by Derek Landy
“We want Tanith Low and Kenspeckle Grouse returned to us,” Skulduggery said. “And then we want you and the others to give yourselves up.”
Scarab laughed and Sanguine shook his head, amused.
“I like you guys,” Sanguine said. “I do. You know why I like you? Because you’re funny. You look all weird and you say all these silly things. Funny, y’know?”
“You act as if you’re not hopelessly outnumbered,” said Scarab, “which, by the way, you are. You act like you’d stand a chance against the fellas we have with us and all the Hollow Men we’ve been stitching together – which, by the way, you don’t. That’s impressive.”
Sanguine nodded. “That, and I don’t mind sayin’ this because I know it’ll stay in this room, is a beautiful thing.”
It was a psycho double act they were watching – father and son lunatics. But even so, they were talking too much. Skulduggery felt it too.
“I take it you’re not going to surrender,” he said.
“The last time you arrested me,” Scarab responded, all humour gone from his voice, “you locked me away without a trial. If it’s all the same to you, I’m not going to repeat my mistakes. There will be no prison cells this time. There will be no cover-ups. There will be justice.”
“That’s why you had Professor Grouse repair the Desolation Engine? You think setting it off will be justice?”
“Depends who I kill, now doesn’t it?”
Skulduggery tilted his head. “What’s to stop us from putting an end to all of this right now, and kicking the hell out of the both of you while we’re at it?”
Sanguine frowned. “Well, we’re, we’re up so high…” He brightened. “Oh, yeah and we’ve got reinforcements.”
“See,” Scarab said, “we were planning to use the Hollow Men in our grand finale, but seeing as how you found our base here, we’ll just have to improvise a little. So we’re going to head off now and no doubt we’ll meet again to, you know, hit each other or whatever it is people like us do nowadays.”
“It’s still hit each other,” Sanguine told him.
“Well, there you go. You can’t beat the classics.”
“You can try and stop us,” Sanguine said, “but I have a feelin’ you’ll be just a tad busy fending off the army of Hollow Men that are about jump out at you.”
At that, a section of wall opened up and a single Hollow Man stumbled out and stood there. Sanguine pursed his lips. A moment passed.
“Awkward,” he murmured.
Another wall slid open and Hollow Men poured out, dozens of them, and Sanguine clapped his hands in delight and then disappeared from view with his father.
Valkyrie stood beside Skulduggery and Ghastly, and they clicked their fingers and threw balls of fire. The flames caught the skin of the Hollow Men, taking a few seconds to burn through, and ignited the gases within. And still they came, dozens of them, swarming into the hall.
“The Cleavers are on their way,” Skulduggery said, “but we don’t have time for this. Anton, we need them taken down fast.”
Shudder nodded. He closed his eyes and his fists clenched. Then a head pushed through his chest.
Valkyrie stepped back in shock. The head was hazy, like a ghost, and it was Shudder’s head, only different. The hair was longer and it had pointed teeth. It snarled as it pushed its way out. Its shoulders came next, then its arms, then its clawed hands. It was dressed in the same shirt and black jacket as the real Shudder. It stayed where it was for a moment then opened its eyes, which were narrow and black. It saw the Hollow Men, its face contorted with effort and it lunged, trailing a blurred stream of light and darkness from its torso back into Shudder’s chest. It flew to the nearest Hollow Man and slashed, its claws solid enough to rip through the papery skin.
It moved on, the stream that connected it to Shudder lengthening, and it screeched as it went, tearing and ripping through the Hollow Men as they swiped at it. It looped and curled, swooped and whirled, the stream crossing over and under itself. This ghostly Shudder, this gist, was relentless. With each pass its visage became fiercer, and it was no longer so hazy, so transparent. It looked demonic. It looked evil.
Shudder himself grunted. Valkyrie looked at him and saw the sweat on his face, saw the straining muscles on his neck. The stream that flowed from his chest became tight and taut, and the gist screamed in anger as it began to retract. Like a fish on a hook it twisted and writhed, but it could do nothing to stop itself from being pulled back into Shudder’s chest. The last Valkyrie saw of it was a flailing claw.
Shudder took a heavy step back, his face pale, his breathing uneven. The Hollow Men were gone, nothing more than tatters and a foul smell that made her eyes sting again.
“Are you OK?” Valkyrie asked.
“It takes me a few minutes,” Shudder said quietly, “to regain my strength.”
“What was that?” Fletcher asked.
“It’s my gist,” he said. “It’s my anger, my hate, my determination. It’s the strongest part of me, but it needs to be carefully controlled. Gists can’t be allowed too much time out of the host body.”
“Why not?”
Shudder looked at them. “It would take over, and then I’d be reduced to something that lived inside it.”
“Fletcher,” Skulduggery said, “take Anton outside. Wait there for Marr and the Cleavers. Tell them where we are.”
Fletcher nodded, glanced at Valkyrie and disappeared with Shudder.
“Let’s go,” Skulduggery said to Ghastly and Valkyrie.
They used the air to rise to the broken mirror, then touched down and hurried on. There were more Hollow Men here, but they were dispatched easily.
“Tanith’s this way,” Valkyrie said, taking the lead. “Kenspeckle’s with her. He’s been…She’s hurt.”
They ran on, until Valkyrie pointed at a door and Skulduggery blasted it open.
Kenspeckle Grouse leaped to his feet, snarling. Tanith could barely raise her head. Ghastly moved to Kenspeckle and hit him with a right cross. Kenspeckle laughed. He pushed Ghastly and Ghastly hit the far wall. Kenspeckle threw his chair at Skulduggery and used the distraction to get closer. He laughed again as he yanked Skulduggery’s arm from his shoulder. Skulduggery roared in pain and Kenspeckle shoved him away. Valkyrie splayed her hand against the air and Kenspeckle went tumbling backwards.
There were footsteps behind her and Davina Marr burst into the room. “Do not move!” she commanded, gun aimed at Kenspeckle.
Kenspeckle snarled again and turned on his knees, his mouth opening wide. Something bulged in his throat, something that was trying to crawl its way out. If that Remnant got loose in here, it could possess any one of them, or seize its chance to escape, and they’d never get it back. Valkyrie ran forward and kicked, the toe of her boot slamming into Kenspeckle’s chin. He lifted slightly with the impact and dropped on to his back.
Marr hurried over, shackles in his hand. She cuffed Kenspeckle’s wrists behind him, sealing the Remnant back inside. Valkyrie looked around, realising there were Cleavers over by Tanith, freeing her from the seat.
“This won’t hold me for long,” Kenspeckle said, spitting blood as Marr hauled him up. “I’ll get out. I’ll come for you. Every last one of you.”
“Cleavers” Marr said, “take him away.”
Fletcher came in as Kenspeckle was led out.
“Fletcher,” Skulduggery said, stifling a groan as he fixed his arm into place, “take Tanith to the Sanctuary. She needs urgent medical attention.”
“You got it,” Fletcher said, gently placing his hand on Tanith’s arm. They vanished.
“Did you catch Scarab?” Ghastly asked Marr when he’d picked himself up off the floor.
Marr shook her head. “All the major players are gone. All we’ve come across so far are Hollow Men.”
“Look what I found,” Detective Pennant said as he walked in. He was smiling triumphantly, a strange stone hourglass in his hand. Green liquid sloshed insi
de the twin vials. “Looks like they left without their toy.”
Valkyrie stared. “That’s the Desolation Engine?”
“I found a bunch of other stuff,” Pennant continued. “Bits and pieces, junk really. One of the Cleavers is taking it to the boffins to make them happy. But this – this is the big one.”
“That bomb is live,” Skulduggery said quietly.
Pennant laughed. “It can’t be live. The old man didn’t have time to fix it. You’re talking days of work and he had, what, a few hours?”
“There are three steps to setting that thing off. Do you see the way the liquid is slightly luminous? That tells us it’s live. That’s the first step. The second step is arming it. We’ll know that happens when the liquid turns red and starts to bubble. The third and final step is when it’s triggered. Detective Pennant, you are two steps away from obliterating us all. Maybe you should hand that over to me.”
Skulduggery stepped forward, but Marr took it from Pennant before Skulduggery got near. “You may have been granted temporary authority, Mr Pleasant, but I am still Prime Detective and, as such, this is my responsibility. Once it has been declared safe by Sanctuary experts, maybe then I will allow you to examine it. But right now, this is ours.”
Pennant strained to look professional, even as he backed away from the bomb.
Fletcher appeared beside Valkyrie and she jumped.
“Sorry,” he said. “The doctors are looking at Tanith now.” He saw Pennant and waved. “Hi. Didn’t I beat you up once?” Pennant glared, but said nothing.
“You should all return with us to the Sanctuary for a debriefing,” said Marr. She hadn’t even glanced at the Engine. “Standard operating procedure.”
“But as you’ve just pointed out,” Skulduggery said, “we’re not official Sanctuary operatives, so I think we’ll be skipping that part of things, if it’s all right with you.”
“It’s not all right with me.”
“And yet we’re going to skip it anyway. Please, feel free to tell Thurid Guild that this was all your doing, while we focus on going after Scarab and his lot. And don’t worry, when we arrest them, you can tell everyone you did it. We don’t do what we do for the glory or the fame or the credit; we do it for the quiet satisfaction of making the world a better place, saving the lives of innocents, and being better than you are.”
Skulduggery tilted his head to one side and Valkyrie knew he was smiling.
40
WITH GORDON
Valkyrie and Fletcher teleported into Gordon’s house, arriving in the living room where the sun struggled to come in through the windows.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” said Valkyrie, making for the stairs.
“I’ll come with you,” Fletcher said, following.
She turned. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“I’m just going up to the study.”
“I’ll help you.”
“You don’t read.”
“I read loads. Just not when you’re around.”
“Read down here.”
“Why can’t I come up?”
“Because the study is a treasure trove of secrets, and somewhere I like to be alone. It’s my uncle’s space.”
“What’s a trove?”
“A trove is a collection of valuable objects.”
“How would you know that?”
“It’s the kind of thing Skulduggery tells me.”
“You must have scintillating conversations.”
“They do put this one in the shade. I like the use of scintillating by the way.”
“I thought you’d be impressed. So can I see the study?”
“You ask that like you think you’ve argued your point and won.”
“I haven’t?”
“Big words don’t win arguments.”
She left him and climbed the stairs. The study was the same as she’d left it – books on shelves, notes in bundles, awards as paperweights. Valkyrie closed the door and pulled back the false book on the far bookcase, causing the bookcase to swing open. She walked through into the hidden room, the room that contained all of her uncle’s most secret magical possessions. The Echo Stone glowed on the table, and Gordon Edgley shimmered into existence before her.
“Well?” he asked. “How did the rescue mission go? How is Skulduggery?”
“Oh, yes, we got him back.”
“You did? Well, that’s wonderful news! I’m so happy!”
“Yeah.”
Gordon looked around. “I’m always in this room. There are no windows in here.” He looked back at her. “What’s wrong? You look troubled. Are you feeling OK?”
“I’m fine. I’ve just got another headache.”
“Another…?”
“They’ve been popping up over the past day or so. It’s nothing. I have this thing, just on the edge of my memory, you know that feeling? Every time I reach for it, it scatters.”
“I remember the sensation. Highly annoying.”
“Highly. But that’s not why I’m here. What do you know about Remnants?”
“Lots,” he said. “Fetch me my notebook from my desk. The big one.”
Valkyrie went to the study and opened the desk. Masses of notebooks. She selected the biggest one.
“I’d like to go for a walk,” Gordon announced when she arrived back. “I haven’t gone for a walk since…well, since I was alive really. I’ve almost forgotten what the outside looks like. Is it still green?”
“It really depends where you are. Can you, like, actually go for a walk?”
“Not on my own, but if you put the Echo Stone in your pocket, I can walk beside you. It’ll be fun. Do you remember the walks we used to take?”
“Not especially.”
“I can’t either,” he admitted. “I wasn’t really a walker when I was alive, was I? I was more of a sitter.” He smiled wistfully. “I did love to sit.”
“I remember that.”
“So? Can we go for a walk? Just around here. Not too far, I promise.”
“I…I suppose we could. It can’t be for long though – we can only spend a few minutes here.”
“We? Someone’s downstairs?”
“Yeah, Fletcher.”
“Oh! The mysterious Fletcher Renn!”
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re teasing me.”
Gordon laughed. “If you take me for a walk, I promise I won’t tease you. He’s a Teleporter, isn’t he? Send him away for ten minutes. Or let’s just sneak out. I haven’t sneaked out of a window in over thirty years!”
“I sneak out every day…OK, but just a short walk and I’m reading as we go.”
Her uncle grinned. “Perfect.”
They approached the wood on the east side of the house so Fletcher wouldn’t see them. It was a surprisingly lovely morning, the rain having taken a break for the day, and warm enough for Valkyrie to have her coat draped over her arm.
“Towards the middle somewhere,” Gordon said, peering over her shoulder as she flicked through the notebook. “There! The next few pages contain everything I’ve ever heard about the Remnants. Some of it is anecdotal, some pure, hard fact. There’s more relevant information in those few pages than in any book you’re ever likely to read.”
“I knew you’d have something useful.”
He went back to looking around as they strolled, and took a huge breath and expelled it.
“I don’t actually breathe,” he said happily, “but it’s a nice habit to have.”
“I’ve always thought so,” she agreed, then glanced back at the footsteps in the lawn, at the blades of grass that were slowly springing back into shape. There were only her footsteps though. To the blades of grass and the world around then, Gordon was something less than even a ghost.
He started naming the birds they heard in the trees, and she was pretty sure the last four or five were names he’d complete
ly made up. Valkyrie didn’t mention it though.
“What are you looking for?” he asked absently.
“There’s a Remnant inside Kenspeckle Grouse and we want to get it out.”
“Ah. You’ll need China Sorrows and her symbols, and a few other bits and pieces. How long has it been inside him? If it’s possessed him for more than four days, I’m afraid that means it has permanently grafted itself to its host. It couldn’t leave even if it wanted to.”
“It hasn’t been four days.”
“Well then, you should be fine. It’s all in those notes.” He looked up. “Do you hear that birdsong, the particularly sweet one? That’s a Wallowing Twite, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Is there anything you don’t know, Gordon?” Valkyrie asked as she flicked through.
“Nothing of any importance.”
She sighed. “I can see why you and Skulduggery got along so well.”
“Planet-sized egos do tend to form an orbit around each other. So what does that make you, I wonder?”
“I have no ego.”
“Then you’d probably be a moon.”
“I’m not a moon.”
“Maybe even a gaseous giant.”
“And I’m not gaseous. I’m the sun, how about that? The pair of you can orbit around me for a change.” She closed the notebook. “Thanks for this, Gordon. I’ll come back when I actually have time for a chat, OK?”
“I’ll look forward to it. Take care of yourself, Niece Number One.”
“Always do.”
41
THE EXORCISTS
They had Kenspeckle tied to a chair in the middle of the room. His wrists were shackled behind him, and Skulduggery was securing his arms and legs with a thick rope. Kenspeckle was grinning at them.
The Remnant inside him wasn’t bothering to hide any more. Dark veins spread beneath Kenspeckle’s suddenly pale skin, turning his lips black and his gums grey.
“You’ll never get him,” Kenspeckle said in a voice that was not his own. “He’s mine now and I’m not giving him back.”
Skulduggery didn’t answer. Kenspeckle’s eyes flickered to Valkyrie and he leered at her. Spittle flecked his chin.