‘The catacombs…’ I said, my voice hardly more than a whisper. If he faced the Bane alone down in the catacombs, then the conditions of the curse would be fulfilled.
‘Aye, the catacombs,’ Andrew said. ‘As I said, get him away through the hatch. Anyway, Brother Peter, sorry to have interrupted…’
Peter gave a bleak smile and continued. ‘Once you’ve unlocked the hatch, go through the door into a corridor. This is the risky part. There’s a cell at the far end which they use to hold prisoners. That’s where you should find your master. But to get to it, you’ll have to pass the guardroom. It’s a dangerous business but it’s damp and chilly down there. They’ll have a big fire blazing away in the grate and, if God’s willing, the door will be closed against the cold. So there you have it! Release Mr Gregory and get him out through the trapdoor and away from this town. He’ll have to come back and deal with that foul creature another time, when the Quisitor’s gone.’
‘Nay!’ said Andrew. ‘After all this I wouldn’t have him coming back here.’
‘But if he doesn’t fight the Bane, then who can?’ asked Brother Peter. ‘I don’t believe in curses either. With God’s help, John can defeat that evil spirit. You know it’s getting worse. No doubt I’ll be next.’
‘Not you, Brother Peter,’ Andrew said. ‘I’ve met few men as strong-minded as you.’
‘I do my best,’ he said, shuddering. ‘When I hear it whispering inside my head, I just pray harder. God gives us the strength we need – that’s if we’ve the sense to ask for it. But something has to be done. I don’t know how it’s all going to end.’
‘It’ll end when the townsfolk have had enough,’ said Andrew. ‘You can only push people so far. I’m surprised they’ve stood the Quisitor’s wickedness for so long. Some of those for burning have relatives and friends here.’
‘Maybe and maybe not,’ said Brother Peter. ‘There are lots of people love a burning. We can only pray’
CHAPTER 9
The Catacombs Brother Peter went back to his duties at the cathedral while we waited for the sun to go down. Andrew told me that the best way into the catacombs was through the cellar of an abandoned house close to the cathedral; we were less likely to be noticed after dark.
As the hours passed, I began to grow more and more nervous. When talking to Andrew and Brother Peter, I’d tried to sound confident, but the Bane really scared me. I kept rummaging through the Spook’s bag, looking for anything that might be of some help.
Of course, I took the long silver chain that he used to bind witches and tied it around my waist, hidden under my shirt. But I knew it was one thing to be able to cast it over a wooden post and quite another to do it to the Bane. Next were salt and iron. After transferring my tinderbox to my jacket pocket, I filled my breeches pockets – the right pocket with salt, the left with iron. The combination worked against most things that haunted the dark. That was how I’d finally dealt with the old witch, Mother Malkin.
I couldn’t see it being enough to finish off something as powerful as the Bane; if it had been, the Spook would have dealt with it last time, once and for all. However, I was desperate enough to try anything, and just having that and the silver chain made me feel better. After all, I wasn’t planning to destroy the Bane this time, but to fend it off long enough to rescue my master.
At last, with the Spook’s staff in my left hand and his bag with our cloaks in my right, I was following Andrew through the darkening streets in the direction of the cathedral. Above, the sky was heavy with clouds and it smelled as if rain wasn’t very far away. I was learning to hate Priestown, with its narrow cobbled streets and walled back yards. I missed the fells and the wide open spaces. If only I were in Chipenden, back in the routine of my lessons with the Spook! It was hard to accept that my life there might be over.
As we approached the cathedral, Andrew led us into one of the narrow passages that ran between the backs of the terraced houses. He halted at a door, slowly lifted the latch and nodded me through into the small back yard. After closing the yard door carefully, he went up to the back door of the house, which was all in darkness.
A moment later he turned a key in the lock and we were inside. Locking the door behind us, he lit two candles and handed one to me.
‘This house has been deserted for well over twenty years,’ he said, ‘and it’ll stay like this too, for as you’ve realized, those like my brother aren’t welcome in this town. It’s haunted by something pretty nasty so most people keep well away and even dogs avoid it.’
He was right about there being something nasty in the house. The Spook had carved a sign on the inside of the back door.
It was the Greek letter gamma, which was used for either a ghast or a ghost. The number to the right was a one, meaning it was a ghost of the first rank, dangerous enough to push some people to the edge of insanity.
‘His name was Matty Barnes,’ Andrew said, ‘and he murdered seven people in this town, maybe more. He had big hands and he used them to choke the life from his victims. They were mainly young women. They say he brought them back here and squeezed the life from them in this very room. Eventually one of the women fought back and stabbed him through the eye with a hat pin. He died slowly of blood poisoning. John was going to talk his ghost into moving on but thought better of it. He always intended to come back here one day and deal with the Bane and wanted to make sure this way down into the catacombs would still be available. Nobody wants to buy a haunted house.’
Suddenly I felt the air grow colder and our candle flames began to flicker. Something was close by and getting nearer by the second. Before I could take another breath, it arrived. I couldn’t actually see it but I sensed something lurking in the shadows in the far corner of the kitchen; something staring at me hard.
That I couldn’t actually see it made things worse. The most powerful of ghosts can choose whether or not to make themselves visible. The ghost of Matty Barnes was showing me just how strong it was by keeping hidden, yet letting me know that it was watching me. What’s more, I could sense its malevolence. It wished us ill and the sooner we were out of there the better.
‘Am I imagining it, or has it suddenly got very chilly in here?’ asked Andrew.
‘It’s cold all right,’ I said, not mentioning the presence of the ghost. There was no need to make him more nervous than he already was.
‘Then let’s move on,’ Andrew said, leading the way towards the cellar steps.
The house was typical of many terraced houses in the County’s towns: a simple two rooms upstairs and two rooms down with an attic under the eaves. And the cellar door in the kitchen was in exactly the same position as the one in Horshaw, where the Spook had taken me on the first night after I’d become his apprentice. That house had been haunted by a ghast, and to see if I was up to doing the job the Spook had ordered me to go down to the cellar at midnight. It wasn’t a night I’d forget; thinking about it now still makes me shiver.
Andrew and I followed the steps down into the cellar. The flagged floor was empty but for a pile of old rugs and carpets. It seemed dry enough but there was a musty smell. Andrew handed me his candle then quickly dragged the rugs away to reveal a wooden trapdoor.
‘There’s more than one way into the catacombs,’ he said, but this is the easiest and the least risky. You’re not likely to get many folk nosing about down here.’
He lifted the trapdoor and I could see stone steps descending into the darkness. There was a smell of damp earth and rot. Andrew took the candle from me and went down first, telling me to wait for a moment. Then he called up, ‘Down you come, but leave the trap open. We might have to get out of here in a hurry!’