both her hands with her fingers extended. Ten minutes until the Cleavers arrived.
The Infected reemerged, carrying a figure between them. It looked like a mummy, all wrapped in dirty bandages, but it was huge, and judging by the difficulty with which the Infected were moving, it was heavy.
They carried it toward the open crate. One of the Infected lost his grip, and the body of the Grotesquery nearly fell.
Vengeous flew into a rage, threw the offending Infected to the ground, and glared, his eyes glowing yellow for a moment. The Infected tried getting up, but something was clearly wrong.
His body started trembling, shaking uncontrollably. Even from here, Valkyrie could see the panic in his face.
And then he exploded in a mist of blood and fleshy chunks.
'Oh my God,' Valkyrie whispered.
'Stay here,' Skulduggery said, and started moving.
She frowned. 'Where are you going?'
'I have to delay them until the Cleavers arrive. We can't afford to lose track of them — not now.'
'Well, I'm going with you.'
'No you're not. You're important to Vengeous and we don't know why — until we do, you're staying out of sight.'
'Then I'll stay up here and, I don't know, throw stones, and when you're finished I'll go down and help out.'
He looked at her. 'In order to finish, I'll have to have defeated six Infected, Dusk, and Vengeous himself.'
'Yeah. So?'
'The Infected I can manage.'
She frowned. 'And Vengeous? I mean, you can beat him, right?'
'Well,' he said, 'I can certainly try. And trying is half the battle.'
'What's the other half?'
He shrugged. 'Hitting him more times than he hits me.' He moved to the battlement. 'If things go wrong, I'll lead them away. Once it's clear, get back to the car. If you don't see me in five minutes, then I've probably died a very brave and heroic death.
Oh, and don't touch the radio — I've just got it tuned right where I want it and I don't want you messing that up.'
And then Skulduggery placed his hand on the top of the battlement and vaulted over it, and disappeared.
Chapter Eighteen
OLD ENEMIES
VALKYRIE EDGED up to the battlement, peeking down as Skulduggery landed gently.
Dusk turned his head like he had heard something, but then looked the other way. Skulduggery crept up behind him, wrapped an arm around his throat, and hauled him back.
Dusk struggled, tried to release the grip, but Skulduggery was cutting off the oxygen to his brain, and Valkyrie knew it would be over in moments. Once Dusk had gone limp, Skulduggery laid him on the ground.
The entire thing had been done in complete silence.
Skulduggery crept to the castle entrance, and Valkyrie moved to the very edge of the collapsed roof, lying flat and peering over.
The Infected had managed to place the mummified figure into the crate without dropping it again. Valkyrie saw their eyes narrow when Skulduggery walked in. Vengeous still had his back to him.
'Hello, Baron,' Skulduggery said.
She saw Vengeous stiffen slightly, then turn.
'Of course,' Vengeous said. 'Whom do they send to try and take me down? Not even a man. Not even a monster. They send you.'
Skulduggery gave a little shrug. 'How've you been, Baron?'
'You taint me,' Vengeous said, disgust in his voice. 'Even being in your presence, it taints me. I can feel it in the air. Even these Infected, these half-Undead, even they are more worthy of my time than you would ever be.'
Skulduggery nodded. 'So, you married, or anything? Do I hear the pitter-patter of tiny evil feet?'
'I will destroy you.'
'You're still upset about that time I made you explode, aren't you? I can tell.'
'You never stop talking, do you?'
'I don't have to talk,' Skulduggery said. 'I can be quiet.' A moment passed. 'So, who've you got in the crate? Is it the shriveled, lifeless, patchwork corpse of the Grotesquery? Am I right? Because if it is, I'm afraid I can't let you take it. I could, you know, give you its big toe, or something, as a keepsake, but that's about it.'
'What you are saying, skeleton, is blasphemous.'
'You're the one who dug up your own god.'
Vengeous started forward, taking his cutlass from its sheath. 'I wish I didn't have to kill you now. I wish I could see the fury it would wreak upon you for this blasphemy.'
'You do realize I've got no skin to cut, right?'
Vengeous smiled again as he approached. 'This sword is woven razor, the same process they use to make the Cleavers' scythes. It will shear through your bones.'
'Ah,' Skulduggery said, taking a step back.
Vengeous was almost upon him. 'What's this?
No jokes? No taunts? Let me see how confident you are now, you abomination.'
Skulduggery's hand went into his jacket and came back out with his revolver. He aimed it squarely at Vengeous's face. Vengeous froze.
'As it turns out,' Skulduggery said after a moment's consideration, 'I'm still pretty confident.'
'Are you going to shoot me?' Vengeous sneered. 'I wouldn't be surprised. What would a thing like you know about honor? Only a heathen would bring a gun to a sword fight.'
'And only a moron would bring a sword to a gunfight.'
Vengeous scowled. 'As you can see,' he said, 'you are vastly outnumbered.'
'I usually am.'
'Your situation has become quite untenable.'
'It usually does.'
'You are within moments of being swarmed by these filthy creatures of undeath and torn apart in a maelstrom of pain and fury.'
Skulduggery paused. 'Okay, that's a new one on me.'
'Kill him!' Vengeous barked.
The Infected started forward and Valkyrie saw Skulduggery wave his arm, and a gust of wind raised a cloud of dust to obscure her view.
She glimpsed Vengeous backing up, shielding his eyes. There were gunshots, flashes of fire, and guttural snarls of anger, and the Infected flew backward through the air.
When the dust cleared, only Skulduggery and Vengeous were left standing.
'Six shots,' Vengeous said. 'I counted. Your gun is empty.'
'You're assuming I didn't reload in all the confusion.'
'And did you?'
