Valkyrie scrambled out of the Bentley as soon as Skulduggery pulled into a carpark next to Satya's car. Satya was digging through her car boot before finally pulling out a gym bag and a pair of boots that weren't so different to the ones Valkyrie wore.
"This is a mess," Dexter said gravely, falling into step with Skulduggery, "Ghastly's picking Anton and Robin up from the hotel now."
"Good," Skulduggery said, "We're going to need all hands on deck."
"Mr Bliss is here too," Satya said, checking her phone as they neared The Waxworks Museum where the Sanctuary was apparently located.
"I didn't realise he and China were speaking," Dexter commented.
"They're not but I think Bliss can throw away a century of not-talking to go on a mission to save his sister," Satya replied.
"China has a brother?" Valkyrie said in surprise, "She seems like the only child type."
"Ah yes-" Skulduggery opened the door to the back entrance of the museum, "Satya and Dexter, may I have the pleasure of introducing you to Valkyrie Cain?"
Satya grinned, "Nice one," She complimented, "Suits you."
Valkyrie flushed, "Thanks."
She followed them into a hallway that led to three doors, "I can't believe the Sanctuary is hidden in this museum- I came here all the time as a kid."
They took the furthest door on the left, emerging into the gleaming foyer of the Sanctuary. It would have reminded Valkyrie of the lobby of a high-tech company's building—all marble and varnished wood paneling—had it not been for the lack of windows. Two men stood guard against the far wall, hands clasped behind them, dressed entirely in gray, with long coats and some sort of helmet with a visor that covered the entire face. Each had a scythe, a wicked-looking blade on a five-foot staff, strapped to his back. A slight man in a suit came out to greet them.
"Detectives, the Elders are waiting for you in the war room."
Skulduggery nodded, "Before we meet them we would like to convene with the Dead Men in a private room," He said.
The man looked slightly confused but nodded, "Make it quick," He warned.
He led them to a room that was down the hall, passing three of the guards that were running in a group down the hall.
As soon as they walked into an empty office and the door was shut Satya dumped her bag onto the desk and began unbuttoning her shirt.
Seconds later, Hopeless and Saracen walked into the room.
"You have the plan handled?" Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie blinked quickly averting her eyes as Satya pulled down her jeans, kicking off her heels before pulling on a black shirt and leather pants, pulling on a matching leather jacket on top of her shirt.
"Morwenna Crow remains the voice of reason while Tome stays annoying yet silent," Saracen grumbled, "Bliss has eyes on Serpine's castle so as soon as Skulduggery walks in it's all go."
"Woah, you're somewhat a big deal around here," Valkyrie commented. Saracen snorted, shaking his head, "He led us during the war- The feeling of taking orders from him doesn't really go away."
"As soon as the others get here then you go get the sceptre with Anton and Robin," Skulduggery ordered, ignoring Valkyrie, "Satya, you go in with the extraction team."
She watched as Satya slid a knife into each of her boots before strapping her gun holster to her waist, "Okay, I'm ready to go."
Dexter jumped off the desk he was sitting on, dumping her clothes that she had thrown at him into her bag unceremoniously.
"The plan is simple," Skulduggery stood at the head of the war table, Dexter and Hopeless standing on either one of his sides.
"Bliss along with two Cleavers, Rue, Eka and Vex will go into through the Southern entrance where Bliss' eyes has said China is. Simple extraction and then myself and a group of Cleavers will engage in Serpine on the Eastern wing," Skulduggery said.
"If all goes to plan," Hopeless took over, "From what we know about Serpine, he'll go for the bait which will let the extraction team go in again and get Meritorious."
"This is bullshit," Elder Tome exclaimed, getting to his feet, "I'm not taking orders from some detectives-"
"Enough!" Satya exclaimed, cutting him down with a glare, "Do you want Corrival Deuce to walk through those doors and give you that exact plan?!" She was pissed, her finger pointed at the door. Valkyrie wondered who Corrival Deuce was. "Because if that's what get you hot and heavy, I can make that happen." Tome turned red, sitting down and matching her glare.
"Now be a good little Elder and shut up," Satya ordered.
"I notice your fellow dead men haven't been mentioned," Elder Crow said, not scathingly, nodding towards Anton, Robin and Ghastly.
"We're not at liberty to say what our orders are," Anton replied.
Valkyrie was slightly intrigued by Anton Shudder. He had the air of a funeral director with his long slicked back hair and long black overcoat. He had a calm demeanor, like he was in a permanent meditation state.
"And what about the girl?" Tome glared at her, still red from Satya's call out, "She shouldn't be here- She's only a child."
"Valkyrie Cain is our apprentice and is a key part of this case and therefore needs to be present," Skulduggery said, "Now, if you've finished sulking we have a Grand Mage and beautiful collector to save."
"You-" Robin grasped Valkyrie's arm, "With us."
Valkyrie blinked as she got dragged down the hall, dodging a group of Cleavers.
She quickened her pace to match Anton's. He was loading a gun before turning on the safety and handing it to her, "Know how to use a gun?"
"Point and shoot?" She received a wry smile from him, "Something like that."
"We'll explain in the car," Ghastly reassured her, slipping a dagger into sheath.
She took the gun hesitantly. Ghastly tapped her leg where he had put a holder.
"Thanks."
Valkyrie followed them to a black van, climbing into the backseat after Robin.
"Buckle up- Ghastly's driving is..." Anton trailed off, buckling in, "Interesting."
"Hey," Ghastly warned, "I'm the only person Skulduggery let's drive the Bentley and that's for a reason."
Robin snorted, "Only because he owes you for that time he apparently set your workshop on fire."
"Anyway," Anton interrupted, "Did you find the entrance to the caves when you went to scout, Robin?"
"Yep," Robin answered cheerfully, "We'll have to move a bunch of rocks though- It's kinda hidden."
"Sounds fun," Valkyrie commented sarcastically.
"My god, there's two of them," Robin stage whispered, shaking his head.
"You have spent an awful amount of time with Skulduggery," Ghastly said, "You're starting to sound like a cranky 400 year old skeleton."
She pulled a face.
The car ride took about forty minutes. Forty minutes of Robin switching from games of eye-spy and singing old drinking songs. Forty minutes of Anton giving constant updates every five minutes about what how the extraction mission was going.
Serpine's castle was apparently an hour away from the Sanctuary and the extraction teams had left about twenty minutes after Valkyrie and the boys had.
"We're not expecting to be attacked, right?" Valkyrie asked, slightly worried.
"No, but it's better to be safe than sorry," Ghastly replied, "Serpine's after the sceptre but he just doesn't know where it is."
"But there is a chance that someone is watching our every move," Anton added, "So, it's better to have guns at the ready."
Valkyrie nodded.
Soon they pulled up into Gordon's long driveway.
"Take a right here," Robin ordered, leaning over Ghastly's shoulder. He had been in the area the day Skulduggery announced he knew where the sceptre was, scouting the area.
"Shit-" Anton swore at the sight of a gleaming silver car parked outside the house.
The front door once again lying in the hallway. Ghastly led the way into the house, revolver in his hand. Valkyrie followed close behind, clad all in black. They gave the ground floor a cursory examination before moving downstairs into the cellar.
The key was in the lock and a section of the floor was open, revealing stone steps descending into the Earth. They followed these steps, sinking deeper into the gloom. They walked in near darkness for a few minutes until they came to the bottom, then walked through a narrow tunnel carved out of the rock. It was brighter down here, their way lit by dozens of small holes designed to catch the sunlight from above and cast it down into the depths.
They stepped out of the tunnel into a cave that split in two directions.
"Which way?" Valkyrie whispered.
Ghastly extended his arm and opened his hand. After a moment, he nodded. "A group of them, headed north."
"Are you reading the air?" Stephanie asked, frowning.
"Reading disturbances in the air, yes."
"So do we go after them?"
Ghastly thought about this. "They don't know the exact location of the Scepter any more then we do. They simply chose that path as the place to start their search."
"So we should go the other way, hope we find it first?"
"If we can get it without Serpine even knowing we're here, we can seal the tunnel behind us and trap him while we alert the Elders."
"Then why are we standing around looking pretty?"
They took the path to their left, moving quickly but quietly. The cave system soon proved itself to be enormous, but Skulduggery assured her he could find the way back without a problem. Here and there, the pinpricks of sunlight opened up to larger streams, which reflected off the rock walls and stabbed through the darkness. Strange plants and mushrooms were growing, but Anton warned her to stay away from them. Even the fungus was dangerous down here.
They had been walking for ten minutes when Valkyrie saw something move ahead of them. She touched Robin's arm and pointed, and they all stepped back into the shadows to watch.
The thing that lumbered into view was magnificent in its awfulness. Standing well over nine feet tall, its chest was broad and its arms were long, the forearms hugely distorted by bulging muscles. Its hands were the size of dinner plates, tipped with claws built for ripping. Its face was doglike in appearance, like a Doberman's, and it had a dirty brown mane that ran from the back of its skull and joined the long matted hair on its shoulders.
"Hello, sexy," Robin muttered with a grimace, snapping his fingers so a flame sparked.
They watched it disappear into an adjoining cave.
"Let's not go that way," Valkyrie said.
"Good plan," Anton agreed, and they hurried forward.
Their path took them to the scene of a cave-in, so they doubled back and took another route, moving into a long tunnel. Things scuttled in the shadows beside them and fluttered in the shadows above, but as long as those things didn't jump out and bite them, Valkryie was okay. Robin crouched, picking something up off the ground. A dusty chocolate-bar wrapper or, as he put it, "A clue."
Valkyrie looked at him. "Gordon?"
"We're on the right track."
They set off again, scanning the ground for any further evidence that Gordon had passed this way. Unfortunately, less then five minutes later Ghastly stopped again and turned, hand out, reading the air before signing something to the other two.
Robin nodded sharply, leaning to whisper in Valkyrie's ear, "We're being followed- Gun out."
She nodded, swallowing as she pulled out the gun and held it firmly, switching off the safety as Robin had showed her in the van.
Ghastly's hand was still held up, feeling the air carefully, "We should back up," he said quietly.
She could hear something, something echoing up to them.
"We should back away a little faster," he said.
They picked up their pace. Valkyrie had to keep glancing at her feet to make sure she wasn't about to trip over anything.
She realized the sound she could hear was bounding footsteps. She realized this because they belonged to the dog-faced creature that was now galloping toward them at a terrible pace.
"Aw, fuck," Robin groaned before throwing a fireball at the dog.
"Anton- You got this?" Ghastly asked, grabbing Valkyrie's arm and began jogging away.
"I suppose!" Anton shouted before facing the dog.
"Run- And don't look back," Ghastly ordered. They both ran, Valkyrie only hearing a loud snarl before the sound of flesh being torn apart.
Suddenly, the reached another part of the caves, and the place was covered in tentacles.
Ghastly swore as Valkyrie let out a screech, a tentacle wrapping around her leg.
There was something up ahead, a gray mass of flesh, a growth that had spread unchecked and unchallenged in this dark little corner. The tentacles were pulling her toward its center, where a large mouth gaped hungrily, razor teeth dripping with viscous saliva.
Her free hand found a large stone and she grabbed it, holding the sharp edge out as she would a dagger, and she brought it down hard. The stone cut through the tentacles, and she pulled her arm free and was up, running, but more tentacles flexed and shot out. They found her legs and Stephanie hit the ground. She tried to kick out, but they tightened.
There were tentacles everywhere.
The thing, whatever it was, beat with a sickly pulse as it dragged her closer. She couldn't see any eyes. All it had was its tentacles, and that mouth. … Which meant it operated by its sense of touch.
Valkyrie forced herself to stop struggling. Fighting against every instinct within her, she relaxed her body, and although the speed at which she was moving didn't change, she felt its grip on her loosen slightly. The other tentacles stopped their approach, but they were already too close. They'd be on her in an instant if she tried to pull away.
Valkyrie lobbed the stone, and it hit a tentacle and bounced away. Sensing another victim nearby, the remaining tentacles slithered after it, searching blindly through the shadows. She took a deep breath and reached for her ankles, waited until the grip was loosened further, and then grabbed the tentacles and ripped them away.
She got up, but instead of running away, she ran forward, toward the thing with the mouth. She leaped onto it, over its gaping maw, and her boot almost slipped on its wet, quivering flesh. She jumped, her hands catching the ledge overhead. She hauled herself up as the tentacles snapped and coiled below, their movements becoming more and more frenzied as the thing searched for its missing prey.
Stephanie didn't stop to rest. She got to her feet and hurried from the ledge into the gloom of the passage beyond. She fought off the sudden fear that she'd be lost down in these caves forever. It won't be forever, she chided herself. If one of the monsters doesn't find me and kill me, I'll die of thirst anyway within a few days.
Valkyrie couldn't quite believe she'd just thought that.
Pushing all fears and doubts and pessimistic—though probably realistic—thoughts to the back of her mind, she slowed her pace and concentrated on finding a way back to Ghastly, Robin and Anton. And then she saw a light.
She crept forward until she came to a balcony of rock overlooking a small cavern. She peeked down to see a half dozen humanoid things- Actually they looked more like zombies. Zombie papermen.
"Oh, shit," She cursed quietly before silently chastising herself. In the few days stuck with the Dead Men, she had already started cussing like a sailor.
She had sworn because standing in the cave infront of a boulder was the man Valkyrie recognised from picture Satya had shown her of Nefarian Serpine.
Nefarian Serpine had the goddamn sceptre.