Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

didn’t know me last night.”

      “And that is a tragedy.”

      “OK!” Tanith said, forcing a smile on her face. “I’m making myself a cup of tea. Anyone else want one?”

      “I would love a cup of tea,” Ghastly said, sounding like he really, truly meant it.

      Fletcher gave her a sleazy little smile. “I’ll have a whisky.”

      “You can have a cup of tea too,” Tanith said brusquely and disappeared into the back room.

      “Then I’ll help you make it,” said Fletcher, trailing after her.

      Ghastly looked at Valkyrie. “I think you’ve outgrown that outfit.”

      “I think I have,” she admitted.

      “What do you think we should do for the new one? Black again or do you want to mix it up a little?”

      She hesitated. “I really like the black.”

      “But with something else thrown in? I think we should throw in a little colour. Maybe something in the lining.” Ghastly pulled down a roll of deep red material and held it to the light while he spoke to Skulduggery. “So Serpine’s dead. What about the White Cleaver?”

      “We don’t know where he is,” Skulduggery told him. “He abandoned Serpine just when he was needed the most. That kind of worked out well for us.”

      “And then Vengeous came back, but now he’s dead, and now the Diablerie have resurfaced and they’re going to bring the Faceless Ones back and we’re all going to die.”

      “Yes.”

      Ghastly put the red material on the table and went hunting for more. “And this Batu person?”

      “Solomon Wreath believes that Batu is just a name Jaron Gallow has been using, but I’m not so sure. Whoever Batu is, he released Vengeous, set him up as the mastermind and used him to do what needed to be done. Now that Vengeous is gone, he might be doing it again – setting Gallow up as the mastermind to throw us off the trail.”

      “Keep us distracted long enough to bring the Faceless Ones back,” Ghastly said. “Well, that’s a particularly insidious plan, I have to say. It means our true enemy could be anyone. Have you spoken with China about this?”

      “She doesn’t have any leads.”

      “Please tell me you’re not trusting her these days.”

      Skulduggery hesitated and Ghastly sighed.

      “The leader of the Diablerie, whether it’s Gallow or Batu or someone else entirely, has been planning this for years. If there is anyone we know who could use that time to manipulate everyone into thinking she is on the side of the angels, it’s China. Manipulating people is what she does.”

      “I know what I’m doing.”

      “When it comes to China Sorrows you rarely know what you’re doing.” Ghastly laid out a black fabric on the table, nodded to himself and looked up. “Valkyrie. Boots.”

      “I need new ones.”

      “You certainly do. Come this way.”

      They left Skulduggery and went into a smaller room where Ghastly’s old-fashioned shoemaking equipment lay. Different types of leathers hung from the walls, and there were trays of nails and glues and needles and threads.

      “Everything a cordwainer needs,” he said when he saw Valkyrie examining her surroundings.

      “I don’t know what that means.”

      “Skulduggery’s not the only one who knows odd words,” he smiled. The scars, precisely spaced and covering his whole head, had once seemed to her ugly. But they weren’t ugly any more. They were a symbol of what he had lived with, what he had lived through, and as such they had become something good, something noble.

      His smile turned sad. “He’s been dragging you into quite a bit of trouble, from what I hear.”

      She kept her voice neutral. “I’ve had this talk with Kenspeckle, so I’ll tell you what I told him. Skulduggery wouldn’t take me if I didn’t want to go.” She paused, let a moment go by. “Ghastly, why don’t you like me?”

      His eyes widened slightly. “What?”

      “I know you think I’m too young, but there are younger kids than me doing magic. They’re all over the place. And you’ve been doing magic since you were born.”

      He went quiet, then turned to the sink and filled a basin with water. “Could you take off your boots and socks, please?”

      She did as he asked, and he laid the basin on the ground and motioned for her to step into it. She hiked up her trousers and plunged her bare feet into the cold water.

      “The first time we met,” Ghastly said, “I told you to forget about all this and go home. Remember?”

      “Yes.”

      He waved his hand and the water in the basin started feeling thicker, heavier.

      “I still believe that. You should be in school, Valkyrie; you should be living the life you were living before magic interrupted everything. You should go to college, get a job, fall in love, live happily ever after. If you don’t, you’re going to die.”

      “Everyone dies,” she said, with an attempt at a casual shrug.

      “But when you die, it’s going to be something awful.”

      “You can try to scare me as much as you want, but it’s not going to work.”

      “I’m not trying to scare you.” With a gesture, the water parted. “You can step out now.” She did so, and with another gesture, the water returned to the position it had held moments ago. Two perfect imprints of her feet remained in the basin. Ghastly put the basin on a small table and poured in a black powder, almost emptying the box it came in, then looked at her while she dried her feet with a towel and pulled on her socks. “Did Skulduggery ever tell you about my mother?”

      “About her being a champion boxer?”

      “She wasn’t just a boxer. She wasn’t just a wife, or just a mother, or just an anything. She was an exceptional woman. She was a Sensitive, did he tell you that?”

      Valkyrie started putting on her boots. “Like, a psychic? Like Finbar Wrong?”

      “That’s right. My mother’s particular gift was as a Seer, but it’s a gift she didn’t want. She didn’t cultivate it. She had no interest in learning what the future held for her, or for others. She preferred to find out when she got there. But sometimes she didn’t have a choice. She’d see a vision, or dream a dream, or hear a voice from a conversation that hadn’t yet taken place.”

      Valkyrie stood, glancing into the basin. The black powder was swirling around in the impressions her feet had made – swirling and congealing. “What does this have to do with me quitting?”

      “She saw you,” Ghastly said. “That was one of the few visions she told me about. She told me that Skulduggery would take a partner some time in the future, a girl with dark hair and dark eyes. I knew it was you when I met you, and I did my best to steer you away. You’re a stubborn girl – anyone ever tell you that?”

      “What did she see?”

      “She saw you die.”

      Valkyrie stepped away from the basin. “Oh.”

      “If you’re going to ask me for a time and a place, sorry. She was never that specific.”

      “How … how do I die?”

      “In pain,” he said. “Screaming.”

      She ran her tongue over her new tooth and said nothing.