“Still,” she said, scowling, “cruelty to animals.”
“What about cruelty to me?” he asked, loading another dart into the gun.
“Um,” said Gordon, “if I may? Mire called those things Phalanx Tigers for a reason. From the Latin, meaning battle line. They never hunt alone.”
They looked back over the bridge, where a dozen Phalanx Tigers were grouping.
Skulduggery wrapped his arm round Valkyrie’s waist. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Wait,” said Gordon. “If you lead them away, your magic will make them follow you. They’ll ignore Valkyrie.”
Valkyrie frowned. “I don’t want to be left behind.”
“You don’t have to be. Skulduggery, lead them east. You’ll get to a narrow tunnel. Go through it, turn right. There’ll be a gap they can’t cross but you can. Take the only tunnel you see, and it will lead you straight to the other side of this bridge, where we will be waiting.”
The tigers were crossing the bridge.
“Good plan,” Skulduggery said. He handed her his gun. “Valkyrie, get behind that rock. I’ll meet you over the other side.”
Gordon disappeared into the Echo Stone and Valkyrie couldn’t think of a good enough reason why she shouldn’t do as suggested. She hurried away, got behind cover, and peeked out at Skulduggery, waving hands that were full of flames.
The tigers broke into a run, and the flames went out and Skulduggery started sprinting. They caught up to him easily so he started flying. He led them away.
Valkyrie peeked out. No stragglers. She emerged, and jogged to the bridge. She looked straight ahead as she crossed it. The bridge was the width of a country lane and she could walk a country lane without stepping on to the grass verge on either side. She should be able to do this without a problem. But there was no grass verge here. There was only a drop and darkness. She could feel her heartbeat.
She got to the other side, kept walking without looking back. Finally, she stopped, tucked one of the guns into her waistband and took out the Echo Stone. Gordon flickered into existence.
He looked around. “Did my plan work?”
“He led them away,” Valkyrie said. “How long will it take him to get back to us?”
“A few minutes,” Gordon said. “We could play I spy while we wait. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with c.”
“Caves,” said Valkyrie.
“You’re really good at this.”
“We should probably conserve the stone’s power.”
“Ah, yes, I suppose you’re right. Let me know when Skulduggery gets back.”
He faded again, and she waited.
Gordon reappeared. He looked around. “Where’s Skulduggery?”
“He hasn’t got back yet,” Valkyrie said. “It’s been half an hour.”
Gordon’s smile dropped. “Oh. That’s … that’s unexpected.”
“Are you sure your directions were accurate?”
“Absolutely,” said Gordon. “There is no doubt in my mind. I suppose … I suppose there may have been a cave-in over the years, something that could have cut off the tunnel, but …”
“Do you think he’s in trouble?”
Gordon was quiet for a moment. Then he brightened. “I know what’s happened. If there was a cave-in, and there may very well have been, he probably went further on. The next tunnel he found would lead him on a more complicated route, but so long as he kept going in roughly the same direction, he’ll rejoin us shortly. Not here, though – further on. Do you think it’s wise for us to go on alone?”
Valkyrie glanced back at the bridge. “I don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of being here if those tigers decide to come back.”
“A wise precaution,” said Gordon. “Very well, then, straight on we go. Oh, I do love adventures. I like this one especially, because I don’t have to walk anywhere.”
Valkyrie grunted, and started walking.
She followed Gordon’s directions, even when she was sure he was making it up as he went along. But every time he said they were about to encounter a particular feature, that feature duly appeared, so she stopped doubting him. He led her through the light and into the dark, and it was while she was in the shadows that her foot kicked something that clattered across the rock floor.
She flicked on the torch and crouched. The light glinted off empty shell casings.
“Hmm,” said Gordon. “A lot of bullets were used here.”
“Automatic weapons,” Valkyrie said, scattering the casings with her fingers. “High-powered rifles. Explosives, too, judging by the craters on the wall over there – looks like rocket-propelled grenades. All recent.”
Gordon sounded impressed. “You’re turning out to be quite the detective.”
“For my fifteenth birthday, Skulduggery gave me a three-month course in ballistics. Some of it stuck.” She stood up. “Whatever attacked them was driven away. Doesn’t look like Foe or any of his friends were hurt.”
“At least we’re getting closer,” said Gordon. “Let’s keep going.”
Valkyrie put her torch away and walked on for another ten minutes, and then Gordon said, “There’s something up ahead.”
She advanced cautiously, tranq gun in hand, but what at first appeared to be a person lying down turned out to be a bundle of old clothes. She nudged the bundle and it rattled.
“Bones?” Gordon asked.
“This looks like the suit Anathem Mire was wearing,” Valkyrie said. She looked around. “This is familiar. Are we heading to that messed-up house of his?”
“We’re heading to the fountain,” said Gordon.
“Maybe he built his house near it.”
Gordon nodded. “That would make sense. According to his journals, the fountain is in a cavern that the creatures here stay away from. If he were going to build a house of magic, that would be the only place to do it. But then what is his body doing all the way out here?”
“He promised he’d find me,” Valkyrie said. “He was convinced I was to be his wife, or his queen or whatever, and I’d stay forever in that house that moved and changed and melted and … Anyway, I escaped, and when I was running off he was screaming at me, I’ll find you, I’ll find you, blah blah blah. I think he tried to do exactly that. I think he tried to follow.”
“So his spirit returned to his body,” said Gordon, “and he gave chase. But he was vulnerable from the moment he left that cavern, and the creatures here got him. Picked his bones clean.”
Valkyrie grimaced. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer chap. Think his spirit is still around?”
“Without a form to inhabit, it would have dissipated long ago,” Gordon said. “Pity. I would have liked him to sign his journals. They were surprisingly well written. Come along now, the fountain can’t be far from here.”
It wasn’t. Five minutes later, Valkyrie stepped into a vast cavern. The last time she’d been here, there had been a replica of Gordon’s house in the exact centre. Now there was nothing. The ground was flat and the cavern, as far as she could see, was empty.
“Can’t see a fountain or a pool or even a puddle,” she whispered.
Gordon pointed. “That way. We can’t see it from here, but there should be an opening in the cavern wall that leads to the chamber with the fountain.”
Valkyrie chewed her lip. “Darquesse could be in there. With Foe and Mercy and Samuel.”
Gordon nodded. “We should wait for Skulduggery. Good idea. Better safe than sorry, after all.”
She looked back, willing Skulduggery to appear. “No. We have to do something. If they’re in there, maybe I can, I don’t know, delay them.”
“You have no magic.”
“I have the tranq guns. And I have my shock stick. It’s fully charged. If I’m lucky, I can take out three or four of them.”
“I do not like this plan,” said Gordon.
“It’s barely a plan.”
“That doesn’t make it better. Please. Wait here
. For all we know, Foe and his friends took a wrong turn somewhere and there’s no one even in there.”
Valkyrie stood. “Then there won’t be any harm in taking a look.”
She crept out and, when nothing bad happened immediately, she started jogging. Gordon was swept along with her.
“There,” he whispered.
She saw it. A crack in the cavern wall. No more than a fissure. She reached it, breathing slightly more heavily, and listened. No sounds from within. No light in the dark.
She squeezed into the fissure.
Once she was past the opening, the tunnel widened slightly, enough for her to walk normally. The gloom lifted. There was light ahead. She slowed.
The tunnel opened into a cave the size of her back garden. Shafts of sunlight, squinting through the gaps in the ceiling, reflected off the Source Fountain, which was no wider than a paddling pool. Vincent Foe sat with his back against a rock. Samuel, the vampire who dressed like an accountant, lay asleep, head resting on a folded jacket of burnished red. Stephanie’s jacket. Mercy was playing a game on her phone. The quiet little beeps were the only sound in the cave apart from the occasional gurgle of water.
Samuel turned his head and opened his eyes. “The girl is here.”
Valkyrie bit back a curse, then decided what the hell, and stepped into plain view, tranq gun in hand. But instead of charging at her, Foe merely nodded, and Mercy didn’t even look up from her game.
This was not what Valkyrie had expected.
“You took Stephanie’s body,” she said, after another few seconds of relative silence.
“Yeah,” said Foe.
That was it. Nothing more.
Valkyrie inched forward, till she could see into the fountain. Stephanie’s corpse lay in the water, still clad in her black T-shirt and burnished red trousers, weighed down with rocks.
Valkyrie stepped back again. “You’re preparing the body for Darquesse.”
Foe nodded. Then he got up, slowly, and stretched, like he’d been sitting there for hours. “What’s the matter, Valkyrie? Not sure what to do without the Skeleton Detective around to issue orders?”
She narrowed her eyes. “How do you know he’s not around?”
Mercy laughed, and finally put her phone away. “Because that was the plan, silly girl.”
Valkyrie didn’t like that. Oh, she didn’t like that one little bit. She backed up further. “What plan? You were expecting us?”
Foe glanced at Mercy, who shrugged, and then he looked back at Valkyrie. “Expecting? Kind of. We knew there was a strong chance you’d come down here, but it wouldn’t have been a total loss if you hadn’t.”
“Where is she? Where’s Darquesse?”
Foe looked at Mercy. “Want to tell her?”
Mercy smiled. “Love to. Valkyrie, you’ve actually saved us quite a hazardous trip, so thank you. Were it not for you, we would have had to go back up ourselves to bring her down here. So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for saving us the trouble.”
Valkyrie frowned. “But I didn’t. I didn’t bring anyone down with me.”
“Well,” Gordon said from behind her, “that’s not strictly true.”
40
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
alkyrie felt herself go ashen-white with shock. “Gordon?”
Gordon’s image flickered as he walked by her, to the edge of the pool. “I’m afraid not,” he said, peering in. “You have to understand, the Echo Stone had all the properties I needed for a place to rest. I figured if it could store a personality then it could store a – what was it? Untethered entity? – even if it is just temporarily. Sort of like a summer home, you know? Mr Foe, you can take my body out now.”
Foe and Mercy waded into the pool while Gordon turned back to Valkyrie. “So I moved some furniture around,” Darquesse continued, “knocked down a few walls, redesigned the interior …”
“What did you do to Gordon?”
A wince. “Ah. Yes. Unfortunately, the previous tenant proved … uncooperative. So I had to evict him.”
“What do you—?”
“I mean he’s gone, Valkyrie. I wiped his consciousness before I moved in.”
Valkyrie’s insides went cold and plummeted. “You murdered him!”
“Gordon died six years ago. It’s taken him this long to shut up about it, that’s all.”
Foe and Mercy laid Stephanie’s body on the ground, then Foe took a Sunburst star from his jacket and placed it on her chest. It started to light up.
“Isn’t that cool?” Gordon’s image said. “Skulduggery used one on you. It kick-starts the brain as well as the heart, and the entire central nervous system along with it. Higher chance of a successful revival than a regular defibrillator, and this one has been tinkered with to increase its power. Just what I need.”
The sigil on the device pulsed red.
“Wish me luck,” came Gordon’s voice, and then his image disappeared and the Echo Stone flashed with a bright light. All at once, Valkyrie’s head was filled with a torturous shrieking and she ducked back, stumbling, as Foe and the others did the same.
Then the shrieking went away and Stephanie’s body gasped and sat bolt upright.
“Wow,” said Darquesse.
Foe took her hand, helped her to her feet. Darquesse wobbled unsteadily.
“Do not let go,” she said. “Until my blood starts flowing properly I won’t be the most agile person in the world. Oh, this feels good. This feels right.” Samuel helped her into her jacket. “Valkyrie, how do I look? What do you think of this colour on me? I like it.”
Valkyrie glared. “I’m going to kill you.”
Darquesse smiled. Her wet hair hung down over a face that was already starting to get some colour back into it. “With a tranquilliser dart? No you’re not. Even while I’m waiting for this body to adapt to the power levels I need it at, I’m still stronger and better than you. You really want to see which one of us would win in a fight? Really? Then let’s go. I can’t access most of my power yet, I can’t even move properly, but I bet I can still rip your head off.”
“There can be only one,” Foe said, grinning.
Darquesse frowned at him. “I’m sure that’s referencing something I’m too young to get, but either way, shut up. This is between me and—”
Valkyrie whirled, made to break for the tunnel, but only managed a few stumbling steps. Tanith stood before her, her lips black and her face riddled with black veins. Her sword was in her hand and her eyes were fixed on Valkyrie.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Darquesse said. “I know how much you hate being the hostage, so let’s just call you the Emergency Negotiation Device and leave it as that. I’m sure Skulduggery, if he’s even still alive, has a last-resort plan to take me down … but if I keep you with me, I think I’ll do OK. Mercy, would you put some shackles on our guest and find her somewhere to sit?”
“My absolute pleasure,” Mercy said, grinning. She came over, smacked the gun out of Valkyrie grip, and Tanith’s sword came up, almost lazily, and cut Mercy’s hand from her wrist.
Mercy stared at the stump and the blood and, before anyone could even react, Tanith took her head off.
Then she grabbed Valkyrie and pushed her into the tunnel.
“Run.”
Valkyrie ran. She ran from Vincent Foe’s screams of rage and Samuel’s echoing snarl, then she turned sideways, squeezed out through the fissure. She stuffed the Echo Stone into her jacket as she stumbled out into the cavern. Tanith wasn’t following her.
She sprinted on.
She left the cavern and retraced her steps as well as she could, alternating between jogging and sprinting whenever her lungs and legs would allow it. But she got lost. It was inevitable, really. Only a matter of time.
She had to stop. She sank down, sat with her back to a tunnel wall. It had all gone wrong. They were supposed to have won, for God’s sake. Darquesse had been reduced to an untethered entity. She was a ghost. She should
have been nothing more than an annoyance. A nuisance. How the hell had this happened?
Valkyrie took the stone from her jacket. “Oh, Gordon,” she whispered.
The stone lit up weakly, and Gordon appeared before her.
She jumped to her feet. “Gordon! You’re OK!”
Gordon’s image flickered, and he frowned. “Hello? I can’t … I can’t see anyone. Who is that? Who’s talking?”
She waved her hands in front of his face. “It’s me, it’s Valkyrie.”
Relief washed over him, but he still wasn’t looking at her. “Oh, thank God. Darquesse, she was here. She took over—”
“I know,” said Valkyrie. “But she’s gone now. Are you OK?”
“I’m fine,” said Gordon. “Not a bother on me. The stone, on the other hand …”
“What? What’s wrong with it?”
His eyes widened, and focused on her. “I can see! I can see you! I don’t mind admitting, that was getting a little worrying. I could hear you, but couldn’t see a single …” He looked around. “I know this. See that rock formation? See how it looks like an old man’s face? Mire mentioned this tunnel. If you keep going straight, you’ll come to a chasm. I don’t know how you’d cross it, but the stairs to my house are on the other side. Maybe if you fashioned a rope bridge out of hair and spiderwebs …”
“What’s wrong with the stone, Gordon?”
He hesitated. “It’s in the process of being wiped clean. Darquesse thought she’d got rid of me, but I was just pushed into a little corner and I’ve been huddling here ever since. I thought that once she left things would get back to normal, but I seem to have misjudged her.”
“But if the stone is wiped clean—”
“Then my personality will be wiped away. I fear I may only have moments left.”
“No,” said Valkyrie. “No, please, there must be something we can do.”
“Darquesse altered the stone so dramatically that there’s no way to stop the—”
He talked on in silence.
“I can’t hear you!” Valkyrie shouted. “I can’t hear you any more!”
Gordon frowned again. He pointed at the stone, mimed shaking it. Valkyrie grabbed it, did as she was told. She smacked it into her open palm a few times, and all at once the sound came back, just as Gordon was launching into the chorus of ‘My Lovely Horse’ from Father Ted.