'I'm calling my superior.'
Weeper reached for the button on the desk, but Skulduggery grabbed his wrist and twisted. Weeper howled in pain. Skulduggery moved around and slammed him against the wall. 'Handcuffs,'' he said.
Valkyrie opened one of the desk drawers. Inside were half a dozen clear plastic bags containing the personal effects of the prisoners. She opened another drawer and found a pair of shiny new handcuffs, which she tossed to Skulduggery. He cuffed Weeper's hands behind his back and let him go.
Weeper stumbled away, eyes wide. 'You attacked me!'
'We just want to borrow one of your prisoners,' Valkyrie assured him.
'I can't allow that to happen,' Weeper snarled, settling into a combat stance that Valkyrie had never seen before.
She watched, wondering what martial art he knew that was good enough to make up for the fact that he couldn't use his hands. She was expecting some jumping around, maybe a few flips and definitely a lot of kicking. What she witnessed was more along the lines of Weeper trying to butt his head into Skulduggery's chest. He charged, Skulduggery stepped out of the way, and Weeper hit his knee against the desk and fell to the ground in pain.
'Keep an eye out,' Skulduggery said, haulingWeeper up and dragging him to the cells. He left him curled up against the wall and moved to the first of the steel doors, opened the small hatch, and peered in. He closed the hatch again and moved to the next door.
Valkyrie stood at the corner, making sure they weren't going to be interrupted. She glanced back to see Skulduggery guiding Weeper into a cell and then beckoning the prisoner out. Her gaze returned to the corridor. At the junction a sorcerer strode by but didn't look her way. She waited without breathing, but he didn't reappear.
The cell door closed, and Valkyrie turned to see which prisoner Skulduggery had chosen. The prisoner glared at her defiantly. She knew him. He saw himself as the Killer Supreme, the man to make murder into an art form, even though he had yet to successfully kill anyone. The first time they'd met, he had tried to throw her off a building. He was not a very smart man.
'We meet again,' Vaurien Scapegrace snarled, snapping his handcuffs.
Valkyrie laughed.
His snarl vanished and his shoulders sagged.'I wish, just once, people would see me and not laugh.'
'Quiet now,' Skulduggery said, prodding him forward. Valkyrie did her best to stifle her grin as they headed back to the Repository.
'I was framed,' Scapegrace said, walking slightly ahead of them. 'I've been accused of a crime I didn't commit. I shouldn't even be here.'
'That's right,' Skulduggery said. 'You should be in a proper prison for attempted murder.'
'I broke out,' said Scapegrace with a shrug.
'That's not strictly true though, is it? To break out implies something dynamic and adventurous. You were being transported to another facility, and they simply forgot about you at the rest stop.'
'I escaped.'
'You were left behind.'
'I was a free man. And then I was accused of a crime I didn't commit and got rearrested. I shouldn't even be here. You call that justice?'
'I call that amusing,' Valkyrie murmured.
Scapegrace ignored her. 'Where are you taking me? This isn't the way to the interrogation rooms. Why do you want me?»'Because you're great company.'
Scapegrace slowed and all the color drained from his face. 'You're going to execute me, aren't you? '
'We're not going to execute you,' Skulduggery said.
'That's why this is all hush-hush. Oh, God, you're going to execute me.'
'We're not, I promise.'
'But why? Why am I going to be executed? You fear me, don't you?'
'That's not exactly what's happening here.'
Scapegrace's legs gave out, and Skulduggery caught him and kept him walking.
'You fear my wrath,' Scapegrace said weakly.
Skulduggery stopped him, undid the handcuffs, and gave him a small push. 'Run away now.'
Scapegrace spun to face them. 'Why? So you can have your bit of sport? That is cruel.'
'We're not going to execute you,' Valkyrie insisted.
Scapegrace fell to his knees. 'Please don't kill me.'
Skulduggery shook his head. 'I should have picked someone else.'
'We just want you to distract some people,»Valkyrie told him. 'We need you to divert their attention.'
'I don't want to die,' Scapegrace sobbed.
'Vaurien, seriously, get up. We're not going to hurt you.'
'Once I turn my back ...'
'We're not going to do anything. We need you to distract some people, but this isn't just about us. This is your chance to escape. Look at yourself. No handcuffs. No injuries. What's to stop you from just running out of here? '
'Okay,' said Scapegrace, getting back to his feet. 'So I just run, right?'
'That's right.'
'And what about if--'
Scapegrace bolted past them halfway through his question, hoping to take them by surprise.
'Wrong way,' Valkyrie called.
Scapegrace staggered to a stop and turned.
'If you go that way, you'll just arrive back at the holding cells.'
Scapegrace looked around, getting his bearings, then nodded and walked back.
'Just because I'm helping you,' he warned, 'does not mean we are allies.»'We know that,' Skulduggery said. 'The next time I see you, I will be trying to kill you.'
'We know that, too.'
'How do I get out of here? '
'Go straight ahead and turn left. Follow your nose from there.'
Scapegrace stopped beside them and snarled. 'Until we meet again.'
He jogged to the corner and glanced right, shrieked, and sprinted left.
'We probably should have told him he'd be running from Cleavers,' Skulduggery said, as they watched both Cleavers blur past the intersection.
They hurried to the Repository doors, and just before they slipped inside, Valkyrie looked back as the Cleavers pounced on Scapegrace and he squealed.
Chapter Sixteen. Stealing the Grotesquery
Skulduggery took a small spool of thread from his pocket and started wrapping it around the door handles.
'That'll hold?' Valkyrie asked skeptically. 'This is Resolute Thread. The more pressure applied, the stronger it gets. It's very rare. They say it was made from the stomach lining of an emperor dragon, over two thousand years ago.'
'Was it?'
'No, it's just really strong thread.' The door handles tied together securely, they walked deeper into the room. The Repository was vast and dark, with rows of shelves and tables groaning under the weight of the magic artifacts it contained. In the center, where once the Book of Names had stood on its pedestal, there was now a cage of black steel, about the size of a small truck. The remains of the Grotesquery, little more than a torso and head wrapped in soiled bandages, hung suspended off the ground by a dozen taut chains. There were symbols
