Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

sprinted off and Guild stalked back the way he had come. Crux moaned in misery and Skulduggery looked down at him.

      “We didn’t steal the Grotesquery, Remus. The Diablerie did. That’s who is behind this. Jaron Gallow, maybe someone named Batu. Focus your investigation on them.”

      “I’m placing you under arrest,” Crux whimpered.

      “Guild is working with them. He told them which symbol deactivated the death field. You can’t trust him. You can only trust Bliss.”

      The cloaking sphere clicked one last time and the bubble of haze withdrew. Skulduggery pocketed the sphere and led Valkyrie to the dark edges of the room. He clicked his fingers, summoning a bright flame.

      “Timing is everything,” he told her. “When we start running we cannot stop, are we clear?”

      She murmured an affirmative, in too much pain from her missing tooth to open her mouth. Skulduggery leaned in and whispered so that Crux wouldn’t hear.

      “The moment we’re out of here, we’ll get Professor Grouse to fix up your tooth, OK? You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

      She murmured again and his head tilted sympathetically for a moment. Then he nodded to the wall. “Touch the wall and be prepared to run.”

      Valkyrie reached out, her palm on the cold wall, and there was a rumble as the wall opened up, wide enough for the two of them to enter.

      “Now,” Skulduggery said and they bolted. The wall closed up behind them as the space immediately ahead opened. It was disconcerting to run full pelt at solid rock, but just as they were about to hit it, it parted, then resealed at their heels. They were sprinting in a bubble of space that was moving quickly through the ground, and the rumbling was huge and loud and reminded her of Billy-Ray Sanguine taking her to see Baron Vengeous. She hadn’t liked it then and she didn’t like it now.

      They were running up an incline, Valkyrie could feel it in her legs. Skulduggery had doused the flame so it wouldn’t burn up the oxygen, so now they were running in complete darkness. Valkyrie opened the side of her mouth to suck breath through, trying not to let the cold air hit her damaged tooth.

      She was getting tired. They had been sprinting for far too long. She needed to slow down, just for a moment, but she knew this little bubble of space would carry on without them. She didn’t much fancy being crushed to death, no matter how fast it would be.

      “Didn’t think it would be quite so far,” Skulduggery said over the noise. The good thing about not having breath was that he would never be out of it, and the good thing about not having muscles is that they could never scream at him. She envied him right now.

      Valkyrie’s coat snapped her back – she realised immediately that the coat-tails had been caught in the crush – and she ripped her arms out of the sleeves, abandoning the coat to the darkness, and stumbled. She felt Skulduggery’s gloved fingers close around her hand and he yanked her up alongside him, practically dragging her. She got her feet under her once more and was running on her own again, but she gripped his hand and didn’t let go.

      And then there was a blinding light and a rush of fresh air and they were outside. Valkyrie slipped on wet grass and landed on her back. The rumbling abruptly ceased. She lay there, both hands covering her mouth, breathing fast and squinting as her eyes adjusted.

      Skulduggery was wrapping his scarf around his jaw. He dipped his hat low over his eye sockets. “The Garden of Remembrance,” he said. “Not the most inconspicuous place for a secret tunnel to emerge, but I’m not complaining.”

      Valkyrie grunted a response, indicating that she wasn’t about to complain either. He helped her up. Her arms were bare and prickling with goosebumps in the cold air. The only people she could see were an elderly couple, out for a quiet stroll. Nobody had seen their arrival. They walked to the gate.

      “We have a problem,” Skulduggery said. “Apart from all the obvious ones, I mean. The Bentley is back at the Sanctuary and we’re not going to be able to get to it.”

      She moaned.

      “The good news is, after it was damaged two years ago, I took the precaution of stashing a few replacements around town. There’s one a few minutes’ walk away.”

      Valkyrie looked at him and mumbled a question.

      He laughed. “It’s not yellow, no. I’m sure you’ll like this one.”

      They walked to a small car park behind a crumbling building, with Valkyrie doing her best to hide the blood from the people they passed. The only car parked here was a Ford Fiesta. She glared at Skulduggery.

      He nodded. “I suppose it is kind of small.”

      She mumbled something again and he shook his head.

      “Actually, you’d be surprised at how nimble it is. It doesn’t have the speed, the comfort or the sheer power of the Bentley, but, especially in city traffic, a Fiesta is a fine—”

      She interrupted him with another angrier mumble, and he took a moment before nodding.

      “I suppose you’re right. It is sort of purple, yes.”

      She sagged. Skulduggery took the key from its hiding place in the tailpipe, opened the car and got in. Valkyrie slid in beside him, buckled up without enthusiasm and Skulduggery started the engine.

      “Starts first time,” he said happily.

      They drove out of the car park and headed for the Hibernian Cinema. The Purple Menace wasn’t as bad as the Canary Car, but it was close. At least it didn’t make people stop and actually laugh as it passed. After a few minutes, Valkyrie even stopped thinking about it and instead started worrying about her tooth.

      They got to the Hibernian and parked across the street. Skulduggery went first, making sure Guild hadn’t sent a squad of Cleavers to arrest them, and then he beckoned Valkyrie over. It was starting to rain as they entered, and Valkyrie led the way through the screen and into the Medical Facility.

      Fletcher swaggered up, started to say something cocky, but saw the dried blood on Valkyrie’s face and hands, and his eyes widened. They passed each other in silence.

      Kenspeckle was in one of the labs, drinking a cup of tea and eating a scone. He muttered when he saw them approaching, but his eyes narrowed when Valkyrie neared. Up until now, she had been pretty brave about it, but the look of concern on Kenspeckle’s face brought tears to her eyes and she couldn’t help it. She started crying.

      Skulduggery stepped back like she had stung him, but Kenspeckle rushed forward.

      “Oh, my dear,” he said tenderly, “there’s no need to cry, there’s no need. What’s happened to you, eh? Let me have a look. A broken tooth? Is that all? That’s nothing, Valkyrie. That’s a half-hour’s work at the very most. You’ve nothing to worry about.”

      Normally, Valkyrie would have had something to say to show she wasn’t rattled, but today she was without words.

      Kenspeckle shot Skulduggery a glare. “You can wait elsewhere, Detective Pleasant. Maybe you can keep an eye on that annoying boy you stuck me with – try and make sure he doesn’t break anything else. I’ll have her back to you soon enough.”

      Skulduggery nodded and looked at Valkyrie, then walked away.

      “We’ll get that smile working again,” Kenspeckle promised, giving her a wink. “Don’t you worry.”

      

      hina was sitting at her desk, cataloguing new arrivals to her library,