The Wardstone Chronicles

The Wardstone Chronicles

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The Spook's Apprentice The Spook's Curse The Spook's Secret The Spook's Battle The Spook's Mistake The Spook's Sacrifice The Spook's Nightmare The Spook's Destiny The Spook's Blood
Author	Joseph Delaney
Illustrator	Patrick Arrasmith
Country	UK
Publisher	HarperTrophy Greenwillow Books
Published	2006-
No. of books	8

The Wardstone Chronicles (published in the United States as The Last Apprentice) is a dark fantasy series of books written by British author Joseph Delaney and published by Random House Publishing. The story revolves around Tom Ward, a seventh son of a seventh son in an unbroken male line, who apprentices to John Gregory, the Spook, in order to learn to combat the servants of "The Dark" and defend the County.

Main Plot

The series is about a seventh son of a seventh son, Thomas J. Ward, as a "Spook" so he may learn how to deal with the dark. Eight books in the series have been written so far: The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse, The Spook's Secret, The Spook's Battle, The Spook's Mistake, The Spook's Sacrifice, The Spook's Nightmare, and The Spook's Destiny. In October 2011, Spook's: I Am Grimalkin appears. After this book, it's waiting for The Spook's Blood, which will appear in June 2012. Later on comes I Am Alice and the last book in the series, The Spook's Book Ten, comes in 2013. The Spook's Tale is a prequel to the series, and The Spook's Stories: Witches a spin-off to the series. The Spook's Bestiary, another guide to the series, was published in October 2010.

The first book presents Alice tricking Tom to help Mother Malkin escape, although it was Bony Lizzie's idea in the first place.

During the second novel, Alice sacrifices her blood to the Bane, an Old God caught by the little people in the underground caves of Priestown, in order to save her, Tom and Mr. Gregory's lives.

The third book reveals Meg Skelton, the Spook's longtime love. Towards the end of the book she helps Tom escape the chamber in which he confronted Old God Golgoth.

The fourth book finds the Spook and Tom traveling to Pendle in order to stop the three clans of witches from summoning the Fiend. The witches succeed however, as Tom is being confronted by Grimalkin. The Fiend is stopped by Mam's room, as the three-days period in which he could be controlled by the witches ended.

In the fifth book, Tom is sent to Bill Arkwright, but he is confronted by Morwena, one of the children of the Fiend. Towards the end of the book, Grimalkin reveals that she had carried the Fiend's child herself, but he saw a pure human and crushed him to death. She then vowed revenge and tells Tom he can count on her when turning towards the Fiend.

In the sixth book Mam brings the Pendle witches along with her, Tom, Mr. Gregory and Bill Arkwright. She is revealed to be the original Lamia, mother of all other lamias. The protagonists travel to Greece to confront the Ordeen; while they prevail, Bill Arkwright is killed in the battle.

The Spook has a nightmare in the seventh installment: Bony Lizzie escapes and becomes truly powerful, with the Fiend by her side. The nightmare turns alive, as she becomes Queen of Mona, and Mr. Gregory finds himself useless in front of her powers.

The eight book will feature the Spook and Tom confronting the Morrigan, the Old God of Ireland. Grimalkin has a major role, as she is one of the few that can battle the Fiend. With her help, the Spook and Tom bind the fiend while Alice discovers more about her powers...

The ninth book will find Tom and Mr. Gregory traveling to Romania, in order to battle the seven witches that made a cameo appearance in the seventh book, as they are now summoning the vampiric Old God of Transylvania, Siscoi.

Characters

Thomas J. Ward

Tom is a flourishing apprentice to John Gregory, the County Spook. The Spook has had twenty-nine apprentices before Tom, although he is the best so far. He is the seventh son of a seventh son, but it is revealed in the sixth book of the series that his mother is actually the original Lamia from Greece whom his father saved during his time as a sailor.

As a seventh son of seventh son, Tom has acquired many gifts, including being able to see and hear ghosts and masking his "scent" from the long-sniffing of witches. As well as these, Tom has inherited gifts from his mother, such as being able to (although with difficulty) slow down and stop time and smell the presence of death on someone. In moonlight, his shadow is abnormally long, which the Ordeen described as a signal of what, one day, he will become. His mother, also taught him Greek, which he speaks well, and is learning Latin and Old Tongue from Mr. Gregory.

Tom has accomplished many things, despite his lack of experience like binding a full grown ripper boggart after only six months with the spook.

He has a friendship, though strongly disapproved of by his master, with Alice, a young girl who will grow into a witch, though it is uncertain whether she will become malevolent or benign. However, his master's love, a Lamia witch called Meg, had advised him to "treat her better than John treated me and it won't end like this". Tom continues his friendship with Alice, despite the warnings given by the Spook. He also seems to develop some feelings for her, although it is possible that he could be constantly fretting over her because she is the closest thing he ever had to a friend. In the fifth book, she kisses him for the first time, before running off, supposedly to Pendle.In the eighth book he admits to loving her when the Fiend takes her way to the dark.

Not much is known about his appearance, although it was written in The Spook's Battle (Attack of the Fiend) that he has green eyes and is left-handed, which seems to be common amongst Spooks (Bill Arkwright, The Spook and Tom are all left-handed).

In the sixth book, Mam returns and they, along with the Pendle witches, travel to her homeland of Greece to continue the battle with the dark. The two of them battle a powerful Old God called the Ordeen. Also, Mam reveals that she is the original Lamia, and consequently mother of all the Lamia witches.

It is also seen in the sixth book that Tom has "speed that mocks the tick of time" - a gift which he has inherited from his Mam. He can slow down time and is the County's greatest hope.

In the eighth book, with Grimalkin's ruthless training he learns to voluntarily stop time after coming from the Otherworld with the Destiny Blade and uses both to imprison the Fiend.

John Gregory

John Gregory is one of the most prolific Spooks and has a mysterious history that he will not tell Tom. We gradually discover more about him. He originally trained to be a priest but after falling out with his brother, he became a Spook.

Gregory is a strict mentor, always to the point and hard to please. However, he gives praise to Tom at some moments, albeit rather gruffly and (somewhat) reluctantly, showing that he has a soft side (but is afraid to show it). He claims this lack of praise is at least in part to do with him doing his best to avoid Tom becoming big-headed and making mistakes.

He has had relationships with Meg Skelton and Emily Burns, and is suspected to have more. He met Emily Burns first, admitting that she was his brother's girl, claiming that "he was young". However, she got tired of him and moved on, although they remained good friends. He says she had already got over his brother, one of the reasons why their relationship started. When he had just become a Spook, Gregory met Meg. He had been going off to take care of a monster, and she happened to be in the tower with it, bound with a silver chain. She kissed him passionately after he too took off the silver chain that bound her, but he discovered that she was a Lamia witch (after noticing the line of yellow and green scales along her spine). When he tried to put her into a pit, Gregory found he couldn't bring himself to do it. Eventually, he sends Meg and her sister, Marcia, back to their home in Greece at the end of the third book (The Spook's Secret).

He has a brother named Andrew, a skilled locksmith. He has made keys that can open almost any door for both the Spook and Tom, which have often come in useful, such as when battling the Bane in the Priestown catacombs. Tom meets him for the first time in the second book. He has one other significant brother who is a priest. He is first met in Horshaw after Tom has just begun his apprenticeship. Gregory and his brother did not speak, because Emily Burns was once the priest's lover, but went for the Spook instead. However, he did decide to pay his last respects and attend his funeral when he died. He died after he was attacked by a ripper (a powerful boggart).

In "The Spook's Tale" John's brother Paul is introduced. Not much is known about him apart from the fact that he shared a nightmare with John in his childhood.

During the fifth installment, he sends his apprentice to train with Bill Arkwright to receive further training against the everlasting battle against the dark. Later he has to help Tom rescue Arkwright from several Water Witches. At the end of the book, he sends Alice away because, among other things, she used a mirror to communicate with other witches, including the witch assassin Grimalkin, who ended up saving Tom's life in the fifth book.

John uses Greek symbols to mark the places of witches, boggarts, and the unquiet dead. β (beta) is used for boggarts; a line through the beta shows that the boggart is bound. (gamma) is used to mark a ghost or ghast. I-X marks how strong the boggart or unquiet dead is; in the case of the unquiet dead, however, it shows how strong it is or if it is classified as a ghost or ghast. a ghost is a coherent spirit, left on earth for a purpose; a ghast is but a fragment of a person that has gone to the afterlife, they fade over time.

Alice Deane

Alice is the daughter of Bony Lizzie and the grand-grandaughter of Mother Malkin. She first tricks Tom into freeing Mother Malkin but later helps him defeat her and her vengeful relatives. Later in the series she sticks to Tom and the Spook helping them countless times with her magic when their principles would inhibit them. She cares a great deal about Tom though not so much about the Spook, and considers their inhibitions with feelings varying from amusement to exasperation.

Originally from Pendle, Alice is the daughter of Bony Lizzie and the Fiend. In the first part of the Wardstone Chronicles, Alice Deane seems to be a confused young girl seemingly under the wrong influence. However, as the series goes on, she starts to see from good and bad, and starts to help Tom in many ways. She seems to be a feminist, throwing a fit when Tom suggested that she cooks. (Although Tom later pointed out that she is good at it.) She also seems somewhat reluctant to help out Mr. Gregory when he's in a tight spot, pointing out that he probably wouldn't do the same for her, but ends up being convinced by Tom to do so anyway. She doesn't like the fact that Mr. Gregory doesn't trust her, and is known for throwing fits when she's left out of something big.

However, Tom's mother was often worried about how Alice would turn out, as she seems to be on the fine line between good and evil. Even though she helped destroy Mother Malkin and the Bane, it was (mostly) her fault that they had to be stopped in the first place, albeit unknowingly. Bony Lizzie had made her convince Tom to give Mother Malkin blood cakes, and she had made a sacrifice to the Bane out of pure hatred and spite toward the Quisitor. Although she knew the consequences, she had freed the Bane to help Tom, Mr. Gregory, and herself.

Alice seems to have a gift with botany, putting leaves on Tom's hand to treat his burn and Gregory's hatred for Alice he really appreciates her work as a scribe. Tom said that she had nice handwriting at the end of the book.

During the series, Alice is said to be pretty with big, hazel eyes and long, black hair, however her hair was turned white in the eighth book when she was truamatized after spending time in the Fiends domain. She seems to have feelings for Tom as she jokes about using, during a moment of solitude during the day of his birthday, glamor and fascination on him, two witch powers to seduce and control. Another reason for believing that Alice has feelings for Tom may come from the fifth book, where she is tormented by the idea that she will be separated from him and finally kisses him on the lips for a while. Yet another hint is when she is trying to convince Tom to use the blood jar, stating that if he did they could never separate and she wasn't opposed to the idea, saying she would actually rather like it.

At the end of the fifth book, Alice contacts Grimalkin (a savage witch assassin) to help Tom defeat the Fiend's daughter, Morwena, which later gets her banished from Chipenden. She revealed to Tom that she was going to become a witch once back in Pendle Hill, claiming that's where she belonged.

In the sixth book, Alice uses a blood jar to fend off the Fiend and keep him from taking Tom's soul. Tom, worried that Alice would have to face the Fiend's wrath, realizes that from now on they have to stick close together which would be a hard life as Tom would be really worried to so much as let Alice out of sight.

In the seventh installment, Alice is named by Bony Lizzie "her own gift for the County", as Mam said the same about her son Tom.

In the Spook's Destiny, she is dragged into Hell by The Fiend after the blood jar cracks. After Pan returns her as a favor to Tom, after the Fiend is defeated, her hair is snow-white from the shock.

Mam (Lamia)

Also known as Lamia, she is the first witch of her kind. Allegedly, she was a wife to the Old God Zeus and bore him offspring. She turned toward the Light, at which point she had her hand nailed to a rock and was sentenced to be killed by exposure to the sun. She was saved by Tom's father and, after refusing another chance to return to the Dark by killing him, she gave up her immortality,^[1] married him and moved with him back to the County. She bought the farm so he could give up sailing and she bore him seven sons only. When Tom was born at last she started grooming him to become the next Spook.

She leaves the farm for Greece after her husband's death and bequeaths Tom her three coffers which held her money, books and potions and her too wild lamia 'sisters'. They helped drive the Mouldheels out of the Malkin Tower during the events of The Spook's Battle. Later, during The Spook's Sacrifice she asked Tom for her money to buy a boat and hire a crew. She sets for Greece, bound to confront her archenemy Ordeen. She holds Ordeen in her lamia form while the Ord falls back into the darkness, effectively killing herself.

She's a proud woman and an extraordinary midwife, having saved more than a dozen women from the country. She can allegedly see into the future and her letters seem further proof of that, although the Spook grudgingly explains them by good intuition and intelect, and has helped Tom with advice whenever she could.

Bill Arkwright

A spook in operation in Caster, Bill Arkwright was one of The Spook's few apprentices to survive. He was in charge of training Tom to make him more apt in battle in the book: The Spook's Mistake. Bill had his own set of "demons", namely alcohol which he called 'demon drink'. Bill Arkwright was the Spook for the other side of the County who makes his first appearance in The Spook's Mistake. Tom was sent to him so that Tom could learn the physical side of being a Spook's apprentice and learn things that John Gregory could not teach him anymore. Bill was a drunkard and couldn't control the urge to drink, mainly because his parents could not be sent to the light and remained in the world in the form of spirits. It is later found out that The Fiend had bound them to the Earth. Arkwright's ways of teaching seem hard and aggressive, but they soon come in handy, especially when Tom comes to save him after he is captured by Morwena, a water witch. He is the Spook of the North, and later on with the help of Tom and Grimalkin, Bill manages to set his parents free. After that his mood seemed to lift and he became a happier man. He lived in a mill surrounded by a moat full of salt to keep enemies from the dark away.

• Tooth is a grey with black lines wolfhound
• Claw is a black wolfhound bitch and Tooth's mate

The Ward family

John Ward

Originally a sailor, John Ward bought got married to Tom's mother, whom he met in Greece, bought a farm with her money and settled down. He dies during the events of The Spook's Secret.

Jack Ward

The eldest of the seven Ward brothers, Jack is initially jovial and patronizing towards Tom. He later reveals an underlying jealousy when he bitterly tells Tom that he'd always been their mother's favourite. That later turns into greater and greater animosity at each brush with the peculiarity or even danger that Tom's job entails. He goes into shock when the Malkin witches abduct him.

Ellie Ward

Ellie Ward is Jack Ward's wife.

Mary Ward

The daughter of Jack and Ellie, she's born near the ending of The Spook's Apprentice.

James Ward

Initially a blacksmith, he moves in with Jack at the farm after the events in The Spook's Battle to start making beer.

The Gregory family

Father Gregory

Andrew

Initially a locksmith in Priestown, he moves after the events in The Spook's Curse

The Antagonists

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Humans

Father Cairns

Father Cairns is John Gregory's cousin and a priest in Priestown. He tries to sway Tom with sanctimonious speeches about God and duty while sending soldiers to arrest his master. He, like most of the Church, is prejudiced against Spooks as he believes that at the end of their apprenticeship they sell their souls for their powers and they only fight small-fry.

The Quisitor

Morgan Hurst

He's the seventh son of Emily Burns and a carpenter Edward Furner, another seventh son. He was adopted by the Hursts and fell in love with their daughter, Eveline. Claiming this was a forbidden love, they beat him, and he left. Eveline drowned herself. Morgan had an interest in the dark, and was soon apprenticed to the Spook. He believed himself to be the Spook's son and became cocky and ambitious leading him to part ways with his master and study necromancy.

His ambition drove him to try raising the Old God Golgoth. He blackmailed Tom to steal an old grimoire from his master and completed the ritual. Golgoth was brought into the world, but killed Morgan in the process, due to the Spook's changing of the ritual. Morgan couldn't spot the error as his latin was poor.

Irish Mages

Also known as goat mages, they worship the old god Pan and sacrifice goats and people to bind him to the body of a he-goat and share the madness he feels.

Witches

Witches are one of the most powerful physical-being forces that have been known to serve the Dark. As well as power they have the advantage of numbers. Many of them reside in Pendle and belong to at least one of the three clans: the Malkins, the Deanes and the Mouldheels. Romania and Greece also host a great number of witches.^[2] Based on their actions, they can be:

• Benign - witches who use their power to help other people
• Malevolent - witches who use blood, bone, or familiar magic for evil.
• Unaware - witches who don't know what they are

Falsely Accused - Women who are unjustly accused of being witches and consequently put to death.

The Malkin Clan

While the coven lives at the Malkin Tower, the rest of the clan lives in the Goldshaw Booth village.

• Anne Malkin - leader of the Malkin clan

Bony Lizzie

Bony Lizzie is Alice's true mother and Mother Malkin's grandaughter. She's a dangerous witch practicing bone magic, hence the nickname 'Bony'. She trained Alice in witchcraft for 2 years. She was caught by the Spook at the end of The Spook's Apprentice but escaped in The Spook's Nightmare after reaching her 40th birthday.

Mother Malkin

Malevolent witch who practices bone and blood magic.

Grimalkin

The 33-year-old^[3] assassin of the Malkin witch clan, she is a malevolent witch skilled with knives and scissors in combat. Her mark is a pair of scissors. She nonetheless follows a strict code of honour not to use trickery in combat, to the point where, when ordered to kill Tom, she regretted it as she would not be able to face him when he was at his prime, and offered him a quick death (although he did survive). She gained protection from the Fiend by bearing him a son. The baby was not a witch but an ordinary boy so the Fiend killed him, resulting in her swearing to destroy him. For that reason she's unlike the average antagonist as her hatred often makes her side with Tom.

Grimalkin is the best character in physical limits and has battle smarts. She is the best Malkin Clan assassin.

Maggie

Maggie Malkin was hanged at Caster three years before the events in The Spook's Battle and the clan left her at Witch Dell. She has bulging eyes and a longer than usual neck, with her head twisted to the left. She's dressed in a long dark gown covered in patches of mold.^[4]

Tibb

Malkin creature made to balance Mab's power. Created the past Halloween before the events in The Spook's Battle by the Malkin and Deane clans. He's a powerful scryer, small yet stronger than a grown man.^[5] The Spook kills him at Norwell's ressidence after he shares Wurmalde's plans for Lammas.

The Deane Clan

The Deanes live in the Roughlee village,Pendel.

• Florence Deane - leader of the Deane

Agnes Sowwerbutts- Alice's supposed aunt. A benign witch

The Mouldheel Clan

The Mouldheel Clan lives practices blood and bone magic and takes pride in its members' scrying skills. Because of them, people in Pendle either have no mirrors in the house or turn them to face the wall. The Mouldheels live in the Bareleigh village.

Mab Mouldheel

Leader of her clan, Mab is the most talented with foresight. She is in love with Tom Ward but he hates her because she's a witch and once she was about to kill his niece, Mary. She's green eyed and she has long blond hair. She is dressed in a washed-out blue dress with ragged sleeves. She doesn't wear shoes like most witches, she always walks barefoot.

She has two twin sisters younger than her, Beth and Jannet.

The Greek Witches

Meg Skelton

Meg skelton is a domesticated Lamia witch. Her physical charecteristics are that she has silver hair, high cheek bones and looks like a young woman even though she is old. Meg used to have a relationship with the spook John Gregory Her sister's name is Marcia Skelton who is a feral Lamia witch.^[6]

Marcia

Marcia is a feral Lamia witch and was locked under the Spook's winter home. She traveled back with Meg back to there home land Greece at the end of The Spook's Secret.

Wurmalde

She's described by Tom as in her late thirties, tall for a woman, with abundant dark hair like a lion's mane.^[7] She has bold and piercing eyes and lips so pale that they resembled those of a corpse which contrast with her obvious strength and vitality. She carries herself proudly which makes people say she's above herself.

She's one of Tom's mother's most bitter enemies and plans to set the Fiend to kill Tom. One of the lamia witches in Tom's trunks grabs her as she flees after finishing the ritual and drops her onto Gore Rock, effectively killing her.

Water Witches

Water witches hunt usually by burying themselves in mud or the marshes and waiting for their victims. They can hold their breath for hours and unlike normal witches, they can cross running or stagnant water. They have a nail curled around like a hook which they use to spear the ear or the cheek of the victim.

Morwena

A water witch, she is a daughter of the Fiend and thus more powerful than other water witches. She practices blood magic and can't stand on dry land for more than an hour.

She has dark hair down to her shoulders. Around her shoulders she has smock covered in green scum, while on the lower half of her body she wears a ragged skirt caked with brown marsh slime. She has two rows of yellow-green teeth with four immense fangs instead of normal canines. Her left eye is normally closed, the right one open – a vertical slit like the cold eye of a snake or lizard – and her nose is a beak of sharp bone without any covering of flesh or even skin. Her hands look human but for her fingernails, which are sharp, curved talons. Her toes were webbed and ending in a sharp talon. She opens her left eye by touching it with her fingers to release the seal on it. That eye is completely red as if completely filled with blood and the person looking at the eye becomes paralyzed. The eye is mostly closed because it uses a lot of energy and she can only use it on one person at a time.^[8]

Demons

The Fiend

The Fiend is the Dark made Flesh, also called Old Nick, The Devel, Satan and Father of lies. He has control over time, and he can change his shape at will. He claims to be Alice Deane's father, this is later proven true by Tom Ward's Mam. There are few ways to keep the Fiend from approaching you, one way is to bear him a child, (witches do this often) and the other is to have a blood jar, which contain's one of the Fiend's child's blood, and the wearer's blood.

The Bane

The Bane is an ancient demon who'd ruled over the segantii people, demanding regular sacrifices. One of their leaders, Naze, entrapped him in the catacombs below what would become the city of Priestown. He grew in power by feeding on the priests' blood and grew to influence the city.

The Spook tried destroying him and nearly died in the process and had since avoided the city. The Bane is later killed during the events in The Spook's Curse by Tom, who binds him with his silver chain in his corporeal form and then stabs him with a silver blade.

The Old Gods

Golgoth

The Old God of winter and cold he is brought back from sleep by Morgan through the wrong ritual. He tries to coerce Tom into freeing him from the pentagram but runs out of power before he can kill Tom.

Morrigan

The Morrigan is the Celtic goddess of magic, and appears with a ravens head, and a female body.

Ordeen

She's killed by Tom's mother during the events in The Spook's Sacrifice

Pan

He is worshipped by the Irish mages who bind him through dark magic to the body of a goat to share the madness that grabs him. To Tom he appears as a young boy with long hair, pale face and pointy, slightly elongated ears and toenails so long that they curl into a spiral. He's a very talented musician. Tom does him a favor in The Spook's Destiny by helping Pan commit suicide to escape the mages' ritual. Pan returns the favor by returning Alice from the Fiend's realm when Tom defeats him and the barriers between his and Pan's realms weaken.

Zeus

Hera

Siscoi

Siscoi is a Romanian old vampire God, who lives in the centre of Transilvania. Siscoi will appear in the ninth book.

Beasts

Boggart

There are many kinds of Boggarts. They can all travel along special kinds of faults, that instead of being faults in the Earth, but faults in spiritial magic. They can travel along these instantly, as if they were teleporting.

Hairy Boggart

Hairy boggarts take the shape of animals. They are mostly dogs, but there are still many cats, a goat or two and sometimes a horse.

Hall Knocker

A Hall Knocker is a boggart who announces his or her existence by knocking. It can develop in a Stone Chucker, and the Spook fought one twice, coming very close to death.^[9][10]

Ripper

A "Ripper" is the most dangerous and deadly of Boggarts. it starts out by killing cows and sucking their blood. But if they taste human blood, they'll switch from cattles to humans. To hunt humans, the open a fissure in he ground and trap one of the humans limbs in it, usually a leg. They then rip open the limb and vicously suck the blood from it. This process can take anywhere from 5 minutes, to 10 hours, depending on it's size. In one of the books, the Spook and Tom have to kil a "Ripper" That was sucking the blood out of a priests leg in a church, who had tried to ward it off by praying.

Daemon

Buggane

The buggane is a category of daemon that frequents ruins and usually materializes as a black bull or a hairy man, although other forms are chosen if they suit its purpose. In marshy ground bugganes have been known to shape-shift into wormes.

The buggane makes two distinctive sounds – either bellowing like an enraged bull to warn off those who venture near its domain or whispering to its victims in a sinister human voice. It can speak to the mind of its prey and those who hear it die in a few days if the buggane isn't killed by then.

Bugganes are immune to salt and iron, which makes them hard both to kill and to confine. The only thing they are vulnerable to is a blade made from silver alloy, which must be driven into the heart of the buggane when it has fully materialized. The Spook and Tom meet bugganes on the isle of Mona during the events in The Spook's Nightmare.

Elemental

Fire Elementals

Salamander

A salamander is the most powerful known fire elemental, being so hot that is can reduce the victim to ashes instantly with ease. The Ordeen, who appears near the end of the sixth book, can take the form of a salamander, similar to the Bane's ability to become a Gargoyle. The Ordeen is currently the only known Salamander.

Asteri

An Asteri is a star shaped elemental that hangs on ceilings and falls on their victim's head.

Hydra

At the near end of "Wrath of the Fallen" the Buggane transforms into a Hydra. It is a nine-headed snake, that keeps it's body submerged in water while it's nine heads attacks for it.

Skelt

"It's very rare and lives in crevices, either submerged or close to water. Instead of a flexible tongue, a long hollow bony tube protrudes from its mouth. The tube's sharp and pointed at the end so the creature can suck up the blood of its victims."^[11]

Selkie

A selkie or a seal-woman is a shape-shifter who turns into a woman to marry a fisherman. They can't have children and they don't appear to age. They take one or two days to take human shape but can revert from it in seconds if threatened.

Sirens

They are creatures of the sea, females, who used their strange, melodious cries to lure sailors onto the rocks and destroy their vessels. They then drag the drowning sailors into the depths and feed upon their flesh at leisure. Unlike ordinary men, spooks have a degree of resilience to their cries.

They appear as beautiful women with bright eyes, golden hair and skin, their allure very powerful, but that's an illusion they create. In reality, although they retain the body of a woman they have long and green hair like tangled seaweed, and their faces are monstrous, with huge fangs sprouting from grotesquely swollen lips.

Wight

Wights are creatures who are created and used by witches, most often as a guardian of a secret place. The withces use dark magic to create a wight and bind a drowned sailors soul to the body, causing the body to stop decaying. Instead the body get bloated and strong. The Wights don't have eyes, since these have been eaten by fish, but thay have a keen hearing helping them to locate their victims while they are under water.

The wight pull its victim into the water, where the victim drowns while the wight dismember the victim. They can be defeated with the same things that are used against witches: rowan staff, silver chain, and iron & salt^[12]

Worme

Not to be confused by "Worm" They are creatures who are water dwellers. They vary in size and looks and can be anything between the size of a small dog to the size of a house. They can have legs, though most of them have tails. Their bodies are eel-like and covered in hard scales which are hard to penetrate with blades. Their mouth is full of deadly fangs that can bite off a limb with ease and, when on land, they can spit out a deadly poison. Some of the wormes can have wings and are sometimes mistaken for dragons because of the steam that often erupts from their mouth^[13]

Spirits

Ghast

A ghast is a fragment that's left behind when someone's soul has moved on. They are repetitive. Examples of ghasts are the spirits on Hangman's Hill and the ones in the house in Horshaw.

Ghost

Unlike a ghast, a ghost is a spirit that stays behind after the body's death. Unlike ghasts they can be reasoned with and convinced to move on.

Banshee

Is a female water spirit that predicts and warn of death. They are mostly invisible, and the only thing you can hear are their wailing cry, which is repeated 3 times per night - on the 3. day it's said that someone in a house close by, are going to die. It happens that they are seen washing a burial shroud and if there are blood on it, the upcoming death are going to be violent.

The banshee witches can be confused by the Celtic witches, who're known to copy this act to bring death to their victim instead of foreseeing it.^[14]

Jibber

They are the souls of people who'd comitted suicide and have been bound by dark magic to the area of their death. The Spook and Tom encountered them in Ireland and this far, the only way they have found to set them free is by having Alice use the spell Avaunt(to go), much to the Spook's disgruntlement.

Film

Main article: The Seventh Son (2013 film)

A live action film adaption for the series has been announced, entitled "The Seventh Son". The film is to be produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

The film is helmed by Academy Award-nominated director Sergei Bodrov, with Basil Iwanyk, Legendary's Thomas Tull and Lionel Wigram producing.

Jeff Bridges is rumoured to be in talks for the part of The Spook, with Julianne Moore nearing a deal to play a witch said to be Mother Malkin. Following actor Alex Pettyfer declining the role of Tom, several actors were tested for the part, including Sam Claflin, Caleb Landry Jones and James Frecheville. Jennifer Lawrence was reportedly offered the role of Alice, but turned it down to star in the adaptation of The Hunger Games.

In March 2011, British actor Sam Claflin and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander were reported to have entered negotiations to take on the respective roles of Tom and Alice. In June 2011, Variety broke the news that Claflin was no longer in talks to be in the film, and that Ben Barnes was cast in the role of Tom Ward.

Books

Main Series

1. The Spook's Apprentice
2. The Spook's Curse
3. The Spook's Secret
4. The Spook's Battle
5. The Spook's Mistake
6. The Spook's Sacrifice
7. The Spook's Nightmare
8. The Spook's Destiny
9. Spook's I Am Grimalkin (October 2011)
10. The Spook's Blood (June 2012)
11. I Am Alice (Between Spook's Nine and Ten)
12. The Spook's Ten (2013)

There was a little misunderstanding by readers how the series was formed, but Delaney has posted in his blog for June 2011 that Spook's I Am Grimalkin and I Am Alice (formerly known as The Alice Dean Diaries) won't be part of the spin-off series The Spook's Stories, but will tell pieces of the story first told by Tom. (In Spook's I Am Grimalkin the narrator will be Grimalkin, and in I Am Alice, Alice will be the narrator.) This means that The Spook's Books will total 10, but the whole series will consist of 12 books.

Additional Books

• The Spooks Stories: Witches
• The Spook's Tale
• The Spook's Bestiary

References

1. ^ Delaney, Joseph (2007). The Spook's Battle. Bodley Head. ISBN 0370328922. 
2. ^ Witches, on Wikia.
3. ^ Spook's World, the 'Q & A' section.
4. ^ Delaney, Joseph (2008). The Spook's Battle. Bodley Head. pp. 33/127. 
5. ^ Delaney, Joseph (2008). The Spook's Battle. Bodley Head. pp. 34/127. 
6. ^ "Meg Skelton on Wikia". http://thespooksapprentice.wikia.com/wiki/Meg_Skelton. 
7. ^ Delaney, Joseph (2008). The Spook's Battle. Bodley Head. pp. 38/127. 
8. ^ Morwena on Wikia
9. ^ Joseph Delaney (2004). The Spook's Apprentice. pp. x. 
10. ^ Joseph Delaney (2006). The Spook's Secret. pp. y. 
11. ^ Joseph Delaney. The Spook's Mistake. p. 40. 
12. ^ Spooks bestiary, page 198-199
13. ^ The spooks bestiary, page 200
14. ^ The Spooks Bestiary, Joseph Delaney, page 212

External links

• Wardstone Chronicles Official Site
• Fantastic Fiction Author Page
• www.spooksworld.co.uk