Death Bringer (41 page)

Chapter 60
Tattletale

armth and sunshine never really seemed to reach Roarhaven. It was as if it had its own extra layer of atmosphere that kept out anything that could possibly lighten the mood of its citizens. The same dour faces peered at the Bentley as they passed, unimpressed with the activity that was making the Sanctuary hum.

The Bentley stopped right at the end of the main street, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie looked at all the sorcerers streaming in through the Sanctuary doors. Today, they were to be honoured by the guests and the Council of Elders for their work to prevent the Passage, and for their efforts to save the lives of the people who were gathering. Ravel had assured them it would be a quiet ceremony.

“It doesn't
look
quiet,” Valkyrie said.

“Indeed it does not,” Skulduggery murmured.

“Are they going to give us medals, or something? Maybe vouchers? I could use some vouchers.”

“There's going to be speeches. Everyone of importance will want to stand up and give a speech. I hate speeches. They're only good when I give them.”

Valkyrie sighed. “How long before it starts?”

“Ten minutes.”

She opened the car door. “I'm going for a walk.”

“You better not be late.”

She grinned. “Would I do that to you?”

She got out, and the Bentley moved on. She crossed the street. There would be enough hand-shaking and polite smiles as it was – she didn't need to turn up early and subject herself to more.

“Here she is,” said a voice from behind her, “the hero of the hour.”

She turned, watching warily as Solomon Wreath approached, his cane tapping the pavement. “Are we going to start fighting?”

“Why ever would we do that?” he asked, smiling.

“I'd say I'm not the Necromancers' favourite person right now.”

“Oh,” he said, “
that
. That'll pass, Valkyrie. You've got nothing to worry about – the Order poses no threat to you. Especially here in Ireland. The Temple is empty. The Elders say they're going to tear it down, or convert it into something that could be used by the Sanctuary. I'd say such a move would be sacrilegious, but no one would care.”

“I certainly wouldn't.”

“There you go.” He sighed, and looked at her. “How is our little Death Bringer, anyway?”

“Unconscious,” Valkyrie said, “and she'll remain that way for a long time. Doctor Nye induced a coma. It was the safest thing to do, apparently. Her power was surging and looping and going nuts. She could have gone off at any time.”

“Gone off ?”

“Like a bomb, Nye said. Like a small nuke, in fact. All that uncontrolled magic just… exploding. Scary stuff. And all because of you and your friends.”

“Craven was not a friend.”

“I meant Necromancers in general.”

“Oh. Then yes, it was all our fault. But look on the bright side. Nobody died.”

Valkyrie frowned. “Lots of people died.”

“But nobody you
like
. Everyone at the Ball got up and walked away, didn't they?”

“I suppose. Scapegrace got his head chopped off, though.”

“I don't know who that is.”

“You don't have to. I don't really like him, anyway.”

“See? Happy endings all round. Any word on Vile?”

Valkyrie shook her head. “He disappeared. Hasn't been seen since.”

“Melancholia must have really thrown him about the place. O'Connell Street is in ruins.”

“Yeah,” Valkyrie said, “she must have.”

“Your friend Scrutinous has undoubtedly been working overtime to keep the truth of what happened out of the news reports.”

“Ruptured gas mains are terrible things.”

“Makes you wonder, though, with all that damage, why Vile didn't just kill her.”

“He didn't have to. He'd sabotaged her power. He didn't need to do anything else.”

“But this is Lord Vile we're talking about. He's not the kind to leave jobs half done.”

Valkyrie shrugged. “Well, the next time I see him, I'll ask him, OK? And what are you going to do now? Join a Temple in England? America?”

Wreath hesitated. “The Order isn't too keen on taking me back, actually. Even though I've been exonerated of all wrongdoing, they feel my presence might tarnish their good standing in the rest of the world, or what there is of it. They'd rather everyone just forgot about the Passage for a few years. I don't really see that happening, but Necromancers have a proud history of sticking their heads in the sand. No, Valkyrie, I'm basically going to walk the earth. Walk from place to place, meet people, get in adventures.”

“Like Jules, in
Pulp Fiction
.”

“Something like that, yes.”

“Cool.”

“Or I could stay here, and you could continue your lessons in Necromancy…?”

“I'll keep practising on my own, thank you very much.”

“You might need this,” he said, and tossed her a black ring, identical to the one Melancholia had destroyed. “It's empty, and waiting for you to pour your magic into.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “It's hard, isn't it? Giving up power like that?”

She looked away. “You have no idea.”

The Bentley pulled up beside them. Skulduggery got out.

“Detective Pleasant,” Wreath said. “All's well that ends well, eh?”

“I don't want to see you around for a while,” Skulduggery said. “Nothing personal, you understand.”

“I do, of course,” Wreath said, and bowed slightly. He looked at Valkyrie. “I'm expecting great things from you, my dear.”

She nodded, didn't answer. The shadows swirled, and he was gone. She walked over to the Bentley. “Is it time?”

“Yes it is,” Skulduggery said. They got in the car, and slowly pulled away from the kerb.

Valkyrie frowned. “We're going the wrong way.”

“Are we?”

“The Sanctuary's behind us.”

“Oh dear.”

They kept going. Valkyrie smiled. “Are they going to be upset?”

“Probably,” he admitted. “But I just couldn't subject you to an entire afternoon of people telling us how great we are. We don't
need
people to tell us that. We
know
. If I were you, though, I'd turn off your phone.”

“Good idea,” she said. As she dug her new phone out of her pocket, she asked, “Where are we off to?”

“China's library. She left me a message to come and see her as soon as we can. I think that takes priority over a needless ego boost, don't you?”

“Absolutely.”

They left Roarhaven by the dusty road that linked it to the outside world.

They were lying, of course, and they both knew it. It wasn't the speeches that kept them from the ceremony, or the hand-shaking or the polite smiles. It was the fact that they were being celebrated for actions they couldn't be proud of. The only way to beat Melancholia had been for Skulduggery to become Lord Vile, and the only way to beat Lord Vile had been for Valkyrie to become Darquesse.

“There's something wrong with us,” Valkyrie murmured as they drove.

“Yes, there is.”

“What are you going to do with the armour?”

“Seal it away. It's the only thing I
can
do.”

“You might need it again.”

“Hopefully not.”

She turned her head to him. “If Darquesse comes out again and I can't regain control, you're going to need some way to stop me. You can't let me kill my family, Skulduggery.”

He looked at her. “That's not going to happen.”

“We
saw
it happen.”

“We saw a vision of one possible future.”

“You have to stop me,” she said, switching her gaze to the road ahead.

He was silent for a moment. “I will,” he promised, his voice soft. They drove the rest of the way in silence.

China and Eliza Scorn were fighting in the street when they reached the tenement building. The Bentley screeched to a halt and Skulduggery and Valkyrie leaped out.

“Hey!” Valkyrie roared. “Get away from her!”

Scorn rammed China into the side of the car. China staggered, caught a punch right on the hinge of the jaw that dropped her to her knees. Scorn kicked her full force in the belly and China folded.

Skulduggery's gun was in his hand. Scorn crouched low, using China as a shield.

“Don't shoot,” Scorn called.

“Stand up and move away,” Skulduggery ordered.

“So you have a clear shot? I don't think so.”

China moaned as she sucked in air. “Kill her,” she managed. “She's… got a… bomb.”

“I have a bomb
shell
,” Scorn corrected, “of information.”

“What's that in your hand?” Skulduggery asked.

Scorn smiled. She was holding a small black cylinder with a red button on top. “OK, fine, I do have an
actual
bomb too. A few bombs, in fact. Small ones, but you work with what you've got. They're spread around the library, and there are a few in China's apartment, too. Don't worry, there's nobody up there. No one's going to get hurt.”

Skulduggery thumbed back the hammer of his gun. “Drop the switch.”

“I'm not going to do that.”

“If you press that button, you'll end up in a cell.”

“I don't think I will. I think, when I do press this button, you're going to let me walk away.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because I have information you're going to find very interesting. I've been researching this over the last few months, actually. Do you remember the day your family died?”

“It's always amusing,” Skulduggery said, “when someone tries to use that to goad me into doing something.”

“Oh, I'm not goading you. I'm genuinely asking.” Ever so slowly, Scorn stood up straight. “I wasn't even in the country at the time. I think I was in Spain, doing a thing. Anyway, Nefarian Serpine – great guy, by the way – needed to throw you off balance, needed you distracted, needed you to get angry and stop thinking straight. So obviously, killing your wife and kid in front of you was the only reasonable way to do that. He wasn't well, that man. He had issues, you know what I mean? He needed to distract you and the only thing he could come up with was to murder your family? Not have someone wave to you, or something? But that was him all over, wasn't it? He went to extremes, and this was one of them.”

China suddenly moved, grabbing Scorn's leg, but Scorn just leaned down and punched her. Skulduggery took a step forward, but Scorn held up the switch. “The thing is,” she continued, “Serpine was so busy organising a whole range of assassinations and murders that week that he just didn't have the time to go out and round up your family himself. So he sent a group of people he knew he could count on. He sent the Diablerie.”

Valkyrie went cold, and saw China sag. Skulduggery's gun didn't waver.

“I'm sure you remember who was in the Diablerie back in those days,” Scorn said. “There was Vengeous – before he became one of Mevolent's Generals, of course – Gruesome, Murder Rose – delightful lady – Jaron Gallow, may he rest in peace – a few others… and China. The leader of the pack, as it were. If I'm right, and I think I am, Rose went after your child. That wasn't much of a problem. To be honest, from what I've read, the biggest danger there was whether Rose would go too far and kill the kid. But for once, she obeyed orders.

“China, because she enjoyed that kind of thing, went after your wife. By all accounts, it was a knock-down, drag-out fight. There was blood, sweat, tears, hair-pulling, even some name-calling. Things got pretty heated, but eventually China emerged triumphant, and she shackled your pretty little wife and hauled her all the way back to Serpine's castle. Then she stood in the shadows, and watched you run in, saw you scream when they died. She was there while Serpine was torturing you. Apparently, different members of the Diablerie liked to stop by every now and then to watch. That's pretty dark, isn't it?”

Skulduggery lowered his gun.

“Of course,” Scorn said, “this probably makes no difference to you in the slightest, does it? I mean, you're already friends with her. You've already forgiven her for the things she did during the war. This is just one more thing, am I right? Just one more thing to forgive her for.”

She held up the switch. Skulduggery didn't move. Scorn smiled, and thumbed the little red button. The windows on the top floor of the tenement building exploded, spraying glass all the way across the street. Flames licked the air. Black smoke billowed. Burning pages rained down. China shook her head slowly and Valkyrie stared, but Scorn just smiled and Skulduggery still didn't move.

China tried to get up and Scorn drove a knee into her face. She started kicking her, lashing her boot in. China gagged and curled up.