Shadow Spell by Caro King Page A

happens if I get to the sorcerer first! What’s more, you will have to warn your companions just in case it’s true, and so you will spread the fear to them.’
    Skerridge glowered harder. It was true. Strood couldn’t know for sure where Dark was – if he did thenaccording to his theory the spell would already be broken. But he might have suspicions and that was bad enough. For a start, it was more than Nin and her friends had. It gave Strood a head start in the hunt for Dark. And if Strood found the sorcerer before they did … A shiver of fear stirred deep in Skerridge’s insides. If Strood found Dark and killed him, the battle would be over before it had even begun. The thought made him feel quite bothered.
    â€˜Doubt, fear, panic, despair. They are all linked.’ Strood smiled. His eyes glittered, fixed on Skerridge, noting every expression on the bogeyman’s face.
    â€˜Gotta go,’ Skerridge said brightly, ‘fings t’ do, people t’ save.’
    The air fizzed and the door banged open and then shut again, closing on the sound of Strood’s laughter.

    In the Widdern, the Little Garden Shop had closed for the day. Jik watched as the young lad who helped out began to tidy up and move the statues indoors. When the boy reached the mudman, Jik fixed him with glowing eyes. The boy decided to forget about that one and leave it outside. With any luck, somebody would nick the thing.
    The sound of bolts being drawn, shutters being pulled and keys being turned trickled down the street, shop after shop. People began to disappear off home. Silence fell and the long evening drew in.
    The air fizzed.
    â€˜â€™Ow’s tricks? Anyfin’ ’appenin’ yet?’
    â€˜Nik.’
    Silence fell. Neither of the Fabulous moved. Jik went back to watching the window of Hilary Jones’s flat with silent attention. Skerridge tried not to keep going over what Strood had said. It wasn’t easy. And he would have to warn the others, Strood had been right about that too. But not just yet. Right now he and the mudman had other things to do.
    One by one, lights went out and stars appeared overhead. The moon crept up the darkening sky, casting its silver veil of light over the roofs and chimneys and turning the shadows that crouched in doorways and alleys into black ink. In the first-floor flat across the road the soft glow of the TV flickered. Time stretched on, waiting.

12
The Nature of Spells
    Speeding through the Drift sky in the grip of the Darkness, Nin was struggling to take in Seth’s sudden death.
    â€˜You killed him!’ she said again, her voice full of shock and disbelief.
    â€˜He was a mistake. I only wanted you. And I didn’t kill him. I just didn’t interrupt his dying.’ The Darkness thickened, settling more securely around her. Nin fought, trying to push it away, but it was pointless.
    Tears stung Nin’s eyes. Seth had been a human being, full of breath and life. By now he would be nothing more than broken flesh. She shook her head, telling herself that he would have survived somehow.
    â€˜You are a strange thing,’ chuckled the Darkness, ‘grieving for someone you barely knew!’
    Nin ignored the comment. ‘So,’ she went on after a pause to choke back her tears, ‘what do you want with me? And what are you?’
    â€˜There is something you should know and I want to be the one to show it to you. As to what I am, I’ll leave youto work that out. Just know that I left my natural habitat especially to find you. And let me tell you, I’m not naturally inclined to the light, even this late in the day it makes my presence ache. I’ll show you where we’re going though, if you wish to see.’
    It thinned again, shifting back into something like transparent silk. Nin gasped at the scene spread out below her.
    They were flying over the Land, just higher than the trees, and in this stretch there