When I stepped outside into the garden, I saw to my surprise that Jenny was already standing there, bathed in the light of the gibbous moon.

“You heard it?” she asked, her eyes bright with excitement. “It’s really loud tonight.”

I’d still not heard anything, but I wasn’t going to correct her—and then, the next moment, I did hear the sound she meant. Although not very loud, it was somewhere between a roar and an angry screech; it certainly wasn’t the warning cry of the boggart. It came from miles away, just as Jenny had described.

I suddenly knew that it came from the big oak tree that the Kobalos mage had made his lair. That’s where my gift told me the danger lay. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it might well have something to do with the dead mage. It might involve Kobalos magic; that’s why I’d brought the Starblade.

For a moment I considered telling Jenny to wait in the safety of the house while I investigated. But danger came with this job—I’d warned her about that already. She needed to come with me and take her chances, whatever the risk. It was something that John Gregory had always expected of me.

“Right, follow me, but stay well back. Understand?”

She nodded, and we set off toward the source of the sound.

18

The Vartek

WE walked fast, and within three quarters of an hour we were approaching the lair of the dead mage. Every ten minutes or so, that unearthly screech echoed through the trees, each cry louder and more terrifying than its predecessor. My sense of danger was growing by the minute. What could we be walking toward? It was surely something big and fierce.

I wondered if Grimalkin was still in the vicinity, or if she had gone off without telling me.

Ahead, the moonlight illuminated the big oak, but when another screech split the heavens, I realized that the sound actually came from somewhere beyond it.

We strode past the oak, emerging from the trees into a wide meadow—to be greeted by an astonishing sight. Someone had scythed the grass very short and marked out a gigantic chalk circle, within which was a five-pointed star.

It was a magic pentacle of immense size.

Sometimes a mage would stand safe within such a pentacle and conjure something on the outside of it. Alternatively, he or she could stand beyond it while the entity was contained within it.

Was there a dark mage in the area? I wondered.

I noticed that at each of the five points of the star, a large candle made of black wax was burning. Although there was a breeze blowing from the west, the tall blue flames did not so much as flicker. Who else but a witch would use black wax candles? This had to be Grimalkin’s work, but there was no sign of her. What was this pentacle for?

Moving out from under the trees, we approached the circle, and I began to walk around the edge in a clockwise direction, with Jenny following at my heels.