Alice Read Free

a little, listening out. I became aware of the loud crunching of my shoes on the pebble path. If it was some sort of wolf and it hadn’t sniffed my scent already, surely the sound of my footsteps would bring it in my direction? I decided to walk alongside the path rather than on it.
    But when I tried to step off, my left shoe encountered no resistance. There was nothing there. No ground.
    Pan had said that an abyss lay between each of the zones! And what was an abyss other than a great emptiness, a bottomless pit?
    Pitching forward into the darkness, I twisted desperately and managed to fall sideways, back onto the path. Then, my heart hammering after that close call, I knelt and looked down. I could see nothing. On all sides was absolute darkness. With my left hand I reached down, but could feel nothing. What could I do but continue on my way, keeping to the path?
    My heart steadying to a normal rhythm, I crunched along, trying to work out the most likely explanation for what had happened. Either the ground had just disappeared or the path had somehow climbed upwards – in which case, what was supporting it?
    The hunting cry came again. This time it was much nearer but it came from below. So I had left the ground behind. I was safe from the creature for now – unless it could somehow find its way up onto the path.
    Soon I heard the howl once more – higher and nearer – and I immediately became more nervous. Was it already up on the path?
    I walked even faster, wondering what manner of creature was behind me. Was I being hunted? Was it some sort of daemon?
    I glanced back, and in the distance I could see something loping towards me on all fours. It looked like a smalldog, but that might be because it was still a considerable distance behind me. I really had no idea how big it was. I began to run. It was difficult to get up much speed on the stones, and I slipped and almost fell headlong.
    Risking another glance back, I immediately wished I hadn’t. What was following me now looked very big, more wolf than dog, and it was gaining by the second. There was something strange about the creature’s face. Yes, it had the bestial face of a wolf, but its expression was sly, crafty and almost human.
    A chill ran the length of my spine as, suddenly, I knew exactly what pursued me.
    It was the kretch, the creature that had been created by witches to hunt down and slay Grimalkin as she carried the Fiend’s head. Fathered by a daemon called Tanaki, it had great powers of regeneration and had grown steadily stronger, learning from each encounter with the witch assassin. One of its weapons was a deadly poison that had weakened Grimalkin; only with the help of my magic had she finally been able to kill it.
    Now it had a new existence in the dark.
    And I was its target. I had hoped to sneak into the dark unseen but for Pan. What a fool I’d been! Things were watchful here, and this creature had found me already.
    I didn’t want to use my magic: it was a finite resource and I might have need of it later. Not only that . . . Each use of dark magic brought me nearer to being a fully-fledged malevolent witch with a cruel heart of stone. This is what worried me most.
    But here I had no choice. I decided to be economical with my power and use the minimum. I exerted my will, and a thick mist began to form across the path so that I could no longer see the kretch. I added to that a spell of bewilderment.
    I didn’t know how effective this would be against such a creature, but within seconds it howled again – no longer the triumphant cruel cry of a hunter; more of a baffled whine.
    There was no knowing how long it would remain lost and befuddled, so I began to run again, until the mist and the kretch were far behind.
    Soon I’d something else to worry about, though. I realized that, in the distance, I could see the end of the path. The white line of stones simply stopped, and beyond it lay nothing but darkness.
    What if I had become