by Derek Landy
“Dexter Vex is with me,” Valkyrie said.
Foe nodded. “We’ll kill him, too.”
“You think you have a chance?” she asked. “Against me, yeah, of course you do. But him? This is Dexter Vex we’re talking about. One of the Dead Men. And with that Remnant he’s stronger and faster and doesn’t possess one shred of pity. If I were you, I’d get back on my bike and I’d ride away. Fast.”
“I like you,” said Foe. “Despite it all, I like you. You’re in a no-win situation that you’re treating like a fair fight. You’ve got guts. But I have a vampire.”
Something moved in the corner of her eye and then Samuel was on her, his body crushing her broken hand. She cried out and he snarled and launched her into the air. She landed and rolled, shrieking in pain as she got to her feet, but Samuel was there again to grab her.
“Beat her to a pulp,” Foe said, walking to the minivan. “I’m going to kill her family.”
Samuel hit her and Valkyrie dropped to one knee, her head swimming. Her jacket absorbed most of the kick that followed, but it still sent her tumbling. Holding her broken hand close to her chest, she whipped the shock stick from her back and leaped up. Samuel ducked under her first swipe and leaned back to avoid the second. Then he grabbed her wrist and twisted and the stick fell and his fist ploughed into her exposed belly and she staggered back, whooping and gasping.
Through teary eyes, she saw Foe reach the minivan.
Samuel grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. She twisted and fell and got up as he pulled her from one side of the road to the other. With her right hand, she tried pushing the air. She tried clicking her fingers. Nothing worked. The magic was inside her, it was bubbling and boiling and churning, but nothing was happening, nothing was working, nothing was—
White lightning danced from the tips of her fingers and Samuel jerked away.
Valkyrie scrambled backwards. Her hand. Her right hand was glowing.
Samuel doubled over. His snarls turned guttural. He straightened up suddenly, talons tearing into his clothes and skin, shredding it from the vampire’s body beneath. White skin like alabaster. Bald. Big black eyes. The vampire sprang at her, claws ready for ripping, fangs ready for tearing. Valkyrie fell on to her back, her glowing hand held up, and it was through her hand that she poured her magic.
Lightning burst from her fingers. It caught the vampire in mid-air, snapping it back like it had hit a wall. It fell to the road as a charred, smoking carcass.
“What did you do?”
She looked round. Foe came forward, staring at the vampire’s corpse, his face slack.
“What did you do?” he asked again. There was something in his face. Something Valkyrie recognised. Anger, of course. Surprise. Confusion.
But also fear.
It was dark, there on the roadside. But as Valkyrie stared at Samuel’s body, the patch of darkness she stood in seemed to brighten. At first, she thought she was caught in a beam of moonlight, but it just got brighter, and brighter.
Her hand. It was glowing again. Lit up from the inside with a silver light. Both her hands. And her face. Her neck. Beneath her clothes, her entire body was glowing. She stood up, fingertips burning. The magic churned inside her. Her hair stood on end. Energy crackled around her, forming a barrier that lifted her off the ground. Hissing in panic, she drifted sideways. The energy barrier kept her from colliding with a tree beyond the grassy verge. She didn’t know how to stand like this. She fell, but didn’t hit the ground. She turned over. Rolled. Tried to straighten up.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Foe.
She turned, falling backwards again in this cocoon of energy. Foe stood there, staring, the confusion on his face beautifully illuminated by the light Valkyrie was giving out.
She managed to stand. She was unsteady, but she did it.
Foe threw a stream of energy. It hit the cocoon and flowed round it. It didn’t hurt her. It didn’t even touch her.
He threw another, and another.
Something was happening. Valkyrie could feel it. The magic thrashed inside her. It was building up to something.
“Run,” she said.
Foe poured all his strength into another energy stream. It proved just as useless as the others.
“Run,” she said again, but it was too late. The magic burst from her in a wave that turned the trees to splinters. It hit Foe and he was gone. Obliterated. She could feel the wave expand in all directions. She could feel it nearing the minivan. She grimaced, reached out with her mind, searching for control. She reached to the edge of the wave and snagged it, grabbed it, pulled it back, pulled it all the way back, and the magic returned to her and she dropped to her knees in the crater that had formed around her.
She was no longer glowing.
She stood up on shaky legs. She was exhausted. The roadside was dark again.
“Stephanie!”
Her mum ran to her, and Valkyrie slumped into her arms.
“Oh, God, Steph, are you OK? Please tell me you’re OK.”
“I’m good,” Valkyrie mumbled.
“Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God. What was that? You were glowing and it was hard to look at you, it was all so bright. What was that lightning? Where’s that man? Where is he?”
Valkyrie forced her eyes open. “Mum, I need you to help me into the van. Too tired to …”
Her mother pulled her up. “Shh. Don’t talk. You don’t have to talk.”
They got back into the minivan and Valkyrie fell asleep while her dad changed the tyre.
68
THE HOURGLASS
p in the balcony, Fletcher and Wreath watched Skulduggery walk into the square at the exact centre of the Necropolis. There, another man in a black Necromancer robe stood waiting. Beneath his hood, like the others, his face was porcelain.
Skulduggery approached. “Do you have a name, or are names beneath you?”
That porcelain face smiled. “I am known as the Guardian. I am the final test.”
Skulduggery nodded, looked around, then back to the Guardian. “I go through you to activate the sigil, is that it?”
“In essence. But of course there is more to it than that.”
“Well, of course there is.” Skulduggery tilted his head. “Don’t suppose you’re going to tell me exactly what’s in store for me, are you?”
“True understanding comes later.”
“True understanding usually does.”
The Guardian smiled again. “You are a warrior.”
“When I need to be.”
“You are a violent man.”
“When I have to be.”
“Is it, do you think, an appropriate response to the world around you?”
“Violence?” Skulduggery asked. “Violence is never the answer, until it’s the only answer.”
Another porcelain smile. “Your words are weary.”
“They’re just well travelled. If I could save the world with words, I would. I’d lay down my gun and I’d talk until my bones turned to dust. But words are for reasonable people. And too often, the people I meet are far from reasonable.”
“You have blood on your hands.”
“I do, so other people don’t have to,” said Skulduggery.
“But that is not why you fight. You fight because the fight is all you have. You fight because you enjoy it.”
“What are you looking for?” Skulduggery asked. “An insight into my soul? You want to shock me into admitting some dark little secret that I’ve been hiding away for all these years? I’ve just spoken to beings claiming to be the ghosts of my friends, the ghost of my wife … I saw my child. After all these years, I saw the face of my child again. I’m all shocked-out for today. If we’re going to fight, let’s get to it.” Skulduggery raised his fists. “I’ve got living people to get back to.”
“So be it,” said the Guardian. “If you prevail, you may activate the Meryyn Sigil, and power grafted from the source of all magic shall endow the
one who wears the sigil with great strength and protect them from harm, until the last grain of sand falls.”
Skulduggery dropped his hands. “I’m sorry, what?”
The Guardian gestured to the middle of the square, as a plinth rose from the ground. When it settled, an hourglass rose from within the plinth. “Once you have activated the Meryyn Sigil, the hourglass will turn and the sands will run.”
“For how long?” Skulduggery asked, stalking over to examine the plinth. “This amount of sand … it looks like it’ll only run for, what, a little over twenty minutes?”
The Guardian nodded. “Twenty-three, actually.”
Skulduggery looked back at him. “So, if I fight you now and I win, and the sigil is activated, Valkyrie will only be invulnerable for the twenty-three minutes after that moment?”
“Yes,” said the Guardian, sounding surprised at the question. “Twenty-three minutes of invulnerability and strength is quite generous, we thought.”
Skulduggery looked up, and Fletcher had the feeling he was glaring at Wreath. He switched his focus back to the Guardian. “There’s no way to delay it? I activate the sigil and the invulnerability kicks in when we need it?”
“That is not possible, I am afraid. Is there a problem?”
“There is,” Skulduggery said. “That’s not going to work for us.”
“I’m afraid there is no way around it.”
Skulduggery observed him. “Do I have to fight you now? Right at this moment?”
Porcelain eyebrows rose slightly. “Well … No, I suppose not.”
“Can I come back?”
“It is most unusual,” said the Guardian, “but yes. The tests will only be reset after I am engaged in combat.”
“So I can walk straight here and there’ll be no one to stop me?”
“Precisely.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do.”
The Guardian bowed. “I shall await your return.”
Skulduggery turned, looked up at the balcony. “We’re going back to Roarhaven.”
69
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
here’s someone up ahead,” her dad said.
Valkyrie woke, launched from a troubled sleep like she’d been shot from a cannon. Her body ached. Her broken hand alone made her want to cry. The minivan was slowing as it approached an elderly man, smiling in the headlights. When they came to a stop, he walked to the driver’s side as the window wound down.
“Afraid the road’s closed, folks,” he said. “A few trees down. Where you headed?” But when the elderly man saw Valkyrie, his expression changed. “Ah, excuse me, I didn’t realise. Carry on.”
He nodded to them and stepped back, vanishing into the darkness.
“He’s with the Sanctuary,” Valkyrie said. “We can keep going.”
Valkyrie’s dad put the minivan in gear and they started moving again.
“Slight change of plan,” Vex said, like he’d been waiting for her to catch his eye. “China would throw me in a cell as soon as look at me, so I’ll be fading into the shadows once we’ve arrived. If any of you try to signal to the guards up ahead that something isn’t right, I kill Alice. That’s the first thing I do. We all clear?”
“We are,” said Valkyrie.
Vex smiled straight at her. “And as for you and your sparkly new powers, if you even think about using them against me, I’ll kill Alice and then kill you before you’ve even learned how to aim properly.”
Valkyrie’s mum shifted in her seat. “Could you please stop threatening my children, Mr Vex? I would very much appreciate it.”
Vex smiled. “But of course, Melissa. My apologies.”
“I don’t see anything,” her dad muttered. “You said there was a huge wall and a gate. You said there was a city.”
“Give it a few more seconds,” Valkyrie said.
And then, suddenly, Roarhaven. One moment there was the road the headlights picked out, long and narrowing, hedged in on both sides by thin trees. The next, a brightly-lit wall, high enough to fill the windscreen and block out the stars.
Her dad went to brake when it materialised, but stopped himself. They drove on to the open gate.
Cleavers and sorcerers stood guard, and a man named Krull waved them to a stop. He went round to the passenger side, and Valkyrie lowered the window.
“Welcome back,” said Krull, his eyes flickering over the people in the minivan. Valkyrie doubted he could make out Vex, sitting in the dark in the back.
“Thanks,” she said. “We’re just headed to the Sanctuary.”
Krull nodded, but made no sign he was going to let them through. “Interesting times we’re living in,” he said.
Valkyrie gave him a nod. “Yes they are.”
“Mind stepping out for a moment?”
“All of us?”
“Just you, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Sure,” she said, hesitating only a little. She glanced back at Vex, wondering how tense he was, wondering if he’d react to this. But he just sat there, an outline in the dark.
Valkyrie undid her seatbelt, opened the door and went to get out. When she was halfway out, Krull grabbed her wrist, yanked her forward. She hit the ground and tears sprang to her eyes and there was suddenly a lot of movement and a lot of shouting. Her folks were telling Krull to leave her alone, the sorcerers around her were telling them to stay in the minivan, and Krull was commanding her to lie still. Cold steel closed round her right wrist and she felt her magic dwindle. It snapped shut round her left wrist and jarred her broken bones.
“I’m Valkyrie Cain!” she cried, Krull’s knee in her back.
“For all I know you’re Darquesse,” Krull said, grabbing the back of her collar. He hauled her to her feet, slammed her against the minivan. “You move and we kill you, you understand me?”
Her face was squashed against the glass. Her mum stared at her from the other side, horrified. On the seat behind, Vex was inching towards the far door.
“You killed my son,” Krull said into Valkyrie’s ear.
Her insides went cold, and began to churn. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But that was Darquesse, that wasn’t—”
“You killed him here, during the battle. Four weeks ago. Back when you were Darquesse.”
“I wasn’t in control. Krull, I’m sorry, I am, but—”
He grabbed her broken hand and squeezed and Valkyrie screamed.
“A few of us have been wondering why exactly Sorrows let you back into the fold,” Krull said in her ear. “We think it’s because she likes you. You and the Skeleton Detective. You’re her favourites. Makes us wonder why the hell she’s in charge anyway. Who the hell elected her? Who voted her in? I certainly didn’t.”
“Please, you’re hurting me.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
“You know I’m not Darquesse,” Valkyrie said through gritted teeth.
“I know no such thing.”
She tried to turn into him, but he slammed his whole body weight into her and she cried out again. That was too much for her dad to take, and he threw open his door. The Cleavers grabbed him when he got out. Now that they were distracted, Vex reached forward, slid open the side door to make his escape with Alice. He clearly figured his plan was falling apart. But Valkyrie’s mum dived on him, and they tumbled out of the minivan and then Valkyrie was pulled away from the window.
She twisted, rammed her shoulder into Krull’s chest. She kicked at his knee, got his shin instead. She heard him growl in pain and he hit her and bright lights flashed and she fell to her knees. Then he grabbed her hair, started dragging her backwards, and through the tears in her eyes she glimpsed something on the wall overhead, and it was dropping and spinning, and Tanith landed beside her.
She didn’t even see the strike, but she heard it connect, and Krull went stumbling against the minivan. Tanith stalked up to him, her hand closing round his throat, her fingertips digging in behind his windpipe. She pinned his head against the co
rner of the vehicle and he gagged.
“Key,” she said.
Krull fumbled in his pocket, fished out a small key. Tanith snatched it from him, smacked him in the jaw and he dropped. Tanith helped Valkyrie stand, and unlocked the shackles.
“See to your folks,” Tanith said. “I’ll take this little charmer to cool off in the cells.”
Valkyrie nodded, not even waiting around to watch Tanith drag Krull off by the ear. Clutching her left hand, she hurried round to the other side of the minivan. The Cleavers were just allowing her father back to his feet. A pretty lady, Korb, was with them, apologising profusely.
Her mum was on her knees, her back to Valkyrie.
‘Vex,” said Valkyrie. “Where is he?”
“Ran off,” said Korb, looking round. “There was a bit of a scramble but he hightailed it when he saw us closing in.”
“No,” Valkyrie breathed. “Alice.”
Her mum stood, and turned, tears in her eyes and Alice in her arms. “Still asleep,” she said, laughing. “Can you believe that? Still asleep after all that? What an amazing sister you have.”
“What an amazing mum,” Valkyrie said, running forward and hugging them both.
Wiping the healing mud from her hand, Valkyrie entered the Room of Prisms by Skulduggery’s side. Synecdoche had patched her up, eased her bruises and mended her broken fingers, and now she felt great. She felt refreshed, strong, and she had a cool new array of magic powers she hadn’t even explored yet.
China was resplendent in red. She sat atop her throne like an ice queen, gazing down at her loyal subjects – the Monster Hunters, Saracen, Fletcher, Wreath and Tanith. Standing within arm’s reach of the throne was the Black Cleaver.
