Joseph Delaney by The Last Apprentice: A Coven of Witches

Author:The Last Apprentice: A Coven of Witches [Witches, The Last Apprentice: A Coven of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0061960381
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Published: 2010-04-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER V

Seven Big Handfuls

LONG before the sun came up, Nanna Nuckle’s big body turned and lumbered slowly back toward Lizzie’s house. But I was in no hurry to return. I had a lot of thinking to do.

One option was to run away. But where would I go? I’d be welcome at the cottage of my other aunt, Agnes Sowerbutts, but Lizzie would only drag me back again. There was a good chance that she would find me wherever I went. Did she want me dead? Did she want Old Spig to guzzle my brains? What had been the point of training me as a witch if she was going to let Spig kill me? I wondered. Or was that what she’d intended all along? Was I the replacement for Nanna Nuckle’s old body, which was slowing down now?

Get hard and survive, she’d told me. That didn’t make sense and contradicted the rest. Did she want me to survive or not? Well, I would do just that. It was me or Spig—one of us was going to die, and it wasn’t going to be me. He was vulnerable during the daylight hours and might not think I was brave enough to go back to the house.

That was to my advantage. But what else? Think, girl! I told myself. Use everything you know. . . .

Salt! That would slow him down and affect his coordination. He wouldn’t be able to leap onto my head again so easily. But where could I get my hands on some? It was no use looking in any of the local villages. Witches lived there, and they were wary of the stuff. None of them used it. I was still only being trained—hopefully I could still touch it. So I needed to go south and get right out of the Pendle district.

Washed myself in a stream first. My hair was matted with blood at the back where Spig had tried to saw my head open. Sore, too, when I touched it, but the blade hadn’t gone very deep. A few tufts of hair came away, but I would mend eventually.

I’m not a thief. Never take stuff that doesn’t belong to me. But I was desperate. Besides, salt’s cheap and I didn’t want that much. I saw a farmer and his wife in the distance, working in the fields, so I sneaked into their store. There were big sacks of salt, but I found a bit of cloth and wrapped what I needed in that—seven big handfuls. That done, I set off back toward Lizzie’s house.

It was late afternoon when I walked into the kitchen—plenty of time to sort out what I needed. But I went upstairs first to see what was what. Took a knife and a handful of salt, just in case.

Eased open the door of Old Spig’s room. Gloomy in there, it was, with the heavy curtains closed. I waited for a few moments for my eyes to adjust, then tiptoed in. Nanna Nuckle was

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