Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days (22 page)

46
ENDGAME

G
uild watched Scarab move in off the steps and take a seat in the crowd. There was a time when an assassin of Scarab’s calibre would never have allowed himself to be followed like this, but that time had drifted by while Scarab had been sitting in his cell. Now he was just an old man who thought he had escaped. There was an empty seat beside Scarab and Guild sat in it.

“Hello, Dreylan,” he said. “Don’t try to run. I wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself.”

Scarab’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t move from his seat.

“Look what I found in the Repository,” Guild continued, opening his hand. The copper disc he held was almost as wide as his palm and it had eight thin legs curled up against its underside like a dead spider. “Do you recognise it? I’m sure you do. You built it, didn’t you? How many did you kill with this particular little weapon?”

“I didn’t keep count,” Scarab said.

“It just attaches to its target, isn’t that right? And releases all this awful energy? So, for example, if I were to press it against you, the power it would release would be enough to give you a heart attack a hundred times over, yes?”

The eight legs flexed, as if the device had sensed a new victim.

Scarab swallowed. “Yes.”

The crowd roared and people jumped to their feet around them. Guild and Scarab remained seated.

“Where’s the Desolation Engine, Scarab?”

“In my pocket.”

“Your near pocket?”

“Yes.”

Guild smiled, carefully dipping his free hand into Scarab’s coat. His fingers closed around the bomb and he pulled it out slowly. The liquid within the glass was still a calm green colour. It hadn’t even been armed yet. He held it under his jacket, away from prying eyes.

“You have caused us so much worry,” he murmured. “It’s a good thing I found you before you did something to actually trouble us.”

“You’re going to kill me,” Scarab said, “is that it? Right here?”

“I think it would be for the best.”

Scarab turned his head and looked at him. “Do you have what it takes? To look into a man’s eyes and kill him? You’ve ordered deaths. You’ve orchestrated them, facilitated them, covered them up…But have you actually been this close when you murdered someone? Close enough to look into their eyes as they die?”

“I haven’t,” Guild admitted. “But I’m curious to find out what it’s like.”

“Can I be honest? I wish Meritorious were still alive. I would have much preferred
him
to do this.”

“Well, we can’t always choose who gets to kill us.”

“That’s true I guess. I mean,
I
chose you, but none of
these
people did.”

“I’m not sure I follow your ramblings, Scarab. I’m not going to be killing these people.”

“Actually, Grand Mage Guild, you kind of are. I didn’t have this Engine built to set it off
myself
, you know. I did it so
you
could set it off.”

Guild laughed. “And why on earth would I do that?”

“Because I’m about to tell you to.”

“Two hundred years of loneliness has cracked your mind, old man. I’m not going to kill these people. I’m not going to kill myself. I’m only going to kill you.”

“You’ll kill me, you’ll kill these people, but you won’t kill yourself. I had the Professor make sure of that. The bomb’s designed to spare your life and your life alone. I wouldn’t let go of it just yet, by the way. That’s when it’ll detonate.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not even armed.”

“Once it’s been in
your
hand for more than ten seconds, Grand Mage, it arms itself.”

Guild frowned and glanced down at the bomb in his hand. The liquid was red, churning and bubbling against the glass. Guild’s heart sank into the chasm that his chest had become.

“Eighty thousand people,” Scarab continued, “live on air. Rebroadcast around the world as the moment that changed everything. And the Grand Mage of the Irish Council of Elders is going to be the one held responsible. It’s just…perfect, don’t you think?”

“You’re insane,” Guild said. “I’ll have it deactivated. I’ll—”

“You’ll walk out on to that football field,” Scarab said, “and you’ll drop the Desolation Engine. And all around you 80,000 people will be disintegrated.”

“Why?”

The crowd roared again.

“I never liked Nefarian Serpine,” Scarab said as if he hadn’t heard Guild’s question. “Vengeous was a good man. I never got to meet Lord Vile, but I couldn’t stand Serpine. Couldn’t see why Mevolent put so much faith in him. But credit where it’s due – he knew how to get to people. That’s how he killed Skulduggery Pleasant. Went after the family, you know? Made him so mad, so full of rage, he didn’t stand a chance. Rage clouds the mind. Vengeance can make you blind. Which is why you have to wait, and choose your moment carefully. Timing, as they say, is everything.”

“And this is your moment?” Guild snarled. “All I have to do is press this spider against you and this will be the
last
moment you ever have.”

“My last moment’s coming, don’t you worry. But no, you miss my point. Serpine knew how to get to people. The family is an effective way of doing this. I’m going to reach into my coat now. If I were you, I wouldn’t kill me just yet.”

Moving slowly, Scarab took a phone from his coat.

“You might have to shield the screen from the light,” he said as he pressed some buttons – “it’s kind of hard to see the picture.”

He held it out. Guild swallowed, hurriedly put the spider back in his pocket and took the phone from Scarab. He angled it out of the glare of the dull sun and saw what he knew he would see – his wife and daughter, bound and gagged.

“They’re OK,” Scarab said, looking back at the football game. “Unharmed. And they’re going to stay that way too, if you do what I tell you.”

“Let them go,” Guild said, all breath gone from his body.

“Billy-Ray’s with them right now and they’re all watching TV. As soon as you drop the Engine, he’ll release them. We got no reason to kill them, Grand Mage. Your family never did anything bad to us.”

“I’m not going to kill these people.”

“Yes, you are.”

“You’re insane.”

“You’ve said that. Guild, you don’t like these people, these mortals. From what I’ve heard, you never did. It’s time to break the rules, Grand Mage.”

“I won’t do it.”

“You are not only going to do it, but you’re going to do it in the next three minutes or Billy-Ray will kill your wife and daughter.”

“This isn’t revenge. These people never did anything to you. You don’t have to do this. You don’t even
want
to do this. You want to make me pay, fine, make
me
pay. Not them. Not my family.”

“It’s all part of the same plan. With 80,000 deaths, every Sanctuary around the world will be shown just how vulnerable they are. The Sanctuaries should’ve been disbanded after the war with Mevolent ended. We didn’t need you Elders setting up your fancy Councils, electing yourselves to positions of authority over the rest of us. I don’t like people telling me what to do. I got a problem with it, point of fact. A system like that, well, it’s open to all kinds of abuse. Miscarriages of justice as it were. Your system failed me and I got put in prison for killing someone I never killed, and because of that, you’re going to go to prison for the murder of 80,000 helpless mortals. Let’s see how
you
like spending the rest of your life alone in a cell. Grand Mage, you have about two minutes to walk to the middle of the field there. I think it’s about time you started walking.”

Guild had no breath to form words and Scarab was already looking back at the game. Guild stood, the Desolation Engine heavy in his hand. He thought he could feel it pulsing with a low and terrible life, but he dismissed the idea. The bomb wasn’t alive. It had no consciousness, no sentience. It was not an object of evil – it was simply an object. The man who set it off, however, now he
would
be evil.

There was a gap between where he stood and the tunnel where the officials entered and exited. He could slip through and walk on to the pitch before anyone could even try to stop him. He looked back at Scarab. The old man wasn’t even smiling any more. He was calm in the face of impending death. Of course he was. This was what he’d been waiting 200 years for.

Guild stepped down from the seats, his eyes fixed on the ground ahead. He didn’t want to look up and see the tens of thousands of faces around him. He wished he could block out the noise – the cheering, the chanting, the thunder of living people – and yet if he’d had the option, he didn’t know if he would. He was a man who was about to commit one of the single most monstrous acts the world had ever seen. Shouldn’t he suffer for it? Shouldn’t he invite that pain in at the earliest opportunity?

He realised his feet were still moving, that he was getting closer to the officials’ tunnel, closer to the cameras and the football field, and still no ideas were coming to him. If he didn’t think of something now, immediately, in a few seconds he would find himself either committing mass murder or sentencing his own family to death.

“Grand Mage,” said a smooth voice in his ear, “could I have a word with you?”

Skulduggery Pleasant took his arm, the bones of his fingers digging into Guild’s elbow like a vice, and suddenly Guild was in the officials’ tunnel, walking through to where it intersected with the main utility tunnel that ran beneath the terraces. He pulled his arm free and turned, sudden panic setting in. Pleasant stood there, his scarf concealing his jaw, his hat pulled low and his gun levelled straight at Guild’s gut.

“Sanguine has my family,” Guild said. “You have to let me do this.”

“Give me the Engine.”

“It’ll detonate when I let go. Where’s Fletcher Renn? He can save you and the others. If you act fast, you can save a dozen people, maybe more.”

Pleasant wasn’t moving. “The lives of your wife and child in exchange for the lives of 80,000 strangers? That seems a tad unfair, doesn’t it?”

“You, of all people, must know that I would do
anything
to protect my family. At least my walk to the middle of the field buys you some time.”

“Time to save a handful of people and leave the rest to die?”

“If you try to stop me, I’ll detonate it right here.”

Pleasant nodded and put his gun away, but Guild knew what was coming. When Pleasant swept his hand wide, Guild was already pressing at the air. The space between them rippled and a breeze stirred. Within moments Guild’s jacket was flapping in a hurricane force wind, localised to the tunnel and the tunnel alone. This wasn’t going to work. He didn’t stand a chance against someone like the skeleton.

As if to prove the point, Pleasant suddenly shifted position and instead of pushing against the air, he pulled. Guild stumbled forward and Pleasant got behind him, wrapped an arm around his neck and tried for a choke. Guild struggled against it and Pleasant broke off the choke and shot a side kick into the back of Guild’s thigh. Guild stumbled, but Pleasant was right behind him, making sure the Engine didn’t drop from his grip. Guild let him come closer then pressed the copper spider against the side of Pleasant’s head. The spider’s legs unfurled instantly and sank into the bone, and there was a crack, like lightning hitting a tree, and Pleasant jerked sideways and collapsed.

Guild didn’t know how the skeleton detective registered pain – his very
existence
was a mystery still unsolved – but he doubted that even the great Skulduggery Pleasant could take a hit like
that
and get up again in time to stop him.

He turned to run for the football field and saw Valkyrie Cain coming towards him. He went to sweep her aside but she was faster, and a trail of shadows whipped into his face and he stumbled. His time had run out and he couldn’t risk the girl getting in another lucky shot.

“I’m sorry,” he said and tried to let go of the Desolation Engine, but his fingers wouldn’t loosen.

He snarled, feeling the air closing in around his hand, painfully tight. Pleasant was doing it, propped up with his gloved hand outstretched. Guild ran to him, aiming a kick at his head, but Cain hit him from behind and took him to his knees. She wrapped an arm around his throat and wouldn’t let go.

With his free hand, Guild tried loosening the choke. With the other, he smashed the bomb hard against her elbow, her shoulder, but her clothes were made by Bespoke. She probably didn’t even feel it. Out of the corner of his eye, Guild saw Pleasant getting to his feet, his hand still outstretched.

Guild tilted, shunting Cain forward, then swung the bomb and felt it crack against her head. She cried out and the choke was gone. Guild pushed at the air and caught Pleasant full in the chest. Pleasant went flying back, the pressure around Guild’s hand disappearing.

Guild stood, panting with exertion, his heart beating wildly. He opened his hand.

47
CRAZY

G
uild vanished.

Valkyrie looked around. She’d glimpsed Fletcher running towards the Grand Mage, but now he was gone too and she knew instantly what he’d done. He’d seen Guild about to drop the Desolation Engine and he’d crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Then he’d teleported them both away, somewhere safe, somewhere the bomb couldn’t hurt any innocent people. But was he fast enough to do that and teleport away again before it went off? Guild’s hand was open when he’d disappeared, the bomb already beginning its fall.

She helped Skulduggery up. He took something from the side of his head that looked like a metal spider and dropped it.

“Do you think Fletcher made it?” she asked softly. Skulduggery didn’t answer.

Valkyrie took out her phone and dialled Fletcher’s number. It went straight to voicemail. She nodded then, closing off her mind, struggling to get back to the business at hand, even though there was a part of her, deep down, that was screaming. She hadn’t known how much Fletcher had meant to her. She hadn’t
wanted
to know. “Scarab’s still sitting there,” she said.

“And Sanguine is holding Guild’s family hostage,” Skulduggery told her. Then he staggered and she reached out to steady him. “I can’t go out there,” he said. “I need a few minutes to recover.”

“I’ll take care of it.” She ran out of the tunnel. An official scowled at her and she ignored him, got to the stairs and went straight for Scarab. He watched her coming. No smiles now.

“Guild is gone,” she said, sitting beside him. “Fletcher teleported him away. Your little plan is over, OK? It’s finished.”

“Teleporters,” Scarab murmured, shaking his head. “Never did like them.”

“We’ve beaten you,” she said with real, undiluted hatred. “All these horrible things you’ve done and all my friends you’ve hurt, or killed, and it’s all for nothing. We’ve beaten you and you’ve failed. Where is Guild’s family?”

Scarab rubbed his eyes. His hand, she saw, was trembling. He looked so old now. Old and sad and pathetic.

She put her hand on his shoulder, and dug her fingers into a nerve cluster. He twisted in sudden pain, but she didn’t let go. “Where’s his family?”

“Billy-Ray has them,” he spat.

“Are they alive?”

“Who knows?”

She dug in harder. “Where are they?”

“Don’t know the street name. Call him. Ask him for directions if you’re so damn eager.”

She snatched the phone he took from his coat and as she did so, she snapped a handcuff around his wrist. She stood, stuffing the phone in her pocket and pulling him to his feet. She got him out on to the steps and cuffed his other wrist. She pushed him in front of her, heading back to the officials’ tunnel. The same official who had scowled at her came up to block their way. Valkyrie raised her hand to his chest and snapped her palm. The air rippled slightly and the official shot backwards. The people around her, unaware of the magic she’d just used, thought this was hilarious.

She brought Scarab to the cover of the tunnel and shoved him towards Skulduggery.

“Guild’s family?” Skulduggery asked.

“I’m going for them now,” she said and hurried away, ignoring his protestations.

She ran up the steps and looked at Scarab’s phone. There was only one number listed. She left the roar of the football crowd behind her and dialled it.

“I ain’t seein’ no thousands of dead people on TV,” came Sanguine’s voice.

“That’s not happening today,” she told him. “Your daddy’s in shackles and the Desolation Engine is far away from here. All your little buddies have been beaten. There’s just you left.”

“An’ you’re comin’ for me, that it, Valkyrie?”

“That’s it. Just you and me, Billy-Ray.”

“Is it my imagination or are you soundin’ particularly angry today?”

“If Fletcher is dead, I
will
kill you.”

“An’ you’re in a vendetta kind of mood, huh? Well, heck, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, am I right? Get a car to Howth. Number forty-one, Nashville Drive.”

“I’ll be there.”

“I’ll be waitin’.”

She hung up.

The taxi made good time out of the city, and within minutes they were on the thin stretch of road to the peninsula of Howth. She could do this. She could take him. If he still had his magic, then no, she wouldn’t be so stupid to come here alone. But he didn’t have magic and Valkyrie did, and she was planning on using it. On the journey over she kept focused, kept her mind on what she was going to do, on what was about to happen. Not Fletcher. She didn’t think about Fletcher. She couldn’t.

Valkyrie paid the driver and hurried up to number forty-one. It was a nice house, like all the other nice houses on Nashville Drive. She didn’t know how Sanguine had ended up here, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was paying him back. He’d hurt her so now she was going to hurt him. If Guild’s family was still alive, that was a bonus.

She wasn’t going to be subtle. She didn’t have the time or the temperament. She snapped both hands against the air, the space before her rippled and the front door flew off its hinges.

Valkyrie walked in, shadows writhing around her right hand, flames curling in her left. The living room was empty and so was the kitchen. She went in deeper, to the bedrooms. A woman and a girl were shackled together on the floor in the corner of the master bedroom, gags over their mouths.

She turned, expecting Sanguine to be rushing up behind her, but the hall was empty. With two pairs of frightened eyes on her, she stepped into the bedroom and nudged the door open fully. It swung slowly back and tapped the wall. She crossed to the ensuite, using the mirror inside to make sure it was clear, then she darted in, but there was nowhere for Sanguine to jump out at her.

She moved back into the bedroom. Her right hand flicked a trail of shadows under the bed. They didn’t hit anything. Her eyes found the wardrobe, both slatted doors closed over. If he was in there, he was watching her right now and he could see how tense she was. How scared.

Valkyrie let the flames go out and abandoned the shadows. She pushed at the air and the wardrobe doors smashed to kindling. Clothes dropped from railings and hangers clashed, but when the debris had finished falling, there was nobody in there.

She went to the woman and the girl and pulled the gags from their mouths.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” the woman answered. She was younger than Valkyrie had expected. The girl looked to be about twelve. “He put us in here ten minutes ago. We haven’t seen him since. Is Thurid all right?”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Valkyrie lied. There was nothing she could do about the shackles, but she burned through the ropes tying their feet and helped them up. “Get your daughter out of here.”

“What are you going to do? You can’t face him
alone.
”

“Sure I can.”

Valkyrie used the shadows to break the window and she helped the mother and daughter out through it. Then she took out Scarab’s phone and pressed redial. From somewhere else in the house, she heard Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy’.

She stepped into the hall and held out her hand. The air’s natural currents drifted by and she felt them and searched deeper. She barely noticed the shift in the air, but that was all it took and then she was walking forward. The phone was in the living room, on the table, and it stopped ringing when she neared. She waited until he was right behind her before turning.

The shadows stabbed at him, but Sanguine rolled, his straight razor flashing across Valkyrie’s leg, but failing to cut through. Then he was up and she pushed at the air. It caught him in the shoulder and he spun right around, and came at her again.

He slammed into her and she sprawled over the coffee table, spilling the glossy magazines across the carpet. She tried to get up, but slipped on one of them. His knee came towards her. The world flashed and her head jerked back. He lifted her and threw her against the wall then he was up against her, his straight razor pressing into her throat.

“Hush,” he whispered.

She couldn’t stop him from cutting her throat if she tried. She stopped struggling.

“Good,” he said and smiled. “You actually came here alone, by God. You must be really mad to leave the skeleton behind. Did you think you could take me?”

“Yeah,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Now that, I think we can both agree, was a mistake. Do you think I’m going to kill you? I should. I definitely should. Do you think I should?”

Valkyrie didn’t respond.

“You’d probably say no, even if you thought I should, so I don’t know why I’m askin’ you.”

“Why didn’t you kill
them
?”

“The broad and the kid? Saw no reason to. Only had ‘em to force Guild to detonate the Engine. Despite what you may think, I don’t generally kill without good reason. It’s usually money, but sometimes it’s whim and I had neither. But killin’
you
, princess, now that is somethin’ I have a very good reason for. You took my magic. You fouled up our plan. Where’s my dear ol’ daddy?”

“Skulduggery has him.”

“So he could be in shackles or he could be dead – you never know with that guy, huh? Here’s the thing I find amusin’ – y’all call
me
a psycho an’ yet you keep missin’ the point. Your friend Skulduggery is an ice-cold killer. I mean, that guy is seriously unhinged. Takes one to know one, right?”

“He’s adjusting.”

Sanguine laughed. “Now that’s a good one! That’s one I should try! ‘
I didn’t mean to kill all those nuns and orphans, Detective – I’m adjustin’!’
Oh, that is funny. But I think you’re misunderstandin’ me. It wasn’t his recent trip abroad that sent him nuts – he’s been nuts the whole time. Y’all just haven’t seen it.”

“If you kill me,” she said, “he’ll kill you.”

“I have no doubt. Which is why it is a very good thing that I have decided not to kill you. Dusk called a few minutes before you rang – he was hightailin’ it out of there before the bomb went off. He told me he bit you and I can see by the lovely wound on your neck that he wasn’t lyin’. He told me he bit you and he told me that I should probably reconsider my whole
‘I want to kill Valkyrie Cain‘
thing, like he’s doin’. Do you know why he told me that?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t? Do you want me to tell you why he told me that? Do you?”

“Sure.”

He smiled. “He tasted your blood. You’ve got very special blood. Do you know that?”

She glared at him. “Yes.”

“No,” he said. “I don’t think you do. See, you figure you’re descended from the Last of the Ancients and that’s it, that’s the scope of your uniqueness in its entirety. I’m here to tell you, little lady, that that ain’t so. You got a whole host of other things goin’ for you. Not to give you too big a head or nothin’, but everythin’ about you screams important. And I’m talkin’
grand scale
important. Everythin’ I hear about you just reinforces that whole idea that you, my dear, are a very special girl.

“When I broke into the Necromancer Temple, I heard some of ‘em talkin’ about you. They called you the Death Bringer. By the look on your face, I can see that you know what that is. You’re their Great Dark Hope apparently, now that Lord Vile’s gone. Imagine that. You and Lord Vile – one of a kind, huh? Ain’t that somethin’?”

He began tapping the blade against her skin.

“It’s a big responsibility now. The Death Bringer’s the one to save the world, ain’t that right? Are you ready to save the world, Valkyrie? And I don’t mean save it from evil men or from twisted gods. I mean save the world from
itself.
Do you think you’re worthy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you’re honest. I’ll give you that.”

He tapped the blade and she waited until it was no longer touching her skin, then she slammed the darkness into him. He flew backwards, head over heels, his sunglasses dropping to the ground.

“Damn it,” he growled, “I said I
ain’t goin’ to kill you
, didn’t I? Didn’t I say that?”

“But you didn’t tell me
why.
”

He got up slowly, brushing down his clothes. He looked at her without needing eyes. “I get the feelin’ bad things are goin’ to happen, and I get the feelin’ that
you
are goin’ to be smack dab in the middle of it all. I ain’t killin’ you because, honestly and truly, li’l darlin’, it’s a lot more fun to keep you alive. That, I think, will be my real revenge.” His smile returned and he nodded to the sunglasses at her feet. “You mind?”

She picked them up, thought about crushing them, but then tossed them to him.

He put them on. “Much obliged.”

“The next time I hear that you’re back in the country,” Valkyrie said, “I’m going to assume you’re here to kill me and I
will
go after you. And I
won’t
let you walk away.”

“I’m sure you’ll do your best,” he nodded. “Say goodbye to all of ‘em for me, will you? Especially the sword lady. I’ve taken quite a shine to her, I ain’t too embarrassed to say it.”

“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.”

Sanguine laughed. “Good luck to you, Valkyrie Cain. You got a lifetime of dark days ahead of you, if I’m not mistaken. I’d enjoy the quiet moments while you can.”

He tapped a finger to his temple in a salute then turned and walked away.