Free The Spook's Battle by Joseph Delaney

power. Maybe the Mouldheel sisters were afraid of meeting a dead witch from a rival family.It was a tense, scary time; I risked being attacked at any moment. But at last, with a sigh of relief, I reached the far edge of the dell. I was very glad to be out from the shadow of those trees. Once more I was bathed in moonlight,watching the bobbing lanterns ahead of me and hearing the sisters' voices raised as if in anger. After ten minutes or so, they were descending a steep slope and I could see the glow from a fire lighting up the sky ahead. I hung back for a while, then took refuge in a copse of ash and alder. It was ready for thinning and cutting and so provided a good hiding place.
      Moments later, I was peering out from a thicket of saplings with a clear view of what was taking place.Directly below was a row of terraced cottages --eight in all--and on the edge of the 'wide flagged backyard a big bonfire was blazing away, sparks dancing up into the night sky. In the near distance, among the trees, was another large cluster of cottages. This was probably Bareleigh, where the Mouldheel clan lived.In all, there were about two dozen people below me, an even mixture of men and women, and most were seated on the flags or grass, eating from plates with their fingers. It seemed harmless enough--just a few friends gathered together on a warm summer's night to eat in the moonlight. Voices carried on the air, mixed in with the sound of laughter.Toward the edge of the fire, a cauldron was suspended from a metal tripod, and as I watched, a woman ladled something into a bowl, then walked across and offered it to a girl seated at some distance from the others. Her head was bowed and she was staring down at the flags, but as the bowl was held out to her, she looked up and shook her head firmly three times.It was Alice!
      Her hands were free, but I saw a glint of metal reflecting the firelight: Her feet were bound together with a padlock and chain.No sooner had I noticed her than the three sisters reached the yard. As they joined the gathering, everyone fell silent.Without a word to anyone, Mab walked directly over to the fire. She seemed to spit into it, and immediately it died right down. The sparks stopped dancing, the flames flickered low, and the embers glowed momentarily before fading to gray, all in the space of a few moments.Lanterns still lit the scene brightly, though, and at a signal from Mab, I saw one of the men -walk across, lift Alice over his shoulder, and carry her through the open back door into the end cottage to my left.My heart was in my mouth. I remembered what Mab had said about me belonging to her once Alice was dead. Were they going to kill her now? Had the man taken her inside to do just that?I was on the verge of running down the hill to the cottage to try and help her. It would have been hopeless with so many people there, but I couldn't just stand by and let Alice be harmed. I waited for a few moments, anxiety gnawing away at my insides. At last I could stand it no longer, but before I could move the man reappeared alone at the door of the cottage and locked it behind him. Immediately Mab, -with her two sisters -walking just behind, led the gathering out through a gate and onto a track beyond the cottage which ran parallel to a stream.I waited until everyone had disappeared into the distance, toward what looked to be the center of Bareleigh.
     Then I descended the hill cautiously. There was a chance that someone was still inside the cottage, someone who'd been there all along. I mean, would they go off and leave Alice unguarded? It seemed very unlikely.When I reached the door, I unlocked it with the special key Andrew had given me.I eased the door open slowly and stepped directly into a cluttered kitchen. By the light of three black wax candles, I saw that the sink was heaped with unwashed plates and pots and the flagged floor was littered with animal bones and splattered with congealed fat and grease. As I