Pan- Takes Tom to the dark

Pan lurched from all fours to stand upright, towering over me, his hind hooves still bound by the silver chains. And then he laughed long and loud – with the uncontrollable, delirious hilarity of the insane. Wasn’t he reputed to drive his victims mad? I felt completely lucid; my thoughts seemed ordered and logical. I was afraid, yes, and took deep breaths to calm myself, but for now it appeared that he was the crazy one, not me.

Did being a spook’s apprentice help me to remain relatively rational? No sooner had that thought entered my head than everything began to spin and I was plunged into utter darkness. I felt myself falling anyway. It was as if the wooden structure had collapsed beneath me and I was hurtling down towards the cold cobbles below.


I heard the wind whistling through reeds, and water trickling musically across rocks nearby. I was lying on my back; I immediately opened my eyes and sat up; the first thing I noticed was that my hands were no longer bound.

I was sitting on a grassy bank close to a river, which was gleaming like silver. I looked up, expecting to see the moon, but the sky was dark. Then I noticed that everything around me was glowing with a faint silvery light. At the river margin, tall reeds swayed rhythmically in the light wind that was blowing downstream towards me. They too gave off that silver sheen.

B8 C12