The Maleficent Seven: From the World of Skulduggery Pleasant

by Derek Landy

  “Two men with guns waiting for you in Chicago. Another with a sniper rifle that you never even saw.”

  “That was you?”

  “And then, while you fought Crab on that beach in Poland, two Sanctuary agents about to call in your position.”

  “You’re my guardian angel?”

  “I’m no angel. I had avoided the use of violence for the last five years. It has been... distressing how easily I can slip back into my old ways.”

  “And now you’re here to get me out, right?”

  “Of course.”

  Keys rattled in the lock and the door swung wide. He picked another key from the collection in his hand as he came forward, and a moment later, Tanith’s shackles sprang open. While she rubbed her wrists, he unwrapped the bundle of cloth, and handed over her sword in its black scabbard.

  “I liberated this on my way here,” he said. “I thought it might hold some sentimental value.”

  “It does,” Tanith said. “Did you know that Valkyrie Cain used this sword to kill the Grotesquery? That was the first time she ever saved the world. Wasn’t the last.”

  They walked from the cell, and Tanith sighed as she felt her magic flood back into her body. They passed the wardens slumped on the ground.

  “Dead?” she asked.

  “Unconscious,” Moribund said. “I do not kill if it can be avoided. You don’t have to, either, you know.”

  “I’m grateful for the rescue, but if you’re going to start lecturing me...”

  “And what if the lecture is the rescue? Releasing your physical form is easy – setting your spirit free is much more difficult.”

  “Oh, man,” said Tanith, “you’re not religious, are you?”

  He led the way up the stairs. They passed another unconscious man. “Would you hold it against me if I were? But this isn’t about religion. When I talk about your spirit, I’m not talking about some elusive idea, I’m talking about your actual soul, which the Remnant has grafted itself on to.”

  “Well, let me save you the time and the effort. The Remnant’s a part of me now and it can’t be removed.”

  “That’s quite true.”

  “OK then.”

  “But that doesn’t mean you have to change who you once were.”

  “Uh, yes, it does.”

  Out in the corridor now, Moribund was walking with the confidence of one who knows he will not be discovered. Tanith stuck close to him.

  “The Remnant erases your conscience and removes your ability to empathise,” Moribund said. “It turns you into a sociopath. It also affects other aspects of your personality, but none to any significant degree. You are still, essentially, who you have always been.”

  “What are you, a Remnant expert?”

  “Yes,” said Moribund. “But you can relearn the skills you need to empathise, and you can fake a conscience until it becomes a natural part of you.”

  “Fake it till you make it, you mean.”

  “Precisely.”

  “And what’s the point of all that? I’d just be lying to myself.”

  “The alternative is to surrender and let the Remnant win. Tanith, you have an opportunity to atone for your sins. It’s not too late to turn back. You have friends who love you and who would be willing to give you another chance.”

  She laughed as they climbed another set of stairs. “Moribund, all this is wonderfully inspiring stuff, it really is, but I’m a Remnant, and I want the world to die. I’ve seen a vision of how it happens and everything I’ve been doing, collecting all these weapons, is designed to help that along. When she arrives, Darquesse is going to burn this planet to a cinder and I’m ensuring that there are no God-Killer level weapons around to stop her. My old friends aren’t going to give me another chance because we’re not on the same side any more. Do you get that?”

  “Why do you want her to destroy the world?”

  “Because I’ve seen it, and I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. You wouldn’t understand. I’ve tried explaining it to Billy-Ray and he says he understands, but he doesn’t.”

  “I understand.”

  “No. You don’t.”

  “Yes,” Moribund said, turning to her, “I do.” Dark veins spread beneath his skin and his lips turned black.

  Tanith fell against the wall and stared, her mouth open.

  “This is why I went from being a normal, humourless sorcerer to a sadistic psychopath and killer,” Moribund said. “A Remnant found me, climbed down my throat, and it’s been living inside me ever since. It is as much a part of me now as my own heart or my earliest memory.”

  “I thought... I thought all the others were trapped.”

  “All those darting black shadow-creatures are trapped, yes, and some like us, bonded pairs, are in gaols. But there are yet others out there, around the world. Some are bonded to sorcerers, some to mortals, some to other... beings.”

  “Where are they? Why don’t they do something to free the thousands of Remnants who are being kept in the Soul Catcher?”

  Moribund smiled. “Because they’re sociopaths, Tanith. And the longer they’ve been bonded, the less they care. It takes a concerted effort to start rebuilding that part of your personality after decades of neglect. For me, it was difficult, bordering on impossible. For you, it will be hard... but within your reach.”

  “You wouldn’t be saying that if you had seen what I saw. It was beautiful.”

  “I would wager that what you find beautiful is not the same as what I find beautiful. Once, I would have been at your side. But not now.”

  They walked into the storeroom.

  “You can come out,” Moribund said.

  Wilhelm stood up from behind a crate. He was pale and sweating and his hand was heavily bandaged, and he looked at Tanith like she had just kicked his puppy. “You cut off my finger.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I remember.”

  “But I was on your team!”

  “Because I needed to cut off your finger.”

  “But—”

  “Wilhelm. I cut off your finger because that’s what I needed to do. I didn’t tell you about it because I didn’t think you’d be too keen on the idea. With all your blubbering, and with your tone of voice now, I see that I was right. But we did what we came here to do, and I really don’t see what your problem is.”

  Wilhelm gaped at her.

  “I’m sorry,” said Moribund. “Should I not have released Mr Scream also?”

  “Naw, it’s fine,” said Tanith. “He’s just feeling emotional. Do you know how to get us out of here?”

  Moribund nodded. “I watched Mr Chabon let you in. Face the wall. You, too, Mr Scream.”

  Wilhelm hurried over and stood beside Tanith. He glanced at the sword on her back, then glared at her. “Be careful you don’t cut off another one of my—”

  “Be quiet,” Tanith said.

  Wilhelm shut up.

  The bright light flowed over them and Tanith felt her body tingle. She stepped forward, through the wall, emerging into the morning air. The smell of freedom.

  Wilhelm scowled at her. “Next time you assemble a team,” he said, “be sure to leave me—”

  “They’re going to notice we’re not in our cells any moment now, Wilhelm. You don’t have time to make a parting quip, even if you could think of one.”

  His lower lip trembled, and he spun and ran.

  “What a strange little man,” Moribund said. The veins were gone from his face as he looked back at Tanith. “Think about what I said.”

  “That’s it? You’re just going to walk off?”

  “You helped me escape, and I’ve returned the favour. Now that we’re even, I have my life to get back to.”

  “But we both have Remnants inside us. Shouldn’t we, you know, stick together?”

  “Why would we? I don’t limit myself because of what I am,” he said as he walked away. “Do you?”

  Figuring that pretty soon the rooftops would be covered with Clea
vers searching for her, Tanith took a cab. She sat there with her sword across her lap and her coat over it and talked to the driver about famous people he’d had in his back seat. She hadn’t heard of most of them. Carry On My Wayward Son came on the radio and they sang along with it.

  She got out a mile from her destination and walked the rest of the way, making sure she wasn’t being followed. The building had once been a blacksmith’s all those years before. It still had a working furnace, and she felt the heat the moment she slipped in through the window. It was dark and still, like the whole place was holding its breath.

  Movement behind her and she whirled and Sanguine wrapped her in his arms. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  She waited until he was done, then stepped away and gave him a smile. “I’m just glad you managed to get away from those things under the Sanctuary,” she said. “Did you find out what they were?”

  He shook his head. “And I didn’t wait around to ask questions, either. I ain’t gonna lie – whatever they are, they worry me. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

  “Well,” Tanith said, having wasted enough time on small talk, “the good news is, we both got out, we’re both free and the weapons have been destroyed, right?”

  He nodded, then made a face. “Half of ’em, yeah.”

  She stared. “What?”

  “I melted down the sword and the spear,” he said. “But I figured I might have to go back in there to rescue you, and having the bow and the dagger might not be a bad idea.”

  “I told you to destroy all the weapons!”

  “Hey, calm down, OK? I was just taking precautions.”

  “I didn’t ask you to take precautions,” she said, walking past him, “I told you to melt them all down.”

  He caught up to her. “Would you please relax? I kept the furnace going so that if I saw anything suspicious, I could just throw ’em in.”

  Tanith ignored him. The furnace room blasted heat at her when she entered. There they were, the bow and the dagger, sitting out in plain view. She picked up the blade, felt its power, felt how even the tiniest of nicks would open Sanguine up and spread his insides across the floor.

  Instead, she threw the dagger into the furnace, then pushed the bow in after it. She glared.

  “OK,” Sanguine said, “you’re mad at me.”

  “If they had followed you back here,” Tanith said, “they could have recovered these before you had a chance to destroy them. Then everything we’d done would have been for nothing, and when Darquesse appeared, they’d be ready for her.”

  “It was a precaution,” he said. “That’s all. And look, all destroyed now. All melted down. Problem solved.”

  “You risked everything for nothing.”

  “I risked everything for you.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  He went to hug her but she slapped his hands away.

  He sighed, scratched his jaw. “Listen to me. All you care about is Darquesse, right? But me? All I care about is you. You understand? You are my Darquesse. You’d do anything for her, and I’d do anything for you.”

  “But I don’t matter. Only she matters.”

  “You matter to me. We can argue about this all day if you want, and that’s OK. I can do that. But it ain’t gonna change the fact that I love you.”

  “Billy-Ray... the only reason I’m with you is because of this Remnant inside me.”

  “I know that.”

  “You say you love me, but you’re a sociopath just like I am. You’re incapable of love.”

  “That’s what they say. But I don’t believe it. This thing I’m feeling, I’m pretty sure that’s love. It makes me crazy, makes me stupid, makes me ornery as all hell, but now that I have it I never want to let it go.”

  “Even though you know I can never return those feelings?”

  He smiled. “Never say never, sword-lady. The power of love has allowed me to transcend my psychopathic nature. Maybe you can transcend whatever limitations people put on you as well.”

  She couldn’t help it, she had to smile. “For a cold-blooded killer, you’re remarkably romantic.”

  His arms wrapped round her. “You get the full Billy-Ray Sanguine experience, my darlin’.” He kissed her and she kissed him back. “So... had any thoughts on what we were talking about before?”

  She looked at him blankly for a moment. His proposal. She’d forgotten all about it. Before she could answer, though, he tensed. She turned slowly.

  “I was wondering where you’d got to,” she said.

  Dusk looked at them both, but said nothing.

  “Listen,” Tanith said, “if you’re going to gripe about how I left you to fend for yourself—”

  “Not at all,” said Dusk. “We must each take responsibility for ourselves. Besides, there is nothing you could have done to contain me.”

  “Well,” Tanith said, “I’m glad you see it like that. By the way, I’ve got some fresh wounds on my back courtesy of you.”

  “Such is the price we pay for the things we do. Others have paid an even higher price, I have heard. You cut Wilhelm Scream’s hand off?”

  “Just his finger.”

  “I see. Annis is dead, of course. Sabine, too, I’d wager, after you betrayed her to that man Chabon. And Springheeled Jack? What happened to him?”

  “I did,” said Tanith.

  Dusk nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, Tanith saw Sanguine’s hand inch towards his pocket, where he kept the straight razor.

  “You have betrayed almost half the members of your little team,” the vampire said. “And what, may I ask, of the rewards you promised them?”

  Tanith shrugged. “I promised Annis a cure for her curse. I didn’t have one. I promised Jack information on what he was and where he came from. No one knows where he came from. There have been reports of creatures like him centuries ago, but that’s it. I promised Sabine a way to wipe her slate clean, to start a new life where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder every five minutes. I had no intention of doing any such thing.”

  “And you promised me the name of the vampire who turned me,” said Dusk. “A name you do not possess, I take it?”

  “Actually,” Tanith said, “I do. The survivors get their rewards, Dusk. Wilhelm gets his, and you get yours. Besides, I make it a rule never to give a vampire a reason to hold a grudge.”

  “And this name?”

  Tanith smiled at him. “Moloch.”

  Dusk’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I’ve known Moloch for centuries. We have never liked each other, but he has never given any indication that he was the one who ended my mortal life.”

  “I doubt he even knows,” Tanith said. “Do you remember every single detail of what you do when you change? I’d say it gets quite confusing in that little head of yours. From what I read, he had only been a vampire for a few years himself before he came to that town. I’m telling you the truth, Dusk. What you do with it now is up to you.”

  “If I find out you’re lying...”

  She laughed. “Lying to you would be bad for my health.”

  Dusk kept his eyes on her for a bit, and then left.

  “Phew,” said Sanguine, visibly relaxing. “Thought that was gonna get nasty for a moment. That true, by the way? About Moloch?”

  “That was the name in the report,” she said as she turned back to him. “You know something, Billy-Ray? You’re a very useful person to have by my side. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  His hands found her hips and he pulled her closer. “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

  “You know I can’t love you back, right?”

  “Not yet you can’t. And I’m OK with that.”

  “Then, yes. I’ll marry you.”

  Sanguine gave her the widest smile she’d ever seen him give, and he kissed her and she kissed him.


  t wasn’t easy, lying to Tanith.

  He didn’t like doing it, that’s for sure. He loved her. He’d finally found someone to love, someone as mixed up and messed up as he was, and he wasn’t about to let her go. No, sir. He knew a good thing when he found it and he was no fool.

  But Sanguine, well, above all else he was a pragmatic son of a gun, and he reckoned that there wasn’t a whole lot of point in helping someone you love bring about the end of the world if the end of the world meant you couldn’t be with the one you love. So he’d had Sabine use her mojo to charge up another set of dummy weapons. If they could fool the so-called experts for a few days, he saw no reason why they couldn’t fool Tanith for a few minutes as she watched them melt. He’d felt bad about it. The look on her face as she stood there, that smile that opened up, it was almost enough to make him confess, to make him tell her about the real weapons that he’d hidden away.

  Almost. But not quite. Sanguine was in love. But that didn’t make him stupid. And now that he had access to some of the most powerful weapons in the world, well... that pretty much made him even more of a badass.

  And, when you got down to it, pretty goddamn unstoppable.

  The dead famous bestsellers: out now in paperback

  Copyright

  First published in hardback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2013

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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  www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk

  Derek Landy blogs under duress at

  www.dereklandy.blogspot.com

  Copyright © Derek Landy 2013

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