The Vartek
WE walked fast, and within three quarters of an hour we were approaching the lair of the dead mage. Every ten minutes or so, that unearthly screech echoed through the trees, each cry louder and more terrifying than its predecessor. My sense of danger was growing by the minute. What could we be walking toward? It was surely something big and fierce.
I wondered if Grimalkin was still in the vicinity, or if she had gone off without telling me.
Ahead, the moonlight illuminated the big oak, but when another screech split the heavens, I realized that the sound actually came from somewhere beyond it.
We strode past the oak, emerging from the trees into a wide meadow—to be greeted by an astonishing sight. Someone had scythed the grass very short and marked out a gigantic chalk circle, within which was a five-pointed star.
It was a magic pentacle of immense size.
Sometimes a mage would stand safe within such a pentacle and conjure something on the outside of it. Alternatively, he or she could stand beyond it while the entity was contained within it.
Was there a dark mage in the area? I wondered.
I noticed that at each of the five points of the star, a large candle made of black wax was burning. Although there was a breeze blowing from the west, the tall blue flames did not so much as flicker. Who else but a witch would use black wax candles? This had to be Grimalkin’s work, but there was no sign of her. What was this pentacle for?
Moving out from under the trees, we approached the circle, and I began to walk around the edge in a clockwise direction, with Jenny following at my heels.
“Don’t touch the circle!” I hissed at her. “Keep your boots well clear.”
There could be something invisible trapped within it.
We were almost halfway around when the ground began to tremble. I sensed danger behind me, so I turned quickly and looked down. As I watched, something thrust its way up through the grass like a sapling growing at an insane speed. It was as thick as a human arm and flexed in a spiral as it grew.
When two more followed, I took three rapid paces back, holding my staff across my chest in a defensive position. I now saw that they were tentacles, each tipped with a hard, sharp bone like a blade.
Jenny gasped in astonishment, and then we both stepped back rapidly as a huge head erupted from the earth. Next, thin legs emerged, got a purchase on the grass, and began to heave the rest of the monstrous black-scaled body out into the moonlight. It had legs beyond counting—a giant insect, something like a centipede.
Jenny opened her mouth wide, as if to scream, but no sound emerged. She just stared at the monster with wide eyes.
What was it? I racked my brains but could think of nothing similar that existed in the County.
It was about the height of a large breeding bull, but perhaps three or four times longer, with long jaws full of fearsome teeth. They moved strangely within its mouth and kept changing their angle and length, as if they were adjustable.
The bulging eyes regarded me carefully, and I could see myself reflected in each one. Then the beast breathed out, and foul acid breath washed over me, drawing tears from my own eyes. I started to cough and choke.
It scuttled forward to attack, and I heard Jenny give a moan of terror. I jabbed toward its left eye with the blade at the end of my staff, but the creature retreated out of range, then opened its jaws wide and gave that loud, screeching roar. At close quarters it was truly terrifying, and I was almost deafened by the sound, my teeth set on edge.
I realized that it was preparing to attack again, and I readied my staff, but just then I heard an eerie cry from somewhere near the trees. I risked glancing behind me and saw that it was the witch assassin. Grimalkin repeated the cry, and the creature turned, with great agility for its size, and scuttled toward her.
She turned and ran.
Somehow she had attracted its attention, perhaps by use of dark magic. She had been only too successful: she was running and had almost reached the trees—but it was catching up fast, getting closer and closer.
I ran after the creature, and Jenny followed behind me. Grimalkin was out of sight now, and the creature plunged into the wood, snapping branches and crushing saplings.
Under the branches, the light of the moon was obscured and it was suddenly dark. I slowed a little, fearful of blundering into the beast’s murderous jaws. Then came a crashing, tearing sound, as if trees were falling to earth, and then a terrible shrill scream.
For one heart-stopping moment I thought it was Grimalkin, caught in the jaws of the beast, but as I reached a small clearing I saw her facing me, a blade in each hand.
At her feet lay a large pit. I stepped forward and looked down into it. The huge creature was thrashing and twisting in agony, impaled on dozens of sharpened stakes that had pierced its long body. Two protruded from the top of its head.
I knew then what had happened. Grimalkin had dug the pit, camouflaged it, and lured the beast after her so that it fell in as she’d planned.
“You chose a bad moment to arrive,” she said brusquely. “You could have been killed. This beast can spit globules of acid. And beware of its legs—they are coated with a deadly poison. . . . But as you are here, you might as well be of use. Help me to finish it off.”
She jumped down into the pit; I followed nervously and, under her direction, set to work. Jenny remained above, staring down in horror at the grisly sight. The creature was still twisting and thrashing in a desperate effort to tear itself free. As it did so, it roared out its agony.
It gave off a strong acrid stench, and its breath was foul. I took care to keep well clear of its jaws, but the stink alone was almost unbearable. Grimalkin pierced its eyes with her blades, lancing them like boils, while I stabbed it again and again with the retractable blade at the end of my staff. Although the scales on its back were like armour, I now saw that its underbelly was soft and vulnerable.
Eventually the creature’s convulsions slowed, and then it lay still. The blood pooled beneath it, bubbling and hissing as it soaked into the soft earth.
Later Grimalkin walked back with us to the lair of the dead mage.
“I managed to contain that creature within the pentacle you saw, but it burrowed down to a great depth to escape. It’s called a vartek,” she told us. “That one was just a baby—imagine meeting one that’s fully grown.”
“How big do they grow?” Jenny blurted out, her eyes wide.
“One day I fear that we will find out,” Grimalkin said with a grimace.
“This is Jenny, my apprentice,” I told the witch assassin. “The girl who found the Kobalos mage.”
Grimalkin stared hard at her and gave the briefest of nods.
Jenny nodded back. She was staring at the witch with wide eyes. She looked almost as scared as she had when we faced the vartek.
“You did well, child.” Grimalkin’s voice was more gentle now. “I wish you good fortune. If you prove to be half as good an apprentice as your master, you will have chosen the right trade. And as for you, Tom, I am pleased that you have chosen a female apprentice. That shows courage. Many will disapprove of your decision, I’m sure.”
I was secretly pleased by Grimalkin’s praise, but there were more important things on my mind. “Where did the creature come from?” I asked her.
“I grew it,” she said simply. On seeing the shock in our faces, she explained, “From a sample in one of the jars I found in the mage’s lair. We are lucky that he did not manage to do the same. Imagine what damage such creatures could do to the County.”
At that moment I felt more uneasy than ever, and sweat formed on my brow. This was indeed a terrifying new threat. Then I suddenly sensed something else—another dark entity was out there still. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could do so, there was an angry roar from somewhere far to the southeast of us.
I saw the look on Grimalkin’s face, and it confirmed what my gift had told me.
Another vartek was on
the loose!
19
The Pursuit
“IT’S heading southeast!” I cried. “Did you know there were two?” I asked, turning to Grimalkin.
“No,” she admitted, her face grim. “They are burrowers, and while they were born on the surface, they immediately disappeared underground. Later, only one reemerged. The young eat each other—only the strongest should have survived. I truly thought this meant that there was only one remaining.”
Then, without another word, the witch assassin turned and sprinted through the trees in pursuit of the vartek.
Jenny and I followed her, trying to keep up. It was dark in the wood, and there was a real danger of blundering into a tree, tripping over a log, or stumbling into a hole and breaking a leg. Somehow we reached the edge unscathed, and then had the light of the moon to guide our progress.
My gift was working well—it meant that I could sense the creature directly ahead. It was moving fast.
We crossed a meadow before coming to a high, thick hawthorn hedge. This forced us into a detour; we had to clamber over a locked five-barred gate before continuing. A sequence of small fields further impeded our pursuit.
In the distance, farther to the east, I could see lights from a farmhouse. At some point the creature’s route would take it past human habitation. We had to stop it before that happened.
We had reached an area of flat moss land with no obvious obstacles and were making better progress. Then, from somewhere ahead, the creature gave another roar.
To my dismay, it sounded even more distant. The vartek was much faster than we were—but why was there no sign of its passage, no trail of destruction?
Moments later, I discovered why. It had been moving underground. Directly ahead lay a large pile of freshly excavated earth; at its center, a dark hole gaped where the creature had emerged. We could see tracks leading away into the distance. This was where we’d heard its first roar. There was a smell of loam and dank earth, then something else—the acrid stench that I had smelled on the one that Grimalkin had lured into her pit. I remembered how she had warned me that it could spit globules of acid.
Grimalkin sprinted on beyond the hole. I was struggling to keep up with her, and I glanced round. Jenny was falling behind. It couldn’t be helped—I had to keep going. Perhaps it was for the best anyway. If we caught the creature, it would be an extremely dangerous confrontation. I didn’t want her to get hurt.
Although we were now back among a patchwork of cultivated fields, our progress became much easier. When it had reached a hedge, or a stand of trees, the vartek had simply crashed straight through, flattening everything in its path, so our route was clear.
We continued running for an hour or so, still following its trail. I’d gotten my second wind now, and was running easily. However, I knew that I couldn’t keep it up forever. I could still sense the creature moving ahead, but then at last it slowed and came to a halt.
I heard another roar, followed immediately by terrified shrill screams. Then, directly ahead, I spotted the lights of another farmhouse.
Five minutes later, we reached a scene of total carnage and devastation. The vartek hadn’t attacked the farmhouse but had crashed straight through a large barn, slaying and devouring the animals within.
Judging by what remained, there had been cattle in there, and at least one horse. Now the stands were flattened and wet with blood. Grimalkin and I halted, staring at the grisly remains. I saw fragments of dead animals everywhere, and bile rose in my throat. I saw Jenny coming toward us. She too came to a halt, and immediately bent forward and vomited onto the grass.
The farmer had emerged from his house, and he came running toward the ruin of his barn, carrying a lantern and a big stick. It was fortunate for him that he hadn’t gotten there in time to confront the creature.
We turned and raced off into the dark without waiting to speak to him. There was no time for explanations.
Soon afterward, the vartek went to ground again. We halted at the fresh mound of earth, struggling to regain our breath. I concentrated hard, trying to sense where the creature was. For a second or two the picture was vague, but then a light flared inside my head. Even before Jenny caught up with us, I had located the creature. It had come to rest less than fifty yards away from the entrance to its burrow, but it was deep underground.
“We’ll have to follow it into the tunnel,” I said.
Jenny tried to say something, but she was still fighting for breath and couldn’t get the words out.
In reply, Grimalkin simply pointed down at the burrow.
I peered into the dark hole and, for the first time, saw that it was packed full of earth.
“It fills in the burrow behind it as it moves!” I realized.
Grimalkin nodded. “It eats the earth and rock, using its teeth and the acid in its saliva. They pass through its body after it has extracted the nutrients it needs, sealing the tunnel behind it.”
“But it eats flesh too—those poor animals!” Jenny gasped.
“Yes, child, it has been created to require flesh also. It is a brutal creature, designed as a battle entity to devour the soldiers of an opposing army.”
Without speaking, I set off after the vartek, and Grimalkin and Jenny followed behind me. Soon I halted and pointed down at the grass. “It’s directly below us—about fifty feet down, I think.”
“How can you know that?” Jenny asked, staring at me in astonishment.
“You’ve got your gifts, and I have mine,” I replied. “It doesn’t always work, but I can often locate a person or an object from a distance. Fortunately it’s working well in this case. I know exactly where the vartek is.”
Grimalkin already knew of my gift and made no comment. She appeared to be deep in thought.
“It is too far down for us to reach by digging,” she observed at last. “And even if we could do so, it would be too dangerous.”
I concentrated again. I was sure that the vartek was not moving.
“The creature’s at rest,” I said, “but it may not actually sleep. It may also be aware of our position. We could be ambushed.”
“So that leaves us with just one option,” Grimalkin decided. “We must slay it as it comes to the surface.”
I nodded. “It’ll either emerge here, or travel for some distance underground . . . in which case it will be much slower. We should be able to keep up or get ahead of it.”
We settled down right there. There was no point in taking turns to sleep, because I was the only one who could detect movement by the vartek. So Grimalkin and Jenny dozed off while I kept watch.
About an hour before dawn, it began to move again. Quickly I roused the others, and we followed its underground progress. It was still heading in the same direction.
I looked up at the fading stars and took my bearings. I felt sick with dread.
This was the approximate route that I took when traveling from Chipenden to Jack’s farm. If the beast continued in the same direction, my family lay ahead.
“Jack’s farm is in its path,” I told Grimalkin. “If it misses the farm, it will still pass through Topley. More than sixty people live there, and tomorrow is Friday, market day. People converge from all the nearby hamlets and outlying farms. There’ll be hundreds of people in the streets and on the village green.”
Had this vartek knowledge of what we had done to the haizda mage? I wondered. Was it heading for Jack’s farm out of revenge? If so, why hadn’t it made a beeline straight for me? It seemed preposterous, but whatever the truth, the danger was real.
Grimalkin remained silent. She was staring into the distance.
The vartek might pass right underneath the farm and the village, but if it sensed what was above it, the farm animals might draw it to the surface. And how could it not sense all those people at the market?
This creature, which Grimalkin had termed a battle entity, had been designed to kill and devour soldiers. Those villagers going about their business would
probably be indistinguishable.
I began to grasp at straws. What could I do to stop this attack? Could I summon the boggart to my assistance?
I had no doubt that Kratch would be able to deal with the vartek, but I needed a ley line to allow the boggart to travel here. Picturing my master’s maps, which had been destroyed in the fire, I vaguely remembered that there was one a few miles farther east. But how could I get the vartek to cross its path? I couldn’t think of any way to achieve this.
The creature continued moving until about an hour after midday. Then it came to a halt again, and it still hadn’t moved at nightfall.
By now I was desperate to find some way of halting the vartek. I spoke to Grimalkin, hoping that she might have some ideas.
“Couldn’t you use your magic against it?” I asked. I glanced across at Jenny. She was fast asleep, exhausted by the chase.
The witch assassin shook her head. “I have already tried spells of binding and confusion,” she replied. “They have no effect on it at all. I am dealing with an entity that seems resistant to human witch magic. Such defenses may have been built into it quite deliberately. Of course, in time I may learn ways to overcome such a creature. That is why it is vital that I obtain knowledge of Kobalos magical practices. But for now we can only be patient and make sure that we are there when the vartek emerges.”
Her words were like a blow. It seemed that there was nothing we could do. I felt so helpless. Soon I sensed the vartek stir beneath us, and I quickly shook Jenny awake. It was moving much more slowly now, but still heading in the same direction.
As we followed, my anxiety grew.
Just before dawn it speeded up again, and our stroll became first a fast walk and eventually a jog. I was soon running, and Grimalkin and Jenny kept pace with me.
The sky was pink with the dawn light, and I could see trees ahead and a couple of low hills, which functioned as landmarks. I took my bearings again, and a wave of relief crashed through me as I realized that the creature would miss Jack’s farm.
But the village of Topley was now directly in its path.