Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days (16 page)
Read Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days Online
Authors: Derek Landy
S
carab released the Remnant, then quickly stepped back and shut the door. He went to the next room, where Billy-Ray had set up the monitor, and watched Professor Grouse. He could see the anger in his face as the Remnant, little more than a sliver of shadow, flitted about from corner to corner. The Professor knew what was coming, but he didn’t cry out or start to plead. Scarab respected that.
Once it had satisfied its curiosity about its surroundings, the Remnant turned its attention to the old man chained to the wall. The Professor kept his eyes on the Remnant as it darted in and out of his line of sight. It came close and the Professor jerked away instinctively. It was playing with him.
It whipped by him again and the Professor cursed at it. Then it struck. It darted to his open mouth and the Professor’s eyes widened in panic as the Remnant forced its way down. His throat bulged, then the bulge moved and disappeared. Kenspeckle Grouse went limp.
Billy-Ray shook his head. “Hate those things,” he muttered.
Scarab walked back into the room and Professor Grouse looked up.
“You know why you’re here,” Scarab said. “We went to a whole lot of trouble to get you out of that room you were stuck in. If you do what we want, we’ll release you after. If you don’t, we’ll put you back where we found you and collect one of your brethren. I’m sure the next one we bring here will welcome a chance for freedom. What do you say?”
“I don’t trust you,” Grouse said in a voice that picked over the words like a carrion bird picking at meat. The Remnant inside him was unused to speaking aloud.
“Well,” said Scarab, “I don’t trust you either. But we are in a situation where we can help each other. As you know by now, we’re hoping that the old man you’re wearing like a bad suit has the all the knowledge and know-how we need. Does he?”
“Oh, he does,” Grouse said. “Oh, I do. And I have so much more.”
“Then do we have a deal?”
The old man looked at him and a smile drifted across his face like a seeping wound. “We have a deal, Mr Scarab.”
D
avina Marr went up to the counter and told the dim-looking boy what kind of sandwich she wanted, then repeated her order slowly, using smaller words. He finally nodded and went away, and she just knew he was going to get it wrong. That’s what she despised about mortals – their ineptitude. Their casual ignorance. Their downright stupidity.
She couldn’t say any of this out loud, however, not as an agent of the Sanctuary, and certainly not as its Prime Detective. It was part of her job to protect the mortals, to keep them safe from the dangers posed by the magical community. But was she
still
the Sanctuary’s Prime Detective now that Skulduggery Pleasant was back? Instead of doing her job, tracking down the vampire that had led the raid on the Sanctuary, Marr had been relegated to checking out
castles
as per the skeleton detective’s request. Such a task was so far beneath her it would have been almost laughable if it wasn’t so humiliating.
She became aware of the man standing beside her, but she didn’t look at him. “You’re late.”
“I had to make sure you weren’t leading me into a trap,” the man responded, his golden eyes scanning the menu above them. “Forgive me if I’m sceptical, but you have already turned us down twice. Why the change of heart?”
“I’m seeing things clearer.”
The dim-looking boy came back, checked her order and went away again.
“Guild isn’t fit to run the Sanctuary,” she said. “He’s making stupid mistakes. Shirking his responsibility.”
“We heard he demoted you.”
The heat rose in her face, but Marr kept her voice even. “Temporary reassignment,” she said. “Just one of his recent errors of judgement.”
“So you’ll help us then?”
“Yes.”
“We had Mr Bliss in line to take over,” the man told her. “His death has meant a drastic change in our plans. I hope you realise that.”
“How drastic?” she asked.
“We’re going to destroy the Sanctuary,” he said, “and take over what’s left.”
The dim-looking boy returned with her sandwich. It was completely wrong, but she wasn’t hungry anyway. She paid for it and collected her change, catching the man’s eye as she turned.
“Suits me,” she said and walked out.
T
he house had a face.
The two large windows on the first floor peered down at the Bentley as it drew to a halt. The paint was like dried skin, cracked and peeling back, and the front door was open like a great gaping mouth. It would have been creepy, Valkyrie reflected, were it not for the drawn blinds that gave the face a half-asleep expression. As it was, it looked as if it was caught in the middle of a giant yawn.
“Once upon a time,” Skulduggery said, “Myron Stray was an information broker, much like China is today. He was respected too. Until it all fell apart for him.”
“What happened?” Valkyrie asked.
“Mr Bliss found out Myron’s true name. Myron and Bliss never got on – always at each other’s throats. One night, in a pub in Belfast where they were supposed to be planning how to take down Mevolent, they got into an argument. I wasn’t there, but the way I heard it, Myron was taunting him, goading him, and Bliss just sat back in his chair and then very calmly, very quietly, said, ‘
Laudigan, leave.
’ Myron went white as a sheet, apparently, and walked out. Mr Bliss just smiled.”
“Laudigan is his true name?”
“Indeed it is. Something like that spreads like nothing you’ve ever seen. And just like that, Myron’s life, the life he had built up for himself, was over. He dealt in information and now anyone could use that name to control him, make him give up his secrets or lie to their enemies. His friends left. The woman he was living with walked out the very next day. His life fell apart.”
“That’s terrible.”
“I suppose it is. But taunting Mr Bliss – that was Myron’s mistake.”
“But
you
stayed friends with him, right? With Myron? When everyone else abandoned him?”
“To be honest, we were never really friends. And even if we had been, I wasn’t around in those days. I was sick of the whole thing. I was sick of the war and I just wanted it to be over. By the time I came back, and I heard what had happened, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to help him out, even if I had wanted to.”
“But you’re hoping that he still hears things, aren’t you?”
“China is still recovering – she could have missed something important. We don’t have the luxury of waiting for her to get better, so yes, we’re forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel. And if there’s one place where Myron is at home these days, it’s the bottom of the barrel.”
They got out of the car and Valkyrie followed Skulduggery through the broken gate and up the cracked path to the house. They peered in through the open door. The damp walls were covered with faded green wallpaper, bleached in places by the sun. The floor was bare, but the stairs were carpeted. Whoever had owned this house in the 1970s had obviously tried to match the stairs with the wallpaper, but the best they could manage was an ugly carpet the colour of bile. Skulduggery rapped his knuckles on the doorframe and Valkyrie heard movement from deep within the house.
A moment later, Myron Stray appeared. He wasn’t too tall, wasn’t too slim, and wasn’t too good-looking. In fact, he wasn’t too anything. He was pretty average in a pale, unshaven kind of way.
“Skulduggery,” he said. “You haven’t darkened my door in an age.”
“I’ve been away.”
“I heard. This must be Valkyrie Cain then.”
Valkyrie smiled and held out her hand. Myron turned away.
“Come on in,” he said.
Valkyrie took an instant dislike to the man. They followed him into the kitchen. The table was a mass of pizza boxes and wine bottles, and dishes were piled up in the sink. Substances that may once have been food had long since dried and hardened to the plates, and each and every cup Valkyrie saw had fuzzy mould creeping over the brim. The air was stale, and flies tapped and buzzed against the grimy windows.
“I like what you’ve done to the place,” Skulduggery said eventually.
Myron took a can of beer from the fridge and cracked it open. “I always wanted someone to come up with a Mary Poppins trick, didn’t you? You know, just click your fingers and dishes wash themselves and the floor mops itself and all that stuff? It’d save me a bundle on housekeeping.”
Valkyrie frowned. “You have a housekeeper?”
“I was making a joke. This one’s not too smart is she, Skulduggery?”
All pretence at being civil left Valkyrie’s face, to be replaced by open and obvious hostility.
“Not like your last partner,” Myron continued, sitting at the table, “the one who died. How did he die again? I can’t quite remember.”
“Horribly,” Skulduggery said.
“He died screaming your name, didn’t he? Now here’s where things get a little fuzzy. When he was screaming your name, was he calling for help, or was he cursing you?”
“A little bit of both I would imagine. Myron, I don’t appreciate you insulting my partner. I would have leaped to her defence, but Valkyrie is more than capable of fighting her own battles. Valkyrie? You can respond however you wish.”
“Thank you,” Valkyrie said, smiling thinly. “In that case, we came here to ask you a few questions, Myron, and that’s what we’re going to do. You don’t mind if I call you Myron, do you?” He opened his mouth to utter a lazy reply, but she cut him off. “Thank you. I didn’t think you would. We need to know anything you’ve heard concerning Dreylan Scarab and any possible base of operations.”
Myron looked at her for a long time. “I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“And I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist. I could continue calling you Myron, you see, or I could switch to your other name. What was it again? The name that makes you do anything you’re told?”
Myron’s eyes turned hard and he looked at Skulduggery. “You promised me you would never use my true name against me.”
“Yes, I did,” Skulduggery said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall. “And I won’t. Unfortunately, you were rude to my partner and friend, and she made you no such promise.”
Valkyrie pulled a chair from beneath the table, wiped the seat and sat. “I read somewhere,” she said, “that you can protect your true name. Isn’t that right? There’s a way to seal it so it can’t be used against you? Why didn’t you do that?”
Myron licked his lips. “It was too late,” he said stiffly. “That only works if you seal the name before it’s used.”
“I see,” she nodded. “But you didn’t even know what it was, did you? And Mr Bliss did. And you annoyed him. I can’t possibly imagine
how
, seeing as you’re just
so
nice and polite, and such fun to be around.”
Myron put his beer can on the cluttered tabletop and glared. “You want to know if I’ve heard anything? I heard about
you.
Both of you. Sensitives are talking and they’re saying that some freak called Darquesse is going to kill you. I for one can’t wait. Skulduggery, we’ve never really liked each other, and girl, I have certainly not taken a shine to you, either. If you ask me, the sooner this freak gets to you, the better.”
“We heard about those visions,” Skulduggery said calmly. “But I wouldn’t sound too pleased about it, if I were you. Darquesse kills
us
, yes, but she kills everyone
else
while she’s at it. You may have missed that bit.”
Myron rubbed the bristles on his jaw and didn’t respond.
“We want to know where Scarab is hiding,” said Valkyrie.
“I don’t
know
where.
No one
knows where. That bunch of psychos he has with him don’t let things slip to friends, because they don’t
have
any friends. Nobody knows where they are.”
“We know that they’re in a castle somewhere,” Valkyrie said.
“Well, why didn’t you say that at the start?” Myron snapped. “I didn’t pay this any attention when I heard it, but there’s been a lot of activity around Serpine’s old place recently.”
“Serpine’s castle has been sealed off,” Skulduggery said.
“Well, they must have found a way to unseal it then.”
Skulduggery stood and put on his hat. He took a roll of cash from his coat pocket and left it on top of an upturned fried chicken bucket on the table. “Thanks for your help,” he said.
“My pleasure,” grunted Myron.
Skulduggery tipped his hat and walked out. Valkyrie got up to follow him.
“Interesting people you hang around with,” Myron said, and she looked back at him. “Couple of bad habits you’re picking up too. Got a pretty smart mouth on you, don’t you?”
“I suppose I do.”
“Word of warning though. There might not be many people out there who trust me, but there are even fewer who trust your friend. Just something to think about.”
He took a swig from his beer can and Valkyrie walked out to the car.
S
carab and Billy-Ray walked over to inspect the bomb on the table.
“That was quick,” Scarab murmured. “We had all the materials ready for you, but still, how did you do it so fast?”
“This one has secrets,” Professor Grouse said. The chains that kept him on his side of the room weren’t bound, but they were enough to slow him down. “Who cares? I did the job, didn’t I? Didn’t I do the job? Now the job is done. Now you release me, yes?”
“You added the specifications I asked for?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” the Professor replied. “It was no problem, not for someone like me. This mind is a wonderful thing. I’d be sorry to leave it, if the body wasn’t so decrepit.”
Scarab didn’t know a whole lot about Desolation Engines, but everything seemed to be where it should be.
“We’re not releasing you,” he said. “You’re too mischievous. You might tell our enemies where we are.”
Grouse’s smile dropped, very slowly, from his face. “Your enemies are my enemies. My enemies are everywhere. Everyone is my enemy. You release me now!”
“Not goin’ to happen,” said Billy-Ray. “But we sure do appreciate the work you’ve put into this. Assumin’ our plan goes well, we’ll release you after.”
“You said
now!”
“Calm down, Professor. We understand how upset you must be, so we have a gift we’d like to give to you.”
Grouse cocked his head curiously. “A gift?”
“A lovely gift,” Billy-Ray said, smiling. “One for you to play with to your little heart’s content.”
The door opened and, with a clang of shackles, Tanith Low was led in.
“Our gift,” said Scarab, “to you.”
Grouse clapped his hands and laughed.