There was scuttling behind them now.
'Eyes straight.'
And then they broke from the shadows ahead, into the light: spiders, black and hairy and bloated, as big as rats, legs tipped with talons.
'Okay,' Skulduggery said. 'I think we can stop walking now.'
The spiders emerged from cracks in the wall, moving across the ceiling, clacking as they came. Valkyrie and Skulduggery stood back to back, watching them close in. They each had three eyes, wide and hungry and unblinking.
'When I count to three,' Skulduggery said quietly, 'we run, all right?'
'All right.'
The spiders clacked as they moved, closing in, drawing in tighter, the clacking becoming a din.
'In fact,' Skulduggery said, 'forget about the count. Just run.'
Valkyrie bolted and the spiders attacked.
She jumped over the spiders in front, landing and kicking out as one of them got too close.
It was heavy against her boot, but she didn't wait to see if she had done any damage. She ran on as Skulduggery hurled fireballs.
They swerved off course when the corridor ahead became alive with hairy, bloated bodies, then ran into a room with a large conference table in its center, the mass behind them quickly growing in size.
A spider scuttled onto the tabletop and sprang at Valkyrie as she passed. It struck her back and clung on, trying to sink its talons through her coat. Valkyrie yelled out and swung around, stumbling as she did so, rolling and feeling the spider beneath her. She came up and the spider was still holding on. It darted up her shoulder, toward her face, and she saw fangs. She grabbed it, tore it from her, and flung it away.
Skulduggery hauled her back, and then she was running again.
They ran for the double doors ahead, and Skulduggery snapped out his hand and the air rippled and the doors were ripped from their hinges. They sprinted through and kept going, into a room that must have been the foyer. Skulduggery threw a few more fireballs and Valkyrie got to the main door, slammed her shoulder into it, and burst into the warm sunshine.
The light hit her eyes and blinded her momentarily. She felt Skulduggery beside her, tugging on her sleeve, and she followed him. She could see fine now, she could see the dark lake ahead and blue sky above.
They stopped running. They heard the spiders, the click-clack of their talons, the frantic scuttling in the doorway, but the spiders were unwilling to leave the darkness for the daylight, and eventually the scuttling went away.
A few moments passed, and Valkyrie breathed normally and noticed for the first time that Skulduggery was looking at something over her left shoulder.
'What?' she asked, but he didn't answer.
She turned. The Torment was standing there, his long gray hair tangled in his long beard, Skulduggery's gun pointed right at her.
'Who are you,' the Torment said in a voice that hadn't been used in years, 'to come after me, to disturb me, after all these years?'
'We're here on Sanctuary business,' Skulduggery said. 'We're detectives.'
'She's a child,' the Torment said. 'And you're a dead man.'
'Technically speaking, you may well be right, but we are more than we appear. We believe you have information that may aid us in an investigation.'
'You say that as if I am obligated to help you,' the old man responded, the gun not wavering. 'What do I care for your investigations? What do I care for detecting, and Sanctuary business? I hate the Sanctuary, and the Council of Elders, and I loathe all they stand for. We are sorcerers. We should not be hiding from the mortals, we should be ruling them.'
'We need to find out how to stop the Grotesquery,' Valkyrie said. 'If it opens the portal and lets the Faceless Ones back in, everyone suffers, not just — '
'The child is addressing me,' the Torment said. 'Make her stop.'
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes but shut up.
Skulduggery tilted his head. 'What she says is true. You had no love for Mevolent when he was alive, and I'm sure you have no wish to see the Faceless Ones return. If you help us, there might be something we can do to help you.'
The Torment laughed. 'Favors? You wish to trade favors?'
'If that will make you help us, yes.'
The Torment frowned suddenly and looked at Valkyrie. 'You. Child. You have tainted blood in your veins. I can taste it from here.'
She said nothing.
'You're connected to them, aren't you? The Ancients? I despise the Ancients as much as I despise the Faceless Ones, you know. If either race were to return, they would rule it all.'
'The Ancients were the good guys,' Valkyrie said.
The Torment scowled. 'Power is power. Sorcerers have the power to run the world — the only reason we don't is weakness of leadership. But if the Ancients were to return, do you really think they'd make the same mistake? Beings of such power have no place on this Earth. I had hoped the last of your kind had died out.'
'Sorry to disappoint.'
The Torment looked back to Skulduggery. 'This information, dead man, must be worth a lot to you. And this favor you are promising — this, too, would be equally substantial?'
'I suppose it would be.'
The Torment smiled, and it wasn't a pleasant sight. 'What do you need?'
'We need to know where Baron Vengeous has been keeping the Grotesquery since his imprisonment, and we need to know how he plans to raise it.'
'I have the information you seek.'
'What do you want in return?'
'My needs are modest,' the Torment said. 'I would like you to kill the child.'
Chapter Fourteen
SPRINGING JACK
JACK COULDN'T SPRING.
Even if he could — even if this cell, with its narrow bed and its toilet and its sink, was big enough — he still wouldn't have been able to spring. The cell was bound, and dampened his powers.
Springheeled Jack sat on his bed and contemplated life without springing.
He also contemplated life without killing, which was twisting him up inside, without his favorite foods, without dancing about on rooftops, and without everything he loved.
They'd throw away the key, he knew they would. The English Council, once they finally got the chance to put him away, wouldn't be lenient. His trial would be over in a flash, and he'd be looking at hundreds of years in prison.
Jack lay down, resting his forearm over his eyes to block out that dreadful artificial light.
No more open sky for him. No more stars. No more moon.
'You're uglier than I remember.'
Jack catapulted off the bed. A man was standing in the cell, leaning against the wall and grinning.
'Sanguine,' Jack said, his own mouth twisting. 'Come 'ere to gloat, 'ave you? I'd like to say I'm surprised, but naw, that kinda behavior is what I've come to expect from you.'
'Jack, my old friend, your words, they sting.'
