
‘I must leave you now,’ Pan said. ‘Follow the white path across the abyss that lies between each domain. It will take you into the next one.’
‘Into the territory of the Fiend?’ I asked.
Pan shook his head. ‘Who can say? The domains of the dark constantly shift and change in relation to each other. Nothing stays the same for long. But if you can eventually find your way back here, I will help you return to your own world. But you entered my domain without an invitation, so remember that before doing so I will demand that you pay the price of your presumption.’
I stared at the path for a moment longer, and when I turned back to ask Pan what the price was, he had already gone.
I was standing still, but the green trees were receding. As I watched, the forest quickly shrank until it was no larger than the moon back on earth. A moment later it was no bigger than a star, and then it vanished completely. Had it grown smaller or had it simply moved further away? It was impossible to tell.
I was alone, and now all around me was darkness. I sniffed three times, checking for danger. All seemed well, so I stepped onto the path and began to walk, the stones crunching loudly with each cautious step of my pointy shoes. It was perfectly straight, becoming fainter and fainter until, in the distance, it appeared to be no more than a fine line. Only the white stones were visible. I began to walk faster, striding on.
Again it was hard to judge the passage of time, and I don’t know how long I’d been walking when I heard a distant howl somewhere to my left. It sounded like the hunting cry of a wolf or some other large predator.
Suddenly nervous, I increased my pace a little, listening out. I became aware of the loud crunching of my shoes on the pebble path. If it was some sort of wolf and it hadn’t sniffed my scent already, surely the sound of my footsteps would bring it in my direction? I decided to walk alongside the path rather than on it.
But when I tried to step off, my left shoe encountered no resistance. There was nothing there. No ground.
Pan had said that an abyss lay between each of the zones! And what was an abyss other than a great emptiness, a bottomless pit?
Pitching forward into the darkness, I twisted desperately and managed to fall sideways, back onto the path. Then, my heart hammering after that close call, I knelt and looked down. I could see nothing. On all sides was absolute darkness. With my left hand I reached down, but could feel nothing. What could I do but continue on my way, keeping to the path?
My heart steadying to a normal rhythm, I crunched along, trying to work out the most likely explanation for what had happened. Either the ground had just disappeared or the path had somehow climbed upwards – in which case, what was supporting it?
The hunting cry came again. This time it was much nearer but it came from below. So I had left the ground behind. I was safe from the creature for now – unless it could somehow find its way up onto the path.
Soon I heard the howl once more – higher and nearer – and I immediately became more nervous. Was it already up on the path?
I walked even faster, wondering what manner of creature was behind me. Was I being hunted? Was it some sort of daemon?
I glanced back, and in the distance I could see something loping towards me on all fours. It looked like a small dog, but that might be because it was still a considerable distance behind me. I really had no idea how big it was. I began to run. It was difficult to get up much speed on the stones, and I slipped and almost fell headlong.
Risking another glance back, I immediately wished I hadn’t. What was following me now looked very big, more wolf than dog, and it was gaining by the second. There was something strange about the creature’s face. Yes, it had the bestial face of a wolf, but its expression was sly, crafty and almost human.
A chill ran the length of my spine as, suddenly, I knew exactly what pursued me.
It was the kretch, the creature that had been created by witches to hunt down and slay Grimalkin as she carried the Fiend’s head. Fathered by a daemon called Tanaki, it had great powers of regeneration and had grown steadily stronger, learning from each encounter with the witch assassin. One of its weapons was a deadly poison that had weakened Grimalkin; only with the help of my magic had she finally been able to kill it.
Now it had a new existence in the dark.
And I was its target. I had hoped to sneak into the dark unseen but for Pan. What a fool I’d been! Things were watchful here, and this creature had found me already.
I didn’t want to use my magic: it was a finite resource and I might have need of it later. Not only that . . . Each use of dark magic brought me nearer to being a fully-fledged malevolent witch with a cruel heart of stone. This is what worried me most.
But here I had no choice. I decided to be economical with my power and use the minimum. I exerted my will, and a thick mist began to form across the path so that I could no longer see the kretch. I added to that a spell of bewilderment.
I didn’t know how effective this would be against such a creature, but within seconds it howled again – no longer the triumphant cruel cry of a hunter; more of a baffled whine.
There was no knowing how long it would remain lost and befuddled, so I began to run again, until the mist and the kretch were far behind.
Soon I’d something else to worry about, though. I realized that, in the distance, I could see the end of the path. The white line of stones simply stopped, and beyond it lay nothing but darkness.
What if I had become trapped in the space between zones? Did the path start and end with nothingness? I wondered. A dark rocky cliff lay directly ahead, and I saw that the white path didn’t end after all; it simply disappeared into the mouth of a small cave.
Was this the entrance to the next domain?
A yellow light shone just inside. Unless I was mistaken, it was the flickering light of a candle. Who did it belong to? Cautiously I approached the entrance and halted, peering within.
A pair of vivid sapphire-blue eyes stared back at me. I saw a girl of about my own age. Her black hair was cut short and she had a small tattoo on her left cheek – that of a bear. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding up her hands towards me. She had been maimed – they were dripping with blood, and the cause was terrible. Where her thumbs should have been there were two gaping wounds.
‘You must be Alice,’ she said. ‘My name is Thorne.’
THORNE WAS THE girl Grimalkin had trained as a witch assassin. We had never met; she h
ad been kept a secret from most people, but I knew all about her, especially how she had died. She had been slain by the servants of the Fiend on the edge of Witch Dell. They had sliced off her thumbs while she still lived, and the shock and loss of blood had killed her.
The eyes that now regarded me with such seriousness were surprisingly gentle. But the lithe body crisscrossed with leather straps containing an assortment of blades marked her as a warrior.
‘Do you know that you’re being followed?’ she asked.
‘Yes. I think it’s the kretch,’ I replied. ‘I used magic to keep it at bay but it won’t hold it for very long.’
That was true. It was beyond death now. How could it be stopped?
As if the creature knew we were discussing it, there came another howl from the darkness, once again a hunting cry; it sounded very close.
‘We must hurry!’ Thorne rose to her feet. ‘Take the candle and follow me!’
I looked beyond her and saw that the cave opened up into a tunnel.
Thorne turned towards it, and I snatched up the candle and jogged after her.
Sometimes the tunnel was so low that we were forced to bow our heads even when crawling on all fours. In one way that made me feel better – for how could the kretch hope to squeeze through such a confined space? But then we would briefly emerge into caverns so vast that the candle could not illuminate the roof. There were ledges far above us, and I sensed malevolent, hostile eyes peering down at us.
‘Whose domain is this?’ I asked, shocked as my voice echoed to fill such vastness.
At my question, Thorne came to a sudden halt and turned to face me, putting her forefinger vertically to her lips to indicate the need for silence. Blood was still dripping from her mutilated hands.
‘We are still in the place between domains, but sometimes the white path gives way to tunnels that are somewhat safer – too small to accommodate anything really big and dangerous.’
‘How big is the kretch, then? Grimalkin told me it was the size of a small horse. Can it follow us here?’
‘It can and will,’ Thorne answered. ‘The laws of size, matter and distance are very different to those back on earth. It might well be catching us now. But there are worse things than its size. It was fathered by Tanaki, one of the hidden daemons that dwell in the abyss. He too may come after us, but fortunately he truly is too large to enter this system of tunnels.’
‘Were you waiting for me?’ I asked her.
Thorne nodded. ‘You have friends here as well as enemies. I will do what I can to help. But why have you come? The living should not enter the dark.’
For a moment I hesitated. Could I trust Thorne? I asked myself. But then I remembered how positively Grimalkin had spoken about her. I had never heard the witch assassin speak of another with such warmth. Also, I had been alone in the dark and had not expected to be helped. My chances of success would be much greater with a brave ally such as Thorne alongside me.
‘I need to find the domain of the Fiend,’ I told her. ‘There’s a dagger under his throne. It can be used as part of a special ritual to finish him off. But what about you, Thorne? How did you know when I would arrive and where to find me?’
‘We’ll talk later, and I’ll tell you some of what I know of the dark,’ Thorne said. ‘There’s a lot for you to learn, but now we need to reach the next domain. With luck it will be the Fiend’s – then you can get what you need and leave this place.’
I would have liked an answer to my question; however, although I had spent time in the dark, it had been as a prisoner; Thorne had survived here. So, for now, it seemed best to accept that she knew more than I did and allow her to lead.
Soon we came to the end of the tunnel system, and the white path once more stretched out into the darkness above the abyss. It looked identical to what we had left behind. For all I knew, we had somehow come about in a circle and returned to the point where I’d first entered the cave.
Thorne led the way onto the path, so I blew out the candle and pushed it into the pocket of my skirt. ‘How long before we reach the next domain?’ I asked.
She shrugged. ‘Everything shifts and moves here. It’s impossible to say. I’ve not been in the dark very long. There are many who are much better at getting about, especially daemons: they can get from point to point almost in the blink of an eye.’
This was a dangerous and scary place. Thorne had found me; if she could do that, then a daemon servant of the Fiend might do likewise. But it was no use dwelling on such possibilities. I had to simply deal with threats as they arose.
As we walked on into the darkness and emptiness, it seemed as if nothing existed except the two of us and the white path; that and the rhythmical crunching of our feet on the stones.
It was difficult to judge the passing of time, so I began to count my steps to try and keep track. I’d almost reached a thousand when we heard the threatening howl of the kretch behind us. It had managed to get through that narrow tunnel!
In response Thorne began to stride out faster. When the sound came again, she broke into a run and I sprinted at her heels.
The howls became more frequent and louder. The creature was catching us. Thorne came to a sudden halt and turned to look back down the path. I followed her gaze: the creature was only just visible, but bounding towards us, getting closer and closer; all too soon I could see it in more detail.
It was as Grimalkin had described – similar to an enormous wolf – but as it drew near, I detected the significant differences. Although it ran on what seemed to be four legs, the front two limbs were like powerful, muscular arms, capable of snapping the bones of an opponent and tearing the flesh into bloody shreds. Its fur was black, but there were flecks of silver-grey on its powerful back. Set into its body were pouches from which the hilts of weapons protruded, but it also had sharp, poisonous claws. One scratch had almost killed Grimalkin, leaving her with recurrent bouts of weakness that made her vulnerable to her enemies.
I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me now. I prepared to use my magic again, but Thorne had other ideas.
‘Stay behind me, Alice!’ she commanded. Then she stepped forward to face the kretch.
To my astonishment, she kicked off her pointy shoes and, balancing on one leg, reached up with her left foot for the leather straps that crisscrossed her body. Gripping the hilt with her toes, she drew a blade from its sheath.
The kretch was bounding directly towards her now, eyes full of anger and hate, teeth ready to rend her body. Thorne kicked out savagely, and the blade flew from her toes, skittering across the forehead of the beast, missing its eye by a whisker. She changed legs, now balancing on the left. This time the toes of her right foot selected a blade.
I admired her calmness. The kretch was almost upon her now, but the second blade sped from her foot and buried itself up to the hilt in the beast’s left eye – right on target. It gave a roar of pain and reared up onto its hind legs, trying to tug the dagger out of its eye-socket. It was then that Thorne despatched a third blade and found the other eye.
Blood was running down the creature’s face, matting the fur and dripping from its chin. Blinded, it slashed wildly at the girl, but she was no longer there. Howling with rage and pain, it lost its balance and fell off the path. The scream faded as it plunged into the abyss, getting fainter and fainter until it could no longer be heard.
I looked for Thorne to ask if we could be sure that the kretch was gone . . . But she was already running past me and sprinting onwards. ‘Quickly! That could bring its father, the daemon Tanaki, after us!’
We ran at full pelt down the path, Thorne carrying her shoes in her mutilated left hand. I was impressed by her despatch of the kretch, but from what she’d just said we were now in even greater danger. Tanaki might arrive in the blink of an eye: we had to reach the next set of tunnels.
Another cliff face was now in sight, the path disappearing into a cave once more. As we approached it, we heard a sound that b
ecame more worrying and scary with every step we took. It began as a low rumble, but quickly grew in volume and intensity, until the small white stones on the path were shaking, juddering and jumping.
‘Those sounds – that’s Tanaki!’ cried Thorne. ‘He’s big – really big – and the nearer he comes, the louder they will get!’
By now even the teeth in my head were vibrating. Then the vault of darkness above was suddenly sundered by blue-white lightning. The deafening crash of thunder was simultaneous.
‘Run! Run!’ Thorne shouted, sprinting ahead. ‘That lightning means he’s almost here!’
Tanaki was still out of sight, but I sensed him getting closer and closer, and I ran at Thorne’s heels feeling that he might appear at any second.
But soon, to my relief, we gained the refuge of a cave mouth once more.
‘We’re safe for now,’ Thorne said, falling to her knees. ‘Tanaki never gives up, though. Each time we walk the path between domains he will be hunting us.’
THORNE LOOKED EXHAUSTED, and the blood still dripped where her thumbs had been. She tried to stand, but her legs buckled under her and she sat down again. ‘Sorry, but it looks like I need to rest up for a while. That took a lot out of me,’ she said.
‘Ain’t no problem. You rest until you feel better. That was a good trick throwing knives with your feet!’ I told her.
Thorne stared at me for a moment. ‘I’ve had to teach myself to do that. I can grip daggers with my fingers, but not half as well as I could when I had thumbs. It’s painful too – makes it hard to concentrate. But I was trained by Grimalkin and she taught me to improvise and never give up.’
‘Must have been good to be taught by the witch assassin,’ I said. ‘I drew the short straw – Bony Lizzie taught me, and I had to endure two years of cruelty and misery!’
‘I could never abide her,’ Thorne said.
‘Me neither!’ I exclaimed with a smile.