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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 22</title>
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<h1>22</h1><p>Fainn the Pict roared in pain and rage. Sparks flew up from the pit and a hot blast of wind swirled the pall of smoke around the pillars.</p>
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<p>He clapped his bony fingers up against his face and shuddered violently for a long time. When he took his hands away his eyes streamed with blood. He lurched to his feet, using the hem of his cloak to wipe away the bloody smears and his vision gradually cleared.</p>
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<p>Shaking with fury, he bent over the table-map of Eirinn.</p>
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<p>"I'll find you," he snarled. "I will find you. I will root you out. And then there will be a reckoning."</p>
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<p>He held the end of the cloak over where the bogs of CorNamara showed in clefts and tarns beyond the pine forest and squeezed hard. Droplets of thick, blackening blood dripped onto the carved surface, and where they landed, acrid fumes rose up.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Corriwen stabbed its eyes. Jack doubled over and was violently sick.</p>
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<p>Kerry, or what had once been Kerry hissed and fought, trying to sink his teeth into them when they held him down. They kept the blindfold on, because Jack didn't want to look into those dead black eyes, and he didn't want whatever had control of his friend to look out and into his own.</p>
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<p>"Be a friend to him," Corriwen said. "That's what the Bard told us when we held you down."</p>
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<p>"I remember," Jack said with a shudder. "Though I don't like remembering that."</p>
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<p>But they held Kerry down. Connor had his bound arms and Corriwen his lashed feet. He bucked and struggled, but they used their weight to keep him still, while Jack and Dilligan Rune hunched by the fire.</p>
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<p>Jack took the heartstone from his neck while Rune blew the flames to a bright glow, then used a thick branch to slowly lower the stone on its chain down into the heat. Rune kept fanning the flames ever hotter and they watched as the stone went from black, to purple, to hot red, then searing white. And it still didn't shatter, Jack thought, with more than a little shame.</p>
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<p>"Tight now," he told them. "Keep him still."</p>
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<p>And he placed the stone on the centre of Kerry's bare chest.</p>
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<p>The scream that erupted sent a flock of birds clattering into the air half a mile away and echoed all round the rocky hillsides.</p>
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<p>Kerry twisted as if hit by lightning and the smell of sizzling skin make Jack's eyes water. He hissed and spat and then, without warning, his mouth gaped wide open.</p>
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<p>A long, black tongue emerged from Kerry's wide open jaws and lashed about wildly. Kerry's mouth opened wider still. <em>Impossibly</em> wide, Jack thought. His jaw joints made a horrible creaking sound. The black tongue came out further, forked and whip-like.</p>
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<p>Then, behind it, the bloated head of a pallid snake.</p>
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<p>It was like no snake Jack had ever seen, either here or on any nature programme at home. Kerry's jaws creaked wide and he thrashed about madly as the thing swelled up from his throat, thick as an arm, eyes milky white. It pulsed like a worm and squeezed itself past Kerry's teeth.</p>
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<p>Jack stepped back in pure horror. Corriwen let out an anguished wail. Connor just held tight to Kerry's shoulders as the snake oozed out, pulse by pulse and began to roll into a coil on his ribs. It opened its mouth then and Jack saw fangs swing forward as its eyes locked onto his.</p>
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<p>"Kill it," he hissed.</p>
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<p>Kerry bucked again and Corriwen was thrown to the side, but she rolled back, a knife in each hand and stabbed the thing in each eye. They popped with a sickening wet sound, even as it lunged in a blur. Its blind head hit the ground. Jack snatched Kerry's sword and sliced it in half. Rancid blood sprayed all around and both halves kept on twisting and coiling, but Jack skewered the head end on the point and shoved it straight into the fire. It sizzled like crackling.</p>
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<p>Overhead, lightning blasted down in savage forks and the ground shook.</p>
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<p>Connor kicked the other half into the fire while Kerry twitched and jerked, still blindfolded. He rolled, got to his knees and was suddenly violently sick. He groaned, retched again. Jack matched him only a few feet away, stomach heaving with the horror of what he had seen.</p>
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<p>Then Kerry reached up and pulled the blindfold down.</p>
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<p>"Jeez man," he said. "I must have eaten something awful."</p>
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<p>He knuckled his eyes and looked up at Jack. </p>
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<p>"Whatever it was, I'm not eating it again."</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>The Bogs of CorNamara were as bleak as Jack had ever seen. They spread out around them on every side, mile after mile of moorland pocked by black tarns of slimy water and studded with old weathered rocks that stood up like dead sentinels.</p>
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<p>"I don't remember a thing," Kerry had said. "What happened in the Castle? And who's this new guy?"</p>
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<p>He blinked as if seeing the world through fresh eyes, then saw Corriwen and his puzzled expression turned to one of pure delight. He grabbed her in a huge bear-hug and spun her around until she was dizzy.</p>
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<p>"Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you."</p>
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<p>Corriwen introduced him again to Connor then they sat with Dilligan Rune round the fire while Kerry ate like a starveling and Jack filled him in on all that had happened since they'd come through the misty by-way and gone down to Wolfen Castle.</p>
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<p>"Sounds like a real bundle of laughs," Kerry said, through a mouthful of dinner. "You sure you're not making all this up? I don't remember swallowing any snake."</p>
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<p>Jack laughed. The sudden relief at having Kerry back to normal again had changed everything, even if Dermott and his men were scouring the land for them and they were still in awful danger. </p>
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<p>"We're not out of the woods yet," he said. "And we've a long way to go. The book says we have to cross bogs and get over the mountains to the sea."</p>
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<p>"And after that?"</p>
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<p>Jack shrugged. "We check the book again. Dermott wants the harp. And I'm sure Fainn knows about the heartstone, so they won't stop hunting us."</p>
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<p>"Well, let me finish my dinner and we'll get on the road. My stomach thinks my throat's been cut."</p>
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<p>Dilligan Rune vanished as suddenly as he appeared, but before he went he sat Jack down on a stone and perched beside him.</p>
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<p>"I knew we'd meet again Jack Flint. Like I said, after you came through the fairy gate, did you stumble through by mistake, or was it a deliberate step? An old friend of mine said there are no coincidences. Everything is fate."</p>
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<p>"Which old friend would that be?"</p>
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<p>"Ah, I think you know the Gatekeeper as well as me, eh Jack?"</p>
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<p>"You know the Major. Major MacBeth?"</p>
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<p>"Our paths have crossed a time or two. I've travelled many a road."</p>
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<p>"Why didn't you tell me before?"</p>
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<p>"Had to be sure, Jack. Had to be sure of you. And now I am. You don't bear the harp for no reason. Whatever reason you <em>think</em> you had for coming here, let me tell you, it <em>called </em>to you. The worlds call the Journeyman when they need help."</p>
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<p>Jack's jaw dropped open.</p>
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<p>"My father was the Journeyman."</p>
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<p>"That I know. Indeed, I do."</p>
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<p>Jack almost jumped to his feet in a jolt of excitement. Rune put his hand on his elbow.</p>
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<p>"Don't take off like a frog. Just have a listen."</p>
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<p>"But you must have known…."</p>
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<p>"Cullian? Sure I knew him. Long ago and far away."</p>
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<p>"Is he here?"</p>
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<p>"Ah, who knows where Cullian is. Or was. Can't help you with that, so I can't. That's your quest, and one I wish you best with, though I reckon you've a sore road to travel before you find the answers."</p>
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<p>He pulled Jack closer. "But you <em>will</em> find the answers. That's writ in the runes. Now, here to business. The Tara Harp, you can't let them have it back. Nor yon firestone heart you carry." He pointed to the glowering clouds. "Since Dermott cut the strings, there's been no spring and no summer and the whole of Eirinn's dying. This is your quest for now, to get the music back. And you have to get the harp to where it belongs."</p>
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<p>"Where is that?"</p>
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<p>"Tara Hill," Rune said. "The Sky Queen's haven on Eirinn."</p>
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<p>But Rune couldn't, or wouldn't say just where the mysterious Tara Hill was. Nobody knew that, he said.</p>
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<p>"It's a burden laid upon you, and you have to be stout enough to carry it through. All life is a game, even to us Cluricauns. But you have to win the first stage before going on to the next. And you know what you want to do next."</p>
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<p>"I want to find my father."</p>
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<p>"Only way to do that is to live up to his name and help Eirinn back to life."</p>
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<p>Jack looked him in the eye, even if he had to bend down to do so.</p>
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<p>"That's a tall order for somebody my age."</p>
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<p>"Tall for anybody. But you can't choose the game. It chooses you."</p>
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<p>"But I don't know where to start," Jack protested.</p>
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<p>"Start?" Rune chuckled. "Man, you're half way through. The game started long ago. You just follow that stout heart. Trust the book. Bear the heartstone. If you've been called, then nobody else can make this quest. And sure, aren't you bound to have some fun along the way?"</p>
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<p>Rune stuffed his long pipe into his bag and drew out a reedy pipe, very similar to the one Finn the Giant had given them.</p>
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<p>"Take this on your travels. It's a long road and you've got the boots to carry you, but when you need to, blow on this and summon the wind."</p>
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<p>With his other hand, he flicked a golden coin into the air. Jack automatically reached for it, and Rune was gone again. And so was the coin.</p>
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<p><em>And the band of four were on their way once more.</em></p>
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<p>It was cold and a biting wind blew, forcing them to huddle together for warmth, as they picked their way across the vast bog towards the distant mountains. The peat was soggy and sucked at the hooves and the black tarns all around seemed fathomless. Here and there a black snake would eye their progress before slipping under surface scum. Thick bubbles swelled and burst slowly like tar.</p>
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<p>As it grew dark, they stopped, exhausted and made what shelter they could on the lee side of a big boulder, only yards from a deep pool.</p>
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<p>Far behind them glittering lights began to appear on the slopes that led down to the bog, first a few, then dozens, all widely spaced on the far hills. It was clear that Dermott's men were spread out and combing the land. But the fires they had lit meant that they wouldn't venture here by night.</p>
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<p>"Can't blame them," Kerry said miserably. "I don't like this place in the daytime."</p>
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<p>"It's bad lands," Connor said. "Men don't come here. Nor in the mountains. I heard tales of strange things."</p>
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<p>"There's always stories about lonely places," Jack said. The bog was indeed lonely and somehow threatening in its desolation, but he didn't want them all to get spooked. It would be a dreary night and they needed some sleep. He took the first watch, huddled in the tunic Rune had tailored, listening to the fading wind moan around the stones, and the odd, sucking noises out in the dark. Things lived in the slick waters. He hoped it was frogs and newts, or even moorhens. Occasionally the tarns would burp some rotting gas that smelt like the slaughterfield of Temair, but at least, Jack told himself, there were no roaks.</p>
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<p>As it grew darker still, the whoop of the wind and the saughing of reed clumps sounded like distant voices. Jack's head nodded and every now and again jerked upright, imagining someone had called his name. He stared out beyond the rock, straining to hear. Somewhere, just under his hearing threshold he was sure he could hear something, a whisper on the wind, but nothing appeared.</p>
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<p>Connor touched his shoulder and he jerked awake as fragments of a dream evaporated. Somebody had called to him through a foggy mist, the way the shuddery voices had called when they travelled the by-way with Brand.</p>
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<p>"I hear things," Connor said. His short-sword was tight in his grip.</p>
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<p>Jack reached for the bow. "What things?"</p>
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<p>"Don't know. Like people calling me. Whispering in my head."</p>
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<p>Jack gave an involuntary shudder. He'd dreamt the same thing.</p>
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<p>"It's just the wind."</p>
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<p>"No, it's not the wind. They tell me they're cold. And lonely and lost."</p>
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<p>"There's nobody here."</p>
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<p>"There's something out there," Connor insisted. He had barely spoken when something plopped in the tarn and the sound of thick bubbles bursting came clearly. The smell of marsh-gas spread around them. They held their breath, listening.</p>
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<p>A sucking sound followed, as if something was being hauled from mud. They heard that clearly and instinctively moved closer to each other. Another sucking sound. Then another. </p>
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<p>Something big was moving.</p>
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<p>"Bogrim," Connor said. His face was pale in the shadow. He made a sign in the air with his fingers, as if warding off bad luck.</p>
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<p>"<em>Cold.</em>" One croaky word and Jack froze. Connor grasped his arm. "<em>So cold.</em>"</p>
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<p>Close by, something else moved. One wet footfall slowly followed another. Off to the right, something else heaved its way out of a boggy hole. It was pitch dark out there and they could see nothing, but the smell of rot was suddenly overpowering. Jack pulled Connor back. Vague shapes crowded closer, slow and damp, dripping as they approached. Jack fumbled in his pack and drew out the little maglite torch, flicked it on, and Connor let out a frightened moan.</p>
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<p>The thing that stumbled towards them might have been a man. Once.</p>
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<p>Its face was horribly puckered and sunken, as if the bones underneath had softened and stretched. Moss and water dripped from clotted tangles of patchy hair. Two pale hands reached out towards them, fingernails gone and skin peeling.</p>
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<p>The hands were tightly bound together with a piece of rotting rope.</p>
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<p>The thing lurched forward, clouded eyes streaming, head lolling on a strangely thin neck. Then Jack noticed the cord garrotte that had been squeezed around it so tightly it had cut to bone.</p>
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<p>"<em>Cold.</em>" The word came in a watery gargle, but clear enough. The boys shrank back, aghast.</p>
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<p>"Bogrim," Connor said again. "The drowned dead."</p>
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<p>Behind the contorted lurcher, another squelched into the light, and another moved in from the right. </p>
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<p>"<em>Come warm us.</em>" </p>
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<p>Jack instinctively shook his head. </p>
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<p>"<em>Come swim in the dark cold</em>."</p>
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<p>Jack pulled Connor close, moving towards where Corriwen was coming awake. He tapped her on the shoulder then turned to where Kerry had been sleeping at the side of the rock, and as he did, he let out a gasp of fright.</p>
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<p>Kerry was gone. Just beyond the rock Jack heard a slithering sound, like something being dragged. Corriwen was on her feet and armed in a split second. Connor jabbed his sword at the lurching monstrosity.</p>
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<p>Then Kerry let out a huge screech.</p>
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<p>"Let go. Get your dirty hands off…"</p>
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<p>They heard a thud. Kerry screamed again, then came shuffling backwards into sight again, on his hands and heels, kicking out as he did so. A pallid, rotting hand reached from the shadows and tried to snatch his ankle and he kicked at it. A finger flew off and landed softly.</p>
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<p>"Jack!" he bawled. "There's…there's <em>things!</em>"</p>
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<p>The mutilated hand reached again. Jack swung the beam and saw a caved-in face with yellow teeth and gaping eye sockets. Corriwen dashed in front of him and stuck the thing in the chest. It faltered as he drew the sword back out and stagnant water gushed out from the wound.</p>
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<p>But it did not fall. Jack swung the maglight around them. Lurching shadows were crawling out of the deep tarns, creatures that were dead; strangled and drowned and dead. But they were moving now, crowding in towards them. the beam picked out the thick layer of marsh-gas that trailed around them as they hauled out of the water.</p>
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<p>"Can't kill the dead," Jack thought. They were trapped against the big rock, with lurching, pleading dead men stumbling towards them, hands out to grab and drag, drag them down into the cold watery dark.</p>
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<p>One reached for Corriwen and she hacked a wrinkled hand clean off. It fell like a wet glove. The Bogrim thing kept on coming, and behind it, there were dozens more. How many came crawling out of stagnant pools on this bogland, Jack couldn't tell.</p>
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<p>They crowded back to back while Jack jammed the torch between his teeth and managed to string an arrow. The nearest thing took a bolt in the centre of its head. It turned, with the arrow jutting like a horn, shook itself and kept walking.</p>
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<p>"Oh screw this for a game of soldiers," Kerry said. "I've seen worse."</p>
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<p>He let out a bellow and jumped at the nearest of the Bogrim, slashed once, twice, slicing through flesh and rubbery bone until the thing that stumbled towards them fell in a heap.</p>
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<p>"There's too many," Jack said. Corriwen leapt up beside Kerry and stabbed out, catching an eye, a face, anything that moved. But behind the nearest, more shadows stumbled in their marsh-gas mist.</p>
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<p>A hand found Connor's neck and clamped tight with astonishing strength to drag him off his feet and out into the darkness. It happened so quickly Jack almost missed it until Corriwen screamed in fear and fury. Kerry jumped out to drag him back and something caught his ankle, sending him sprawling.</p>
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<p>Then they were in amongst them. Connor was jerking and thrashing as he was dragged across the ground towards the tarn. Something splashed heavily. Connor gabbled a strangled cry, hauling for breath. Jack aimed the torch just in time to see Connor's arms flailing as he tried to grab the bank while deeper in the water, the foul thing that held him was sinking into the depths, taking the boy with him.</p>
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<p>Then Kerry was in the water too. Without a thought he jumped straight in, swinging the sword like a madman, stabbing and hacking for all he was worth while holding desperately to Connor's hand.</p>
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<p>Finally the grip on his neck broke and Connor gasped for air.</p>
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<p>"S'got me." He spluttered. "Taking' me down."</p>
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<p>"Not if I can help it," Kerry bawled. He hacked again and again until the thing had nothing left to hold with. A great bubble of foul gas broke the surface, thick as fog and smelling of death. Kerry heaved back and got Connor out and onto solid ground. He hustled him back to the rock while hands groped and snatched at them. Kerry spun back and took a savage blind swing, missing everything, except the hard surface of the rock.</p>
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<p>Sparks flurried up from where the steel hit stone.</p>
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<p>And the night <em>exploded</em>.</p>
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<p>Jack and Corrie were thrown backwards. Kerry vanished in a blinding blaze of light. Connor was blown flat onto the heather.</p>
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<p>The floating mist caught in a series of stuttering flares that leapt from one tarn to another, turning the night into a weird pink day. </p>
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<p>"Marsh gas," Jack said, helping Corrie to her feet.</p>
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<p>The nearest tarns were now pools of flickering light, as the trails of fire spread out all around.</p>
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<p>The wraithlike shapes writhed and twisted in the heat, and in an instant, the miasma of misery lifted from Jack's heart. It felt as if a physical weight had fallen away.</p>
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<p>The apparitions in the marsh were drawn into the rising columns of flame, a silent, drifting multitude, spinning in a gauzy procession, faster and faster, gradually losing shape and form.</p>
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<p>They watched, spellbound, as more and more of the wraiths were sucked into the heat, merging and melting into a pale cloud that rose ever higher into the night air.</p>
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<p>In his head, Jack heard a whispering sigh that faded as the cloud began to dissipate high above them, and the flames guttered and died.</p>
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<p>"They're gone," Corriwen said. "I think the fire set them free."</p>
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<p>"They'll be warmer now, I bet," Kerry finally said. Jack suddenly convulsed with laughter that was very close to hysterics, until he doubled up, unable to get his breath.</p>
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<p>"What?" Kerry asked. "Did I say something funny?"</p>
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<p> </p>
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