Spook's: The Dark Army (The Starblade Chronicles) Read Online Free

Somehow they found room for them in the crowded stables. The castle was very full as well. The rulers of the other principalities had brought their warriors to join the cause and resist the expected Kobalos attack, and each had been given quarters there. The consequence was that I had to share a small room in the southern turret with Grimalkin.
    Still, our room had two narrow beds. I was grateful for that because in sleep Grimalkin can be terrifying. Sometimes she cries out as if in agony or speaks harsh angry words in some foreign language; most scary of all is the way she sometimes grinds her teeth together and growls deep in her throat.
    Time passed slowly and I moped in my room, making notes on what had happened and writing this account in Tom’s notebook. Occasionally I broke the tedium with a brisk walk in the cold, pacing back and forth within the courtyard. I really wanted to explore the grounds, but the soldiers camped there were loud and boisterous, and I avoided them.
    Grimalkin seemed to spend all her time by Tom’s bedside, but when I tried to see him, she wouldn’t let me enter the room.
    Then, on the third morning, she came and told me that Tom was conscious and wished to speak to me.
    So this will be my final entry in his notebook.
    I am happy to return it to him, but I wonder what will happen now. Will he want to go home? I really hope so. I am about to find out.

THOMAS WARD
    ALICE TURNED AND smiled at me. We’d just cooked two rabbits in the embers of our campfire. Now we were eating them, the tender meat almost melting in our mouths.
    I smiled back. She was a really pretty girl with nice brown eyes, dark hair and high cheekbones. It was easy to forget that she’d been trained in witchcraft by a witch called Bony Lizzie. But we’d just survived a terrible threat from the dark and Alice had helped me – so rather than imprison her in a pit, the Spook had given her another chance. I was taking her to stay with her aunt at Staumin, to the west of the County.
    We finished the rabbits and sat in silence. It was one of those comfortable silences where you didn’t need to speak. I felt relaxed and happy; it was good to just sit there next to her, staring into the warm embers of the fire.
    But suddenly Alice did something really strange. She reached across and held my hand.
    We still didn’t speak and stayed like that for a long time. I looked up at the stars. I didn’t want to break away but I was all mixed up. My left hand was holding her right hand and I felt guilty. I felt as if I was holding hands with the dark – I knew the Spook wouldn’t like it.
    There was no way I could get away from the truth. It was very likely that Alice was going to be a witch one day. It was then that I remembered what Mam had said about her – that she’d always be somewhere in between, neither wholly good nor wholly bad.
    But wasn’t that true of all of us? Not one of us was perfect.
    So I didn’t take my hand away. I just sat there, one part of me enjoying holding her hand, which was comforting after all that had happened, while the other part was overcome with guilt . . .
    All at once I found myself lying in my bed. My heart sank like a stone.
    It had all been a dream about what had happened years earlier during the first months of my apprenticeship.
    I’d enjoyed those moments with Alice, but now I remembered more recent events. Our close friendship had lasted years and I’d truly loved her – it was Alice who had brought it to an end. She’d betrayed me and gone off with the mage, Lukrasta. The pain of it was still as fresh now as the moment it happened.
    Alice had become a witch. She had gone to the dark. I had lost her for ever.
    I looked at the weak sunlight streaming into the room and shivered. They still hadn’t returned my clothes and, pulling the heavy woollen gown about me, I left my bed for the first time since regaining consciousness. Once again I remembered the sudden pain as the sabre entered