by Landy Derek
The shotgun blasted and blasted again, and she looked up to see Paddy staring at a bare wall, eyes wide with astonishment. Sanguine rose up through the floor behind him and shoved him into the wall, hard.
"Everyone bein' so eager to die," Sanguine said, "almost takes the fun outta killin' them."
He went for Valkyrie, and she jumped to the table and rolled over it. He laughed, diving at her, but she snatched up Tanith's sword and turned, bringing it around in a wide arc. The blade opened up Sanguine's belly, and he stopped, mouth open,
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looking down at himself while she backed away.
"What have you done?" he asked, bewildered.
Blood ran from the cut, quickly soaking his shirt and deepening the color of his suit.
"What the hell have you done?" he screeched, and the fury in his voice hit her harder than his fists ever had.
The ground swallowed him.
Paddy groaned on the floor but appeared to be okay. Valkyrie helped Tanith back into the chair and put the sword on the table beside her, then went to the window.
Something flew out of the gateway. It caught in her mind when a shock wave hit the farmhouse and she was thrown back.
Her thoughts went quiet.
The broken glass beneath her hands. The breeze, stirred to wind outside. The world, dull and deadened.
Another shock wave hit the farmhouse. And another.
Her mouth was dry and her head was pounding. Slowly, she crawled over rubble, to the hole in the wall.
Outside there were others, on the ground. Lying
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down. Lots of paper people. Some people in black. Swirling red and black smoke. A skeleton. There was a skeleton, stumbling toward her.
She heard a voice that said, "Valkyrie."
The skeleton's hands were gloved. She felt the fingers, thin and tight on her arm, and that word again: "Valkyrie." More words now--"Look at me, Valkyrie, look"--coming from the skeleton's mouth. From Skulduggery's mouth.
"Skulduggery," she murmured.
"--need you to focus. Did you look at them? The things that came out of the gateway, did you look at them?"
Her own voice was distant. "Glimpsed," she said.
She was pulled to her feet. She could hear more now. She could see others, trying to stand. China. Ghastly. She saw the Necromancers, attacking the last of the Hollow Men as they struggled to their clumsy feet.
She saw a boy, Fletcher Renn, crawling out of the column of smoke. A man, who looked like the shock wave had thrown him from the circle, saw Fletcher and reached for him.
Fletcher disappeared, instantly reappearing a
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short distance away. The man, Gallow, lunged, and once again Fletcher vanished and reappeared nearby. Gallow was furious, and Fletcher closed his eyes and concentrated, and this time, when he teleported, he didn't come back.
Now that Fletcher wasn't keeping it open, the bright yellow ring that hung in midair started to shrink. Valkyrie watched it until it disappeared.
"Valkyrie," Skulduggery barked. "I need you to snap out of it, you understand me? Valkyrie Cain, I need you with me."
She looked at him, and her thoughts sharpened, and she nodded. "Yes."
"You're with me?"
They sharpened and became clear. "Yes. Yes, I'm with you. The gate's closed."
"Some of them got out. I counted three. We need the Scepter now."
She nodded, and she was just about to get it when Krav came staggering around the corner. He ignored them completely and staggered on, Bliss striding after him.
"Leave me alone!" Krav shouted. He was bruised and bleeding, and the tattoo on his inner arm was pulsing with a red glow.
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The pressure popped in her ears and Valkyrie winced. Goose bumps rippled across her flesh, and she felt her heart slamming against her chest. She was scared. She was suddenly and incredibly terrified.
Skulduggery grabbed her and pulled her down. "Don't look at it," she heard him say.
For a moment, there was nothing.
She saw it out of the corner of her eye. Passing behind the trees, five times as tall, a towering, changing beast, a trick of the light, an abstract thing of unbelievable angles. She looked away, but she could still see it, in her mind. It had burned its way through. It was an idea, or the hint of an idea, or the memory of something she'd never known, or the shadow of all of these things, their inverted reflection, on a still lake at night.
It couldn't be real. It had no substance. It had no weight. It had mass, but behind the mass there was no depth. How could it be real? It made no sense. It couldn't be real and it made no sense.
She tried to look again at this being of fractured angles and broken reason, but her head wouldn't turn. It was impossibility made manifest, the formless given form, and it stalked across the landscape
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accompanied not by thunderous footfall, but by the whisper of a thousand dead languages and the muted cry of carrion birds.
There was a rush, and she heard Krav scream. The pressure popped again in her ears and she blinked. Her eyes gradually focused.
The creature of madness was gone. Gruesome Krav was standing with his shoulders slumped and his head down. He was perfectly still, though his hair whipped in the wind. Whipped and fell.
His hair fell gently out, strand by strand, and his head tilted upward in time for Valkyrie to see his face melting. The nose and the ears were the first to go, sinking back into the skin. The lips congealed, sealing the mouth, and the eyes turned to liquid and dripped from the sockets down either cheek, like tears. The eyelids closed and ran into each other. The Faceless Ones had taken their first vessel.
Bliss ran at it, but Krav, or the Faceless One that had once been Krav, just held out its hand.
Bliss's run faltered. He doubled over, and Valkyrie could see the look of pain on his face, and something else, too. Surprise.
The Faceless One raised its arm, and Bliss was lifted off the ground.
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The Faceless One curled its hand, and Bliss's body twisted into bits of pulverized bone and shredded flesh.
Her stomach lurching violently, Valkyrie watched him die.
Skulduggery grabbed her and pushed her back into the farmhouse. "Scepter," he called, as he ran toward the Faceless One.
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Thirty-six
***
E nemies
V alkyrie hurried back into the farmhouse. Paddy turned to her, and she looked at him blankly. Mr. Bliss was dead.
Bile rose in her throat and she lunged to the corner, throwing up.
"They're here, aren't they?" Paddy asked.
She retched and spat and wiped her mouth. "Three of them," she said.
He nodded. "I'll get you your magic stick."
He hurried to the bag. Valkyrie's knees were weak. Her face was cold.
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"If I die," she said, "but we win, will you find my parents and tell them I'm sorry I put them through this, and that I love them?"
"You have nothing to worry about," Paddy said as he walked over, holding out the Scepter. His eyes flickered to something behind her and she frowned, turned, saw nothing, and turned back as Paddy swung the Scepter into her face.
Valkyrie hit the wall and staggered. Paddy swung the Scepter again, and she managed to raise her arm to block it, but his fist came at her and her head snapped back and she fell.
She heard Tanith curse and looked up, lights dancing in front of her eyes. Tanith reached out to grab her sword, but Paddy smashed the Scepter onto her hand. Tanith screamed and Paddy got behind her, wrapped his arm around her throat, and hauled her off the chair. She tried to struggle, but she was much too weak, and after a few seconds, Paddy let her collapse.
Valkyrie's consciousness rattled against darkness and light, and the side of her face was wet. She clicked her fingers, but nothing happened.
"I'd forgotten what it was like," Paddy said, almo
st to himself. He put the Scepter on the
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table. "The struggle, I mean. Usually it's quiet. It would have been quiet for you, but you wear those enchanted clothes. My blade wouldn't have pierced them." He had a knife in his hand. "It'll pierce your throat though. Or your eyes."
Valkyrie licked her lips and tasted blood.
"You killed the Teleporters," she said, pushing herself up off the ground.
"I did."
"You're Batu."
He pulled up his sleeve as he walked over to her, showing her the mark on the inside of his forearm. "I am."
Valkyrie stayed where she was, waited for him to get close, and then she flexed her fingers and splayed her hand, but she couldn't feel the air, couldn't feel where it connected, and Paddy, Batu, ran the blade along her hand and she cried out.
"Stupid girl," he said, slashing at her neck. She stepped back and tripped, fell, and rolled. She clicked her fingers and nothing happened. Batu rushed her, and she barely managed to duck under him.
"You're one of them," she said, staying just out of reach.
"One of who? The Diablerie?" Batu darted
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forward, and she jumped back. He smiled and they circled each other. "I'm not some mindless drone, Valkyrie. Everything you see around you? All this death and madness and mayhem? The end of the world that's about to happen? That's all my work.
"When I was a young man, Trope Kessel told me all about the gateway, and I knew I had my chance. I brought the Diablerie back from nothing, and they were only too eager to accept me as their leader. For I had vision, and I could get information no one else could.
"Sorcerers would tell me their biggest secrets. Do you know why? Because I'm a mere mortal. Because they are far too arrogant to think that a mortal could pose a threat to gods like them.
"I was in their homes dozens of times before I killed them, drinking their tea and chatting and feeding their cats while they were away. The sheer domestic mundanity of it was appalling.
"Even you and the skeleton were fooled. I didn't know precisely where the gate would open until you brought the boy in to find it for me. Thank you for that, by the way."
A wave of dizziness swept over her, and Valkyrie stumbled. The knife jabbed, but her coat protected
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her. Batu was smiling as he closed in.
She kept away. "Why? Why are you doing this?"
"Magic," he said. "My father was a sorcerer. So was my brother. But not me. I just didn't have that spark, you know? But now, finally, it's my turn."
She shook her head. "You're either born with it or you're not. You can't be given magic."
"There are ways around everything."
Valkyrie saw the glint in his eyes and she suddenly understood. "You're going to offer yourself as a vessel."
"Oh, you are clever."
"You're going to let a Faceless One take you over."
"And then I'll be brimming with magic that ordinary sorcerers would never even dream about. They're not gods, Valkyrie. They're as pathetic as the people you left behind in your old life. But me? I'll be a true god."
"But it won't be you. Your personality will be wiped clean. Even your body will be changed. You're not ever going to know what it's like to use magic."
"I'll know," said Batu softly. "There will be some part of me that stays, some part of me that
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joins with the Faceless One. I know it. I'm strong, you see? I was born without magic. I've had to be strong. My will is iron. I'm not going to be simply erased--not like the others."
Valkyrie frowned. "You're offering up the rest of the Diablerie as vessels too."
"I didn't want the Dark Gods wasting their time seeking out suitable candidates. I just decided to make it easy for them."
He closed in on her again. Ignoring the pain from the cut, she smashed her elbow into his face, then grabbed his wrist with both hands and twisted.
Batu rammed his shoulder into her. They crashed back against the wall, and he got his hip against her and flipped her to the floor. He was an old man, but he was strong, and fast. Refusing to let go of the hand with the knife, she kicked at his leg and it buckled. She spun on her back and jammed her boot into his other leg. He collapsed on top of her, and she raised her knee to meet his face.
The knife clattered to the ground and she rolled out from under him, kicking the weapon out of his reach. He spat teeth and blood, and she moved to kick.
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But he was faster than she'd anticipated. He hooked her kick to the outside and over his shoulder, and he rose and grabbed her jacket, and she was lifted off the ground. He carried her backward and slammed her onto the table. Valkyrie grabbed the Scepter with her left hand and he grabbed her wrist, keeping it away from him. Black lightning turned a part of the ceiling to dust.
She turned the Scepter toward him, but his hand moved from her wrist to the Scepter itself, and once again he diverted her aim. A section of wall crumbled.
Batu pressed against her, forcing the black crystal around. It glowed and spat lightning, hitting the corner of the table. The table collapsed and they fell, but their positions didn't change. Batu was still on top, and the Scepter was now pointed directly at Valkyrie.
His face was frozen in a mask of hatred and determination. "End it," he muttered through clenched and bloody teeth. "Save yourself the pain of watching the world die."
She hit him in the ribs with her free hand, and he grunted. She hit him again, but his grip didn't weaken. She tried pushing at the air, but nothing
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happened, and then she felt the gold ring on her finger.
The ring was bound. It had to be.
She curled the tip of her thumb against it. It was tight, but it moved, down her finger, and then she flicked it off and immediately felt the air against her palm.
She clicked her fingers and summoned a flame that burned fiercely into Batu's side. He screamed and thrashed and dived off her, trying to smother the flames on his shirt. He scrambled up and fled, out through the hole in the wall.
Valkyrie turned over and got up. She had a massive headache and there was blood running down her face, but she seemed to be otherwise okay. She went to Tanith and moved her onto her side, into the recovery position they'd been taught at school, and once she'd done that, she realized that she wasn't holding the Scepter anymore.
She looked back, scanning the ground desperately, but it wasn't there. Batu had taken it. Cursing, she ran through the hole after him, catching a glimpse as he disappeared into the trees.
Valkyrie tore after him.
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Thirty-seven
***
F alling into Place
Batu led that wretch of a girl between the trees and then changed direction, keeping low. She had broken his nose and some of his teeth, and his left side was badly burned, but he couldn't afford trivialities like revenge. Not now. He hid and watched her pass, then dug a shallow hole and dropped the Scepter into it. He covered it with earth and leaves and doubled back.
When he reached the yard and saw the massacre, he laughed.
A dozen Cleavers were already dead. They littered the ground, an ill-made carpet of broken bodies and blood. The Faceless One, its clothes burned and torn and hanging
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in shreds, its face blank and smooth and terrifying, walked slowly through them.
A trio of Cleavers lifted into the air, and their bodies folded back on themselves and caved inward. Their remains dropped, forgotten about. More Cleavers, their gray uniforms splattered with the blood of their colleagues, attacked with unceasing determination, but the blades of their scythes merely bounced off the skin of their enemy.
Batu turned as Murder Rose ran up to him and gripped his arm. "What have you done ?" she raged. "You told us these marks would protect us! You said they'd shield us!"
"They are not shields," Batu said, his voice calm despite the exhilaration he
was feeling. "They are invitations."
Rose stared at him, then turned and sprinted away. Batu watched her disappear into the trees.
A torrent of impossibilities flowed after her, making the trees creak and sway. Re heard her scream, and then there was silence.
There was one more god out there, and Batu went to find it.
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Thirty-eight
***
F rom All Sides
Valkyrie stopped and cursed. She'd lost him. There was no point going deeper into this wood--if Batu was ahead of her, which she doubted, he knew his surroundings a lot better than she did.
No, going deeper didn't make any sense. Not for Batu. He'd want to see his great plan coming together, and that meant being where the action was.
There was a sudden sound behind her, and she turned as Remus Crux lurched out from behind a tree.
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"You scared the hell out of me," she snapped.
He held his left arm close to his body like it was hurt, and he was limping badly. He was sweating and seemed to be in a lot of pain. There was dried blood on his face.
"Are you okay? Remus? Did you see anyone run by here? An old man?"
"You're under arrest," he snarled as he dug his right hand into his pocket. Valkyrie lunged, catching his wrist just as he pulled out a small gun.
"Resisting arrest!" he cried as their struggle took them back against the tree.
She whacked her elbow into his injured arm and he yelled, and she twisted the gun from his grip and pushed herself off him. She threw the gun deep into the trees, and he snapped his palm. A wall of air slammed into her and she hurtled backward. Her shoulders hit the ground, and she tucked her chin to her chest as she flipped over gracelessly.