Chapter Fifty-One

Promoted

While Skulduggery and all the rest of the gang were having fun while getting extremely trolleyed, Ducanti Stormshadow was hanging up the phone, despite the fact that the woman on the other end was verbally insulting him within an inch of his life. Bloody hell, Stormshadow thought. There is no painless way to break up with China Sorrows.

Shrugging, he got up from the couch, stretched, and pulled on his coat. Leaving the motel, he decided to go back to the Sanctuary and get a few more hours of work in. He locked the room and went down in the elevator, hailing a taxi and asking to be dropped off three blocks down from the Waxworks Museum. He walked the rest of the way, entered through the back doors, talked to the wax Phil Lyntott and the Administrator, and stepped into the Sanctuary.

The Cleavers stood uncannily still as Stormshadow walked past them. He was nearing his office when Thurid Guild walked out from an adjoining room, holding a sheaf of papers in his right hand.

He looked up and saw Stormshadow. "Ah," the Grand Mage said. "Just the man I was hoping to meet. Stormshadow, you've been promoted."

Stormshadow blinked. "What?"

"I fired Remus Crux this afternoon, for reasons both complex and fair. Thus, the Sanctuary has no Prime Detective, and, while I have brought Skulduggery Pleasant back into my employ, I do not trust him enough to have this job as of yet."

Raising his eyebrows, Stormshadow appraised the idea. It seemed all right to him.

"OK. I accept the job."

"Good. Oh, and by the way. Do you wish to have a partner? Remus Crux, being the idiot he is, declined to have a partner, but partners are helpful, as the Prime Detective has a lot of work."

"If you think it would be best for me."

"All right then. She is currently here, I think."

Stormshadow blinked. She?

Guild gestured and Stormshadow followed him as he led the way back to his office. Upon entry, a black-haired woman looked up. She had violet coloured eyes.

Adept, was Stormshadow's first thought. This lady, his partner, was of average height, slim, and looked strong. Dressed entirely in black, she looked slightly intimidating. But when she smiled, it betrayed her image. She was friendly.

"Ducanti Stormshadow, this is Anhinga Volt." The woman smiled again, revealing perfectly even white teeth. But, the pale tint of her skin was unmistakable. This woman had been captured recently, kept out of the sun, and only just been liberated. As Stormshadow watched, she shifted her arm, and it was revealed that her wrists were scarred, and, in some places still healing, from shackles.

"It is a pleasure." Volt had a lot of Scottish in her accent, and something from the Far East. The eyelashes curling above her purple eyes gave her an exotic, mysterious look, and the finely chiselled bones of her face gave her face a haunted, shadowed appearance.

Stormshadow nodded, looked at Guild for an explanation.

The Grand Mage obliged. "Volt, Stormshadow here is a Necromancer. But I trust him, and his discipline is nothing against his character. He recently killed a vampire in Italy, and then came to us. And, Stormshadow, Volt has only just been rescued from the private prisons of the Diablerie. She was captured by Billy-Ray Sanguine after battling him after the Liffey Bridge incident." Anhinga Volt appeared to smile as she remembered the scene.

"I saw him flee from Skulduggery and the rest." Her Scottish accent gave her character. "I couldn't just let him walk away, so I challenged him. He won. I woke up in a cell. I'd been there over a month before I was found."

"Luckily Billy-Ray Sanguine is weak-willed when it comes to interrogation," Guild said affably. "He soon relented and told us where he had locked his captured opponents. We found many Sanctuary agents."

"But surely it is not like Sanguine to just have one secret prison," Stormshadow protested lightly. "He must have more elsewhere."

Guild's head tilted slightly to the side. "I shall make that your first assignment. Interrogate him."

Stormshadow had a thought. "Is he in the Gaol?"

"He is."

"OK. We'll get right to it."

"Good."

Stormshadow inclined his head, and Volt stood. She remained close to Stormshadow's side as they walked down the hallways.

"Have you encountered Billy-Ray Sanguine before?" Volt asked.

"I've heard of him, but I never fought him," Stormshadow asked. "My sister did though."

"Right."

"Are you an Adept?"

Volt looked his way, her footsteps barely audible. "Yes. How did you know?"

"I guessed by your violet eyes."

These violet eyes raised to Stormshadow's own as they continued to walk. "You have a perceptive mind, Stormshadow."

"I guess so. What can you do?"

"Well…obviously I can change the colour of my eyes. The colour depends on my mood, but it helps when I'm trying to go unnoticed. I can also turn certain flowers into gold. Another aspect of my Adept discipline is the way I can bend people's wills."

Stormshadow frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when I was captured, for example. I goaded one of the men because he was a bad jailer to me and I escaped twice, before being discovered. He became angry and probably would have performed murder had I not used my skills and changed his mind."

Stormshadow half-laughed, half-sighed. "Nasty."

"Yes."

By the end of this short conversation, they had reached the Gaol.

"We are here to interrogate the prisoner known as Billy-Ray Sanguine." The four Cleavers guarding the door nodded, and one of them swiftly unlocked the door. Two entered the Gaol, to loud jeering from the prisoners, which they ignored. The Cleavers' movements were fluid and lithe as they walked to a cage and retrieved a blonde-haired American from his cage.

"Volt," Sanguine drawled, as he was escorted to them. "So nice to see you again."

Volt raised her hand as if to strike him and he flinched. She exhaled heavily and lowered her arm.

"Do not say anything unless asked," Volt hissed.

Sanguine rolled his eyes. Stormshadow and Volt turned on their heels and exited the Gaol. Two of the Cleavers stayed to guard the Gaol while the ones holding Sanguine followed them to the interrogation rooms.