Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

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      “Think nothing of it. How did Serpine die, anyway?”

      “Painfully.”

      Echo-Gordon grinned. “Oh, good.”

      The Bentley pulled up outside Gordon’s house just as Valkyrie was closing the door.

      “Are you all right?” Skulduggery asked as soon as he got out.

      “I told you on the phone, I’m OK. Tanith arrived just in time to save the day.”

      Skulduggery looked at Tanith. “Thank you.”

      “Val had it handled,” Tanith said with a shrug.

      “How did your top secret sneaky business go?” Valkyrie asked, eager to change the subject.

      Skulduggery hesitated. “This is a sensitive subject.”

      “We’re all friends here, aren’t we? So where’d you go?”

      “Well, I … I broke into the Sanctuary.”

      “I’m sorry, you what?”

      “What you were saying earlier, about how Thurid Guild is like a politician with people to please. It got me thinking. So I broke into his private chambers. I had a hunch.”

      Tanith stared at him. “That’s … that’s pretty dangerous, Skulduggery. If the Cleavers had caught you …”

      “I know. It would have been an interesting fight. But I had to risk it, really. I was curious.”

      “About what?” asked Valkyrie.

      “There may be reason to believe that Thurid Guild was involved in Vengeous’ escape.”

      “Involved how?” Valkyrie asked, her eyes narrowing. “Is he a traitor?”

      “My illicit investigation is just beginning. It’s too early to—”

      “Just like Sagacious Tome,” Valkyrie interrupted. “And China!”

      Skulduggery tilted his head. “China’s not a traitor.”

      “But she used to worship the Faceless Ones, didn’t she?”

      “Well, yes, but we’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”

      “Even you?” Skulduggery looked at her, but didn’t say anything.

      “How could a traitor be elected as the new Grand Mage?” Tanith asked, and he shook his head.

      “These are my suspicions, nothing more. I liberated some files belonging to the Grand Mage—”

      “Liberated?”

      “—and I’ll need some time to go over them. Until then, Thurid Guild is innocent until proven guilty. That said, obviously we still don’t trust him. That would be silly.”

      “Sure,” Tanith said.

      “Absolutely,” Valkyrie said.

      “All right then, have either of you managed to turn up anything that will help us?”

      Valkyrie looked at Tanith, who suddenly looked down at her boots.

      “I’ve been … reading.”

      “Research?” Skulduggery asked. Tanith went a little red and Skulduggery tilted his head.

      “You’ve been reading Gordon’s book again, haven’t you?”

      “It’s a white-knuckle roller-coaster ride,” she mumbled.

      He sighed and looked to Valkyrie. “And you?”

      Echo-Gordon had asked her not to tell anyone about him, at least until he had grown used to the idea that he was the only version of Gordon Edgley left on the planet. Valkyrie had reluctantly agreed.

      “I found something in one of Uncle Gordon’s notebooks,” she lied. “Apparently someone called the Torment might know where Vengeous hid the Grotesquery.”

      “The Torment?”

      “I don’t know if he’s real or not.”

      “He’s real.”

      “Do you know him?”

      “No,” Skulduggery said. “But I know someone who does.”

      

      illy-Ray Sanguine didn’t like the Infected.

      He looked at them as he passed, looked at their blank faces and dull eyes. Half of them dug, half of them cleared rocks and they never took a break. Dusk’s command over them was absolute.

      Sanguine left them to it. As he walked, he felt the knife in his belt. It was big and heavy and awkward. He much preferred his cut-throat razor, but that girl had taken it from him. He was looking forward to seeing her again.

      The caves were big, and the lights they had rigged up barely made a dent in the darkness, through which Baron Vengeous now strode.

       “The Infected have cleared the chambers to the east,” Sanguine told him. “The armour ain’t there. I’ve searched the caves to the west, didn’t find anythin’. Tunnelled through a couple of collapsed passageways to the north, still nothin’. Looks like the armour, if it’s here at all, is in one of the chambers to the south.”

       “It’s here,” Vengeous said with confidence. “Lord Vile died in these caves, I know it. What of my garments?”

       In order to don the armour, Vengeous would need special garments to protect him from the Necromancer power within. It had been Sanguine’s job to obtain these garments.

       “They’ll be ready by nightfall,” Sanguine said, “as promised.”

       “They had better be.”

      Sanguine looked at him, but said nothing. The Baron was not a man to be trifled with, especially at a time like this. Someone else Sanguine didn’t like was Dusk. He didn’t like vampires as a rule, but he really disliked Dusk, especially the way he could sneak up without making a sound. Vengeous was the only person Sanguine had ever met who could hear Dusk approaching. Which was why, when Dusk spoke from right beside Sanguine, Sanguine jumped and Vengeous remained perfectly still.

       “Baron,” Dusk СКАЧАТЬ