Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 84

Crow's gun had landed somewhere behind them and Valkyrie's first thing to do, after wiping away a single tear from the pain of her broken arm, was to pick it up and pray Crow wouldn't need it. She ran to the High Priest's office and tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. She knew he would know she was there by now, so she kicked the door with one solid kick and it fell open.

Revealing millions of spiders.

Valkyrie shrieked. "Spiders!" She screamed and ran further down the hall. Who cared if the High Priest was in there? He was in no shape to talk anyway.

She didn't stop for a long, long time, taking the path down the student halls and out at the storage and back around herself to near the classrooms. She stopped to pant and take in her surroundings.

She checked each corner of the room for spiders, trying to remember what The Idiots had told her about Children of the Spider. Wolf had spoken a lot about their fighting and that they liked to spy and learn before attacking, but also that they had been in hiding for nearly two hundred years and that could either mean they already know everything or they'd all gone mad. Either way, they were screwed. The Children were likely of simply turning into a spider or using spiders or another physical weapon to fight, so she needed to look out of spiders – as she was doing, she thought positively – and listen for many legs running in her direction. She could do that. The problem was, there could be millions of silent ones anywhere as she had already witnessed.

Weasel had talked about numbers, indicating he had a feeling there were a lot of the Children, but they all agreed that since their numbers had been decimated during the war, their main goal would have been to raise as many actual children as possible to be Spiders. When they reproduced, did they have one human child, or many, many horrible spider babies? Gross.

She shook her head.

Snake had spoken a little about them, mostly their relationships and way of life. Unfortunately, that didn't help her much. He had said that they tended to have one partner and were encouraged to never have another, like many cultures, however, they tended to take it to extremes likely due to their small, enclosed community. If she killed or seriously hurt one of them, she'd have masses of mages after her in an instance.

She took a deep breath and looked around the corner. And bonked heads with another person.

They both jumped back in fright and Valkyrie trained the gun on him. He squealed like a pig and she lowered it slightly.

"Cleric Sophron?" She asked.

He gasped and then covered his mouth quickly. He raised one finger to uncover part of his mouth. "Valkyrie Cain?"

"Yes, of course it's me," she said, coming closer to hear better. "What are you doing? Where's everyone else?"

"Oh, Miss Cain, I cannot tell you that," he said pleadingly. "Not after what you did to young Melancholia St. Clare and Militsa Gnosis."

"Sophron, I didn't do any of that," she said quickly. "Craven started talking to the High Priest and some of the other Clerics yesterday about Melancholia being the Death Bringer and convinced Solomon to let me fight her since I beat her before to prove her powers. But she wasn't stronger, and she looked really ill. Craven started arguing with Solomon, so I took Melancholia to a hospital. Militsa came with me because I asked her to."

He looked uncertain and Valkyrie quickly pushed them into an open room and closed the door. "I don't know," he said, pressing his fingers together nervously. "I don't want you to hurt anyone if your lying."

"When have I ever lied to hurt someone? Why would I come here to hurt someone? Actually, you know what. You're right."

"I am?" He asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. You are. You're right because since I got here, all I've gotten is ignored and segregated by everyone else. Only Militsa spoke to me and not a single person has tried to help me or Militsa be welcomed or happy here. I should lash out. But you know what, I haven't, and I won't, but I'm still getting hunted down for it aren't I? By small minded people that would listen to a man that decided the Death Bringer was a sick girl that needed help and no one thought to talk to and see she was sick. I hate this place."

Cleric Sophron looked a little shocked. "Well, Miss Cain, I am sorry you feel like that. But don't think this is a manhunt, we are just trying to find you and the other children. If you give yourself up, I'm sure they'll listen and we can clear your name."

"Clear my name? I'm sixteen and I saved Melancholia's life and I'm being hunted for it. Questions should have been asked before you started hunting. Why aren't you with them anyway?"

"I don't leave the Temple," he said quickly. "No, I never leave. I'm meant to help with stocking the kitchen and such but there isn't much point when there's no cook or store manager. I can't get food, I can't give it to someone. I like it here."

She deflated, knowing she was hitting a dead wall talking to him. She'd only make him upset and then he'd never talk.

"Look, can you just tell me where the others are so I can explain? Where's the High Priest?"

"He's in his office."

"No, only spiders are in there. It's infested."

He shook his head venomously. "No, the High Priest said he'd be having a meeting in there."

Valkyrie's heart sank. "Oh no."

"What is it?"

"The Torment," she whispered.

Sophron went pale and she knew he knew what she meant. "They're meeting in the back private meeting room. Go behind the back stairs that go up, and you'll see a storeroom door. Go in and follow it to the end and they'll be a door on your right. Don't go in – push on the left wall. You can't miss it from there."

She nodded and ran out of the room, sprinting the way he said even as her arm burnt in pain. She got through to under the stairs and pressed her back on the left wall, feeling it slowly give way to her weight.

Praying there weren't more spiders, she slid through the gap in the wall and followed the pitch black hall down to what ended up being a blackout screen curtain. She got in without anyone noticing because they were all sitting on the floor with their eyes closed, thinking or meditating or praying. She hoped they were praying. They needed all the help they could get.

She took a deep breath and held her good arm in the air. "Could I have your attention?" They all jumped and looked at her with gaping mouths. "Hi. Yeah, I'm sure you're wondering how I got here, but we have bigger problems. Where's Craven?"

A woman in the middle of the floor jumped up and pointed at her. "You! You kidnapped two of the students!"

"No! I didn't. One of them needed medical assistance and the other agreed to help me get her to a hospital," she said. The woman glared but lowered her hand. "I mean it. But there's something worse happening. The Torment and the Children of the Spider have gotten into the Temple and we need to get out. They're using you hunting me to get control and we really, really need to leave."

"Why should we believe you?" The woman asked.

"Why would I lie? Have I ever lied to you? Or the Temple as a whole? Or the Sanctuary? Or anyone else at all that you've ever heard about? No, I haven't. I have no reason to, I have everything I need without a lie! Now get up, they have a hitman working with them that breaks all your bones in an instance and I don't know how long Skulduggery can hold him off!"

They didn't move and it was very frustrating. "Who votes she is telling the truth?" She woman asked.

Valkyrie growled in irritation and turned to leave but saw something move. She cringed and clicked fire into existence and saw a giant spider, almost as tall as her waist, on its back legs about to strike.

Needless to say, she threw the fire at it and ran like hell.

Shouts and screams rang out as people ran with her or tried to fight the spider. Valkyrie would like to think they were successful, but she didn't look back to check.

The Clerics and whatever other Necromancers that remained ran for a door at the back and she followed them down a cramped corridor and up a staircase with a bad, bad feeling. They were too cramped, too enclosed, too open to attack.

There was nothing she could do at that moment but keep running with them even as people began to Shadow Walk away or fall behind. A door was thrown wide open above them but not by her or the Necromancers. No, she recognised his face even with shadows darkening his features. Before anyone could react, she darted to the front of the group and flung her hand out, shadows wrapping around The Torment's figure and pinning him to a wall she couldn't yet see.

Getting out that horrific stairwell, she saw The Torment wrapped up in shadows and a woman standing as still as a statue and dressed in black like a mourning Empress, a black veil covering her face. Something told Valkyrie she didn't want to know what was under the veil and she squeezed The Torment as hard as she could, trying to finish the man that had tried to destroy her family when something landed on her back.

She screamed, jumped and body slammed the spider to the ground. It squelched and she felt it try to bite her shoulder but her protective clothes saved her. She could feel its cold blood on her neck and hand as she pushed herself back up. She immediately started running, sparing a glance back at the creature. It was too fat to get back up and two of its legs had been crushed or torn off by her weight. More spiders, tiny ones, were pouring out of the veiled woman's clothes as if her every pore was vomiting them, and they were scrambling to encase the big, spasming spider.

She felt sick and her arm hurt so much worse than before, but at least The Torment was too busy spluttering and catching his breath to come straight after her.

She grabbed her phone from her pocket and phoned Raven.

"Val–"

"There's no time, the Temple's been overrun by Spiders!" She said with a bit of panic in her voice. "I've told everyone I can, I'm getting out!"

"Is The Torment there?"

"Yes, he's with a woman. I hurt him so he'll be after me soon. Where's the control room?" She asked.

"It's by the room you meet with Miss Gnosis," he told her quickly. "Do you know your way?"

"Yes," she panted. "You're going in my pocket."

She put her phone in there and used the hand to hold her broken arm that was now so badly damaged her forearm was flopping as she ran. She recognised the offices around her as low-level communications and remembered wandering this way with Militsa once, so she knew how to get back to the old staffroom. She got there feeling pale and ill from pain and exhaustion. She got the phone back out.

"I'm at the staffroom. Where now?" She asked.

He instructed her how to get to the control room and she told him quickly the last time she saw Crow before disarming the building. She had no idea if it would affect anywhere else, but she knew she'd be killed if she remained in the Temple. With the last of her strength, she Shadow Walked into the lobby.

Raven was there with the doors open and Cleavers flanking him. "Crow's still in there with Tesseract," she said faintly. "Can you help him?"

The Cleavers nodded and began sprinting down the hall in search of her adopted father. She hoped they'd find him and thanked Gordon mentally for aiding the Cleaver production so she could ask them to disobey their masters like that. It was cool and very useful.

"How did you do that?" Raven asked her with a frown, taking a hold of her good elbow as she started to shake.

"Magic," she muttered. "I need to sit down."

He took her outside to where at least fifty mages stood around, including Tanith and Panda, who looked mad and had his arms crossed. She got herself onto her feet without Raven's help and opened her good arm to Tanith who hugged her carefully.

"Hey sis," Valkyrie said into her blonde hair. "We need to go. The Torment and all his Children took over the Temple."

"Where's Skulduggery?" Panda asked.

"Fighting Tesseract last I saw," she said, turning to look at the Temple. "I honestly don't know now, it's been at least half an hour. God, it feels like a lot longer."

Panda looked at the Temple in concern and put an arm on both of their shoulders. "We should leave. The Spider's aren't good news."

"I didn't find Craven, and I think the High Priest is dead," she told him quickly as her vision went. She stood very still for a moment and it came back. They continued walking. "We all need to talk together."

"We need our family together," Panda said firmly, looking at Tanith. "Safe."

"I am safe," she snapped.

"Please not now," Valkyrie muttered.

Things are happening guys! I hope I pull off all this tension and suspension things, it's gonna take a few years to build up to what I have planned here, so don't worry, you will get the fights and evil and investment, but be patient with me.

Any more PM's or reviews are welcome, I'm open to names until the birth and remember, I'm using a randomizer for the gender so I need both types of names! I've had Luna and Storm added to the list from a PM so do send me them, I love the encouragement!

TheBelowAvarageAuthor: I'm way ahead of you on all the things you said. As for Nadia... just you wait and see ;)