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Chapter 4

"Damn," Skulduggery cursed, before jumping up into the room. Valkyrie jumped up after him and joined them in the room. She was still long enough to see Variance's face split into a smile, and Banal rush at Skulduggery. Wane Fiend was by the wall, looking like he was working out a mathematical question. She looked away and started working with Skulduggery.

He threw Banal at her and she flipped him over her hip, his head smashing into the floor. She left him there and started to manipulate the shadows. She made them sharp and slashed them into Variance. He dodged the biggest of them but one of the smaller ones made a small cut in his arm. Skulduggery used this little distraction to crunch the air into his head. Ducking the attack, Variance ran at Skulduggery, and Skulduggery ran at Variance. They crashed into each other but Skulduggery was taken off his feet, only just managing to rap his arms around Variance, taking him down with him. Valkyrie started to run to the other side of the room where Fiend was watching the show.

Valkyrie suddenly felt an agonizing pain in her left foot and it gave out, just as there was a smash. It travelled into her other foot, and up her legs. She lay there, withering and squirming, trying to work out what was going on. She screamed. She could feel the pain in her hips now. Her screaming reached new levels. She stopped screaming, tears in her eyes, pain in her whole lower body and looked at Banal. He was an Adept, that's all she knew about his magic discipline. It seemed however, that he was doing this. His magic was torture. Literally.

He had stood up now and was looking down at her. She didn't bother screaming. It was a waste of energy, and she knew it. She just looked at him, tears of pain on her face. She was going to black out. She couldn't. If she did then he would kill her, and she wouldn't be able to defend herself. She cried out as the pain suddenly intensified. She heard a fist slam into something hard, and someone fall to the floor only a second later, like they had been punched downwards. Then, with a roar of anger, Skulduggery slammed his body into Banal, and he hit the corridor wall with a thud. Skulduggery left him there, and ran over to Valkyrie's side.

"Are you OK?" he asked. His smooth voice was thick with concern and worry. She couldn't find words. She feared that if she opened her mouth, then only screams would come out. She simply clamped her teeth together, tears falling down her face. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of here. Just stay still." She nodded the best she could. There was a blurry grey colour in the corner of her vision. Cleavers. She closed her eyes and tried to block everything out in an attempt to control the pain that was so unbearable.

She felt thin, cold arms pick her up. "I've got you. Let's get to the Sanctuary and let the Doctors fix you up, yeah? Just hold in there," said her favourite smooth voice, Skulduggery's voice. He held her tight, but gently, to lessen the pain. It didn't matter that he was cold. He was cold and safe. She liked safe when she was hurting.

He took her straight out of the building and straight to the Bentley. He didn't bother to try and sit her up in the front seat. She was obviously in a whole load of pain. Valkyrie tried not to cry. She almost never cried. But the pain was just agonising. Laying her down on the back seats, she tried to stop her whining. He had just started down the main road when she slipped into unconsciousness.

Hours later she woke, in a Sanctuary bed, with Doctor Nye hovering above her. It had long arms and longer legs, making it hunch over as so not to hit its head off the ceiling. It was neither a He, nor She. It had also given Valkyrie a scare to wake up to see that face above her, with puncture marks, from threads that had long since been taken out, through its eyelids and lips. Its nose had once been taken off, and refused to grow back, so he had been left with a scab instead. Behind Nye was Skulduggery, who was talking with another Sanctuary agent, but never taking his eye sockets from Nye. Nye had tortured and killed friends of Skulduggery's, killed hundreds, murdered more, and had run from punishment. Skulduggery never trusted him, and neither did Valkyrie, or anyone else for that matter.

"So you've finally woken up then? I thought you never would. Screamed a bit in your sleep, and thrashed about a bit, so I had to have people strap you to the table. Your friend hasn't moved from that spot since he brought you in yesterday, about seventeen hours and thirty minutes ago if that clock is right," Nye said it in that awfully high voice of its. She really hated that voice. She decided to just look at it. There was also a dull throbbing inside her body, but it had, thankfully, receded to just her legs.
She started to sit up, and then noticed that the straps were still around her wrists and ankles. A sudden sense of claustrophobia loomed in on her, so she struggled against the bond in vain. Then Skulduggery was there and undid the buckle and moved around her, until they had all been removed. Sitting up, she noticed that some people sneaked glances at her every so often.

"Some people are looking at me. Why?" Valkyrie asked Skulduggery in a low voice so no one else would hear.

He hesitated for a moment, then, "When you came in, you had been tortured by Abattoir Banal, and I don't think anyone has ever survived when he starts to torture someone. You were almost dead yourself, but somehow, mercifully, you managed to hold on. After a while you were able to breath by yourself and-"

"Wait. Did you just say, 'you were able to breath by yourself'? Implying that I wasn't? I wasn't even breathing?" Valkyrie said aghast.

"You had been hurt very badly. What Banal is able to do is inflict a pain at first, but that pain spreads and destroys you inside out over time, not whilst he is standing there," Skulduggery said, like he was remembering something from a long time ago. Then he looked at her, "If you ever end up in the same room as him, I need you to promise me something. Can you do that for me?" he said like he was pleading with her.

"That would depend"

"Don't try and fight him. Just run. Don't stay there. Even if I'm stuck, I need you to get out. Can you do that for me?" he sounded uncharacteristically sad and weather-beaten when he said it. Like this would mean a whole lot to him if Valkyrie left him in the middle of a trap, and ran away without him. Not a chance.

She was just about to object, but he must have noticed she would have, from her expression, as he put his hand up, "Don't you remember what happened before we fought Serpine that last time? Just before you went in I told you that if you died that would be all it took for me to snap out of it," he told her. "Please," he asked.

She couldn't say no when he asked her like that. It sounded like it would mean a lot to him if she said yes, and she did remember what he had said. So, "I promise. I promise that I will not get killed by Banal by looking for a fight with him," she said it reluctantly, but firmly. She meant it, and she wasn't planning on ever going back on that promise, as much as she would hate it later. Also, if she had got away, then she could get the Elders to order a rescue operation, and she could lead it, and get him back, and-

Right on cue, the Grand Mage and Elder Bespoke came in. Valkyrie assumed that they had asked to be told when she woke up. Ravel and Ghastly went straight to her and started to ask if she was OK and assuring her and generally put a smile on her face.

"So from what Skulduggery has told me, and the way you looked when you first came in, Valkyrie, you had got in and almost got them all but then Banal came along and bashed Val around the room, and it didn't get much further than that. The bad guys also have the Jug, we were told. We do, however, have Variance in custody," Ravel finished on a high note.

"Great," Valkyrie replied, and looked at Skulduggery, "let's go and speak to him. The quicker we find out where they are, the quicker I can watch Banal have his face punched in. It'll be fun," Valkyrie said, nodding. She may have made a promise, but she wasn't going to let Banal get away with what he had done to her. Also, from what Skulduggery had just said, this guy had hurt a lot of people in the past. He wasn't getting away with this.

"Not yet, you're not. You can stay here until the Doctor says you can go. And that's an order," Ravel said with a smile like he understood the feeling. But she knew he was being serious.

"Sir, yes, sir," Valkyrie said, playing along.

"Good. Now, whilst I would love to stick around, I really need to get back. I have a marvellously devious plan. Tipstaff won't suspect a thing until I have him," he said rubbing his hands together, and she heard, just before he left through the door, "I'll be killing them pigs before the day is out, assured."

She waited a few seconds and then she swung her legs off the bed, and stood up. She instantly wobbled and both Ghastly and Skulduggery caught her. Once she felt like she could stand on her own she said, and carried on until she was at the door, sensing Skulduggery close to her encase her legs gave out from under her again, and looked out the window. She went back again and got her clothes from the end of the bed. Skulduggery and Ghastly turned around until she gave that all clear. Then she went back to the window in the door.

"I'm supposing that you're not listening to the Grand Mage, then?" Ghastly asked them as they walked slowly, to fit Valkyrie's current speed. When she didn't see any good-looking, easily charming men outside, she opened the door and went as down the corridor as fast as she could go, without her legs wobbling too much.

"Why would I do what he says? I never do what I'm told, and he is no exception to that rule of mine," Valkyrie said as she… walked. It wasn't much of a walk. She didn't go very fast. In fact, she went slower than a walk, but she reckoned that, as Skulduggery had said all people died after encountering Banal, not many people would look at her funny shuffling-hobbling-walk as she went down the Sanctuary, towards the holding cells.

After a few minutes of odd-ball walking, she felt much better, and her throbbing had subsided to almost nothing. They left Ghastly to organise the meeting between Variance and the two Detectives and walked to the interrogation rooms. They didn't actually go in, they just went into the camera room, making sure everything was OK and then, when Variance was in place, his back to the door, Skulduggery walked into the room with Valkyrie on his right. He went to the chair at the table and sat, and Valkyrie sat on his right side, just out of direct sight when their prisoner looked straight ahead.

Valkyrie took in exactly what she saw with what she had heard and read earlier. He had a shaven head, and a pierced lip. He had a tattoo on his left arm, a lion with a head in its mouth, and a heart under its paw. It had glowing green eyes. He looked to be in his late twenties, which would be about 350 years old if the file she had read was near accurate. Other than the small stud through his lip, he wore no other jewellery that was on display. His body looked to be thin, lean and small, but Valkyrie knew that he was aggressive and strong. He wore the shackles around his hands though, and so his magic was bound and he was unable to access it.

"So, Darron, you seem to have gotten yourself in a bit of a pickle here, haven't you?" Skulduggery said all business. Something seemed to set into Variances face as he nodded. He obviously knew it was bad to make the great Skeleton Detective angry, and something in Skulduggery's voice was hinting at it. Valkyrie had been hurt, almost killed, and this man was a part of the group in which the man which had hurt Valkyrie was in, and Skulduggery didn't like people who hurt his friends or the people they associated with.

"We need to know the basic stuff. What is this little group of marauders, what do you want to do, and why do you want to do it? We can take the conversation from there," Skulduggery continued.

The man didn't say anything for a few moments, and then glanced at Valkyrie and that look on his face that had seemingly set there a few moments ago faded, and he looked back to Skulduggery, "You don't really want to know them things," he said in a deep Dublin voice. It was a nice voice, but it belonged to a bad man, so Valkyrie really didn't care what his voice was like. Valkyrie did know that it wasn't unusual for prisoners to be uncooperative at first, and she did care that they got him talking.

"I think you'll find we do," Skulduggery responded.

"I think you'll actually find you won't," he replied.

"Well what is it you think we want to know?"

"I'm not sure. I know what you want from me, and I know what you want from me," he nodded his head slightly in Valkyrie's direction, not looking in her eyes, "I know nothing of what you both want from me together, though."

"Well, what is it that I want? Because I'm pretty sure I want to know what this group is, what you want to do, and why do you want to do it. I asked Me that question, and Me said that I didn't know that stuff, and now I'm asking it of you in order to make Me happy," Skulduggery said, bringing in his usual nonsense, "So I suggest you tell us this or we start to make life difficult for you," Skulduggery said all this but Variance kept glancing at Valkyrie the whole time, looking at that hard, blank face she always plastered onto her face when she was in an interrogation.

"You can't make my life any more difficult," he said, a small smile on his lips this time, "I'll soon be in jail this time next week, with a trial over in seconds for the things I've done in the past."

"I still think you should tell us."

"No."

"That's really upsetting to hear. Valkyrie, go and get our friend," Skulduggery told her.

"Wait. What are you talking about?" Variance looked confused.

"I'm getting someone that will get you to tell us what we want," Valkyrie said. She had no idea who she was getting.

"Who?" he obviously didn't see through their bluff because she could see a little fear starting to seep into his eyes. She suspected he didn't want to be left with his magic bound in any room with just Skulduggery for company, let alone this room.

"Oh, just a friend. He owes us a few favours from-"

"No, stay," he said.

"You can tell us, or I can get someone who will make you," she said, narrowing her eyes.

He scratched his chin. "If I tell you, what happens to me? What happens to the others?" he asked.

Valkyrie sat down. "If you tell us, we don't need to get our friend to make you tell us. You don't need to beg. All the time you don't tell us we can add on more time for you in prison," Valkyrie said, to intimidate him. She thought about that, giving him a little pause to gather his thoughts, and realised that she probably couldn't do that. Nonetheless, she continued, "Your friends will get something much worse and probable spend twice as long in a cell. It's your choice," Valkyrie said.

"Fine," he replied at last. "I'll do it. But, I do expect one thing," he said it in a quiet, reluctant voice. He didn't like giving in. It showed.

"That would depend," Skulduggery said cautiously, mimicking Valkyrie from earlier.

"Go to my house and find Bell. She will need somewhere to go to. I'm sure someone with your resources will find someone," he said, completely serious.

Valkyrie hesitated, and then, "Who's Bell?"

"She's a tabby cat," he said with affection.

"Err… I'll see what we can do," he said awkwardly, "But first, our information, please."

He he! I didn't know what to do with the ending, but here you go. I hope you liked it!

I will try update again soon!

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