Playing with Fire (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 2) (10 page)

111

"Not quite. Because most of it is comprised of a Faceless One, it will heal quickly. The stronger it gets, the faster it will heal, until it suffers no injuries at all. It would take an awful lot to damage the Grotesquery while it's at full strength, I'm afraid. Have you found it yet?"

"No, we don't even know where to start looking."

"You should ask the Torment."

"Who?"

"A few years ago, I heard a rumor that a man called the Torment might know where the Grotesquery is hidden."

"The
Torment? Not, like, Joey Torment, or Sam Torment? An actual
the?"

"An actual
the,
yes. He's probably dead by now, if he even existed at all. It was just a rumor. You should ask Eachan Meritorious if he knows him."

"Um, actually, Meritorious is dead. So is Morwenna Crow. Sagacious Tome, too, but he betrayed the others, so I'm not sorry
he's
dead."

"Oh dear. Meritorious and Crow? That's a lot of people dead. Is there anyone who
isn't
dead?"

"Uh . . . Ghastly Bespoke is a statue."

"Well, that's something, at least."

112

Valkyrie glanced at her watch. "I better go. Tanith's waiting downstairs."

"Tanith?"

"Tanith Low."

"Oh, I've heard of her. Never actually met her, but I've heard of her. You know my tale 'The All-Night Horror Show,' from my short story collection? That was inspired by something I heard about her."

Valkyrie smiled. "I think she'd be delighted to know that."

Echo-Gordon gazed fondly at Valkyrie. "You're suited to all this, you know. I helped Skulduggery for a time until I realized I didn't like putting my life in danger. Sometimes I regret taking a step back. But you ... I always knew you'd be cut out for this adventuring lark. It's why everything was left to you in the will."

"Thanks for that, by the way. It's . . . amazing."

"Think nothing of it. How did Serpine die, anyway?"

"Painfully."

Echo-Gordon grinned. "Oh good."

The Bentley pulled up outside Gordon's house just as Valkyrie was closing the door.

113

"Are you all right?" Skulduggery asked as soon as he got out.

"I told you on the phone, I'm okay. Tanith arrived just in time to save the day."

Skulduggery looked at Tanith. "Thank you."

"Val had it handled," Tanith said with a shrug.

"How did your top-secret sneaky business go?" Valkyrie asked, eager to change the subject.

Skulduggery hesitated. "This is a sensitive subject."

"We're all friends here, aren't we? So where'd you go?"

"Well, I... I broke into the Sanctuary."

"I'm sorry, you
what?"

"What you were saying earlier, about how Thurid Guild is like a politician with people to please. It got me thinking. So I broke into his private chambers. I had a hunch."

Tanith stared at him. "That's . . . that's pretty dangerous, Skulduggery. If the Cleavers had caught you . . ."

"I know. It would have been an interesting fight. But I had to risk it, really. I was curious."

"About what?" asked Valkyrie.

"There may be reason to believe that Thurid

114

Guild was involved in Vengeous's escape."

"Involved how?" Valkyrie asked, her eyes narrowing. "Is he a traitor?"

"My illicit investigation is just beginning. It's too early to-- "

"Just like Sagacious Tome," Valkyrie interrupted. "And China!"

Skulduggery tilted his head. "China is not a traitor."

"But she used to worship the Faceless Ones, didn't she?"

"Well, yes, but we've all done things we're not proud of."

"Even you?"

Skulduggery looked at her but didn't say anything.

"How could a traitor be elected as the new Grand Mage?" Tanith asked, and he shook his head.

"These are my suspicions, nothing more. I liberated some files belonging to the Grand Mage-- "

"Liberated?"

"
-- and I'll need some time to go over them. Until then, Thurid Guild is innocent until proven guilty. That said, obviously we still don't trust

115

him. That would be silly."

"Sure," Tanith said.

"Absolutely," Valkyrie said.

"All right then, have either of you managed to turn up anything that will help us?"

Valkyrie looked at Tanith, who suddenly looked down at her boots.

"I've been . . . reading."

"Research?" Skulduggery asked.

Tanith went a little red, and Skulduggery tilted his head.

"You've been reading Gordon's book again, haven't you?"

"It's a white-knuckle roller-coaster ride," she mumbled.

He sighed, and looked to Valkyrie. "And you?"

Echo-Gordon had asked her not to tell anyone about him, at least until he had grown used to the idea that he was the only version of Gordon Edgley left on the planet. Valkyrie had reluctantly agreed.

"I found something in one of Gordon's notebooks," she lied. "Apparently someone called the Torment might know where Vengeous hid the Grotesquery."

116

"The Torment?"

"I don't know if he's real or not." "He's real." "Do you know him?"

"No," Skulduggery said. "But I know someone who does."

117

Chapter
Ten

THE ARMOR OF LORD VILE

Billy-ray sanguine
didn 't like the Infected. He looked at them as he passed, looked at their blank faces and dull eyes. Half of them dug, half of them cleared rocks, and they never took a break. Dusk's command over them was absolute.

Sanguine left them to it. As he walked, he felt the knife in his belt. It was big and heavy and awkward. He much preferred his straight razor, but that girl had taken it from him. He was looking forward to seeing her again.

The caves were big, and the lights they had rigged up barely made a dent in the darkness, through which Baron Vengeous now strode.

118

"The Infected have cleared the chambers to the east," Sanguine told him. "The armor ain 't there. I've searched the caves to the west, didn't find anythin'. Tunneled through a couple of collapsed passageways to the north, still nothin'. Looks like the armor, if it's here at all, is in one of the chambers to the south."

"It's here," Vengeous said with confidence. "Lord Vile died in these caves, I know it. What of my garments?"

In order to don the armor, Vengeous would need special garments to protect him from the Necromancer power within it. It had been Sanguine's job to obtain these garments.

"They'll be ready by nightfall," Sanguine said, "as promised."

"They had better be."

Sanguine looked at him but said nothing. The Baron was not a man to be trifled with, especially at a time like this.

Someone else Sanguine didn't like was Dusk. He didn't like vampires as a rule, but he really disliked Dusk, especially the way he could sneak up without making a sound. Vengeous was the only person Sanguine had ever met who could hear Dusk approaching. Which was why, when Dusk spoke from right beside Sanguine, Sanguine jumped and Vengeous remained perfectly still.

119

"Baron," Dusk said. "We have found it."

Vengeous's eyes glittered in the lamplight. He and Sanguine followed Dusk deeper into the cave system. Water trickled down rock walls, making the ground slippery. They walked toward a pack of the Infected, who stood back to let Baron Vengeous pass into this newly discovered chamber. Sanguine made his way to the front and stood beside Dusk.

The lamps cast long shadows on the uneven walls. In the center of the chamber was a large stone table, circular, and on that table lay the armor. It was dull black, and plain, without etchings or imprints. To Baron Vengeous it must have been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Lord Vile's armor.

120

Chapter Eleven

THE TERRIFYING BRAIN SUCKER OF LONDON

V
aurien scapegracesat at the table across

W
from Skulduggery. Tanith stood directly behind him, and Valkyrie stood in the corner beside the door, her arms folded.

Skulduggery looked up from the folder he was reading. "Vaurien, you haven't been very cooperative with your interviewers, have you?"

"Don't know what any of them are talking about."

"You are a known associate of a man they call the Torment."

He shrugged. "News to me."

121

"What is?"

"That I know him."

"Know who?"

"What?"

"That you know the Torment?"

"Yeah."

"Then you
do
know him?"

"Yeah." Then, quickly, "No."

"You don't know him?"

"I, no, I, no. Never heard of him."

"I hate to say this, Vaurien, but that's astoundingly unconvincing."

He shook his head. "Who is he? I've never heard of him. Torment who?"

"Do you recognize the pretty lady behind you?"

Scapegrace tried to turn in his chair, but the shackles meant he could only crane his neck. He looked back to Skulduggery and shrugged. "Should I?"

"That there is Tanith Low. Perhaps you've heard of her. Tanith is a renowned interrogator, known the world over for her one-hundred-percent success rate in getting the information she needs."

Valkyrie saw Tanith arch an eyebrow, but she said nothing.

122

"Oh yeah?" Scapegrace said. He was looking a little worried. "And how does she manage that?"

"Well, to put it delicately, she has the power to suck out people's brains."

Scapegrace stared, and Tanith had to clap her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing. Valkyrie struggled to keep the smile off her face and really wished she was anywhere but in Scapegrace's line of sight.

"She can't do that," he said. "That's illegal!"

"I'm afraid it's not. It's a loophole she's been exploiting for years. She sucks out the brain and swallows it, thereby digesting and absorbing the knowledge."

"But that's horrible," Scapegrace said weakly.

"You've left us with little choice. Tanith, if you wouldn't mind?"

From her position behind Scapegrace, Tanith held up her hands in a
what do you expect me to do?
gesture. Her hands dropped when Scapegrace tried to look back at her, and she became deadly serious. The moment he took his eyes off her again, she went back to helpless gesturing.

Scapegrace righted himself in his chair and made his hands into fists, and screwed his eyes

123

shut. "You're not going to suck out
my
brains!" he yelled.

Skulduggery sat back and didn't offer Tanith any advice. She pointed a finger at him, wagged it slightly, and then turned her attention to Scapegrace. She sighed, walked up beside him, and held her hands over his head. His eyes were still screwed shut.

Tanith changed her mind about the hands thing and leaned over, putting her mouth next to his ear. His body went rigid. Her lips parted, and the barest sound of skin leaving skin made Scapegrace scream and jerk back and topple over sideways. He crashed to the floor.

"I'll tell you!" he squealed. "I'll tell you everything I know! Just keep her off me, you hear? Keep her away from my brains!"

"Is the Torment still alive?" Skulduggery asked, standing over him.

"Yes!"

"When was the last time you had contact with him?"

"Two years ago, I swear!"

"What was the nature of the meeting?"

"I just wanted to talk to him!"

124

"What did you talk about?"

Scapegrace peeked up, made sure Tanith wasn't about to start with the brain sucking. "Nothing. He walked away. He wouldn't talk. I don't think he likes me."

"Why doesn't he like you?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's my smell."

"What do you know about the Grotesquery?" Valkyrie asked.

"Nothing, not a thing, honest."

"Tanith," Skulduggery said wearily, "suck his brains."

"No! Wait! I don't know anything, but
he
does! During the war, the war with Mevolent. He was tracking Baron Vengeous."

"Why?" Skulduggery asked.

"He was going to kill him. During that whole thing-- the war-- he was on
your
side.I was on your side too."

"I never saw you fight."

"I was somewhere near the back," Scapegrace said weakly. "But the fact is, we were all fighting the same enemy-- that counts for something, right?"

Skulduggery tilted his head. "The enemy of my