by Derek Landy
“Absolutely,” Skulduggery said.
“And we appreciate you doing this, don’t we, Skulduggery?”
“Thoroughly.”
Fletcher smiled. “The way I look at it, I’m not only helping you, I’m also helping the environment. That’s one of the great tragedies about keeping magic a secret, isn’t it? If everyone knew about us, Teleporters could transport people all round the world without a single harmful emission. Makes you wonder if we should just tell them for the sake of the planet.”
“I’m not entirely sure that the war that would inevitably follow wouldn’t damage the environment all over again,” Skulduggery said.
“You should have more faith in mortals,” Fletcher countered. “Not all of them are war-hungry simpletons, you know.”
“No,” Skulduggery said, “but they do tend to scare easily and, when people are scared, they lash out.”
Fletcher adjusted his hair slightly. “You have such a dim view of the people you fight every day to protect.”
“I’m just waiting for them to prove me wrong.”
Fletcher looked at Valkyrie. “Please tell me you have a cheerier outlook on life. You can’t be as miserable as him. You just can’t.”
She smiled. “I believe that people are good.”
“Thank you,” Fletcher responded.
“Most of them anyway.”
“OK.”
“I mean, not any that I’ve met, but—”
“You can stop there,” he said. “Wow, the two of you must have fun saving the world for people you don’t even like.”
“I’m joking,” said Valkyrie.
“I’m not,” said Skulduggery.
“I believe people are good,” Valkyrie continued, “though flawed, and, given all the information and enough time, they will do the right thing.”
Skulduggery picked up his hat from the seat, and put it on the table. “And I believe that life is arbitrary and when time moves on it will be as if we never existed. Do you want any pie?”
“No,” said Valkyrie.
“Then we should probably get going.”
“You’ve changed,” Fletcher said, not moving. “The both of you. You have. Remember when we used to be a team? Remember the energy? The excitement? The laughs? Whatever happened to all that?”
“When who used to be a team?” Skulduggery asked.
“The three of us,” said Fletcher. “And Tanith and Ghastly.”
“And you?”
“Yes, me. You never took me seriously, but I was a vital part of the team.”
“You were the bus.”
Valkyrie laughed and Fletcher smirked.
“I helped out more than that and you know it,” he said. “You just don’t want to admit that I’ve grown. Hey, I understand. You knew me when I was a kid. Now I’m an adult, and I have a job, educating young people, moulding young minds. I have responsibilities. Obligations. We’re both alphas. You probably feel threatened by me. Also, you’re jealous of my hair. I get it. I’d be jealous of it, too. But I propose, right now, that we leave the past in the past and, from this day on, treat each other as equals. What do you say, Skulduggery?”
Fletcher stuck out his hand. Skulduggery observed it for a moment, then extended his own hand – and picked up his hat.
“You’re funny,” Fletcher said, nodding as Skulduggery put the hat on and stood. “That was well done.”
“Thank you,” Skulduggery said.
Valkyrie left a tip and got out of the booth after Fletcher, and they went outside and he teleported them home. He dropped Skulduggery beside the Bentley, and then left Valkyrie in her living room. She gave him a hug and he vanished, and Xena came bounding in.
Valkyrie had a few hours’ sleep, and then drove to Roarhaven to meet the Prince of the Darklands.
The Fangs was quiet this time of the morning. Vampires may not have been harmed by the sun, but they weren’t known to be early risers. The only people on the streets were those coming back from a night shift.
She followed the directions Dusk had given her and came to a theatre, a few years old and never used. She went round the back, found the opened door and climbed the stairs. With each step, she took the next one slower.
This could be a trap, of course. This was very likely a trap. It was so likely a trap that Abyssinia would have known that Valkyrie would be thinking that and would then dismiss it because of how likely it was, so then the possibility of this being a trap became even more likely.
Eventually, her thoughts became so confusing that she just marched up the rest of the stairs and emerged on to the roof of the theatre.
There was a man standing here, waiting. He was thin and had tightly-shaven silver hair, and pale scars on his pale skin.
“You must be Caisson,” said Valkyrie.
His smile was fleeting. Uncertain.
There was a nervous energy about him, like an animal getting ready to bolt.
Valkyrie proceeded with caution. “How are you coping with being back in circulation?”
“I have good days and … bad ones,” he said. He had a soft voice. “I’m having a good day now, in case you were wondering. I’m not going to attack you, or anything like that. I keep thinking I should attack you because … because we’re on different sides.”
“I keep thinking that, too.”
“Isn’t that odd? How we think that? How we’re almost ready to … to do that? For no reason other than the people we associate with.”
“It is strange, yes.”
Caisson’s eyes dipped. “You’re friends with the skeleton,” he mumbled.
“I am.”
“The skeleton murdered my mother.”
“He killed her, yes. But she came back.”
His eyes flickered up, and he gave another faltering smile. “I’m very confused,” he said.
“I don’t blame you.”
He was seized, all of a sudden, by an intensity that made Valkyrie want to step back. “The skeleton took my mother away from me!” he raged. “When I needed her! He hurt her! He killed her! She’s only alive today because he was too weak to finish the job! I hate him and I want to kill him and everyone he knows!”
And, as suddenly as it had arrived, the rage passed.
He started crying.
Valkyrie waited a moment. “What can I do for you, Caisson?” she asked softly. “Why are we here?”
It took him a moment to answer. It was a moment he spent wrestling with thoughts she’d never be able to understand.
“My mother,” he said eventually, “she has spies. I heard one of them say that you’re looking for someone. Something. A Crengarrion.”
She frowned. “Doctor Nye. Yes.”
“I know where it is. I heard my mother say.”
Valkyrie forced herself to wait.
“Is it important that you find this creature?” Caisson continued. “If it’s important, then I’ll tell you, but you need to tell me something first.”
“It’s important. I need Nye to help my sister. What do you want to know?”
“Greymire Asylum,” Caisson said. “Where is it?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“But you can find out, can’t you? You’re a detective. You can ask someone. Maybe the skeleton knows.”
“I can find out, sure. You tell me where Nye is and I’ll find where—”
“No!” Caisson screamed. “You tell me where Greymire Asylum is and then I help you! You first! You!”
Valkyrie held up her hands. “OK! OK, I’ll do that. I will.”
Caisson hugged himself and shook his head, muttering.
“What’s in there that’s so important for you?” she asked.
Caisson tapped his forehead. “It’s for my mind. My mind is … I can be quite erratic, and …”
“And there’s a cure for you in the asylum?”
He nodded. “A cure, yes. A cure for me in Greymire. K-49.”
“I know some really good d
octors I could introduce you to. So does China, for that matter.”
Caisson blinked. “China …”
“China Sorrows. She raised you, right? She took you in and she raised you like you were her own child.”
His face contorted, hatred etched into every line and hollow. “China betrayed me. China gave me to Serafina to torture. She lies. She is nothing but darkness and coldness and lies. I’m going to kill her. We’re going to hunt her down and kill her, and kill anyone who stands with her. We’re going to tear her apart. We’re going to make her scream. We’re going to make her bleed. We’re going to—”
He stopped, breathing quickly, forcing himself to calm down. “No,” he said. “My only hope is K-49. My only hope is in Greymire Asylum. Find out where it is, and I’ll tell you where the Crenga is working now. Meet me here in two days. But … at night. I don’t like the day, it’s too … Meet me at night.”
“Monday night, then,” she said. “When it’s dark? Ten o’clock?”
“Yes. Yes, ten o’clock. At ten o’clock you will tell me what I need to know, and I will tell you how to find the creature you seek.”
All things considered, that had gone pretty well.
Valkyrie checked the time. Serafina wasn’t due to arrive for another ten minutes, and the High Sanctuary was only five minutes away. She’d make it over there by noon, no problem.
China had told her to dress formally, but she hadn’t quite known what that meant in this instance. She wasn’t going to be wearing a dress, she’d known that much. Nothing with heels, either. In the end, she had decided that black jeans and a smart coat were formal enough – plus, they allowed her to fight to the death if the situation called for it. Which was always a bonus.
This was a good day, Valkyrie decided. She hadn’t walked into a trap, and she’d managed to strike a deal with a guy who looked like he was barely keeping it together. If Skulduggery had been with her, she just knew he’d have said the wrong thing and it would all have imploded.
It was a good thing she hadn’t told him. It was definitely a good thing, and he would totally understand.
Totally.
She came round a corner, and braked.
There was traffic. There was actual traffic.
“No, no, no,” she muttered, craning her neck to see past the line of cars.
This was unheard of. For one thing, apart from Oldtown, the streets of Roarhaven were designed to flow unimpeded. That had long been a bragging point, another area where mages could feel smug when discussing their mortal cousins and their constant traffic woes.
For another, Valkyrie hadn’t even known that there were enough cars in Roarhaven to form a traffic jam. Most people here used the tram system.
“Why didn’t you all take the tram?” she shouted, even though no one could hear her.
People walked by. People crossed the road, darting between Valkyrie’s slow-moving car and the slow-moving car in front. Large groups of people. Very large groups. Some of them held signs.
She finally got closer, and a City Guard officer checked her Sanctuary tags and waved her into the Circle zone, and she sped down the ramp to the parking area beneath the High Sanctuary, then sprinted for the elevator tiles.
She rose up, into the foyer, looking around for someone she recognised. There were City Guard officers and Cleavers everywhere. Sanctuary staff rushed to and fro. The air had a nervous energy to it.
Cerise, holding a clipboard, saw her immediately, despite the chaos, and swept over to her, taking her gently by the arm. “You are required outside,” she said, the calm at the centre of this storm. “The High Superior is approaching Shudder’s Gate.”
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Valkyrie said. “I didn’t expect the traffic. There are a lot of people out there.”
“Yes,” said Cerise. “There are.”
The doors opened and a blast of noise hit them. It looked like the entire Circle zone was filled with people, divided by a thin line of Cleavers. More people joined either side. They waved placards. They shouted.
Cerise left her at the top of the steps and Valkyrie crossed an actual red carpet to hurry over to Skulduggery. He was in a dark blue three-piece with a crisp white shirt and a blue tie. His hat was perfectly placed.
“Just in time,” he said.
“This is a bigger deal than I’d thought,” she responded, actually having to raise her voice to be heard over the restless crowd.
“People have come from all over the world for this. Serafina Dey hasn’t been spotted in public for decades.”
“She has a lot of fans.”
He shook his head. “Only half of them are here supporting her. The others are protesting.”
Valkyrie took another look, and realised one half of the crowd was arguing with the other. She turned back to Skulduggery. “Cerise called Serafina the High Superior.”
Skulduggery said something that Valkyrie didn’t hear.
“What?” she said.
He stepped closer and extended his hands to either side, and the air around them rippled. Her ears popped slightly as the sound of the crowd was muted. “Is that better?” he asked, keeping his hands where they were.
“Much,” she said, speaking at normal volume again.
“Serafina is the head of a different branch of Faceless Ones disciples,” he told her. “The Legion of Judgement.”
Valkyrie nodded. “Now that sounds like a fun and accepting place of worship.”
“The Legion views Mevolent as their messiah, and reckons that his interpretation of their teachings – and I would use air quotes here if my hands were free and if I were the sort of person to use air quotes – is the true way. Creed, on the other hand, has a supposedly gentler approach.”
“But Creed denounced Mevolent during the war for being too soft.”
“And yet now the Church is all about fluffiness and acceptance. Makes you wonder if Arch-Canon Creed is being entirely honest, doesn’t it?”
“He must love the fact that Serafina’s visiting.”
“The visit has, I’ve heard, caused something of a split within his congregation, but I’m sure there’s a part of him, tucked away somewhere, that will be happy to see his little sister after all these years.”
Valkyrie’s eyes widened. “They’re brother and sister? Did everyone know this except me?”
“Probably.”
She glared. “You did this before.”
“Did I?”
“With China and Mr Bliss. You didn’t tell me they were brother and sister until, like … Well, I don’t think you did tell me. I think someone else did.”
“Magical society is a small world,” Skulduggery said. “People have brothers and sisters all over the place, right where you least expect them. Parents, too. Cousins, aunts and uncles.”
“And everyone looks the same age,” Valkyrie said. “I’ll never get used to that part of it. So which is bigger – the Legion of Judgement or the Church of the Faceless?”
“The Church has more physical places of worship, but most worshippers keep their membership secret, so it’s very hard to say which is bigger – and more and more mages are turning to the Faceless Ones with every week that passes.”
Valkyrie made a face. “Why?”
“People need something to believe in. Even sorcerers. The more they learn, the more they uncover about life and magic and alternate universes, the more they search for a greater meaning.”
“But the Faceless Ones don’t care about any of them.”
“People are strange,” Skulduggery said, and brought his hands back together, and the noise closed in on them once more.
The three Elders arrived, nodded to Skulduggery and Valkyrie, and took up their positions in front of them. Then China came out, looking amazing. She winked at Valkyrie and took her place at the very top of the stairs.
The crowd went quiet as Serafina’s convoy came into view – black cars and SUVs, reinforced with armour and with protective sigils en
graved into their doors. The Cleavers directed them round and then through the Circle, making sure they stayed clear of the grasping, clutching hands of the people. As they neared, colour washed across the air, and Valkyrie realised that the High Sanctuary’s force field had been extended. A section opened so that the convoy could pass through.
It stopped at the base of the steps. One of Serafina’s security people, a woman in black, opened the door to the middle car, and Serafina Dey stepped out.
She was … glorious.
Tall and solid and strong, Serafina wore a red dress, stained black at the edges. The skirt wrapped tightly around her waist and flared out at the ends. The bodice had a ribcage – made of actual ribs – and it opened at the chest to reveal a necklace of finger bones. Bracelets, also made of bone, rattled on her left wrist. Her long chestnut hair was held back by a headpiece formed from what looked like a human skull.
“Jeepers,” Valkyrie whispered.
Half the crowd cheered with bottomless adoration. The other half hurled insults and obscenities. It would have been amusing if the wide-eyed fanaticism wasn’t so scary.
Serafina ascended the stairs alone. Once at the top, she embraced China.
“My magnificent girl,” Serafina said. “It’s so good to see you again after all these years.”
“You look radiant,” China responded.
Serafina kissed both China’s cheeks. “As do you. Belated congratulations on your new position. You thoroughly deserve it. If anyone can whip the Sanctuaries into shape, it’s you.”
China smiled. “You’re far too kind. Allow me to introduce you to my Council of Advisors. This is Grand Mage Aloysius Vespers of the English Sanctuary.”
Vespers shuffled forward and struggled to bow. “Welcome to Roarhaven, High Superior! The tales of your legendary beauty are all true, I see, even to old eyes such as mine.”
Serafina bowed slightly. “Have we not met before, Grand Mage? You seem familiar to me. Perhaps without the beard …”
Vespers chuckled. “I am afraid not, High Superior. I would remember meeting someone as striking as you.”
He shuffled back and Praetor stepped forward.
