Chapter 179
"Oh my God," Nadia whispered, eyes wide, a few tears on her cheeks. "This is awful."
Valkyrie sat on her bed, back on the wall. Nadia sat with her legs crossed at the headboard, Tanith and Ghastly sat together at the end with a sleeping Laila. The rest of the family was on Tanith's bed. They were all exhausted, all sweaty, all ready for some sleep. But their information couldn't wait.
Dexter had to tell them because Valkyrie was struggling to process it still. Sure, she'd always know that her being tortured was planned. They'd had to hire the torturer and place him in the right place, capture them and select her out of the group. That was a planned torture. But this was in the organisation she worked for. Someone she may well have met from her job. And they had ordered her, as a young girl by anyone's standards, to be tortured for information. It was just a lot to take in.
Of course, then there was the general information of the Spiders. Important but not unexpected. They knew a general amount from their own sightings, Skulduggery and Solomon, and from their missions in America. But God, it was a long list of names, each more dangerous and deadly, or sickening, than the last.
"We have to tell Meritorious," Ghastly said solemnly.
Dexter sighed heavily and rubbed his face. Saracen put a hand on his back. "It could cause us problems."
"It's already caused us problems," Ghastly replied tiredly.
"We may be better keeping it to just a few people," Anton suggested, shifting from one foot to the other. He and Solomon were the only ones standing. "We can use it as a way to blackmail the Sanctuary. With political tensions as high as they are, it may actually be the safer option. As much as I am loath to say it."
"But who – why would they do that?" Nadia whispered, looking between them all with horror. Valkyrie put out an arm and Nadia fell into her heavily, wrapping her slim arms around her waist. "Val's just a little kid to these people."
"I expect they hoped to get more information out of her," Tanith said slowly. "Being younger, they probably thought she'd crack faster than anyone else available."
"But didn't they t-" she choked on the word, "hurt Saracen first?"
Saracen hummed. "Mr Sorry asked us different questions. I'm thinking that Grievers wanted me tortured for information on the Sanctuary, and the corrupt politician paid for Valkyrie."
Nadia opened her mouth but no sound came out. She buried her head in Valkyrie's neck instead.
"How many names are there?" Anton asked after a moment.
"Seventeen," Dexter said. "There were more faces, but Crux didn't know them. Mercy might be able to shed some light but she'll be out for a long time yet, Valkyrie caused her some serious brain damage."
Valkyrie was so tired all she did was breath in response. Solomon tried to comfort her. "You're still new to this magic. You're going to make mistakes. Don't be too hard on yourself over her."
She nodded a little. She had been awake for almost thirty hours now and sitting down was making her body incredibly tired, so she didn't do anything else.
"What names do we know?" Tanith asked.
"Noirette Paine, the Sensitive. Keme Stolen, proficient in Signals and an assassin cross thief, as far as we can tell. He stole that Necromancer thing from the Repository," Dexter listed. "He knew the Wild Brothers by their group name, and had spoken to their leader. He didn't seem to have much contact with them. Madam Mist, The Torment, Ruette Dagger, Dark, and Darling Ciphers are among the known Spiders up top. They said there were dozens, perhaps hundreds in his memories but those were the big names. He also had met Craven any time he went to their Irish base which they move a lot. Also someone called Richard Killer. He was mentioned by Mr Sorry to Valkyrie according to the people we met. They had studied the recording of Valkyrie and Saracen with Mr Sorry."
"Who is Richard Killer?" Solomon asked.
"They weren't sure exactly, but they had heard his name mentioned by a few criminals before. The Americans seem to think he had strong ties to Paine, but even they said they could be wrong," Dexter said, putting his list in his pocket.
"Not like them to say they could be wrong," Erskine said with a watery smile.
Dexter put an arm around his friend and pulled him into his side. "There's a few other names, but these are the important ones from what we could tell. I'm starting to think we need to get a hold of Samuel Grievers and see what he knows."
There was some nodding and then they dispersed for the night. Valkyrie kicked off her shoes and pushed Nadia back, laid herself down and was asleep before anyone had even left the room.
.*****.
They were packed and in the cars the next morning heading towards Sawmill Mountain, the place the American Children of the Spiders were based. Other than a map of the route the Sensitives thought Crux had taken to get there, they had no other information. He had been there two times when they had further looked into his head a few hours earlier, and he had taken different ways each time and got inside in different places which didn't help them. As far as the Sensitives could tell, there were either multiple buildings or there was a massive underground structure. Crux's insanity didn't exactly help.
It was only a four-hour drive with some light traffic, but they stopped a little further out in a small town, barely a cluster of houses with a small shop and a church.
"It's so creepy," Nadia muttered quietly to Valkyrie. They had left the car with the men while they went to the little shop for food. They'd rented a house but it was only a two bed – Solomon and Erskine had been out and bought blow-up mattresses for the rest of them already.
"Mhh," Valkyrie hummed. "I'm sure it's fine. Is there anything you want for dinner?"
"No," she said quietly.
Valkyrie put a hand on her lower back to comfort her. "Please don't stress too much. We'll only be here a little bit anyway, maybe even just a day." They entered the little shop. It had a lot shoved into a small space. "Do you want pasta?"
"I'm not really hungry," she tried.
"Well, you have to eat, so you may as well eat something you like. What about roast chicken?"
"That takes too long."
"Something with rice then?"
Nadia shrugged a bit. "I guess. Just pick something you want. I don't want anything heavy."
Valkyrie racked her brain for something quick and easy they'd all like. She spotted the potatoes in the corner, a big bag just lying there. "What about that potato and pea curry you like? I forget the name, but that's nice."
She nodded and helped Valkyrie gather the ingredients, but Valkyrie could tell all the things they'd spoken of the day before was getting to her. After picking up sandwich things and some juice for lunch, they went to the tiny house they rented and spilt the bags on the table.
Anton came and took over the organisation as that was his element. Dexter was behind him, helping out. It was such a small space. The front door was almost opposite the stairs going up, the living room had a love seat, a small armchair and a small telly on the wall, the dining table was a small round one with just four mismatching chairs and the kitchen was diddy. There were only two cabinets for storage as the washer, oven and plumbing for the sink took up the rest of the space. There was an ironing board, mop and broom hung on the wall next to the back door leading to a small garden with a tree in it. No bathroom downstairs. Valkyrie pulled Nadia upstairs, where there were two small bedrooms and a little bathroom. They went in the smallest bedroom and Valkyrie closed the door.
"Talk to me," she said, pushing Nadia to sit on the lumpy mattress. Valkyrie got on her knees and held the girl's hands.
Nadia sighed heavily. "It's just all a lot. You know?"
"I do baby. But I can see you're letting it get to you too much. You weren't this upset over me going on missions. This is the consequence of that sometimes," she said softly.
"I know. I do. You've always said that things can go bad, and you said they could get bad for me and I could get pulled in by other people. It happened and I was mostly prepared for it. But I guess I never really thought much about the, you know, insides of it. It's always just bad people, not real life people that I could have met at parties. I mean, what if this person is never found and we just end up socialising with them one day? How can I trust people if that's what I'm thinking of?"
"Honey," Valkyrie sighed, pulling her in for a hug. "You can't think about it this much. You just can't. I know, I know, you can't just let it go so easily, but it's reality. I don't want you to be scared your whole life over one event. Someone's done something really bad to us by ordering me and Saracen to be tortured, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not that bad. I got hurt, and then I stood back up and survived. Right? You need to get back up from this and do the same."
"It's just hard," she whispered, playing with the pretty ring on her finger, twisting it back and forth.
Valkyrie tried a smile. "Is it weird? Wearing a ring all the time?"
"Yeah," she cracked a small smile. "It doesn't feel real sometimes. I end up forgetting I have it on and then I'll see it out of the corner of my eye and it surprises me. I love it so much."
"I'm glad," Valkyrie said, kissing her. She pecked her lips again, tasting the strawberry lip moisturiser she'd used earlier, and kissed her again, and again, until Nadia had wrapped her arms around Valkyrie's neck and had forgotten about their conversation.
Valkyrie pulled her head back when she felt Nadia's arm begin to dip towards her trouser button. "We should go downstairs."
Nadia let out a frustrated breath. "You never let me do anything just to you. You're always doing things to me."
Valkyrie grinned, kissing her and standing up. "I'll let you make it up to me soon."
Nadia smirked. "Can I use Tanith's Christmas present?"
Valkyrie went for the door. "Don't talk about that." Nadia laughed.
Finally! I got around to finishing something. I have literally not done any chores, looked after my geckos (my fiance is, no need to worry), written or done any work since the virus started. I think I wrote one chapter at the start of it and now it's been weeks. I want to get all my work and fanfiction writing done while there's nothing else to do, but noooooo, I can't do that. I have to sit and look at a wall all day.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying this. This is just a depressing filler, but next chapter is the Spider raid, so that's fun :)