Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [100]
“Oh, dear. Oh, dear me. Well, we knew this would eventually happen. Um… The important thing is to remember the good times, but not dwell on them… Dwelling leads to miserable thoughts and the playing of bad music. It is to be avoided at all costs. Fletcher… There will be another Fletcher, and another one after him, and another… It’s not the end of the world, Valkyrie. You know what the end of the world looks like – by all accounts you’re the cause of it.”
He chuckled. She didn’t. He stopped chuckling.
“He didn’t dump me,” she said. “I broke up with him.”
“Oh,” said Gordon, much brighter now. “Well, that is completely different! Excellent. Bravo. Well, not excellent. I liked the boy. He seemed nice. But obviously, you had a good reason for ending it.”
“It just felt like the time. I was getting… bored.”
“The death knell for many a mediocre relationship. I can’t tell you how many beautiful women have broken up with me because they were bored. I can’t tell you because it never happened. They all adored me.”
“It was your humility, wasn’t it?”
“I’m sure that had something to do with it. You’re like me, Valkyrie. You’re never going to be content until you find that one person, that one single person, who fills you with delight every time you hear their name.”
“Did you ever find that person?”
He hesitated. “Yes. I did.”
“And what happened?”
“Does it matter? What matters is you. You can’t let this get you down.”
“I wasn’t. I’m upset about it, I suppose, but… There’s other stuff happening too.”
“There always is.”
“Skulduggery kept a secret from me.”
“I see. You think that was wrong of him?”
“No, not wrong, but it’s a pretty big secret, and it’s… it’s bad.”
“Is he still your friend?”
Valkyrie sighed.
“Has he moved against you in any way? Has he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Then is he still your friend?”
“I suppose.”
“This secret, how long has he had it?”
“Hundreds of years.”
“Then it has nothing to do with you. It’s quite simple, isn’t it? He kept something from you, something about his past, and now you know it, and now you deal with it and move on.”
She filled her cheeks with air, then blew it out. “It sounds really easy when you say it. It doesn’t feel easy.”
“Everyone has secrets, Valkyrie. I don’t need to tell you that. So long as he hasn’t used this secret to intentionally hurt you, however, I don’t see the problem. Friends stick by each other. That’s what they do.”
She looked at him. “You are a wise and noble man, Uncle Gordon.”
“And good-looking. You forgot good-looking.”
“That’s taken for granted.”
“As well it should be. Now then, do you have any other problems I can help you with?”
“There’s a vampire who’s in love with me.”
“Dump him. Any other problems?”
Valkyrie laughed. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“In that case, be off with you. I have a book to write, characters to kill, and a party to plan.”
Chapter 37
The Wisdom of Leonard Cohen
hastly checked his watch as he walked the corridors of the Sanctuary, resigning himself to the fact that, once again, it looked like he’d be spending the night in his office instead of going home. He yawned heavily as he rounded the corner, and saw Fletcher Renn sitting outside his door.
“Fletcher,” Ghastly said.
The kid looked up. His jeans were tattered, his boots were scuffed, and his T-shirt was a faded advertisement for a band Ghastly had never heard of. It was the eyes, though, that marked him out as truly tired. The eyes, and the hair. Usually so meticulously untamed, tonight it hung long and flat and swept back off his forehead.
“Hi,” Fletcher said. “I know it’s late, but… And I’m sorry if you’re busy.”
Ghastly was always busy these days. He had closed his shop and embraced the duties of an Elder, letting his new responsibilities wash over his old life and consume him completely. “I have some free time,” he lied. “What can I do for you?”
Fletcher got up slowly, stiffly, like he’d been sitting