Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men (77 page)

“Is there any way to bypass it?” Vex asked. “Isn’t there a plug we could pull?”

The Engineer stepped out of the Accelerator. “There is no bypass. There is no plug. It must be a soul, willingly given.”

“How would the Accelerator know if it’s willingly given or not?”

“I would know,” said the Engineer. “It is only with my permission that the soul can be used, and my creator was quite specific in his requirements. He said this machine must only be activated as a last resort. He reasoned that only a noble person of pure intent would go through with it once he was warned of the price that must be paid.”

“But you weren’t here to warn us,” said Saracen. “So that’s your fault.”

“Indeed it is. But that does not change the fact that it must be a soul, willingly given.”

“Well?” Donegan asked. “Anyone here willing to sacrifice their life to shut this down?”

Gracious took one step backwards. “I have, uh, a lot of online subscriptions that depend on me …”

“How long do we have to decide?” Skulduggery asked. “When is the Accelerator going to rupture?”

“Twenty-three days, eight hours, three minutes and twelve seconds,” said the Engineer.

Vex stared. “So not only do we have Darquesse on the loose,” he said, “and not only do we have nineteen supercharged sorcerers running around, and virtually every Sanctuary on the planet in a state of chaos, but now we have twenty-three days to decide who’s going to kill themselves to save the world? How the hell are we meant to manage
any
of that?”

“We’ll manage it the same way we manage everything,” China Sorrows said from behind them, and they turned to her as she stood in the doorway, as beautiful as always. “With extraordinary amounts of style and good grace.”

“We don’t even have a Council of Elders any more,” said Saracen. “How will we co-ordinate? Who’s in charge?”

“From now on we won’t be needing a Council,” China said. “I think we’ve gone as far as we can with that approach, wouldn’t you agree? And as for who’s in charge, I’d have thought that would be obvious.”

Vex frowned. “You?”

“Unless you can think of someone better suited to the task. Maybe you yourself? Or Saracen? Or Skulduggery, perhaps? If any of you would like to take on the overwhelming responsibilities of the post and forgo a life of freedom and adventure, please, be my guest.”

Vex didn’t say anything. Neither did Saracen or Skulduggery.

China smiled. “That’s what I thought. Any other objections? No? You’re quite sure? Very well then. I hereby accept, with great reluctance and humility, the post of Grand Mage, and I swear to only use my newfound powers to protect the magical and mortal communities of Ireland, and possibly to extract small bits of personal vengeance against those who have wronged me in the past.” She clapped her hands. “There. It’s settled. All right gentlemen, first order of business is tracking down the supercharged sorcerers. Mr Vex, Mr Rue, they are your responsibility. I’m sure the Monster Hunters will lend their assistance when and if you require it.”

China looked at Skulduggery, and her voice softened. “Detective Pleasant, you have one task and one task only. Find Darquesse. Stop her if you can … kill her if you must.”

tephanie’s parents had been relieved to have her home.

It wasn’t that they didn’t think she was a good driver, they said. It was just that whenever she got behind the wheel, they started to worry. It was silly, they knew it was – she had her full licence, she was as good as anyone else, and they knew she was a sensible girl. But hey, worrying was a parent’s job.

Stephanie couldn’t understand how Valkyrie had come to the conclusion that her folks were ready to hear the truth. They worried enough about the most ordinary, mundane things in everyday life. If they knew about the magic and the fighting and the danger and the death, they’d never sleep again.

But she was home, and that was the only thing that mattered. She’d survived. She’d done her bit to stop the Warlocks, to stop Ravel, and her family were free, and happy, and safe – at least for the moment.

While her mum made them lunch, Stephanie played with Alice in the living room. She sat on the floor, adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder, and dumped out a tray of building blocks. Alice went at them with glee, flinging them over her head. They hit the wall, the mirror, banged against the new patio door that had been put in to replace the one Valkyrie had smashed through.

“Careful now,” Stephanie said. “You don’t want to break anything, do you?”

Alice cackled, threw the last block, and Stephanie grinned, grabbed her and started tickling. Alice howled with laughter and Stephanie rolled on to her back, blowing raspberries into her sister’s neck. She eventually let go, and Alice clambered off, then sat on the ground beside her. Stephanie stayed where she was, looking up at the ceiling, and when she found her mind drifting back to the events of the last few days she caught herself. Valkyrie was gone and Stephanie had inherited her family. She had what she’d always wanted, and she wasn’t going to waste a moment of her new life by thinking about death and destruction when she didn’t need to.

Alice was unusually quiet. Stephanie turned her head and her heart lurched. Her bag had fallen open, revealing the Sceptre, and Alice’s little fingers tapped against the black crystal. Stephanie moved with thinking, snatching the bag away as she whirled to her knees. Alice burst out crying and Stephanie stared, eyes wide.

Despite her racing pulse and the surging adrenaline that made every nerve ending jangle, Stephanie picked up her sister and held her close as she stood. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, talking softly. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She hadn’t even needed to. Alice was descended from the Last of the Ancients, the same as Valkyrie, which meant she could touch the black crystal without dying. Stephanie herself hadn’t dared to touch it herself. She didn’t know if that rule applied to reflections, no matter how evolved they had become.

“Here,” she said, lifting the bag a little higher so that Alice could reach into it. “This is the Sceptre of the Ancients. See the crystal? You can touch it if you want. There you go. The crystal was made by the Faceless Ones, these horrible old gods, and anyone who touches it turns to dust. Apart from the Ancients. Apart from you. You’re a very special girl, Alice, but I promise to do everything I can to make sure that you have a normal life. I won’t let you turn out like Valkyrie did. I swear. Kiss?”

Alice looked up at her with her big eyes, and tilted her head forward so that Stephanie could kiss it. When Alice moved her head back again, Stephanie glanced behind her, saw Skulduggery Pleasant standing in the back garden.

She put Alice down, let her run around collecting the building blocks, and she climbed the stairs and went into her bedroom. She closed the door behind her and opened the window, then stepped back. Skulduggery sat on the sill.

“There’s a problem with the Accelerator,” he said. The way his head was turned, the way his hat fell, all she could see was his jaw. “Shutting it down won’t be quite as straight-forward as we’d hoped. It’ll require a sacrifice.”

She nodded. “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it.”

“I’ll think of something. Ravel was transported to prison this morning. They tried to sedate him, but nothing works.”

“Right.”

“The Children of the Spider went with him, and seven others. The investigation into who else knew about his plan is ongoing.”

“OK.”

“We decided not to go after his people in the other Sanctuaries. We know they were a part of it, and we’ll be using that against them to ensure we’re never attacked again. They’re our people now.”

“Well,” said Stephanie, “that works out well for everyone.”

Skulduggery nodded. “The Warlocks have gone into hiding again, and we have teams of Cleavers rounding up any remaining Wretchlings. They won’t have got far. We have perimeters set up from—”

“Skulduggery,” Stephanie cut in, “what do you want?”

He raised his head, looked at her. “We don’t know where Darquesse is,” he said. “We don’t know where she vanished to after Africa, and we don’t know where she’s gone now.”

Stephanie patted her bag. “That’s why I’m carrying the Sceptre around with me everywhere I go.”

“Do you think she’ll go after her family?”

Stephanie hesitated. “No,” she said. “But she might come after me.”

“That’s what I thought. Stephanie, I need your help. We have to find her, we have to bring Valkyrie back.”

“Valkyrie’s gone.”

“I don’t believe that.”

Stephanie went to her desk, turned on the radio to mask their voices. “It doesn’t matter what you believe, because you don’t know what it was like living with Darquesse in your head. Valkyrie knew that one more slip would be all it took. She doesn’t have the strength to survive. A big part of her doesn’t even want to.”

“You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not. She loves that power. She loves becoming Darquesse. It’s so incredibly freeing for her.”

“Then help me stop her.”

“But you don’t want to
stop
her, do you? If we find her, if I have the chance to kill her, will you let me?”

Skulduggery turned his head slightly, away from her. “If I can’t get through to Valkyrie, then yes.”

“Not good enough,” Stephanie said. “You tried talking to her. It didn’t work. If you try to talk it again, Darquesse will kill us both. We won’t have time for your way and then my way. We’ll only have time for one way. So, if I help you, and we find her, and I have a chance to kill her, will you let me do it?”

Skulduggery didn’t answer for the longest time. Then he said, “Yes.”

Stephanie nodded. “OK then. You’ve got yourself a partner.”

enny was done.

He’d already cleared the research out of his apartment. The walls were now bare, the floors were uncluttered, and there was suddenly space on the table to put a coffee cup. He’d cleaned out his hard drive, wiped his browsing history, deleted every related file that existed online. And then he took Patrick Slattery’s footage and photographs and he destroyed every last bit.

Almost every last bit.

He did a little editing. It took him a few hours. It wasn’t pretty, and the seams were obvious and amateurish, but he got it done with what little skills he possessed, and then he destroyed everything that remained.