Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [149]
Valkyrie heard footsteps and turned as Vaurien Scapegrace charged out of the darkness, yelling a war cry. The White Cleaver suddenly thrust Melancholia into Valkyrie’s arms. His scythe glinted, and Scapegrace’s head popped off. Valkyrie stared as his body kept running and toppled into the water.
The White Cleaver swished his scythe into its fixture, then took Melancholia back from Valkyrie. There was another cry, this time a long, mournful wail, as Thrasher staggered towards them.
“What have you done?” he cried. “What have you done?”
“Don’t kill him,” Valkyrie told the White Cleaver. Melancholia nodded her agreement, and so when Thrasher was close enough, the White Cleaver merely kicked him. Thrasher went hurtling back into the shadows.
Valkyrie hesitated, then picked up Scapegrace’s head. She’d never liked him. The first time she’d met him, he’d tried to throw her off a building. Time and time again, he’d tried to kill her, until his failures actually started to endear him to her. She realised she had begun to view him as a dumb little puppy who would always turn up, sooner or later, to chew on her sock or poo in her shoe. She was going to miss him.
He swivelled his eyes to her and she yelped and dropped his head. He bounced, and landed on his ear.
“I’ll get you,” he wheezed. “All of you. You’re dead!”
Valkyrie didn’t know what to do. She glanced back. Even Melancholia’s eyes widened in surprise.
Valkyrie picked up the head again. “Sorry,” she said.
Scapegrace tried to bite her hand, and she slapped him lightly.
“Behave.”
“When my Master hears about this—”
“Scapegrace, what the hell are you doing down here?”
He sneered. “I’ll never tell!”
“Who’s your Master?”
“I’ll never tell you that, either!”
“How did you even get here?”
“Let me bite you. Just let me bite you.”
She slapped him again. “Scapegrace, listen to me. You’ve got a choice. Either tell me what I want to know, or I throw you into the lake.”
“I’m not afraid!” Scapegrace said defiantly.
“Are you sure about that? On the lake bed, all alone. Who knows how long it’ll take for you to rot away?”
“Go to hell!”
“I wonder what strange mutant monster fish they have down here. I bet they’ll start to nibble at you.”
“You can’t scare me!”
“You’ll go mad first, of course. Mad with despair. Mad with hopelessness. It could take years.”
“Shut up,” Scapegrace said feebly.
“Is your Master a man called Vandameer Craven?” Valkyrie asked.
“Yes!” Scapegrace wheezed proudly.
“He showed you another way into these caves?”
“Yes!”
“You need to tell us where you came in.”
“My Master will kill you all.”
“Craven’s dead,” Melancholia said.
His eyes swivelled to her. “What?”
“He’s dead, killed by Skulduggery Pleasant. But you’ll take orders from any Necromancer, won’t you? My name is Melancholia St Clair. I’m a Necromancer.”
“Mistress,” Scapegrace wheezed adoringly.
Valkyrie turned him back towards her. “You take your orders from us now, all right?”
Scapegrace looked at her for a long moment, then his face crumpled. “I can’t even nod! You took away my body, now I can’t even nod!”
“Were you trying to nod?”
“Yes!”
“Maybe you should tell us if you’re doing something like that.”
“Fine, I’m nodding, OK?”
“Good. Melancholia needs to find another way out of here.”
“Turn me round.” She did so. “See that tunnel up there? See the light? That’s a flashlight. Thrasher dropped it, like an idiot. There were a lot of us when we came in. Now there’s only two of us left.”
“Well,” Valkyrie said, “there’s one and a bit of you left.”
“Turn me round again.” She did so. He tried to bite her.
She held him by the few strands of hair that still clung to his burnt, rotten scalp. “When we get to that tunnel, where do we go?”
“Follow the flashlights the others dropped,” he snarled. “But there are monsters up there. Horrible, chattering monsters, and they’ll eat you. I hope they eat you. Not you, Mistress. But I hope they eat her.”
“I understand,” Melancholia