The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,37

take my bones. She was already sharpening her knives when Alice helped me escape. —Tom Ward

14Limbo comes from the Latin word limbus, which means the edge or fringe. Souls have to pass through it to reach the light. Some find it harder than others.—John Gregory

15When working with Bill Arkwright, I came into contact with a Celtic witch from Ireland, who used a curse to kill a County landowner. We called her a banshee witch because she behaved like that elemental, the difference being that she brought about the death rather than just foretelling it. In addition to the curse—uttered in the Old Tongue—and the wailing cries, she used a ritual that involved washing and twisting a burial shroud. This caused the heart of the victim to rupture.—Tom Ward

16The water witch Morwena had a corpse fowl as her familiar. She used it to hunt for me on Monastery Marsh. It was slayed by Grimalkin, the witch assassin .—Tom Ward

17Alice Deane made a pact with the Bane, a very powerful spirit that had formerly been one of the Old Gods. In giving it her blood and attempting to bind it to her will, she was in effect making it her familiar. She was in great danger, but the fact that she was able to deal with it in such a way is a testimony to her power. Alice Deane must never be allowed to turn to the dark.—John Gregory

18Bony Lizzie used long sniffing to foresee the danger from the Chipenden mob that eventually burned down her house.—Tom Ward

19Mab Mouldheel used mirrors twice, to my knowledge, to predict the future. In the first instance, she foretold the breaching of Malkin Tower and the threat to our lives by retreating witches. In the second, she foretold the near death of Alice Deane in Greece at the hands of a feral lamia.—Tom Ward

20Some witches are so strong that they can break free and be born into the world again. My master calls this reincarnation.—apprentice Bob Crosby

21In order to save money, some spooks place a large boulder over the witch’s grave instead of iron bars. I would only use that as a temporary measure when dealing with a relatively weak witch. It’s better to be safe than sorry.—John Gregory

22I was sent to work with Bill Arkwright for six months. He was a hard man who beat me badly on two occasions. One of the worst things I ever witnessed was the killing of a water witch that he’d had imprisoned in a pit for two years. She was still screaming when he threw her heart to his dogs.—apprentice Jack Farington

Mother Malkin, one of the strongest witches the County has ever seen, possessed the body of a pig butcher. After she was driven out by salt and iron, her heart was devoured by pigs.—Tom Ward

When the witch Wurmalde died, dropped by a vaengir lamia from a great height onto Gore Rock in Pendle, the Spook told me that her slayer had already ripped out her heart and devoured it.—Tom Ward

23As a young man, I wrote the definitive guide to possession. It is to be found in my Chipenden library and is titled The Damned, the Dizzy, and the Desperate.—John Gregory

The Ghasts on Hangman’s Hill

The Unquiet Dead

The unquiet dead form a large part of the work carried out by spooks. Being seventh sons of seventh sons, we can see and hear the dead and have conversations with their spirits. Ghasts we can do nothing about, but with ghosts our rate of success is high.

Unlike priests, who try to exorcise ghosts using the ritual of bell, book, and candle, we talk directly to them, as you would to a living person. Our first priority is to find out why they have become trapped on earth. This is usually a consequence of some crime they have committed or their own sudden violent death. Many do not even realize they are dead. After convincing them that this is so, the next step is to persuade them to think of a happy memory from their former life. Concentration upon that usually solves the problem and gives them sufficient peace of mind to be able to find their way through the mists of limbo to the light.

The art of speaking to the dead must be practiced and the necessary skills developed. Some spooks are better at this than others. To be effective in this regard, we must empathize with ghosts and understand their pain and disorientation.1

SYMBOLS USED FOR THE UNQUIET DEAD

These are usually