Read Gallows at Twilight for Free Online Page B

floor, room by room. Doors opened onto empty bedchambers. Torchlight flashed across dusty drapes, broken furniture, shattered glass.
    ‘We haven’t seen that weasel-faced librarian yet,’ Pandora said. ‘Roland Grype. Maybe he’s made a bolt for it and taken Simon with him.’
    ‘I hope not,’ Jake muttered, ‘or this will all have been for nothing.’
    He opened another door, stepped inside, swept his torch around.
    ‘Empty. Pandora, I think we should—’
    The door slammed shut.
    ‘JAKE!’ Pandora’s fists shook the woodwork.
    ‘I’m all right,’ Jake shouted, tugging at the door handle. ‘Must’ve been a draught.’
    ‘It’s jammed. I’m gonna fetch Brag. Will you be OK for five minutes?’
    ‘Sure.’
    Pandora’s footsteps echoed away down the corridor.
    With nothing to do but wait, Jake decided to explore.
    Like the other chambers on this floor, the room was large, damp, and uncarpeted. Three narrow windows, hung with strips of mouldy curtain, overlooked the garden. Jake played the light of his torch over the remains of a huge oak dining table that lay in pieces in the centre of the room. In one corner, he found a cauldron in which a brown-speckled spider had spun a graveyard for flies. The sight made him feel a little sick and he turned his torch on the fireplace. Grotesque faces with chipped noses and toothless mouths stared out from the columns.
    ‘Is—is someone there?’
    Jake spun round. His hands trembled and the yellow halo of his torchlight shivered across a faded curtain at the far end of the room.
    ‘Who is it?’ the voice pleaded from behind the curtain. ‘Is it … is it you , father?’
    Jake had to resist the urge to run across the room and tear back the drape. This could be yet another trap. But surely there was no mistaking that gruff bark of a voice? He approached, hand cupped, magic tingling at the tips of his fingers. He felt grateful that, this time at least, his powers were responding.
    A silhouette wavered across the curtain.
    ‘Is it … ? NO!’ the voice bellowed. ‘You won’t trick me again … ’ And now with a crumb of hope—‘But is it?’
    The shadow of a hand reached out, like a reflection of Jake’s.
    The boy behind the curtain stepped forward.
    ‘Is it really you?’
    Jake grasped the curtain. Blue light danced in his palm.
    ‘My friend … ’
    He tore it back.
    ‘ … Jake?’
    ‘Simon!’
    For a long time, the two friends just stared at each other.
    Simon was the first to speak—
    ‘I knew you’d come.’
    Jake shook his head. ‘I’m sorry it’s taken so long. I tried …
    I … ’
    Simon’s arms locked around him, making it difficult for Jake to breathe.
    ‘We need to get moving,’ Jake wheezed. ‘Are you strong enough to walk?’
    ‘Sure.’
    Jake nodded. He freed himself from Simon’s hug and headed for the door.
    ‘I feel as fit as a fiddle. Strong as an ox.’
    Jake looked back. It struck him immediately—this picture wasn’t right. Under his ragged clothes, Simon Lydgate seemed to have kept his big, robust frame. Even if the Demon Father had kept him well fed, Jake would have expected the strain of his imprisonment to have had an impact on his friend. Simon’s eyes were clear and bright, showing no fear at all. The smile spread evenly across his lips; nothing like the crooked grin of old.
    ‘Then why didn’t you try to escape? If you’re fit and strong, why didn’t you make a run for it? You weren’t tied up. You could’ve smashed a window and climbed out.’
    Simon’s smile broadened.
    ‘Who are you?’
    ‘I’m Simon Lydgate.’ And now the smile became a leer. ‘Really, Jake—who else would I be?’
    At that moment, the moon found a chink in the clouds. It flashed through the window and across the face of the stranger. Simon Lydgate’s green eyes dissolved into smoky red orbs, the colour of coals at the heart of a fire.
    Skinwalker .
    Jake didn’t need to consult his dark catalogue. The name of the creature