Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) (19 page)

In the distance, far to my left, I glimpsed one of the terrible varteki. It towered above the battlefield, three huge tentacles writhing like the branches of an enormous tree in a gale. But then the snow closed in and it was lost to my view.

It was a blizzard now – I could hardly see the horse in front of me. We seemed to be floating rather than galloping. The snow was no longer driving straight into my face. It was parting like a curtain before it touched my skin and I couldn’t hear anything at all except my own breathing.

All at once I began to feel strange and dizzy, and I feared I was about to fall off my horse. Alice tightened her grip upon my waist. I felt nausea in my belly . . . and then everything changed.

There was suddenly no snow; no battle; nobody but Alice and me staring out over a vast featureless plain of grey sand. My horse had come to a halt and I could feel it trembling beneath me. Above us the sky was the same colour as the sand; there were no clouds, no sun, no stars – just the same quality of light that might be expected back in the County at dusk. In every direction the horizon was obscured by a distant white mist.

I realized that Alice had used her magic to bring us to this strange place. But I needed to be back in the battle. I wanted to be sure that Jenny was safe and that everybody got back across the river.

‘Where are we, Alice?’ I demanded angrily. ‘Is this the dark?’

‘No, Tom, this is the space between worlds,’ she replied. ‘From here we could be back in Chipenden in an instant or, with great difficulty and danger, find our way into the heart of Valkarky. But the Kobalos mages can use it too.’

‘I didn’t want to come here, Alice – my place is with the others!’

‘That’s
why
we’ve come here. More use to the others here than back in that battle, we are. This is
exactly
where we need to be. I’m going to do my best to save those soldier boys. Lenklewth will no doubt try to stop me. He’s very strong, that Kobalos mage – he could make it difficult. So we’ve got to sort him out first. The Kobalos High Mages are aware the instant anyone enters this place – that’s why they were ready for us when we used it to get into Valkarky. Our presence here will alert him. Lenklewth will come after us . . . Then you can kill him.’

‘You make it sound easy, Alice.’

‘You’ve got the Starblade, Tom. His magic can’t hurt you. Just make sure you don’t drop it this time.’

That jibe made me angry. Alice must have heard from Grimalkin how I was beaten by Lenklewth. Or more likely she’d been using her magic to watch what happened.

‘Not only is he a powerful mage; he’s been practising combat skills all his life! He’s a warrior mage!’ I snapped. ‘He knocked the sword out of my hand with a blow from an axe. I did my best.’

‘Of course you did, but now you’ve got to do better. A lot of men are going to die if you fail here. You have no choice. You
have
to succeed!’

‘What about your magic, Alice. Can’t you use it to defeat him?’

‘If things go badly, I’ll do my best – but even if I win, it’ll drain most of my power. It’ll take a while after that before I’m strong again and that’d be too late to save those soldier boys. That’s why you have to kill him.’

I fell silent.

It was then that the ground began to tremble. I looked down and saw the grey sand shaking and forming constantly shifting patterns. Then, directly ahead, something suddenly thrust its way up through the sand like a sapling, thick as a human arm. I remembered the last time I’d seen such a scary thing. It had been at the centre of the village green in Topley back in the County. I realized that it was a vartek burrowing up to the surface!

My horse was terrified and reared up so sharply that we were both thrown off. I landed heavily, but the sand cushioned my fall. I came up onto my knees to see it galloping away into the distance.

Two more writhing tentacles followed it. Each had a sharp, hard bone-tip like a blade.

Then the monstrous head of the creature erupted from the sand.

Lenklewth had sent a vartek to kill us.

I WAS WRONG
in one respect: it was indeed one of the fearsome vartek, but Lenklewth had not sent it. He’d arrived
with
it. He was sitting behind its huge head, on a brown leather saddle strapped about its neck. He wore a long coat of chain mail and a helmet, though I could see his eyes and forehead through the open visor.

As I staggered to my feet, the vartek pulled itself up onto the surface, its belly almost touching the sand. The many thin insect-like legs had a green sheen, but its upper body was covered in black shiny scales.

It opened its elongated jaws wide and its foul breath washed over me. The acidic stench made my eyes sting, and I started to cough and choke. The creature’s bulging eyes regarded me carefully and I looked at its fearsome teeth in dismay. They moved around in its mouth, constantly changing angle.

I stood my ground, but I knew that at any moment the creature might spit a globule of acid at me. The vartek I’d fought previously had not had a rider. Was this one subject to the mage’s will? Would it only spit at his command? Could I provoke him into fighting me in single combat?

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Alice had got to her feet and was walking towards me.

I drew the Starblade and held it aloft, looking up to meet Lenklewth’s eyes. ‘Get down and fight!’ I challenged him.

He gave the same booming, manic laugh I’d heard in the cellar when he’d beaten on the table with his fists. The vartek straightened its legs, rising up before us, and opened its jaws even wider.

Something hit my shoulder, and I fell sprawling onto my side, somehow managing to keep hold of the Starblade. As I struggled angrily to my feet, I saw that it was Alice who had pushed me.

But then I looked at the place where I’d been standing. The grey sand was bubbling and steaming under a globule of acid: the monster had spat it out so fast that I hadn’t seen it coming.

Once more Alice had saved my life. Now I had to do my bit: it was up to me to finish this mage off quickly and allow her to use her magic to help our army.

The vartek widened its jaws again, but this time Alice raised her hands high above her head. In response, the sand rose up in front of her, blossoming into a great grey cloud. Then she clapped her hands and the vortex of dust whirled towards the vartek.

The creature screamed as the grit flew into its eyes: it jerked backwards and twisted away from us. Lenklewth rocked sideways in his saddle and was almost unseated. Then Alice grabbed me by the arm and dragged me directly towards the vartek. For a moment I thought she was crazy, but she’d been more quick-witted than I.

We ran straight under its body: for the moment this was the safest place to be. The creature couldn’t spit at us if we were beneath it – though I saw that there were other dangers. I looked at the stick-thin legs. They were covered in fine hairs, and at the tip of each was a slimy green bead of moisture.

‘Keep away from its legs!’ I shouted. ‘They’re sticky with poison!’

We kept moving beneath the monster as it scuttled along, staying clear of each long row of legs. But then I realized that the vartek’s body was sinking down. I reached across and pulled Alice down onto her knees in order to protect her.

Lenklewth was clearly controlling the vartek; now he was trying to use its tremendous weight to crush us. As its bulk dropped towards us, I gripped the Starblade with both hands and stabbed upwards, gripping it tightly. I remembered what we’d learned in our last encounter with one of these battle-entities. The upper surface of the creature was covered with hard scales, but the underbelly was soft and vulnerable. The sword slid into its belly up to the hilt.

The vartek let out an unearthly wail and jerked upwards on its trembling legs, its whole body quivering. The sword was almost dragged out of my hands. As the blade came free of its belly, black blood gushed downwards onto the sand, splattering over my breeches.

‘The neck!’ Alice shouted, pointing.

She was right. That would be the vartek’s most vulnerable point: the arteries in the neck would carry blood to its brain. And this was where Lenklewth was seated.

As I got to my feet and ran forward, I saw the three broad brown leather straps holding the mage’s saddle in place. I stretched up onto my toes and whirled my sword overhead in an arc, cutting through them, hoping that Lenklewth might be sent tumbling off.

The straps parted. The tip of the Starblade had also cut into the vartek’s flesh, and I stabbed upwards into the neck again and again. Its screams became frantic, its whole body convulsing.

‘Tom!’ Alice cried out.

Her warning came just in time. One of the long thin tentacles came snaking towards me through the creature’s legs; the sharp bone at its tip suddenly swung up towards my neck. I lunged forward, and the Starblade cut right through it. The stump sprayed black blood as it withdrew between the many legs.

I started to renew my attack on the vartek’s neck, but it had straightened its legs again and was out of reach of my sword. It was still bleeding, but a creature that size must hold a lot of blood. I wondered how long it would take before its strength failed. And what was Lenklewth doing now? I couldn’t see whether he was still seated on the vartek. Even though I’d cut through the brown leather straps, the saddle hadn’t been dislodged.

All at once another tentacle snaked towards me, uncoiling like a whip. I barely had time to bring up my sword, but managed to deflect it. I was forced to parry it for a second time, until finally I was able to sever that one too.

It was then that Alice used her magic again. With the forefinger of her left hand she pointed upwards at its throat. It was as if a long, thin, invisible blade had extended into the flesh of the vartek. As she moved her hand, a gash in the creature’s neck began to widen. The rivulet of blood became a steady stream, and then a torrent which gushed out with each slow pump of the beast’s heart.

She turned and headed back to the creature’s underbelly, where I’d made the other cut, and repeated the action. Now the vartek was haemorrhaging from two places. Black viscous blood was pouring onto the ground beneath it.

Distracted by this, I failed to see the third tentacle uncoiling beneath its body. But this time I wasn’t the target . . . it snaked towards Alice.

Before I could call out a warning, she spotted it and stepped aside. The sharp bone-tip passed within an inch of her eyes. But at that moment the creature scuttled sideways, and before Alice could move away, one of its legs brushed against her arm.

She cried out and flinched, looking down in dismay; her arm was smeared with green poison. She gave a groan of pain and bit her lip. I saw that the skin was already starting to blister.

I PUSHED MY
sword back into its scabbard and, without thinking, scooped up a handful of the grey dust. Then I gripped her hand, extended her arm and let it fall onto the blistering flesh.

I hoped that it would soak up some of the slimy green poison. She was shaking, her eyes wide with pain and fear. I carefully blew off the dust and looked at the damage. Some grains remained stuck to her arm, which was caked with blood, so I carefully wiped it clean with my cloak.

Now I could see the swollen dark blue veins beneath the greenish skin and wondered how much poison had got into her system.

I saw that Alice’s eyes were rolling up into her head, and the fingers of her right hand were scrabbling towards the pocket at the hip of her long green dress. Knowing that this was where she kept her herbs, I reached across to retrieve the pouch – but before I could do so, the beast above us started to collapse.

I sensed its bulk descending ever closer and, gripping Alice’s hand tightly, pulled her along towards its head. The vartek’s lower body was already in spasm, each thump reverberating through the ground. The only way out, avoiding its poisonous legs, was by the head.

But I thought we would never reach safety in time. Alice was whimpering with pain as I dragged her forwards. We could have died there, crushed beneath the gargantuan vartek. For one terrible moment I thought we had no hope of escape.