“So you’ve been spying on this hairy beastie as well as me. But we have a problem here. How come when you followed the supposed creature, it didn’t see you?”

“For the same reason you weren’t aware of me when I followed you. I was there close by, but you didn’t see me.”

“You can make yourself invisible?” I said skeptically. Then I scowled. “What are you, a witch? Perhaps you belong in a pit,” I suggested. In truth, I knew she wasn’t a witch. I was just trying to scare her, really—though I knew it was beneath me. I regretted the words the moment they had left my mouth.

“No. I’m a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter,” she replied, “just as I told you. It’s one of the gifts I was born with. I can’t make myself truly invisible—I can’t just disappear before your very eyes. But if you didn’t know where to look and I stood very still, you wouldn’t be able to see me.”

When the girl had confronted me previously, I’d dismissed the idea of a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. It was something I’d not considered before. The Spook had never referred to such a thing—there was certainly no record of one in his Bestiary—nor, for that matter, in any of the books I’d read before his library burned down.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing!” I exclaimed.

“So what?” the girl cried angrily. “Just because you’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Why shouldn’t it apply to girls as well? Why can’t a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter be born with powers to fight the dark?”

She seemed very determined and confident, and it suddenly struck me that my mind had been closed to the possibility. Traditionally, spooks had always been male. This was no doubt because it was men who usually held positions of power and decided how things should be done.

I took a deep breath and bit back my annoyance. If this girl knew the location of the beast, I had to use her knowledge. Other lives could be at stake. The beast would kill again if I didn’t deal with it first.

“Could you show me the tree where this creature lives?” I forced myself to ask the question in a civil tone of voice.

“If I do that, will you take me on as your apprentice?” she asked immediately.

I certainly had no intention of doing any such thing, but if she really did have information on the mysterious deaths, it was my duty to take advantage of it.

“I’m making no promises,” I told her, “but I’ll think about it. We can’t let this go on. Do you want another death on your conscience when you could have prevented it?”

For the first time her confidence seemed to falter, and she lowered her gaze. “The tree is to the east. I’ll take you there now, if you like. It’s less than an hour’s walk. We could get there before dark if we move quickly.”