Chapter 108
Valkyrie stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and went into her room. She no longer wanted to be at home, she wanted to be with Skulduggery, and she wondered why she had wanted to go home so badly. But, as she was home, she had decided to make the most of it until Skulduggery called. She had said hello to her parents, who were still slightly traumatised after what had happened, and often, when they thought she wasn't looking, they had this far-away look in their eyes. Alice was asleep, and Valkyrie thought it best not to wake her, no matter how much she wanted to talk to her.
She got dressed, grabbed her phone and was half-way down the stairs when it rang. It was Skulduggery. She sat down on the stairs and answered.
"Hello? Valkyrie, are you there?" Skulduggery said.
"Yes, what's wrong?" she said.
"I'm outside your house. China's angry. We have to go to the Sanctuary now."
She sighed, but smiled. "No rest for the wicked, eh?"
There was a pause, and then came Skulduggery's reply. "None at all."
Valkyrie hung up, and walked down the stairs, and shouted to her parents. "I've got to go, see you," she said. Without waiting for their reply she walked out the door and saw Skulduggery sitting in the Bentley on the drive. She went out to the car and got in.
"China's furious that we ignored her." Skulduggery said. "She said something about escaped prisoners from the Gaol."
They didn't talk for a while, but it was comfortable, easy silence, and Valkyrie let her mind wander as the buildings and trees whipped by. Why had I wanted to go home? To stop fighting? I've never wanted to stop fighting before, she thought, and she mulled over or pondered these things until they reached Roarhaven.
They reached the people guarding the entrance to the city, and one of them looked up and said, "Sorry folks, the roads closed. You'll have to turn around." But when Skulduggery didn't move the car, he came over. Valkyrie saw the change on his face when he saw them both, and when he realised who it was he walked away and Skulduggery moved the car on.
They reached the Sanctuary got out of the car. They went inside and Tipstaff walked up to them and said, "Hullo, Valkyrie and Skulduggery. Grand Mage Sorrows herself said you can walk right in." Valkyrie thanked him, and they walked past him. But just as they walked out of the room Tipstaff called after them. "She seemed a bit angry," he said. Valkyrie turned around and smiled.
"Thanks," she said. They walked for a while, and finally they reached the Room of Prisms, where China was once again sitting on her throne. Skulduggery let Valkyrie walk in first, and then walked in behind her.
China stood up when she saw them walk in and walked towards them. "There's been a breakout," she said.
"A 'thanks for saving the world' would be nice," Valkyrie muttered. "Do we not get a moment's break?"
China continued. "As I said," she said, "there's been a breakout. Whilst we were looking the other way, concentrating on fighting Darquesse, almost all the prisoners in the Gaol escaped. I've sent people to look for them, but the reports so far have come up with nothing. Either the people looking for them are extremely incompetent, or the prisoners are lying very low, or both. I need you to find them, and bring them back to the Gaol."
"Are there any leads at all on where they are?" Skulduggery asked.
"I've been told that they might be heading towards a town called Kfar, although I have never heard of this place before," China said.
"No, neither have I," Skulduggery said.
The doors burst open and a man who looked young, and had a great mop of hair walked in. He walked right up to China and started talking quickly and quietly, so quietly that Valkyrie couldn't hear what was being said. China pursed her lips and nodded, and then the man appeared to have finished talking. Valkyrie watched him go, and as soon as he left China started talking.
"Apparently one of the men who escaped has taught himself to shadow-walk. He isn't a necromancer, he's an adept, but apparently he can shadow-walk. One of the men in the search party looking for the prisoners has apparently reported that when he shadow-walks it looks like he's become a sort of running shadow, like he's running to where he wants to go. Oh, also, apparently when he's shadow walking you can't see him, only his reflection."
Skulduggery said, "I've never heard of anyone teaching themselves to shadow-walk. I didn't even know you could teach yourself it, even if you were a necromancer."
Something flickered in the mirrors all around the room, a dark shadow, of something that looked like a person. Valkyrie frowned, and looked behind her, to see what was being reflected. There was nothing there. The shadow in the mirror flickered again, but now there was another one in a different mirror, always flickering out of view, like it was running.
"Did you see that?" Valkyrie asked, her voice coming out a little louder than she had expected. China had been talking, and she faltered, looking at Valkyrie.
"See what?" China said. The shadows ran across the mirrors again. Valkyrie looked behind her, trying to see if the shadows were there in the room. Again, there was nothing behind her, nothing to reflect in the mirror.
"Look," she said. "Look in the mirror. There's something there." Skulduggery turned his head and looked in the mirror, and China turned and looked as well. There was nothing.
"Valkyrie, there's nothing there. If you were worrying that the prisoners have got into the Sanctuary, well, there's no way they could've as the security is so high that-" This time it was Skulduggery that cut her off.
"China," he said quietly, "turn around, and look in the mirror behind you."
China turned, and Valkyrie watched her eyes widen as she saw the shadow. The cleavers behind her simultaneously stepped one step closer to China, as though they were aware of the danger. They all watched the mirror, suddenly very still and silent. The shadow had gone, but still they watched with bated breath, trying to see what it was. It appeared in the mirror again, and this time there was a knife where the shadow's hand was. Suddenly they heard this laughter behind them, a cold laughter. Skulduggery turned around, searching the room for where the laughter had come from, trying to locate its source. Valkyrie carried on watching the mirror. Valkyrie watched the shadow come closer to China, and she was about to warn her when China cried out loud. Her wrist was slit, and red blood was trickling down her hand and dripping onto the floor, staining the perfectly white stone.
The laughter came back, this time louder. As soon as the laughter started Valkyrie had this sudden longing to go home and see her parents, and her sister, her poor, poor sister. The guilt that she had been trying so hard to suppress seeped through her and she very nearly started to cry.
"Don't listen to the laughter!" Skulduggery said.
But then the doors burst open and a crowd of people so big that Valkyrie couldn't see where it ended, all wearing tattered old clothes tumbled in through the doors. The man in front, an old man, with long, matted grey hair and a long thin face looked at them and smiled. Suddenly someone appeared by his side, and he smiled at him, revealing a line of crooked yellow teeth. The man who had just appeared turned and looked at Skulduggery and Valkyrie and China, and smiled too. He was just about to say something when there was suddenly a commotion at the back of the group. Someone was forcing their way through to the front, and when he reached the front he yelled, "Right you lot, put your hands on your head!" No one moved. He seemed disappointed. The old man with the long grey hair spoke. "I'm sorry, please forgive Fallaciloquence here." The man with the crooked yellow teeth, who had appeared out of nothing, sighed and said, "Just call him Fal. That's what I do. I can never remember his name." No one spoke after that, no one moved. Then Skulduggery spoke. "You are all the escaped prisoners, aren't you? Shame really, I was expecting more from convicts." The man, Fal, frowned. He was looking at them and then suddenly, his eyes widened. He turned and ran to the window and broke through it, shattering the glass. He fell two floors, landed lightly on the ground and ran quickly away.
The man who had the crooked yellow teeth smiled evilly and said, "We've come here to kill you. We're going to kill you all." Skulduggery looked at China and said, "Get out of here. As incompetent as they may be-"
"They're stronger than they look," China interjected.
"You still need to get out of here. I'm sorry but you'll have to sit this one out, especially if they want to murder you in particular. There are too many of them." He looked at Valkyrie. "They're all prisoners from the Gaol, and that means they're powerful, and mad. They were secured for a reason." China nodded, and turned, and was walking out the doors when the old man held up his hands and made the door slam in front of her. Valkyrie heard it lock.
China turned around and walked behind Skulduggery and Valkyrie, where she stopped. She tapped her palms on each hand, and the symbols glowed. Twin streams of what looked like pure white light hit the old man in the chest and he staggered back, and dropped to the floor, dead. The twin streams cut off and China stumbled, suddenly very pale. She suddenly turned around, ran to the door and touched a symbol on her finger. She pressed it against the door and it flew open. She ran.
"Until the end?" Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery whilst the prisoners' attention was briefly on China.
He looked at her for a moment. "Until the end," he said, and they turned back to the prisoners, who charged towards them
