Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Chapter 28

It took several hours to drive up to Glendalough, a rocky area in Wicklow Mountains National Park, in the east of Ireland, not far down from Dublin. It took until ten at night to reach the area and in the Autumn weather, the girls were cold.

"I am not happy in this weather," Valkyrie muttered. "I don't know how you do it."

Tanith laughed quietly, letting out little puffs of condensation. "I look good though."

"All your important bits are gonna fall off one day."

"Like my brain?"

"You have a brain?"

Tanith snorted a laugh.

The area looked like a forest covered mountain had had a chunk pulled out right in the middle, leaving little mountains surrounding a crystal-clear lake in the centre. It was silent and pitch black. Valkyrie could see all the stars and the moon above. It was stunning. Smiling to herself, she thought about how much Nadia would like to visit the national park with her once spring came. It would be a nice date.

"You're smiling again," Tanith whispered as Crow reached into a tree stump by the side of the lake.

"Shut up."

"You look like a lovestruck fool."

"Maybe I am. Crow, what are you doing?" Valkyrie finally asked. He had been looking and waiting.

"This, my dear girl, is the bell that calls the sea hag," he said, presenting a dainty silver bell. He rang it and it was almost inaudible from where she was standing beside him. He put it back.

"That was bloody rubbish," Valkyrie said. Tanith nodded beside her. "It was tiny! I bet she didn't even hear."

"I'm sure she did," he said.

"You'd think a summoning bell would be big though. Something with a toll, not a tinkle."

He nodded. "It was rather unimpressive."

"Why does it live in the lake?" Tanith asked him suddenly.

"I think we are about to find out," he said quietly, watching the lake. Valkyrie and Tanith turned and watched the water ripple and, slowly, an ugly, mossy, old mermaid-like creature immerge.

"Who disturbs me?" She said in a voice that sounded like someone drowning. It had a surprisingly Irish twang to it considering she supposedly lived in the water with next to no human contact.

"I do," Crow said. "My name is Skulduggery Pleasant."

"That is not your name," the sea hag scowled.

"It is the name I have taken. These are my colleagues, Tanith Low and Valkyrie Cain."

"You put so much power in names," she said almost sadly. "I once had a name but have long since submitted it to the Deep. It brings happiness. Tell me, have you ever seen such happiness as this?"

She raised her arms, looking at the three of them. She had a piece of seaweed hanging from her hair, stuck in the tangles. She had bare breasts and they were really old and wrinkled. Did all boobs look like that in old age? Valkyrie didn't know. Her nipples looked like they might fall off.

No one reply. When she gave up on an answer, she continued. "Why have you disturbed me?"

"We seek answers," Crow said. "We heard a man died fifty years ago, right here at this lake. If the victim told you anything before he died, if you know anything about him or the one who killed him, we need to hear it."

"You want to know another's secrets?"

"We need to."

"That girl," the sea hag said, raising a pointed finger at Valkyrie, "has not said a word since I appeared. Yet before that, with scarcely a pause, she spoke. Have you nothing to say now?"

"Hello," Valkyrie waved quietly. Tanith pressed her lips together to stop a laugh.

"I heard you speak of my bell. You do not like it?"

"It's a nice bell. I just thought it would be…" she searched for a word. "Grander. I thought it would be big and gold and grand."

The sea hag flicked her fish tail and drifted to just an arms breadth away from Valkyrie. Tanith stepped in front of her, hand on her sword. The sea hag didn't so much as look at her. "Would you like to drown?"

"Err, no thank you."

"What is it you want?"

"The man, from fifty years ago?" Crow said quickly.

There was another shift in the water and a corpse floated out until just his feet were below the surface. "Help me," he said.

"If you help us, we will help you," Crow said. "Are you Trope Kessel, the Teleporter?"

"I am."

"How were you killed?"

"With a knife, in the back."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. That was how all the other murders had happened. Perhaps it actually had been the same killer.

"Who killed you?" Valkyrie asked.

"A man called Batu."

"Why did he kill you?" Crow asked.

"I was, I suppose, a scholar," he said dully. "I was studying how the Faceless were driven from our reality. I did not what them back, I was just curious as to how it worked, the magic, the mechanics. I died because I trusted Batu and the good I believed all humans possessed. I was wrong as Batu was none of the goodness I believed him to be. He killed me when I told him what I knew, and he wished to protect his secret."

"What secrets?" Crow asked, sounding more cautious now.

"The gate to their reality," he said.

"Such a gate exists?"

"It does, but I only worked out how to find it, not where it was," he said slowly, tiredly. "The wall between realities has weakened over time. A powerful Sensitive could find it. Two things are needed to get through – an Isthmus Anchor, which is something from the other reality. The second is a Teleporter, who can force the gate open."

"Maybe the killer isn't bad," Valkyrie suggested. "Maybe he wants to make sure it never opens again, like a really, really twisted good guy."

Tanith and Crow nodded. "Thank you," Crow said to the corpse. "What is it you want in return?"

"I want to be buried," he said hopefully. "To be dry and surrounded by earth."

"Shut up, corpse," the hag said immediately.

"Isn't there something we could give you as a trade?" Crow asked. "We could transport you back to the sea."

The hag, who seemed adamant a moment ago, suddenly paused to consider. She swayed closer to Crow until they were just inches away.

"I would like to go to the sea," she said slowly, "but I want something else as well."

Crow tilted his head. "It wouldn't have anything to do with Saracen Rue, would it?"

She sneered. "I want to talk to him."

Crow got out his phone and called Weasel. He picked up after a moment. "Sherlock Bones, what's up?"

He pointed the phone at the sea hag. "He can hear you."

"Saracen Rue," she said. "You have not visited me."

There was a very, very long pause in which Valkyrie and Tanith started squeezing each other's hand to make the other maybe not grin as much. "Is that the Maiden of the Sea?" He asked charmingly. "No, I haven't seen you in a long time."

"You said you would."

"I did. I did say that. Unfortunately, things came up and I had to go away from the county. I was never able to come back to you."

"You forgot about me," she growled.

"No, I didn't," he said, trying to sound earnest. "Honest. It's just, after I was gone for five years or so, by the time I got back, things had changed. I didn't realise you wanted to see me still. I'm sorry."

She considered. "Visit me."

"Tonight?" He asked, surprised. "Look, babe, it's been thirty years."

"Thirty-seven."

"Where has the time gone?" He chuckled. "It was only yesterday I was visiting you. But trust me, things have changed now. I have to be a role-model." Valkyrie almost burst out laughing. All the Idiots tried to teach her were bad and inappropriate things. "My feelings have changed, and I'm sure you don't feel the same either. You're probably very angry. I'm sorry I made you angry and upset."

She sniffed somewhat delicately. "I want to see you."

"No, you want to punish me."

"Maybe you need punishing." Valkyrie felt a tear of laughter fall down her cheek as she tried to keep it in.

Weasel laughed a little nervously. "Perhaps, but I don't want to die. I'm sorry about that. You need to let me go. Find someone nice. Someone you can spend your life with. In the ocean."

She nodded, though her shoulders had shrunk. "I am in a lake."

"We will get you out," Crow said for Weasel. "Then you can find someone to love."

She considered it. "I suppose so. Yes. You will come for me soon. Before the new moon."

Crow nodded. "I'll tell the Elders. Thank you."

She threw herself into the lake, the dead man floating to them and then wobbled, and faceplanted into the ground. He didn't speak or move again.

"Well, that was strange," Valkyrie grinned, her cheeks hurting from the grins.

"Yeah, what was that about?" Tanith giggled, knowing the sea hag could hear them. "Also, thank god for her and Saracen being after me. I would not have been happy contracting anything she had." Valkyrie snorted and laughed in earnest now.

Weasel, from the phone, chuckled. "Don't worry, it was innocent enough. We just spoke a lot."

"Suuure," Valkyrie said as Crow picked the man up with magic. "Because you're well known for that, aren't you?"

They said goodbye and got in the car while Crow got the body in the boot and called the Elders to tell them the progress they had made. He got in and told them transport for the hag had been approved. They drove back to the mansion.

There, they found Peregrine had gone to bed in one of the rooms on the third floor away from the rest of them, and the other men had stayed up for them. Cleavers removed the body from Crow's car for burial when they arrived and quickly disappeared.

"How was it?" Panda asked. Tanith sat in the seat next to him, bringing her legs up and leaning slightly against him. He went red but didn't move. Tanith smirked down at her nails.

"It went well," Valkyrie said absently, texting Nadia.

"How are you texting her at two in the morning?" Crow asked. "Shouldn't she be asleep?"

"Of course. But I had to tell her about the sea hag. She'll see the messages in the morning."

He sighed. "The trip was worth it. We learnt Trope Kessel was killed by a man called Batu in the same way the others had been killed and recovered his body. You may have heard Saracen's conversation with her."

They all grinned and jeered at him good-naturedly. He took it with a grin.

"We also learnt some motives for killing the Teleporters and that Kessel learnt how to find the gate to let the Faceless in. Needless to say, Batu knows and we need to silence him as quickly as possible. There may be a small chance he is killing Teleporters to stop the Faceless coming in but he's still killing and others he may tell might try to bring them in."

They all nodded and went to bed so they'd be rested to reconvene in the morning.

Soooo close to Fletcher, I know y'all are waiting for him! Don't worry, he's in the next one, so barely a wait ;)