The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,31

the tower is brown because it is mixed with human blood and powdered bone. Usually only the Malkin coven and a few supporters live in the tower. Most of the Malkins reside in the village of Goldshaw Booth.

The Deanes were the second group to migrate to Pendle. Their families came by boat from Ireland, the wet, misty land across the western sea. Bloodthirsty battles were fought against the Malkins in Crow Wood, but they failed to capture Malkin Tower. So they made their home in the village of Roughlee. The Deanes are the proudest of the main clans and are easily insulted. Sometimes they imagine grievances and become spiteful and vindictive. They still dream of making Malkin Tower their own. Although Celtic in origin, after centuries of life in the County they gradually changed their ways. Their families interbred, formed the Deane clan, and ceased worshipping the Morrigan.

Malkin Tower

The Mouldheels, formerly nomadic, were the last of the main clans to arrive. These witches went barefooted, and behind their backs, some called them “stink feet” or “moldy heels,” the latter evolving into their present name. The village of Bareleigh eventually became their home.10

The three main witch villages lie quite close together in an area sometimes known as the Devil’s Triangle. There are other Pendle witch clans, but these are smaller and much less powerful. Among them are the Hewitts, Ogdens, Nutters, and the Preesalls. There are also some more recent incomer witches, although these are shunned.11

Covens

A coven means thirteen witches gathered to use dark magic, usually at celebratory feasts such as Candlemas (February 2), Walpurgis Night (April 30), Lammas (August 1) and Halloween (October 31).

The covens gather at midnight on those feasts, and occasionally, drawing strength from the adulation of his worshippers, the Fiend materializes briefly to accept obeisance and grant dark power.12

Witch Assassins

Each Pendle witch clan (most notably the Malkin, Deane, and Mouldheel families) employs at least one witch assassin—whose primary role is to seek out and destroy their enemies. The successor is usually chosen by a challenge followed by mortal combat. The Malkins’ assassin is easily the most formidable. Three challengers are trained each year and take turns fighting her.

The current assassin of the Malkin clan is Grim-alkin. Very fast and strong, she has a code of honor and never resorts to trickery. She prefers her opponent to be a real test. Although honorable, Grimalkin also has a dark side and is reputed to use torture.

All fear the snip-snip of her terrible scissors. She uses these to shear the flesh and bone of her enemies. She carves this sign on trees to mark her territory or warn others away. Grimalkin’s favorite killing tool is the long blade, and she is a skilled blacksmith who forges her own weapons.

Grimalkin

OTHER NOTABLE MALKIN WITCH ASSASSINS

The previous Malkin assassin was Kernolde the Strangler, who, in addition to blades, used ropes, traps, and pits full of spikes to capture and slay her enemies. Once victorious, Kernolde habitually hung her victims by their thumbs before slowly asphyxiating them. She always faced challengers in the Witch Dell, north of the Devil’s Triangle. There she was aided by the dead witches who haunt that place, particularly Gertrude the Grim, who has been dead for over a century. Kernolde was finally slain by Grimalkin, who hung her by her feet so that the birds could peck her bones clean.

The assassin known as Needle used a long spear as her primary weapon. She impaled her victims and watched them die slowly. After losing an eye to a poisoned dart, she went into decline, finally being defeated in combat by Kernolde.

Dretch was one of the very first Malkin assassins, and the clan still talks of her to this day. She could stalk her enemies with such skill that it was impossible to hear her approach. Her primary weapons were her fingernails and her teeth. In combat, she would blind her enemy with her nails and bite savagely into the throat, tearing out an artery. She was ambushed by a dozen Deanes on Walpurgis Night, when there is traditionally a truce between the clans. After a fierce fight she was slain, but five of her attackers paid with their own lives. This began a year-long war between the Malkins and the Deanes.

Demdike was the only assassin ever to have been murdered by her own clan—the Mouldheels. She made powerful enemies by disobeying directives and insulting the Mouldheel clan leader to her face. At the Halloween sabbath they took her by surprise,