Chapter 211
Valkyrie's POV
Valkyrie was shoved forward and onto her knees. The air was frighteningly cold and she tensed as the bag was pulled from her head, shocking her with the temperature against her skin. She stayed frozen when the tip of a gun pressed into the back of her head. She knew they wouldn't kill her unless she was in the act of escaping – they wouldn't have kept her alive for The Torment otherwise – but she didn't want to test her captures trigger-happiness.
The shackles on her wrists were removed but there were bindings in the room that kept her magic at bay anyway. There was shuffling on either side of her as Skulduggery and Militsa were untied also, and then the captures backed out of the room and an iron gate slammed shut.
Valkyrie opened her eyes and looked around quickly. Dark, underground, old. They were in a dungeon sort of cell. There were people all around, mostly against the wall. Skulduggery on her left, Militsa on her right. Militsa looked afraid and had turned to look behind her, and Skulduggery was assessing the situation also.
Valkyrie looked behind her and saw five men, all in dusty but seemingly protective gear, all holding semi-automatic rifles that seemed military grade to Valkyrie, with other weapons strapped to their bodies.
They gave them nasty grins from behind their facemasks and swaggered out of view.
"Fuck's sake," Valkyrie muttered, standing herself up. She turned to the other people sitting against the back wall. "You wouldn't happen to be the Necromancer's kidnapped from Australia, would you?"
An elderly man with a hunchback and permanently bowed knees sneered. He looked as if he was likely in some pain from his position on the floor. "Unfortunately," he said. He looked at Skulduggery. "You wouldn't happen to be the Detective Skeleton, or are there more of you morons now?"
"I am still a unique being," Skulduggery said drily. "What can you tell me about the Children of the Spiders?"
"As general information? Next to nothing," the elderly man said in a shortly. "As for these particular Children of the Spider, not much. I believe they have a scientist with them that's performing experiments on us."
"What experiments?" He asked quickly.
"I wasn't there, was I?" He snapped, turning his weight painfully. "Ooh, ah, good Lord my hip. I swear on the gods, the Temple will have revenge on these bastards!"
"Some of them came back," a younger girl said. She looked to be around fifteen or sixteen, her cheeks still chubby from lingering baby fat. "They said the tortures covered their eyes and tied them to chairs, and they did some magic to them they've never felt. They said it felt as if they had no magic after, but then they came back here and no one can feel magic in here. A few days later, someone took them out of here again and they haven't come back."
"Sounds like the Magicae Furem Device," Skulduggery muttered quietly, turning to the gate.
"That's not unexpected," Valkyrie groused. "We could have guessed they'd be doing experiments. So we know no more than before and we're trapped in the Children of the Spider's lair. How is this helpful?"
"It isn't."
"I told you this would happen. I told you we should lay low, and if we had done that we probably wouldn't be here right now."
"If we weren't here right now, we wouldn't know where the kidnapped victims were," Skulduggery said, drawing out each word as he got frustrated with Valkyrie's tone.
"Now see here," the old man said. "I am not a victim."
Valkyrie ignored him. "I don't understand why my plan wouldn't have worked. We've done hundreds of stakeouts; we've done hundreds of tailings. We could have done it just fine, even with Militsa with us. We could have had backup and gotten the Sanctuary to use their new drones to follow the Spiders! Instead we're here because your plans are utter shit."
"We couldn't have known this would happen Valkyrie. The plan was the best idea I had given the circumstances, I apologise for the situation we're in, but I truly don't know what you would have liked me to do."
"Listen to me, maybe? Perhaps considered that I'm not a complete idiot and my ideas have been consistently good and produced good results. It's very rare my plans fail!"
"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you the way you feel I should have, but I did what I thought was best. Yes, my plan failed, but you have no proof yours would work any better than mine other than your own opinion. I'm happy to discuss this later if you feel strongly about it, but right now is not the time nor the place."
Valkyrie turned away from him, clenching her fists tightly. There was no point fighting him on his attitude without coming off as the one with the bigger issues, so she had no choice but to give in and let it go until they had escaped, finished the mission and they were all safe. Then she could get however annoyed she wanted and it wouldn't matter.
"Are you okay, Mil?" She asked, trying to keep the resentment and fury out of her tone.
Militsa looked at her guiltily, as if Skulduggery's words were hers, and answered quietly. "Yeah I'm fine, don't worry."
Valkyrie nodded and took a discrete deep breath. "Can anyone name any of the captures? We need to know who we're dealing with."
There was a short silence until the fifteen year old spoke up again. "Um, most people came down with masks on, but there were a few that didn't. One man was a Necromancer, Vandameer Craven. He claimed to be a Cleric, but I don't know who he is."
"He was a Cleric," the same old man spat. "He aided the Children in the Spider in killing many of the Irish Temple Necromancers. I didn't believe one of our own would betray us, but now I know the truth… he may be considered a Cleric to some still, but I assure you when I get out of here I will guarantee his name is considered an enemy."
"Okay, other than Craven, was there anyone else? Can you describe people who you don't know the names of?" Valkyrie asked.
The old man continued. "Craven told us a man named Stolen is in charge of the experiments. Some muscular, military type men came down to get information out of us occasionally but they were no one remarkable."
"Describe them," Valkyrie demanded.
He sneered at her. "Don't you give orders to me, child. I am far too old and far too wise–"
"You're not in a position–"
"DO NOT INTERUPT ME!" He screamed furiously. Valkyrie bared her teeth angrily. "You have no right to ever talk down to me like I am some lowlife citizen, as if I am some common rat on the streets. I am a powerful man and you are nothing but a child!"
"You are an old man stuck in a cage," Valkyrie growled back. "And you are entirely at the mercy of serial killers, tortures and scientists hellbent on taking your magic away and killing you. We already know about their little projects. They're going to take your magic for themselves, systematically going through all of you for information on the locations of more powerful Necromancers until you're no longer useful and then they'll kill you. But go ahead. Tell me I'm a stupid little bitch and I'll make sure to go out of my way to let you remain in your cage so you can make your own escape without me and my help."
"You have no idea–"
"I know exactly what I'm doing. What, you think if I actually bother to help you get out of here you can go to your little shadow buddy meeting and tell them what a horrible little girl I am and they'll come kill me? Me and Skulduggery are the only assholes stupid enough to help you so shut the fuck up before I break your fucking face. You couldn't get out of here if you tried, even if I opened every door and took out every Spider and mercenary, you'd die of old age before you find the energy to stand. You are a weak old man past your prime with too much book knowledge and not enough weapons to be of any use to us. So unless you're going to cooperate with the people that are literally here to help you escape with your life, keep it to yourself. I am not above breaking your jaw to shut you up."
The man when purple, or perhaps red, it was difficult for Valkyrie to tell in the incredibly low lighting, and stood up using the shoulders of the people sitting next to him. No one had been looking, embarrassed at Valkyrie's crude words and the old man's outburst, but now they were looking more closely between the two. Skulduggery was still studying the metal gate and didn't bother turning. She was capable of looking after herself.
The old man shakily hobbled on his rattily knees and stopped a foot from Valkyrie who crossed her arms and tilted her hip. He raised his arm and she raised an eyebrow.
He swung slowly and her fist shot into his face and he fell like a sack of bricks.
Unfortunately, it didn't knock him out.
"You nasty bitch! You dirty little whore, you stupid little cunt! I'll have you killed for this!"
Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Oh my god, please just stop, this is pathetic." Militsa put a hand on her arm and Valkyrie sagged. "Yeah, I know."
She helped drag the man to the wall where he glared and tried to act like painful tears weren't leaking from his eyes – some mutters includeed claims that "real men don't feel pain, you selfish bint!" – before taking a deep breath and turning to the teenage girl. "Can you please describe those men?"
She did quietly, describing, to Valkyrie's knowledge, Juandré Opperman and Lemae Van Wyk, two of the main Wild Brothers. Both Spingheeled Jack and Scapegrace seemed to be culprits also, though she had been sure Scapegrace had been arrested after the Doomsday Machine business in Las Vagas.
"This is sort of hopeless," she murmured quietly to Skulduggery. Militsa was sitting with the fifteen year old, Erembour Kage, who seemed scared in general but was far sweeter and reasonable than most of the adult Necromancers who were much more interested in appeasing their Cleric and trusted scholar whose name Valkyrie purposefully refused to listen to. "How the hell are we meant to get out of this? With them?"
"I have a plan, that's how," he said lowly. "Everyone, silence. Valkyrie, can you hear that?"
Everyone, even the old man, went silence for them to listen. In the distance, echoing, footsteps approached.
"What's the plan?" She whispered silently.
He stepped back behind the stone wall – the front of the cell was designed to have a stone wall about three feet in, then about six feet of metal rods, then the door, and the same on the other side. This meant Skulduggery was hidden from view where he now stood. "You do something to make them come in and I'll slip out. Nothing to get punished, just enough to cause attention."
Valkyrie sighed, already knowing how awfully this plan was going to go, but was at least more on board than she had been with the previous plan he'd had. She moved the hostages around so she'd have more room in the middle of the back wall, giving her space should she need it. Militsa remained the nearest to her, Erembour sticking close to her.
A young appearing woman came into view, wearing dark clothes with spider webs and dust clinging on. She glared into the cell, obviously trying to account for Skulduggery. Her eyes landed on Valkyrie.
"Where's the Skeleton?"
"He left," she said simply.
"He – what did you say?" She said slowly, confusing immediately taking over her previously fairly cold and indifferent tone.
Valkyrie shrugged. "He left. He just, you know, stepped through the bars."
The woman assessed the bars. Valkyrie assessed her face, trying to place her but not really able to. "What does that mean?"
Valkyrie feigned confusion. "I mean he fits through the gaps of the bars? Because he's a skeleton? Like, he has to take off some body parts and stuff them through after the rest of him's on the other side and work out the angles, but when he gets them through he just pops them back on and off he goes. Did… did you not know he could do that?"
The woman glared at her and puffed her chest up indignantly. "How am I suppose to know he can do that?"
"I don't know, because he's your sworn enemy and that's a pretty big thing you should know before you put a thin-ass skeleton in a cell with gaps? It's just common sense to be honest. You can look around if you want, but he's gone though. He went left."
The woman turned to her left and then narrowed her eyes back on Valkyrie. "If he'd gone that way I'd have run unto him. You're lying."
Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Your other left."
The woman tutted, obviously not believing her, and pulled a gun out from the back of her trousers. She aimed it at Valkyrie hazardously. "If anyone moves, I will kill you. And I'm only using this gun because it's new. I still have all my magic, unlike you."
Valkyrie put her hands up mockingly and the woman glared at them all before opening the door. Her black as pitch eyes scanned the room as best as she could, looking right over Skulduggery and not spotting him in the shadows. She stepped further in and Valkyrie knew this was the chance she needed to begin.
"What type of gun is that?" She asked.
The woman hesitated and then spoke while she continued to look around. "It's a pistol."
"Yeah but what type?"
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know, kid, is that what you want me to say? I don't know what type it is, but I know how to use it and I'll shoot you in the knee to prove a point if I have to."
"No you won't."
She scoffed. "Yes, I will, it's a gun and I'm less than eight feet away from you."
"Well, yeah, I know you can pull the trigger in my direction, but I mean you won't shoot me. My clothes are protective, I won't get hurt. Well, no, it will really hurt, but it won't go through me."
"You are as annoying as they say you are."
Valkyrie gave the woman her cutest grin. "Do you like it?"
She almost replied, then went red and decided to cover with anger instead. "Don't be obtuse. My bullets might not pierce you, but they sure would break your kneecap! Don't push me."
"Yeah, but what's the point if there's no blood?"
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, of course I am!" Valkyrie said with some passion despite her wildly beating heart. This was the stupidest act she'd ever done. "There's no point in hurting someone if you can't even see good results! That's just, like, low level stuff."
"Just, just shut up," she said after a moment to think about how dumb Valkyrie sounded. Valkyrie didn't blame her. "I have to report the skeleton missing now."
"Honestly? There isn't much point. I know where he's going and how he's doing it, and me and him are the only two people in the world that knows the plan. There's legitimately no reason to even report him missing unless you know the plan and I'm hardly about to tell you. And I bet The Torment won't be happy if you don't have all the information. And if you go to a supervisor, and they say you said he was missing but told him nothing else, both The Torment and your supervisor will be mad."
"Well then," the lady said slowly, pacing towards her slowly. "You better tell me what you know."
"Why would I do that?"
The lady got to only a foot in front of her and Valkyrie had to stay still as the gun rested on her forehead. "Because I have the gun."
"And I have the information. You can't kill me, gorgeous. I'm too valuable."
Out of the corner of her eyes, Valkyrie saw Skulduggery dart out and silently run through the open door and down the way the woman had come from. Now she needed to give him time.
"You have to be the most annoying little shit I've ever had to deal with," the woman said with disgust. A moment later a man came up on the cell from way Skulduggery had just gone. He made no alarms so Valkyrie assumed he must have gotten by him despite Valkyrie's heart still jumping fearfully.
"Who's that?" Valkyrie asked.
"I'm not going to fall for–"
"Portia," the man said deeply.
She jumped slightly and turned her head, keeping the gun on Valkyrie. Valkyrie had every chance to remove the gun from her and turn the tables but that wasn't the point of her task. "Syn! Sorry, I was just, um, disciplining Cain."
"What did Cain do?"
"She's making up stories," Portia said with a roll of her eyes. "She claims Skulduggery Pleasant fit through the gaps of the cell and is making his getaway. I say he was never here to begin with because this is a low-level cell and he'd obviously be in a higher graded cell."
Syn shrugged and nodded. "Makes sense. How are you going to punish her?"
Valkyrie was now stuck between being glad she had managed her task and being horrified by her actions. "Um, maybe can we just forget about it?"
"Shut up," Portia snapped quietly. "I'm going to hurt her of course."
"I overhead something about protective clothing," Syn smiled.
"Yeah," Portia said, nodding. She wet her lips and gestured with her head. "Stand up. Take the protective clothes off."
"What!? You can't be serious, I'll freeze and then I'll be dead and then someone will definitely be angry!" Valkyrie said quickly. "It'll still hurt if you punch me, you just can't stab me!"
Portia was silent for a moment, trying to work out how to make it work in her favour, and Syn opened his mouth to comment when Portia finally made up her mind and put the gun on Militsa. She stepped over to hold the barrel against Militsa's temple easier. "Take the protective clothes off."
Valkyrie swallowed and stood slowly. Syn leaned against the open doorframe with a smirk and watched as she took off her shoes and trousers. "I'm a minor by the way," she said snootily. "So maybe don't watch me or I'll make sure to report it to HR."
"There's no HR here," Syn said, continuing to watch.
Portia grimaced at him. "Syn, please don't be so… disrespectful."
"Disrespectful," he repeated with a laugh in his voice. "You're about to torture her."
"No, I'm going to beat her up a bit for what she tried to tell me, I'm not going to get in the way of the experiments. The Master would be angry with us for doing that."
He rolled his eyes and stepped forwards. "Fine. Keep the gun on the ginger and I'll punish Cain."
Valkyrie pulled a face and didn't even see Syn as he punched her so fast she couldn't follow him. She folded immediately, and he was already giving her an uppercut, grabbing her hair and slamming his elbow into the back of her neck with his other arm. She fell to her knees and her ankle was stomped, followed quickly by him kicking her shoulder to get her on her back.
She struggled to breathe, impressed with how fast he was and how much pain he inflicted so rapidly. He kneeled after a moment thinking, grabbed her left shoulder with his iron grip, and began beating her.
Fist after fist came down on her face until she could barely breathe, and then they moved to her chest and down to her stomach. When she curled in on herself, he let it happen and stood to pant for a moment before kicking and stamping her legs and back. He hit her with incredible speed and restrained strength. Every touch left her blooming in new agony, but he continued so brutally fast that nothing he did made it worse, simply prolonged the punishment.
Valkyrie didn't even notice when he stepped away from her, tensing for his next attack, until Militsa was thrown on top of her. Valkyrie's eyes widened and she gasped out, pushing Militsa next to her and throwing her body over her before Syn could strike her.
"Yeah, I thought you'd care more if I threatened your friend," he chuckled, acting like it was an enjoyable game. "Come on, move. Let me hit her and we can leave."
"Just leave her alone. She's not meant to be involved in this," Valkyrie gurgled out. Blood from her broken teeth and bitten tongue got in the way of her voice. "She's just a normal person."
Syn paused for a moment. "I don't really care."
The kicking began again but he put less work into it and seemed to give up after not that long. Many of the kicks got through to Militsa, but Valkyrie took many of them in the side of her torso and along her arms until they felt numb. Portia was the one to awkwardly suggest Syn leave with her, citing wanting to check the other cells still. He agreed and they left.
"Valkyrie?" Militsa's small voice came from below her. Valkyrie tried not to groan, not wanting to hurt her throat any more than it already was. She pulled herself up with her right arm and dropped next to her, hissing painfully as her muscles spasmed. "Oh, no. I don't think you should have done that."
"Which bit?" Valkyrie couldn't help but ask as the cold stone began steeping into her bare legs. She tried to take a deep breath only to feel intense pain in her ribs and ended up being thrown into an excruciating coughing fit, leading her to inhale more of her blood and coughing even more.
Militsa waited for her to calm down and stroked her hair gently. "Listening to Skulduggery."
This chapter was so much fun to imagine, and I rather like it :) I love the idea that Skulduggery can just slip through bars too hah! I know he's meant to be wider than that, but it's funny in concept.
