Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked

by Derek Landy

  “Why would he want to?”

  “Because once his experiment is over, he’s not going to need us any more. He’ll kill us and we won’t stand a chance.”

  “Argeddion wouldn’t kill us. He made us like this. You heard what he called us. His children. He wouldn’t kill his children.”

  “He didn’t call us his children, he just called us children. He’s not on our side, Doran. The only people on our side are us.”

  He blinked dumbly. “So, like, what do we do?”

  “We’re going to have to kill him.”

  “How?”

  “How do you think, genius? With the magic he gave us. We’re going to catch him by surprise, throw everything we have at him, and then we’re going to tear him apart.”

  “You make it sound easy.”

  “Because it will be. If there’s anyone he’s going to let his guard down around, it’s us. We owe him everything. He’ll never expect it.”

  “Can... can I finish my game?”

  Kitana looked at him, looked at his big stupid face and suddenly longed for Sean’s company. “Sure,” she said. “You can finish your game.”

  Doran breathed in relief, and resumed playing. She thought about burying her fist in his head, but forced herself to walk into the other room. Moron. Moron. She needed Sean now more than ever, needed his sensitivity to balance out Doran’s dull thuggery.

  And then Sean stumbled in through the back door. He stared at her, like he couldn’t believe he’d found her.

  “About time you got here,” she told him. “We’ve got a mission. We’re going to kill Argeddion. You in?”

  “I… Kitana, I just escaped from a cell, I don’t know if I’m—”

  She glared at him. “Dammit, Sean, stop your whining. We can’t put this off because we don’t know how long we have left. We’re going to kill him and we’re going to kill him as soon as possible. And if your sensitive little soul can’t handle that—”

  “I can handle it,” Sean said defensively.

  Kitana gave him a smile. “I knew I could count on you.”

  kulduggery used the air to lift the reflection up to the bedroom window, and Valkyrie guided it in from inside. It sagged and she grabbed it, kept it standing.

  “Sorry,” it mumbled.

  She waved to Skulduggery and he headed back to wait in the car. She helped the reflection over to the mirror, but it hesitated. She realised it wanted to stand by itself so she let it.

  “I want to thank you,” it said, “for coming back for me.”

  Valkyrie didn’t answer.

  “A lot of people wouldn’t have bothered. They wouldn’t have risked it. They would have just left me down there. I’m glad you didn’t. I’m glad you saved me.”

  Saved it? It stood before her beaten and mutilated. “It’s my fault,” Valkyrie said. “I should have stayed with you. I should have kept out of trouble, like you said. If I’d have done that, none of this would have happened.”

  The reflection shook its head. “You came back for me. That’s what matters.”

  “They tortured you.”

  “And if you give me your permission, I’ll block that out.” It looked at her with its one eye. “Believe me, Valkyrie, you don’t want these memories…”

  Valkyrie swallowed. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you. I just... I needed to say that now. That’s all.”

  It stepped into the mirror and Valkyrie tapped the glass, and all the injuries and blood went away and she looked at herself while the memories settled. She remembered reaching for the reflection in the field while people died around her, and she remembered being the reflection, reaching for Valkyrie. And then she watched herself disappear, and she was hauled to her feet, herded into the Barge with all the other prisoners, and then it went blank.

  She realised she was shaking.

  Her mum was making toast for Alice when Valkyrie walked in, and Alice herself was sitting on the floor, grinning. Valkyrie scooped her up. “Good morning,” she said, and Alice giggled.

  Her mother turned. She looked surprised and… something. Something else. “I didn’t hear you come home. Did you have a good time?”

  “Yeah,” Valkyrie said, “it was fun. Didn’t get much studying done, though.”

  “Ah, I wouldn’t worry about that. You work too hard as it is.”

  “I am a hard worker,” said Valkyrie, frowning slightly. “Everything OK?”

  “Yes. Everything’s fine. I mean...” Her mother hesitated, then turned fully and gave a sad smile. “I lost my job.”

  “What? Mum...”

  “It’s OK, it’s OK. I knew it was coming, I suppose. We all did. Bank branches are closing down all over the country so it was really only a matter of time before it hit us. It’s worse for the others. At least Des has the company, and I was down to three days a week anyway to look after the little Miss here...”

  “And we have all of Gordon’s money,” Valkyrie reminded her.

  Her mother shook her head. “That’s yours. He left it to you.”

  “Yeah, but it’s yours, too.”

  Her mum turned, spread butter on the toast. “Nope, that’s not how it works.”

  Valkyrie laughed. “Of course that’s how it works. He didn’t just leave it to me, he left it to all of us. I don’t care that my name was the only name on the piece of paper. All his royalties and stuff are ours, not mine.”

  “That’s very nice of you, sweetheart, but we don’t need it. I have my redundancy and Des has the company—”

  “But there isn’t even enough work going around to keep him busy. He spends most of his time playing golf, Mum, and he doesn’t even know the rules.”

  Her mum hesitated, then nodded. “They hate him over there...”

  “He owns a construction company and you worked in a bank. When I was a kid, that was great, but it’s been nothing but bad news for the last few years. Do you honestly think I didn’t notice that things were getting tougher?”

  Her mum smiled at her. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell with you.”

  “Well, I noticed, but I didn’t say anything because I thought you knew that everything Gordon left me is ours. I mean, when have I ever cared about money? The only thing that matters to me is that you guys are happy and safe and healthy.”

  Valkyrie watched her mother take a deep breath. She wanted to hug her, to share this moment with her as honestly as she could, but time was tight, and Skulduggery was waiting.

  “Here,” she said, passing Alice to her, “take my sister and explain to her that she can go to the best college in the world when she’s older. Money is not a problem.”

  There were tears in her mother’s eyes. “You’re so good, Steph.”

  “I have my moments,” Valkyrie said, and gave her a smile and left the kitchen. She shut off the regret as soon as it sprang up. She’d hug later, when she was sure the world wasn’t going to turn upside down. She got back to her room and let her reflection out of the mirror. It looked so much better now. Valkyrie gave it the clothes she was wearing, then pulled on her black trousers and boots. The reflection threw her a black T-shirt and she put it on. “I want my jacket back,” she growled.

  “You’ll get it,” said the reflection. Then, “I’ll give your mum a hug from you.”

  Valkyrie smiled sadly, and jumped out of the window. Skulduggery picked her up and they drove to Roarhaven. She barely noticed the time passing. She thought about her mum and her dad, and little Alice.

  Skulduggery braked sharply.

  “Ow!” she said. “What the hell?” Then she looked up, saw Kitana and Sean and Doran standing in the middle of Roarhaven’s main street. Skulduggery turned off the engine and they got out.

  “Hi,” said Kitana. Sean looked uneasy, but Doran was grinning.

  Moving without any hurry, Skulduggery took out his gun, clicked the hammer back and aimed.

  Kitana laughed. “Hold on,” she said. “We’re here to talk, so please don’t sho
ot. You know it can’t hurt us but the bang it makes is so scary.”

  The gun didn’t waver. Kitana shrugged, and looked at Valkyrie. “From the way you’re glaring, I see that you’re still a little annoyed with me for something.”

  “You’re wearing my jacket.”

  “It looks better on me, though, doesn’t it?”

  “By the time this is over,” Valkyrie said, “I’ll have taken that back.”

  Kitana’s smile widened. “You’re welcome to try.”

  “Can we hurry this up?” Sean asked, stepping forward. “We’re here because we have a proposal.”

  “Go on,” said Skulduggery.

  “You want to stop Argeddion? Well, so do we.”

  Skulduggery lowered the gun. “Why?”

  “That’s none of your business,” Doran said sharply. “The only thing you need to know is that we’re the only ones who are powerful enough to do it. You’re certainly not. None of you are. He could wipe you out with a wave of his hand.”

  “So why would you, being as powerful as you are, even need us?” Skulduggery asked. “Why don’t you go after him right now?”

  “We were thinking you could divert his attention,” Kitana said, grinning. “Then, when he’s busy laughing at you, we come in, shoot him in the back. I mean, we’re powerful, but he’s still Argeddion.”

  “I don’t know,” Skulduggery said slowly. “It seems to me that we should just step back and watch you and him fight it out. Then when it’s done, we walk in and mop up.”

  “You wouldn’t take the chance,” said Sean. “If he kills us, he’s killing the only people who can hurt him. So what do you say?”

  “We’ll have to meet with the Elders and put it to them,” Skulduggery said. “You can wait in the Sanctuary while they decide.”

  Sean laughed. “So you can take away our powers like you did with me? No, we’ll stay out here, thank you very much.”

  “How can we trust you not to hurt anyone?”

  “Why would we hurt anyone? The people here love us.”

  “Run along,” Kitana said. “Ask your bosses. We’ll wait.”

  “Don’t kill anyone in the meantime,” said Skulduggery.

  She winked at him. “Cross my heart.”

  A circle of Cleavers had formed around the three of them, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie passed through it into the Sanctuary. Tipstaff was at the door.

  “Where are they?” asked Skulduggery.

  “The Accelerator Room,” answered Tipstaff. “The Cleavers wanted to evacuate them but they wouldn’t leave.”

  “Sounds like them, all right.”

  There was an argument raging between Ghastly and Sult by the time they got down there. The force field was gone and there were mages everywhere, sifting through the remains of the Tempest and examining the empty Cube, which was still rotating inside the Accelerator.

  Ravel appeared at Valkyrie’s elbow. “Thank God you’re back,” he said softly. “Things here are a trifle tense.”

  Skulduggery looked at him. “Lament?”

  Ravel hesitated. “Dead. Argeddion took his powers back from everyone except Kitana and her friends. It returned the mortals to normal, but for Lament and the others it was too much.”

  Valkyrie’s eyes widened. “Wait, they’re all dead? Even Lenka?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Her eyes drifted to the place where she’d last seen Lenka Bazaar, hovering behind the force field. Another friend, lost. Another one to add to the list.

  “Do you have the Sceptre?” Ravel asked.

  “We had it,” Skulduggery answered. “It was in our hands. But the China Sorrows of that reality is as untrustworthy as our own.”

  Ravel muttered a curse under his breath.

  “Detective Pleasant,” said Sult, marching up to them with Ghastly on his heels. “Maybe you can give me a straight answer. No one here seems to know where Grand Mage Strom is. I find it pretty hard to believe that he could be misplaced as easily as a set of keys.”

  “He’s not misplaced,” Ghastly said, clearly not his first time saying this, “he’s in a meeting with Madame Mist.”

  Sult turned to him. “A meeting about what? What could be so important to take him away from a developing crisis?”

  “A crisis that he has no say over,” Ghastly reminded him.

  “And yet again you fail to answer a simple question.”

  “He is in,” said Ghastly, “a meeting.”

  Their words blended into noise. Valkyrie didn’t care about any of this. Lenka was dead, and they were arguing about politics. It was suddenly so very clear to her. Argeddion’s plan, his Summer of Light, needed to be squashed before it had a chance to snatch away any more innocent lives.

  “Gentlemen,” Ravel said, breaking up the argument, “this is not the time for this. Mr Sult, I appreciate your input but I’m really going to have to insist that you return to your quarters and let us deal with what we have to deal with.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” said Sult. “I am Grand Mage Bisahalani’s representative. As such, I am the Supreme Council’s representative. And since we cannot seem to locate Grand Mage Strom, I am the only one to tell you what has been decided.”

  “Decided?”

  “I don’t see the Sceptre of the Ancients in Detective Pleasant’s hand. Am I to take it that the mission to retrieve said weapon was unsuccessful? Don’t bother answering that, it’s quite clear. Which means we have four super-powered threats still to deal with, and the only weapon I can see that could be of use is the Accelerator.”

  Valkyrie frowned. “What?”

  “It is now available to us, as the force field dropped once Argeddion killed the traitors,” Sult said.

  “Traitors?” she echoed. “They weren’t traitors. Argeddion was controlling them.”

  Sult shook his head. “He may have been manipulating them but I believe they were in full control of their—”

  She lunged at him. “Lenka was not a traitor!”

  Ravel wrapped an arm round her waist and Ghastly pulled her hands from Sult’s collar as Sult staggered away. Anger flashed across his face and he stepped up while Valkyrie struggled, fist bunched.

  “I know,” Skulduggery said in a tone that made everyone freeze, “that you’re not about to strike my partner.”

  Slowly, Ravel and Ghastly let go of Valkyrie, and Sult’s fist unclenched.

  “Of— of course not,” he said. “I apologise, both for losing my temper and for insinuating that any of Tyren Lament’s people were to blame for what has happened.”

  Valkyrie fought the urge to smash his face in.

  “The Supreme Council wants to use the Accelerator to supercharge their mages,” Ghastly said. “Even though we don’t know what the Accelerator will do to a person. For all we know it might kill them. Worse, the sheer power might drive them insane and then they’ll kill us.”

  “I hardly think we have a choice,” said Sult. “Kitana and her friends are on our doorstep as we speak.”

  “Have any of you actually spoken to them?” Skulduggery asked.

  Ravel looked at him. “Spoken to whom?”

  “Kitana and her friends. We have. They’re offering us a deal. We soften Argeddion up, they come in and finish him off.”

  “But why do they want Argeddion dead all of a sudden?” asked Sult. “What do they get out of it?”

  “Security,” said Skulduggery. “They’re the only ones who can hurt him, but he’s the only one who could be assured of hurting them, too. They’re afraid he’s going to take their powers away, like he did with Lament and the others.”

  “Could they do it?” asked Ghastly. “Could they kill him?”

  “I think so,” said Skulduggery. “We’d need to draw Argeddion in and hit him with enough force to stagger him.”

  “Any ideas how to do it?”

  “Luring him into a trap should be pretty easy.”

  “And the second part? The part where we have to h
urt him?”

  Skulduggery gestured to the Tempest. “We know some pretty smart people, don’t we? I’m sure it wouldn’t take them long to figure out how to turn this into a weapon.”

  “And what if it works?” Ravel asked. “Then Argeddion is down, but we still have the girl and her friends walking around.”

  Skulduggery hesitated. “That’s where our overall plan has to change. We’d originally hoped to put Argeddion back in the Cube. The Accelerator could run it for an eternity and he’d never get loose again. That was a solution that would have pleased everyone. But now, with everything we know, that’s no longer an option.”

  “We have to kill him,” said Valkyrie. They looked at her. Ghastly in particular seemed shocked. “We have to,” she continued. “He killed Lenka, he killed Lament, and the blood of every single person that Kitana and her friends have hurt or killed is on his hands as well. It’s the first of May. His Summer of Light starts today unless we stop him.”

  Ravel looked at Skulduggery. “Do you agree? You want to kill him?”

  “No,” said Skulduggery. “I want them to kill him. Kitana and the others. He said something a few days ago that’s got me thinking that the people he’s infected will only keep their powers for as long as he is alive. If he dies, their powers die with him.”

  “So if Kitana and her friends kill him... they’ll be sabotaging themselves.”

  “You’re sure about this?” Ravel asked.

  “Relatively,” said Skulduggery.

  Ravel looked at Ghastly, who sighed. “It might be the only way,” he said. “So how do we go about it?”

  “That’s the other piece of bad news,” Skulduggery said. “In order to make sure they’re strong enough, we’re going to have to boost their powers.”

  “You want to put them in the Accelerator?”

  “It’s the only way to be certain.”

  “And what if it does drive them insane?” Sult asked.

  “More insane than they’ve already been driven? I think we can take that chance. If it kills them, well, then we have one less problem to worry about. But if it works, they’ll be powerful enough to do what needs to be done.”

  Ravel sagged. “But I’ve kind of made it an unofficial policy never to make psychopaths stronger.”