Chapter 6
“Master… is that you?” Ned asked.
The man standing in front of him winced in pain, then gritted his teeth. Ned watched in amazement as the darkness drew back, forced away by pure will. Now Ned was certain – whatever had happened to him this was still Master Demotte.
“Yes.” The Master’s voice was rough, strained. “But I don’t know how much longer I’ll still be me.”
“What happened?”
“Frederick did. Or to be more precise, whatever has replaced Frederick did. We had no idea what we were dealing with. Frederick appeared to be recovering. The darkness was slowly being driven out. Or so we thought. When night fell there were three of us in the room with Frederick. We took it in turns to strengthen him, to push back the darkness. Something changed when the sun went down.
