Читать книгу Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 7 – 9: The Darquesse Trilogy - Derek Landy - Страница 49

ammit,” Skulduggery said.

Valkyrie looked back. Kitana and Doran were still standing. Hovering in the air next to each of their heads was a bullet, gently rotating.

“Hello, children,” Argeddion said from where he floated above them all.

He waved his hand and the cloaking sphere stopped working. The bubble retracted but Kitana and Doran weren’t interested in a skeleton and a teenage girl any more. They gazed upwards like they were seeing their own personal god.

“It’s you,” Doran whispered.

“Hello, Doran,” Argeddion said. “Hello, Kitana. I’m sorry it took so long for me to meet you, face to face. I took some time to experience what it means to be a free man once again. Hello, Skulduggery. Hello, Valkyrie.”

Skulduggery holstered his gun. “Are you proud of them?” he asked. “They came here, to this school, to kill everyone they found. If you’re hoping you showed them enlightenment, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

“They’re young,” Argeddion said. “They’ll learn.”

“And in the meantime, they’ll kill and destroy. You’re meant to be a pacifist. You’re meant to value every human life. How can you let this continue?”

Argeddion smiled. “Because I can see the difference between one life and many. Between a few lives and all. The children are learning and exploring and pushing their boundaries. They don’t know who they are yet.”

“They’re through pushing boundaries. Now they need rules.”

“I have no wish to limit them with the restricted view of western morality.”

Skulduggery shook his head. “You’ve got to take responsibility for this.”

“I’m taking ultimate responsibility,” said Argeddion. “Spiritual responsibility. These few missteps don’t matter. Can’t you understand? Look at them standing there. They’re beautiful and flawed and a work in progress.”

“Dammit, Argeddion, your plan isn’t working. Why can’t you just accept that? You wanted to elevate mankind by giving them magic, so take a look at what you’ve created so far. They’re killers.”

“And so are both of you.”

“We’ve made mistakes, but we try to do what’s right.”

“You mean you’ve learned your lessons. You made your mistakes, killed and destroyed, and now you’re fighting the good fight. So what makes you think that these children will not follow your example?”

“Because they’re psychopaths.”

“And Lord Vile wasn’t? And Darquesse is a well-adjusted personality?” Argeddion laughed. “It seems to me that there is one rule for you two, and another rule for everyone else.”

“You can’t let them learn their lessons at the expense of innocent lives.”

“Every life lost is sad, but also necessary. These children are the future. They need the freedom to make mistakes and grow from them.”

“Yeah,” said Doran, wearing that smirk again, “let us grow, Mr Skeleton.”

“If you want them to learn,” Skulduggery said, “turn them over to the Sanctuary. We’ll train them, teach them how to control their powers.”

“You’ll imprison them,” Argeddion said, “like I was imprisoned, because you’re scared. Because you don’t understand them and you can’t control them. I’m sorry, Skulduggery. None of you can be trusted.”

“For God’s sake, you cannot let them walk away.”

Argeddion looked down at Kitana and Doran. “Go,” he said. “I’ll see you again.”

It took them a few seconds before they moved, but when they did, they were laughing like kids. Kitana blew them a kiss as they left.

Skulduggery didn’t move. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“When this is over,” Argeddion said, “you will understand.” And then he vanished.

The Cleavers arrived, sealed off the school. Skulduggery dumped Sean Mackin in the back of their van and slammed the door on his head. They waited for Geoffrey Scrutinous and Philomena Random to get there, told them the situation. This was bad. A signal block was now in effect, jamming all communication, but a few hundred teenagers had just had half an hour to get the word out of crazy goings-on at their school, and the news was spreading.

They drove back to the Sanctuary and found Ghastly outside the interview room where Sean Mackin was being held.

“This is bad,” Ghastly said.

“We know,” Skulduggery answered.

“Bernard Sult is running around, snapping out questions like he expects them to be answered. I’ve managed to avoid Strom all morning, but I don’t think Ravel has been so lucky. What are we looking to get out of Mackin here?”

“Just where they’re staying. We can’t afford delays. They know we’ll be questioning him, so they won’t stay around for long.”

Ghastly nodded. “I’m going to send Elsie in first. Maybe she’ll be able to appeal to his better nature before we have to scare him.”

Valkyrie and Skulduggery stepped into the room adjacent, nodding to the mage who sat at the monitor. She saw Sean on screen, sitting at the table and looking scared. The door opened, and Elsie O’Brien walked in. She was a heavyset girl in black, with thick eyeliner and a pierced lip. She had a nice face, but she was worried. Nervous.

Sean glared at her. “I should have known you’d be here.”

“It’s OK,” Elsie said. “Everything’s going to be OK now.”

He slouched in his chair. “Really? Are you going to force them to let me go?”

“They only want to help you.”

He laughed. It was a nasty laugh. “Does it look like I’m being helped? I’m in a jail cell. I was put in handcuffs.”

“Sean, you have to know that what you were doing was wrong.”

“You’re such a coward.”

“Please just—”

“Please just,” he mimicked. “Do you have any idea how annoying your voice sounds, you ignorant cow? You look like a cow as well, did I ever tell you that? You’re fat and ugly like a cow. I couldn’t stand it when you smiled at me. I wanted to vomit.”

The door opened and Sean shut up. Ghastly walked in.

Sean gathered his feet under him and looked at his hands as Ghastly pulled a chair over. He sat across from him.

“Now then,” Ghastly said, “you want to talk about ugly, Sean?”

Sean swallowed.

“There are those who have said over the years that I myself am ugly. What do you think?”

Sean gave the tiniest of terrified shrugs.

Ghastly leaned forward. “Am I ugly, Sean?”

“You... you have scars.”

“And do they make me ugly?”

“I don’t... I...”

“Well?”

“No. They don’t make you ugly.”

“So I’m not ugly? Am I handsome?”

Sean nodded quickly.

“Am I the most handsome man in the world?”

“Yes.”

“Just as I suspected,” Ghastly said to Elsie, “this guy doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”

A small smile flickered on Elsie’s lips, and Ghastly looked back at Sean.

“She’s trying to help you, you idiot. She asked to come in here, to talk to you, to try and get through to you. Because no one else wants to help. You hear an army of people outside this door, begging to be allowed to help you?”

“N-no.”

“No. Exactly. Because there isn’t one. But Elsie wanted to try, and this is how you repay her? She told us you were a good guy, Sean. That you were decent. Not like Doran. Doran’s a psycho. And not like Kitana. She’s... she’s something else. Elsie told us that you just got carried away a little. The power went to your head. Is that what happened?”

“Yes.”

“Did the power go to your head, Sean?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why you killed those people?”

“I’m... I didn’t...”

“You also killed a few of ours, outside that school. And another sorcerer, a man named Patrick Xebec. He had a wife, did you know that? I bet you didn’t. And you killed him.”

“No,” said Sean. “I didn’t. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Where are your friends, Sean?”

“I don’t— I don’t know.”

“Where are they staying?”

“I don’t know, I swear.”

“Then where were you staying?”

Sean hesitated. “Please... I don’t want—”

Ghastly slammed his fist on the table and Sean jumped. “You don’t have your magic in here, Sean. In here, you’re just an ordinary boy. You’re an ordinary boy in an awful lot of trouble. It’s over for you. You’re caught. We have you. You’ve got to help yourself as much as you can, because no one apart from Elsie cares about you. Where were you staying?”

Sean swallowed thickly. “A friend’s house,” he said. “His name’s Morgan Ruigrok.”

“Don’t make up names, Sean.”

“He isn’t,” said Elsie. “I know him. His whole family’s got weird names. I know where he lives.”

Ghastly nodded. “Well, OK then. This is a good start.” He got up, walked to the door.

Sean licked his lips. “Am... am I going to get a lawyer?”

Ghastly opened the door and didn’t look back. “We have people who can read your mind, Sean. Why the hell would we need lawyers?”

Valkyrie and Skulduggery joined Ghastly and Elsie outside.

“Elsie,” said Ghastly, “this is Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery’s partner.”

“Hi,” Valkyrie said, shaking her hand. “You know these Ruigroks?”

“Morgan goes to school with us,” Elsie said. “His family live in Stonybatter, but they’re all in Holland for a few weeks.”

Ghastly nodded. “We have a lead,” he said. “Better get going.”

Skulduggery and Valkyrie turned to leave, but stopped. Ghastly cursed. Ravel walked towards them, Quintin Strom and Grim right behind. Strom looked furious.

“You,” he said, jabbing a finger at Skulduggery. “I want to talk to you.”

“I really don’t have time.”

“You’ll make time,” Strom said, his lip curling, “because I am dying to hear why you went into that school without waiting for back-up.”

“Oh, come on,” Valkyrie said, her own anger rising. “If we’d waited ten minutes, who knows how bad things would have got? Yeah, stories are circulating on the Internet but no one’s dead. A teacher got a few bruises but that’s it. Isn’t that a win for us?”

“This is a disaster,” said Strom. “Pure and simple. With the technology available today, we have to be extra vigilant in blocking communications and stopping the word from getting out. This is exactly the kind of thing we were worried about.”

“The situation is being handled,” said Ravel.

Strom glared at him. “Handled? This is being handled? This? I have been treating you with great sensitivity and tact because I know that having a Supreme Council looking over your shoulder cannot be easy to accept. I’ve almost been embarrassed to be here. But now I see I have to be here. I need to be here.”

“Now just hold on a second—”

“No!” said Strom. “No, I will not hold on a second! You have been entrusted with the responsibility of running this Sanctuary and enforcing all of its laws and policies and you are failing, and failing spectacularly.”

The muscle in Ravel’s jaw stood out. “You’re still a guest here, Grand Mage Strom. Do not make me regret my decision to allow you to observe.”

“You didn’t allow me anything! I allowed you! I allowed you to fool yourselves into thinking you had a choice!” Strom took a breath. When he had his anger under control, he spoke again. “You are clearly unfit to serve as Grand Mage,” he announced, “and all three of you are unfit to serve on the Council of Elders. By the authority vested in me by the international community I am hereby taking command of this Sanctuary. You are relieved of your duties.”

Nobody moved.

Valkyrie was frozen to the spot, though her eyes darted from person to person.

Moving slowly, Grim reached for his jacket, and Skulduggery drew his revolver and pointed it into his face.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Skulduggery said.

The bodyguard raised his hands.

Strom’s eyes widened. “What you just did is illegal.”

“We’re in charge,” Ravel told him. “You think we’re going to roll over just because you tell us to? Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I am a Grand Mage, Mr Ravel, a title I earned because of hard work and dedication. Whereas you, on the other hand, are Grand Mage because nobody else wanted the job.”

“Whoa,” said Ravel. “That was a little below the belt, don’t you think?”

“None of you have the required experience or wisdom to do what is expected of you. I know you’ll find it hard to believe, but we didn’t come here to take control. We came here to help.”

“And now you want to take control anyway.”

“You have proven yourselves incompetent. And what are you doing now? You’re holding a Grand Mage at gunpoint?”

“Technically, Skulduggery is only holding a Grand Mage’s bodyguard at gunpoint. Which isn’t nearly as bad.”

“You all seem to be forgetting that I have thirty-eight mages loyal to the Supreme Council in this country.”

“And you seem to be under the illusion that we find that intimidating.”

“If I go missing—”

“Missing?” Ravel said. “Who said anything about going missing? No, no. You’re just going to be in a really long and really important meeting, that’s all.”

“Don’t be a fool,” said Strom. “You can’t win here, Ravel. There are more of us than there are of you. And the moment our mages get wind of what’s going on down here, the rest of the Supreme Council will descend on you like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

“Quintin, Quintin, Quintin... you make it sound like we’re going to war. This isn’t war. This is an argument. And like all arguments between grown-ups, we keep it away from the kiddies. You’ve got thirty-eight mages in the country? Ghastly, how many cells do we have?”

“If we double up we’ll manage.”

“Don’t make this any worse for yourselves,” said Strom. “An attack on any one of our mages will be considered an act of war.”

“There’s that word again,” said Ravel.

“This is insanity. Erskine, think about what you’re doing.”

“What we’re doing, Quintin, is allowing our people to do their jobs.”

“This is kidnapping.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. We’re just going to keep you separated from your people for as long as we need to resolve the current crisis. Skulduggery and Valkyrie are on the case. When have they ever let us down?”

Ravel turned to them, gave them a smile. “You’d better not let us down.”

Skulduggery inclined his head slightly, and Valkyrie went with him as he walked away.

“Holy cow,” Valkyrie whispered when they were around the corner.

“Holy cow indeed.”

Before Kitana and her friends had made it their temporary home, this had been a perfectly nice house. But now there were holes blown – and punched – through walls. Valkyrie did not envy the family who were going to return to this mess. Ordinarily there would have been a clean-up crew hard at work already, but with everything that had been going on they just couldn’t afford to bother with the little stuff.

“No sign of where they moved on to,” said Skulduggery. “Ghastly’s going to try and get a little more out of our prisoner, but I don’t like his chances. I think if Sean had anything else to tell us, he’d have told us.”

“Are you worried?”

“Do I look worried?”

“You never look worried.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not.”

“Are you worried about putting Quintin Strom in shackles?”

“Oh,” he said, “that. Hmm. I don’t know. It’s definitely a situation we have found ourselves in.”

“Could it lead to war?”

“Possibly.”

“But would they really go to war? I mean, war’s a pretty big deal. It’s huge, like. It’s war.”

“War is war,” Skulduggery admitted. “This is very true.”

“Would they really go to war over something so small as pulling a gun on a Grand Mage and imprisoning him and all of his bodyguards and sorcerers and stuff? It’s not like we killed him or anything. This isn’t Franz Ferdinand we’re talking about.”

“Hopefully, they’ll see the funny side of it.”

“There’s a funny side?”

“I don’t know. I’m hoping they’ll see it and point it out to us.”

“How long do you think we’ll have before Strom’s people start to get suspicious?”

“Ravel should be able to bluff his way through a few hours,” Skulduggery said, “so we’ll have to make the most of it. Do you realise that you’re holding your arm?”

Valkyrie looked down, suddenly aware of the dull throbbing. “Uh-oh.”

Skulduggery grabbed her shoulder and took out his phone. Valkyrie started texting. The room flickered.

“Ghastly,” Skulduggery said, “we’re about to shunt. We’ll be in touch.” He hung up.

Valkyrie’s thumb danced over her phone. Mum, phone battery almost dead! Staying at Hannah’s for extra studying and pizza!! Be home tomorrow xx

The throb in her arm was making her hand shake, but she pressed SEND and held her breath, waiting for the message to deliver.

And then the house vanished and they were outside and there was sunlight streaming through the trees. Skulduggery looked at her.

“Did it go through?”

She checked her phone, and nodded, breathing in relief. Even as she’d been writing it, she wondered if she was using too many exclamation marks, but she was glad she left them in. Nothing says “all is good with the world” like exclamation marks, after all.

“So,” Skulduggery said, “this is the alternate reality, then.”

Valkyrie watched him as he looked around. God, she was glad he was here.

“Right,” he said, “we need to get past the wall and into the City. We can’t fly in – they’ll have guards posted and all kinds of security systems, and we just don’t have the time to conduct reconnaissance. We’re going to need help. We need the Resistance.”

“If any of them are left,” she said. “The last time I saw them there was a whole lot of dying going on.”

“Then the best place to start looking would be the field where you last saw them.” He wrapped an arm round her waist, and they lifted off the ground. “You’ll have to direct me.”

“You realise,” Valkyrie said, “that China is the leader.”

“I do,” he replied.

“And you’re OK with that?”

“I am. Besides, there’s always the chance that she was among the ones who were killed by Mevolent’s forces.”

“Mr Bright Side,” she muttered.