Free The Spook’s Revenge: Book 13 (Spooks) by Delaney Joseph Page A

certainty again. I knew where the witches were – the direction they had taken with the Fiend’s head. This was surely the gift that Mam was talking about in the dream – the gift that a hunter needs: the ability to track a prey without signs, to pinpoint its location.
    They hadn’t gone west to the sea. They were continuing south and were passing east of Liverpool. Where could they be bound? In my mind’s eye I tried to conjure up the maps I’d studied in the Spook’s library, all of which had perished in the fire. Beyond Liverpool lay the County border, and beyond that, county after county – over two hundred miles to the south coast.
    That made no sense at all. They needed a port on the west coast to take a boat over the Irish Sea.
    I began to run again. Wherever they were heading, I would eventually find out because I could sense their location in my head. For a while they seemed to have changed direction and were heading east, but after a few hours they veered back towards the coast and continued south again.
    I came to a wide river, which I guessed was the Mersey: as I forded it, I wondered how the witches had managed to cross over. One possibility was that they had witch dams in place; in Pendle these were used to temporarily hold back running water. They would have had to make a detour east to where the river was narrower. That explained their earlier change of direction. The delay meant that I was closing in on them once more.
    After a while, in the far distance, I saw a walled city with a castle and the tower of a cathedral. We were beyond the County border now and, again drawing on my memories of the Spook’s maps, I guessed that the city was Chester – though I’d never travelled this far south over land. If that were the case, it also had a river called the Dee.
    Sure enough, I sensed my enemies head east again, no doubt to use another witch dam. I simply forded the river, which meant that I was drawing near to my prey. Beyond the city the witches turned directly west.
    Soon I saw mountains ahead, and glimpsed the sea in the distance to the north. We seemed to be following a coastal plain, a wide strip of flat land between the mountains and the water. And now I was on a track that eventually gave way to a wide road. It was muddy, so I slowed down and walked on the grass verge. The occasional cart trundled past, its wheels adding to the deep ruts, but nobody gave me a second glance.
    Eventually I came to a large sign that had been nailed to two posts proclaiming:
    CYMRU
    I remembered that word from my master’s maps. It was in another language: the name for the country that we called Wales. I was entering a foreign land, with its own customs, language and – no doubt – dangers.
    I sensed that the witches were no longer moving; they had made camp for the night. I had two choices. Catch up with them now and attack under cover of darkness, or wait one more night and rest to gather my own strength.
    I decided on a compromise.
    I would rest for a while and then press on. I moved some distance from the road and settled down as best I could. I didn’t have time to set traps for rabbits, so I finished off the rest of my cheese and drank some cold water from a stream. I intended to sleep for about three hours before setting off west again.
    I awoke suddenly after just one hour, immediately fully alert. Although my physical senses told me nothing, I had a sudden flash of light inside my head and a pain above my nose.
    Something was amiss. I sat up quickly and stared into the darkness. The moon was covered by clouds: I could see nothing and hear nothing. But danger was out there and it was creeping towards me.
    I came up onto my knees and reached for the sword that I had placed on the grass beside me before lying down to sleep. My gift was telling me precisely where my enemy was.
    A witch was crawling stealthily towards me; she was now less than ten feet away.
    No, not the Destiny Blade , I decided; a