Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days (20 page)

43
THE ROAD TO CROKE PARK

V
alkyrie walked into a room with a massive tub built into the floor. There was a bouquet of flowers arranged in a delicate vase on a nearby table. The huge tub was filled to the brim with mud, and for a moment Valkyrie thought the mud had eyes, which opened as she came in and blinked up at her.

“Hey, Val,” the mud said.

“Hey, Tanith,” Valkyrie said back. “You’ve got something on your face…”

Tanith’s mud-covered features broke into a small smile. “Ghastly already made that joke when he brought me the flowers.”

“That was nice of him,” Valkyrie said. She pulled up the only chair in the room, and sat. “How are your hands?”

Tanith raised them for Valkyrie to see. They were heavily bandaged and wrapped in plastic so that the mud wouldn’t get in. “The Professor says they’ll be fine in a few days. The doctors in the Sanctuary soaked the bandages in something I never heard of to heal the wounds. The Professor inspected them the moment I was transferred here. He said they’d do the job. All this mud is for the swelling and the, you know, the trauma. I’ll be fine, he says. He’s doing everything he can to make up for it.”

“He blames himself,” Valkyrie said. “Even though he couldn’t do anything to stop the Remnant, and even though he can’t remember one thing about it, he still blames himself.”

“I’m not surprised,” Tanith said. “I mean, I know it wasn’t him that did this to me. But it used his face and it had his voice, and I don’t know…I think there’s a part of me that hates him for it.”

“But you’re here,” frowned Valkyrie. “If a part of you hates him, wouldn’t you have wanted to stay in the Sanctuary,
away
from him?”

“I’m a practical girl, Val, and the practical side of my brain pretty much tells the stupid side what to do. So I’m cool here.”

She shrugged and winced and Valkyrie noticed the bandages on her shoulders.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I just told you.”

“No, you told me how your
injuries
are.”

“All right then, I’m doing OK actually. The pain wasn’t really any worse than the White Cleaver stabbing me in the back, but the White Cleaver didn’t talk, you know? That Remnant thing in the Professor just would
not
shut up.”

“Tanith, you were
tortured.
”

“Everyone gets tortured these days. Skulduggery was tortured by Serpine, who then turned around and did that red right-hand thing at
you.
Then Skulduggery was tortured
again
by the Faceless Ones. I figured it was my turn, you know? You’re not part of the team if you haven’t been tortured – that’s what I always say. Well, I’ll be saying that from now
on
anyway.”

Valkyrie stood there, feeling stupid and awkward. Tanith had been put through hell and Valkyrie didn’t have the first idea how to talk to her about it. The pain was evident in her friend’s eyes, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Valkyrie searched clumsily for the words she needed, but they weren’t coming to her.

“What are they going to do with the Remnant?” Tanith asked, breaking the silence.

“We’ve handed it over to Wreath,” Valkyrie told her and Tanith’s face soured.

“Why does
he
want it?”

“Well, technically, the Soul Catcher is
his
and he asked for it back. He just wants to study it for a while, now that it actually contains something. He’ll bring the Remnant back to the Midnight Hotel when he’s done.”

“I don’t know how you can trust that guy, Val.”

“He’s helped me a lot over the last year. He’s helped all of us.”

Tanith looked like she was about to argue and then there was a beep from somewhere overhead, and she groaned. “Just when you get comfortable.”

Tanith gripped the edges of the tub and rose out of it, moving stiffly. The mud covered her completely as she reached her arm out. Valkyrie grabbed her elbow with both hands to make sure she didn’t slip and helped her into a white bathrobe. Tanith wiped her face clean with a towel.

There was a knock on the door. Valkyrie looked over her shoulder to find Skulduggery standing in the doorway.

“Tanith,” he said. “You’re looking great.”

“And I’m ready to go,” Tanith said.

“Is that so?”

“You give me my sword back and I’m right behind you.”

Before Skulduggery could answer, Tanith’s left leg buckled and Valkyrie grabbed her as she fell, guiding her to the chair.

“Bloody hell,” Tanith growled. “That hurts.”

“Tanith…” Skulduggery began.

“You want to know if I learned anything, right?” she said, pain lending her words an edge. “You want to know if Sanguine or any of them let something slip in all their gloating? They didn’t. They kept me shackled in a room and then they gave me to the Professor. Forgive me, but there are patches of the last twelve hours that are a little fuzzy.”

“They didn’t mention any names? Places? Times?”

“The Remnant in the Professor talked about a lot of stuff. Mainly about how happy he was to have finally found a friend.”

Skulduggery nodded slowly. “OK. All right, thank you.”

“But what does it matter? We have the Desolation Engine, right?”

“We do, but I’d have liked to have known their target. If they can’t take it down with the bomb, they might try some other way.”

“Or they’re all running,” Tanith said. “Let’s face it – none of these guys are great team players. They’re all in it for their own reasons, so the moment the big plan goes wrong, I think they’re going to split.”

“That is possible. It’s also very likely.”

“If you want my opinion, it’s over. Now all we have to do is track each one of them down. And I want in on that action, Skulduggery. Springheeled Jack threw me off a moving car. I owe him a few slaps.”

“The moment you’re fighting fit, we’ll call you.”

“I’m ready
now.
”

“You can’t even walk, Tanith.”

“An hour or two is all I need.”

“A few days’ rest – those were your doctor’s orders.”

“Yeah, well, my doctor’s the one who tortured me for God’s sake. I don’t think his opinion really matters, do you?”

Valkyrie looked at her boots. Skulduggery was silent.

“Fine,” Tanith muttered.

“Valkyrie,” Skulduggery said as he left, “we have work to do.”

She looked at Tanith. “You’re really OK, huh?”

“Don’t start, Val.”

Valkyrie hunkered down until she was looking straight into Tanith’s eyes. “You’re my sister,” she said. “I have another sister or maybe a brother on the way, but you’re my sister too. I want you to stay here and get better, and try to accept the fact, with every part of you, that it wasn’t Kenspeckle who did this. I want you to be OK. OK?”

“OK,” Tanith said softly. Valkyrie hugged her and kissed her cheek.

“You’ve got mud on your chin,” smiled Tanith.

“Yeah, but I make it work.”

Ghastly and Anton Shudder were waiting for them in the darkened cinema. Fletcher appeared on the stage, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

“You have a visitor,” he said. “Your friend the vampire’s outside. He wants to talk to Valkyrie.”

“By all means,” Skulduggery said. Then, much to Fletcher’s satisfaction, he said, “Fletcher, you go with her. Caelan’s been banished from vampire society because of us. He might be cross.”

Valkyrie glared. “I don’t need protection.”

“A vampire’s waiting for you outside – of course you need protection. Keep it brief. We’ll be waiting for you.”

Fletcher grinned. Valkyrie shot him a look and jumped off the stage. He followed her up the aisle and out of the gloom.

Caelan was standing just outside the door. He turned to them as they approached, his dark eyes on Valkyrie. It was as if he didn’t even notice Fletcher beside her.

“Hi,” she said. “Anything wrong?”

“My home was burned down,” Caelan said. “My cage was destroyed. Moloch has lifted his protection – the other vampires see me as fair game now.”

“Oh, God,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

“That
is
terrible,” Fletcher muttered.

“I have no friends left,” Caelan continued, “and nowhere to go. I thought you or the skeleton would have a suggestion. I need somewhere secure.”

“What about the Midnight Hotel?”

He looked surprised. “That…That would be ideal. You know where it is?”

“I can do better than that – the owner is inside.”

A big car pulled in off the street and Thurid Guild got out. He waved his driver away, then strode towards them. By his narrowed eyes, Valkyrie could tell he knew instantly what Caelan was, but he passed them without saying anything and disappeared into the cinema.

“Shudder might not want a vampire as a guest,” Fletcher said when Guild was gone. “I mean, let’s face it, not many people like vampires. Take me, for instance.”

Valkyrie glared at him then softened her gaze for Caelan. “We can ask him,” she said. “I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Very well,” Caelan said. “Thank you.”

She walked back into the cinema, Caelan behind her, Fletcher stuck like a limpet at her side. Skulduggery, Ghastly and Shudder stopped talking and watched them approach. Guild didn’t look around.

“Anton,” she said, “this is Caelan. His home was destroyed and he needs somewhere to stay.”

Shudder looked deep into Caelan’s eyes. “Over the hotel’s history,” he said, “I have had two vampires stay as guests. I had to kill one of them.”

“Valkyrie and I are responsible for Caelan’s situation,” Skulduggery said. “I would consider it a personal favour.”

Shudder considered this, then inclined his head. “All are welcome, provided they obey the rules. I’ll lock you in before dark and unlock the door in the morning. We should have no problems.”

Caelan nodded, saying nothing.

“Miss Low could be right,” Guild said, resuming their conversation. “It might be over. Scarab and his lackeys may have scuttled back under whatever rocks they choose to call home. It is possible.”

“I don’t think so,” Skulduggery said. “Scarab’s an assassin. He never has just one plan, one route to the kill. He has back-ups. I think he has a back-up for this too.”

“Then the search continues,” said Shudder. “But now it could be anything, yes? One route has been blocked for him, but we have no idea what the second route could be.”

“We need to figure out what he was planning to do with the Desolation Engine,” Ghastly said. “We can work backwards from there.”

“The obvious target would have been the Sanctuary,” Guild said. “As it is, our work there has been disrupted immensely following the evacuation. We’re only just now returning people to their posts.”

Kenspeckle came through the door in the screen, walking quickly. Valkyrie hadn’t seen much of him since he woke up, on account of the fact that he had immediately thrown himself back into his work. She knew very well what he was doing. He didn’t know how to deal with what the Remnant had done when it was in control, so he had retreated to what he
did
know how to deal with – treating injured people and dismantling the Engine.

“There’s too many pieces,” he said, hurrying across the stage to them. “Do you understand me? The so-called
junk
that was found with the Desolation Engine in the castle, there’s too much of it.”

He saw Caelan and froze. “Vampire?” he whispered, appalled.

Immediately, Valkyrie grabbed Caelan’s arm and led him away. “He has a phobia about people like you,” she told him softly. “Would you mind waiting outside?”

“Not at all,” Caelan answered smoothly, and left.

“Sorry, Kenspeckle,” she said.

Kenspeckle’s eyes were wide and his hand was clutching something that hung from his neck. She knew it was the vial of saltwater he wore in case of vampire attack.

“Professor,” Skulduggery prompted. “The leftover pieces from the Desolation Engine. Why is that troubling?”

“I-I don’t know,” Kenspeckle said. “I just…It doesn’t make any sense.”

“A lot of things don’t make any sense,” Guild said. “Such as how you were able to restore that Engine to working order so quickly. We thought it would take you days, if you could do it at all.”

“Of course I could do it!” Kenspeckle snapped, suddenly back to his old self. “There was never any question of whether I could do it! They didn’t know that of course. They just got lucky by picking me.”

“I don’t care how smart you are,” Guild said. “Sanctuary experts have examined that bomb for decades and they still have no idea how it worked, let alone how to fix it in a
single afternoon.
”

“Of course they don’t, you damn fool. They didn’t
build
the thing in the first place, now did they?”

They all stared at Kenspeckle. He was flustered. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“You
built
it?” Valkyrie asked.

He looked at her. “What?”

“You…you said you built it. The Desolation Engine.”

“I did? I…I suppose I did, yes.” For a moment he looked so very old and so very frail, and then the irritation returned to his voice. “Yes, well, I wasn’t always who I am now. No one ever is. I’ve spent my entire lifetime becoming who I am. Finally, I’m here and I’m old. It’s depressing, it really is.

“When I was a younger man, I was no less intelligent, but I fear I lacked some basic and fundamental
sense.
My outlook on things was different. My philosophy was different. Different things interested me. The Desolation Engine for instance. I wanted to see if I could build it. It existed in theory, but then it had
always
existed in theory. It was my goal to turn magic-science theory into magic-science
fact
. Which was what I did.

“I don’t think I cared about who would use it, or where, or on whom. These things were immaterial. When I was told about the detonation in Naples, I can’t recall being affected by it one way or the other. It worked. I built it, I knew it would work and it did. Project over – start another.