by Derek Landy
“Stop!” he whispered suddenly. “Don’t say anything. If you know where the remains are in your reality, then they’ll find them in this one and—”
“But I don’t,” Valkyrie said, keeping her voice down. “Vengeous found the remains during the war. I don’t know where they were originally.”
“Then that must be another difference between the timelines,” Meritorious said. “So the point where our realities diverge was not Mevolent’s death, after all. It was something else. Interesting.”
“Is the whole world like this? Is everywhere as bad?”
“Some places it’s even worse. Africa is no more, did you know that? They were the last to fall, and Mevolent made an example out of them.”
“It sounds like hell.”
“It has similarities. And your home, to me it sounds like heaven. A paradise where the mortals control their own destinies and fire angry birds at pigs in little boxes. May I see them again?”
She took out her phone. “How about we listen to some music instead? I’m thinking ‘Apple of my Eye’. Do you have Damien Dempsey in this dimension?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“Well, then,” she smiled, “this’ll be an education.”
She had dozed off with her back to the wall. When someone shook her awake, she opened her eyes to a figure in darkness.
“Valkyrie Cain?” the man whispered. “Your reflection asked us to get you out of here.”
Before she could answer, he stood and moved further into the gloom to wake another prisoner. The dungeon was suddenly a very quiet hive of activity. People hurried through the torchlight, chains rattling as shackles were unlocked. It was a prison break.
Hope flaring in her chest, Valkyrie sprang to her feet. There was a man on his knees, his hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth. A rope was tied around his neck like a leash, the other end gripped by a man she knew.
“Dexter Vex,” she said.
Vex frowned and smiled at the same time. “Do I know you?”
She resisted the urge to hug him. “Sort of. Kind of. Not really. You’ve seen my reflection?”
He nodded. “It’s waiting for us at the rendezvous point.”
“You’re the Resistance?”
“That we are,” he said. “And it’s thanks to you that we can free our brothers and sisters.”
“Me? What did I do?”
Vex grinned. “You gave us our way in.”
He pulled back on the leash and the kneeling man raised his head to the light. Alexander Remit glared up at her.
“You left him on a roof, and the poor fella was so disorientated when my friends arrived that he didn’t even have time to teleport away.”
Remit growled something behind his gag.
“We’ve been after one of their Teleporters for years,” Vex continued. “But we never expected to get one like this. He’s been everywhere. Every part of the City, every part of the Palace. We were given our opportunity, and we took it. Thanks to you.”
“Happy to help,” Valkyrie said. “So who’s going to release Meritorious?”
Vex looked back at Meritorious as he hung there on the wall. “We can’t free him,” he said, his voice heavy. “The chains that are holding him are beyond anything we’re used to. Mevolent made sure that no matter what happens, the Grand Mage will stay a prisoner.”
“You’re just going to leave him?”
“We don’t have a choice,” said a man as he walked by. It was the same man who’d woken her. She should have recognised his voice.
“Ghastly,” she said.
Ghastly Bespoke glanced back at her. “You and your reflection know a lot about us. You mind telling me how?”
Valkyrie hesitated. “Later,” she said. “I promise.”
It was unsettling, looking at Ghastly and not seeing the recognition in his eyes. For the first time she noticed what some of them were wearing – black clothes, made of the same material as her own outfit back home. This Ghastly was a little narrower than the one she was used to. He still had the same broad shoulders but where her Ghastly had a boxer’s physique, the Ghastly who stood before her looked like a sprinter. Less physically powerful, but faster.
He walked over to Meritorious and Valkyrie followed.
“I’m sorry,” said Ghastly.
Meritorious smiled. “You’re not to blame, my friend. Do what you can. Save who you can. This girl here, take her, too. She has an interesting story.”
“I’m sure she does,” said Ghastly. “We’ve rounded up everyone. We have to go.”
“Then go.”
“I’ll be back for you, Eachan. We’ll get you out somehow.”
“I’m an old man and my time is almost done, so don’t you worry about me. I’m not as valuable as you all seem to think I am, and I’m certainly not as wise as I pretend to be. If I see you again in the sunshine, so be it. If I die down here, I’ll make sure they’ll have to clean up after me for a week.”
The air was split by a scream.
“Vile!” someone shouted. “It’s Lord Vile!”
Suddenly everyone was panicking. Ghastly grabbed Valkyrie’s arm, dragged her after him. She glimpsed a dark figure striding between the cells, and all those people trying to get away.
Darkness swarmed to his armour, filling the space behind him. Tendrils lashed out, as fast as striking cobras, impaling those who tried to run. The dead and the dying were lifted off their feet and paraded ahead of Vile as he walked, their tortured cries adding to the panic of those still with a chance of escape.
“Keep him back!” Ghastly roared, and immediately five sorcerers barged past Valkyrie, on an intercept course. Elementals and Adepts, they hurled whatever they had at him. Most of their attacks struck the helpless bodies of Vile’s victims, and the attacks that got by were instantly swarmed by shadows.
Ghastly ran to a wall, started drawing with chalk. “Behind me!” he roared. “Everyone behind me!”
People pushed and shoved, almost knocking Valkyrie back. Finished with one symbol, Ghastly ran to the opposite wall, started drawing there. He had a scrap of paper in his other hand, and he was copying it as best he could.
Shadows reared up behind the five sorcerers who faced Vile, and they turned, tried fending them off, but the shadows swayed and feinted, waiting for the silent command to strike. And then they struck, slicing through the sorcerers and picking their bodies up off the rough ground to join the grisly parade, and still Vile walked.
Ghastly finished drawing, pressed his hand to the symbol, then backed off towards Valkyrie. “Run!”
They ran. Vile flung the bodies of his victims away and pressed forward, stepping between the symbols. There was a green flash, so bright it blinded Valkyrie for a moment. She staggered, feeling around her. Slowly her vision came back and she turned, blinking, saw Vile on the ground, trying to get up.
Ghastly grabbed her arm again, turned to the dozens of people all linked by touch to Vex and Remit in the middle of the crowd.
“Everyone linked up?” Vex asked loudly.
Valkyrie glanced back. Vile was on his feet.
“Go!” Ghastly ordered. Vex put a knife to Remit’s throat and they teleported, all of them, exchanging the oppressive confines of the dungeon for the open sky of a meadow at evening time.
There were people on the outskirts of the meadow, people who rushed in, shouting. At first Valkyrie thought they were being attacked, but when they collided, they collided in hugs. She watched all these people be reunited with friends and family, and Ghastly led her through it all. She saw the top of a scythe in the crowd and tensed, then glimpsed grey instead of red. Cleavers. Proper Cleavers, not Redhoods, standing to attention.
“Wait here,” Ghastly said, and moved between them. She quickly lost sight of him and stood there, looking around for a face she recognised.
“Did you meet Mevolent?” asked her reflection, appearing beside her. Valkyrie surprised herself by how glad she was to
see it.
“Yeah,” she responded, smiling. “Not what I was expecting. I thought he’d be, you know, fire and brimstone and drenched in blood. But he’s normal. Not totally normal – he’s eight foot tall and insane – but normal enough. Lord Vile is with him.”
The reflection looked at her. “Maybe that’s why Mevolent is still alive.”
Valkyrie moved closer, and kept her voice low. “That’s what I was thinking. Which means if our Skulduggery hadn’t snapped out of it and thrown away the armour all those years ago, Mevolent would be ruling our dimension as well. What’s going on here? How did you meet these guys?”
The reflection shrugged. “They found me. Apparently having a stranger in town wearing clothes that don’t fit is enough of an oddity to attract the attention of the Resistance. Vex came to see me. He’s so good-looking.”
Valkyrie nudged the reflection’s side with her elbow. “Keep your voice down.”
An eyebrow arched. “My opinion is your opinion.”
“Yeah, but I don’t need him knowing my opinion.”
The reflection smiled. “Sorry.”
Ghastly approached through the crowd. “Valkyrie, she will see you now.”
He turned and she hesitated, then followed, the reflection by her side.
“She?” Valkyrie whispered.
The reflection gave another little smile. “The Resistance leader.”
The crowd parted ahead and revealed a woman in a long white dress, the most beautiful woman Valkyrie had ever seen. Her hair was as black as a starless night while her eyes were as blue as ice and twice as cold. China Sorrows gazed upon her and didn’t smile.
“Child,” she said. “We are in your debt. Without your gift of the Teleporter, my people would still be rotting in that dungeon.”
“Thank you for taking me with them on the way out,” Valkyrie replied. “You’re... You’re the Resistance leader?”
China arched an eyebrow. “You sound surprised. Do I know you?”
“No,” Valkyrie said. “But I’ve heard of you.”
“Your reflection tells me you’re an Elemental, is that right? We’re always on the lookout for more recruits to the cause.”
“Sure,” Valkyrie said, a little doubtfully. “It’s just I don’t know how long I’ll be here.”
China was already turning away. She had delivered her invitation and that was all she cared about.
Ghastly stepped closer. “You promised to tell me how you know the things you know,” he said. “I see recognition in your eyes. We’ve met before, haven’t we? But I don’t remember.”
“It’s complicated,” she said. “I’m not from here.” Her arm started to ache. “Oh... and it looks like we’ll be heading home soon.”
“Is that so?”
She smiled at him. “It was very nice to meet you, and I’m glad I could do something to help. And if you ever meet a girl called Tanith, do yourself a favour and ask her out immediately.”
Ghastly smiled. “You are quite odd.”
She nodded. “I’ve heard that.”
The reflection stepped between them, looking off to Valkyrie’s left. “Who is that man?”
Valkyrie and Ghastly looked to where its gaze rested. Amid all of the tearful reunions and the hugging there was a man in rags standing alone in the crowd. His head was down but his eyes were moving.
Ghastly took a moment. “I don’t know. Just another innocent citizen arrested by the Redhoods.”
“He seems anxious,” said the reflection.
“Breaking out of prison will do that to you.”
“He keeps looking around, like he’s waiting for something to happen.”
Valkyrie frowned. “Mevolent knew you had the Teleporter,” she said, rubbing her arm. “He could easily have put a spy in the dungeon in case you attempted a rescue, then sent Vile down there, to make sure we left in a hurry without checking who everyone was...”
Ghastly looked at her, then back at the man in rags.
“Would you do me a favour?” he asked, not taking his eyes off him. “Would you please inform Miss Sorrows that it is time to leave? And then could you tell Dexter Vex to disperse the crowd? Thank you.”
Without waiting for a response, Ghastly started moving towards the man in the rags. The man saw him coming and turned, started walking away. Ghastly sped up. Valkyrie heard a shout from somewhere to her left, turned her head in time to see Lord Vile step out of swirling darkness.
The people closest to him cried out and stumbled back. He brought his arm around, darkness gathering like a wing beneath it, and flung the shadows away from him. They whipped through the crowd, severing limbs and puncturing torsos, felling half a dozen fighters in one go before retracting.
Ghastly had changed course, forgetting about the man in rags and instead zeroing in on Vile. He used the air to leap over the heads of the panicking crowd, landing in a crouch before his enemy. He clicked his fingers, summoning flames into both hands.
He lunged and Vile sent his shadow-knives to slice his body from shoulder to hip. Valkyrie gasped as Ghastly parted from himself and fell in two pieces.
She became aware of something overhead, a great looming shadow, and looked up as the Barge opened its doors. Redhoods dropped like rain. Vex unleashed a stream of energy but a scythe flashed and took his arm. The reflection tried to dodge a Redhood but he was too fast. Valkyrie didn’t even see it go down. She pushed at the air and clicked her fingers and got a boot in the belly for her efforts. She folded, all the breath rushing out of her and every muscle constricting.
Through tear-blurred eyes she saw the Resistance fighters struggling to hold the Redhoods at bay while China made her escape. They didn’t last long. Scythe blades turned red and screams filled the air. Valkyrie still couldn’t breathe. Her head thundered and she felt like she was going to pass out. Then the world flickered.
She squirmed in the dirt, looking back through the gleaming boots of the Redhoods towards the reflection. It caught her eye, understood what was about to happen, and started crawling towards her. Valkyrie reached out, the world flickered again, and the reflection stretched for her hand, and right before their fingers touched, the reflection and the world went away and Valkyrie gasped for breath as she lay on a road in the glare of headlights.
There was a screech of brakes and Valkyrie got to her hands and knees, forced herself up, staggered away. The driver got out of his car, pointed and shouted, telling everyone what he’d seen, a girl appearing out of nowhere. Valkyrie kept going, arms wrapped round her midsection. They wouldn’t believe him. By the next morning, he’d start to doubt what he’d seen himself. She didn’t have to worry about it.
Now all she had to worry about was her reflection, trapped in a world it didn’t understand. Scared. Defenceless.
Alone.
evolent has the Sceptre of the Ancients.”
Valkyrie sat in the Medical Bay in the brown clothes that swamped her while Reverie patched her up. The Elders stood beside Skulduggery, staring at her as the implications of this sank in. Quintin Strom and Bernard Sult stood to one side with Grim, Strom’s bodyguard, close by.
“And it’s functional?” Ravel asked.
“I didn’t see it in action,” Valkyrie said, “but it’s in one piece and it has a black crystal. Yes, I’d say it’s functional.”
“If we went in there and got it,” said Ghastly, “we would have a weapon capable of stopping Argeddion.”
Valkyrie nodded, and let her gaze linger on Ghastly for a little while. It was nice to see him in one piece.
“But how?” asked Strom. “Silas Nadir is no longer in custody, which means we would need a team of our top operatives to stay within arm’s reach of Valkyrie at all times. And who knows how long it will be before she’s pulled through again? It’s impractical.”
“First things first,” said Ravel. “Valkyrie, where does Mevolent keep the Sceptre?”
“In his throne room.”
Mist shook h
er head, ever so slightly. “If we do manage to steal it, what then? The Sceptre’s previous owner must be dead before the new owner can use it. Mevolent would have to be killed.”
“Not necessarily,” said Dr Nye, looming over them all. “Forgive me. I couldn’t help overhearing. I do not profess to be an expert on Sceptre lore, but I have a casual understanding of transdimensional physics. More of a hobby than anything else.”
“Get on with it,” Skulduggery said.
Nye cleared its long, skinny throat. “The transportation of any object of power, the Sceptre included, between dimensions, would invariably result in what can only be described as a short circuit. Upon its arrival, the Sceptre’s power would be depleted. All it would need in order to reactivate would be a simple recharge of magic. The result would be a fully operational Sceptre that was ready to imprint upon a new owner.”
“You’re sure about this?” asked Ravel. “You’re sure it would just wipe clean?”
“I’m ninety per cent sure.”
“So there’s a ten per cent chance it won’t work.”
“Yes, but my ten per cent is someone else’s fifty. I assure you, Kenspeckle Grouse would agree with me if he weren’t so amusingly dead.”
Ravel looked at Skulduggery. “It’s your call.”
Skulduggery’s head tilted. “Mine?”
“If anyone is going to be close enough to Valkyrie the next time she shunts, it’ll be you. You might be able to take another few people with you, maybe a few Cleavers, but it could just be the two of you.”
“And if it is, then this is the mission you’re assigning us. To steal the Sceptre of the Ancients from Mevolent, one of the most powerful and evil sorcerers who ever lived.”
Ravel nodded. “I’m afraid so. You’re going to have to improvise. If China’s Resistance survived the attack, enlist their help. Either mount an offensive or sneak into the Palace. Take the cloaking sphere from the Repository and keep it on you. Take whatever else you think you might need. Your primary objective, the both of you, is to retrieve the Sceptre.”
“We have another option, too,” Valkyrie said. “We don’t have to kill Argeddion to stop him. Lament didn’t, thirty years ago. He just used three words that the killer of Walden D’Essai’s mother said to him. What was it he called it? A traumatic phrase from his childhood. It stunned him, giving them the time they needed.”