Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 7 – 9: The Darquesse Trilogy. Derek Landy

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      “Oh, yeah. And everyone’s wearing shirts and ties and arguing about annual reports and the photocopier not working... That’d be heaven.”

      “Are you sure?”

      “The hum that phosphorescent lights make – is it as comforting as I remember?”

      “Uh...”

      “I miss that sound so much.” She looked away, and after a moment Valkyrie became aware of a very low hum that was coming from Lenka’s direction.

      Valkyrie cleared her throat. “Can I ask you something?”

      Lenka stopped humming. “Sure.”

      “Why did you come here? I mean, I can’t imagine making that decision, to leave everything behind just to watch over one person that you don’t even know.”

      Lenka smiled. “Tyren asked. How could I refuse? I’d just started working for the Sanctuary, and I was full of ideals and pure thoughts. Once you start working there, you give yourself over to a higher duty, don’t you? You become a protector. You’re ready to give your life to ensure the safety of others.”

      “That’s a very dramatic way of looking at things.”

      “I’m a very dramatic person. But I’m sure you’re the same.”

      “Dramatic?”

      “Willing to give your life for the safety of others.”

      “Eh, I don’t think so. Have you met those others? Most of them are idiots.”

      “So there is no one you would die for?”

      Valkyrie went quiet for a moment. “I’d die for my parents and my sister.”

      “See?” Lenka said. “Out there, in the world, there are people I would die for. They are the reason I’m here. They are the reason I’ve sacrificed a normal life. I do this to keep them safe.”

      “I hope they appreciate it.”

      “Sadly, they will never know. They think I just disappeared one day. I couldn’t even leave them a note.”

      “My God. That’s the most... selfless thing I’ve ever heard.”

      “Then you should talk to the others,” Lenka said with a little laugh. “They’ve all sacrificed just as much as me, if not more. But we do what we do to make the world a safer place. When it gets cold here, really cold, that thought keeps me warm.”

      “I... I want to hug you.”

      “Hugging also keeps me warm.”

      Valkyrie hugged her and Lenka laughed again.

      “When you’re quite finished,” Skulduggery said, walking by.

      Valkyrie got up. “See you around?” she said to Lenka.

      Lenka held up her hands. “It’s kind of inevitable.”

      Valkyrie caught up to Skulduggery. “These people are really nice. I’m not used to nice people. I’m used to you.”

      “I’m nice,” he said.

      “I can’t believe that you are what I now think of as normal, so that whenever I meet nice people they seem like weirdos.”

      “I’m very nice.”

      “You insult everyone you meet.”

      “Not every single person. I don’t have time to insult every single person. And have I insulted anyone since we got here? No, I have not, because I am, as I said, nice.”

      “I don’t think I’d be as nice as these guys if I’d been stuck here for the last thirty years. What kind of person do you think you’d need to be in order to spend thirty years in a mountain?”

      “I don’t know,” Skulduggery said. “The kind of person who loves mountains, perhaps?”

      “I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.”

      “Me neither. I’d say you’d be quite cranky. But Lament picked them for a reason. They each have the right temperament. They each have a little thing called patience.”

      Valkyrie snapped her fingers. “See, that’s why I’d be useless in here.”

      “It’s definitely one of the reasons.”

      She scowled at him.

      The corridor split and they veered left until they came to the only room in there that didn’t have natural rock for walls. The laboratory was all stainless steel and polished surfaces, as precise and detailed as anything Valkyrie had ever seen in the Sanctuary. It was sleek and so compact that she almost missed the fact that the room was packed full of machinery and monitors. Lament sat in the corner, drinking tea.

      “Hi,” Valkyrie said as they approached.

      “He can’t hear you,” Skulduggery told her. “See his eyes? See the way they move? He’s working.”

      “He’s drinking tea.”

      “His body is drinking tea. His mind is in the circuitry.”

      She looked around. “What, in all this?”

      “Why bother looking at a computer when you can be the computer?”

      “That’s... kind of creepy.”

      Lament stood up. “Indeed it is.”

      “Oh! Sorry...”

      “No need to apologise. When I was your age, my mother did her best to persuade me to study a more conventional discipline of magic, but science was always too dear to my heart. Thanks for waiting. I just had some tests I needed to finish up. Did you sleep well?”

      “I did,” said Valkyrie. “Thank you.”

      “I have to ask your forgiveness, actually, for last night. You caught me unawares, as you can imagine. You came all the way here to see how we managed to contain Argeddion, and it would be churlish of me to deny you. Please, this way.” He led them through a door, standing to one side and presenting his creation with a flourish.

      The room was a mass of alloy and wood, with magical symbols carved on every surface. Four steel arms protruded from the corners, stretched towards the middle where they almost met. Hovering between the tips of these arms was a cage of energy that crackled with power, and within that cage was a man. Dressed in a white bodysuit, Argeddion rotated gently in mid-air, his eyes closed and his expression peaceful. He looked young, maybe around thirty years old. He had black hair, cut short, and a clean-shaven face. He didn’t look like the kind of man who would destroy the world if he woke up.

      Directly beneath the cage was a metre-high glass pyramid, in which raged a small storm of energy. СКАЧАТЬ