'Stay there,' he ordered. 'Make sure they don't leave.'
The Cleaver pulled out his scythe. He was the only thing between her and the door. The unnatural smoke trailed and sank and swept up, and it passed in front of her, obscuring her line of sight. When the smoke cleared, the Cleaver was gone.
Skulduggery moved out of the darkness and waited by the door. Valkyrie checked to make sure no one was looking. She crept to the end of the row, and Skulduggery nodded to her; then she hurried by him and out into the corridor.
They ran.
A sorcerer Valkyrie vaguely recognized saw them and frowned, but Skulduggery pushed at the air, and the sorcerer shot off his feet. They took the corridor to their left, heading away from the busiest areas.
'There's another way out,' Skulduggery said as they sprinted. 'Eachan Meritorious told me about it once. For emergency use only. Guild doesn't know I know about it.'
They burst into a large oval-shaped room with a single light source that kept the edges of the room in darkness. It was the room where Valkyrie had first met the Elders, two years before.
Valkyrie turned to swing the door shut, but Remus Crux charged through, sending her to the ground. His gun was in his hand, and Skulduggery moved into him, trapping his gun hand against his ribs. Crux tried to protest, but Skulduggery caught him with a right hook. Crux's knees wobbled, and Skulduggery disarmed him and flipped him to the floor.
Valkyrie heard footsteps in the corridor and clicked her fingers to get Skulduggery's attention. He took the cloaking sphere from his jacket and twisted its hemispheres in opposite directions. A bubble of haze erupted outward, enveloping them and Crux.
Thurid Guild ran up to the door, followed by three Cleavers. Valkyrie tried to ignore the pain in her mouth and prepared to fight, but Skulduggery laid a hand on her shoulder.
'They can't see or hear us,' he said. 'Everything magical is now cloaked.'
The sphere in his hand was gently ticking, as the hemispheres slowly worked their way back into alignment.
'Grand Mage,' Crux called weakly. 'Help me.'
But Guild couldn't hear him. He turned to the Cleavers. 'They must have doubled back. I want the exit sealed. Nobody in or out unless I say so. Go!»The Cleavers sprinted off, and Guild stalked back the way he had come. Crux moaned in misery, and Skulduggery looked down at him.
'We didn't steal the Grotesquery, Remus. The Diablerie did. That's who is behind this. Jaron Gallow, maybe someone named Batu. Focus your investigation on them.'
'I'm placing you under arrest,' Crux whimpered.
'Guild is working with them. He told them which symbol deactivated the death field. You can't trust him. You can only trust Bliss.'
The cloaking sphere clicked one last time, and the bubble of haze withdrew. Skulduggery pocketed the sphere and led Valkyrie to the dark edges of the room. He clicked his fingers, summoning a bright flame.
'Timing is everything,' he told her. 'When we start running, we cannot stop, are we clear?'
She murmured an affirmative, in too much pain from her broken tooth to open her mouth. Skulduggery leaned in and whispered so that Crux wouldn't hear.
'The moment we're out of here, we'll get Professor Grouse to fix up your tooth, okay? You've got nothing to worry about.'
She murmured again, and his head tilted sympathetically for a moment. Then he nodded to the wall. 'Touch the wall and be prepared to run.'
Valkyrie reached out, her palm on the cold wall, and there was a rumble as the wall opened up, wide enough for the two of them to enter.
'Now,' Skulduggery said, and they bolted. The wall closed behind them as the space immediately ahead opened. It was disconcerting to run full pelt at solid rock, but just as they were about to hit it, it parted, then resealed at their heels. They were sprinting in a bubble of space that was moving quickly through the ground, and the rumbling was huge and loud and reminded her of Billy-Ray Sanguine taking her to see Baron Vengeous. She hadn't liked it then and she didn't like it now.
They were running up an incline--Valkyrie could feel it in her legs. Skulduggery had doused the flame so it wouldn't burn up the oxygen, so now they were running in complete darkness. Valkyrie opened the side of her mouth to suck breath through, trying not to let the cold air hit her damaged tooth.
She was getting tired. They had been sprinting for far too long. She needed to slow down, just for a moment, but she knew this little bubble of space would move ahead without them. She didn't much fancy being crushed to death, no matter how fast it would be.
'Didn't think it would be quite so far,' Skulduggery said over the noise. The good thing about not having breath was that he would never be out of it, and the good thing about not having muscles was that they could never scream at him. She envied him right now.
Valkyrie's coat snapped her backward--she realized immediately that the coattails had been caught in the crush--and she ripped her arms out of the sleeves, abandoning the coat to the darkness, and stumbled. She felt Skulduggery's gloved fingers close around her hand as he yanked her up alongside him, practically dragging her. She got her feet under her once more and was running on her own again, but she gripped his hand and didn't let go.
And then there was a blinding light, a rush of fresh air--and they were outside. Valkyrie slipped on wet grass, landing on her back. The rumbling abruptly ceased. She lay there, both hands covering her mouth, breathing fast and squinting as her eyes adjusted.
Skulduggery was wrapping his scarf around his jaw. He dipped his hat low over his eye sockets. 'The Garden of Remembrance,' he said. 'Not the most inconspicuous place for a secret tunnel to emerge, but I'm not complaining.'
Valkyrie grunted a response, indicating that she wasn't about to complain either. He helped her up. Her arms were bare and prickling with goose bumps in the cold air. The only people she could see were an elderly couple, out for a quiet stroll. Nobody had seen their arrival. They walked to the gate.
'We have a problem,' Skulduggery said. 'Apart from all the obvious ones, I mean. The Bentley is back at the Sanctuary, and we're not going to be able to get to it.'
She moaned.
'The good news is, after it was damaged two years ago, I took the precaution of stashing a few replacements around town. There's one a few minutes' walk away.'
Valkyrie looked at him and mumbled a question.He laughed. 'It's not yellow, no. I'm sure you'll like this one.'
They walked to a small parking lot behind a crumbling building, with Valkyrie doing her best to hide the blood from the people they passed. The only car parked here was a Ford Fiesta. She glared at Skulduggery.
He nodded. 'I suppose it is kind of small.'
She mumbled something again, and he shook his head.
'Actually, you'd be surprised at how nimble it is. It doesn't have the speed, the comfort, or the sheer power of the Bentley, but especially in city traffic, a Fiesta is a fine--'
She interrupted him with another, angrier mumble, and he took a moment before nodding.
'I suppose you're right. It is sort of purple, yes.'
She sagged. Skulduggery took the key from its hiding place in the tailpipe, opened the car, and got in. Valkyrie slid in beside him, buckling up without enthusiasm, and Skulduggery started the engine.
'Starts first time,' he said happily.
They drove out of the parking lot and headed for the Hibernian Cinema. The Purple Menace wasn't as bad as the Canary Car, but it was close. At least it didn't make people stop and laugh as it passed. After a few minutes, Valkyrie even stopped thinking about it and instead started worrying about her tooth.
They got to the Hibernian and parked across the street. Skulduggery went first, making sure Guild hadn't sent a squad of Cleavers to arrest them, and then he beckoned Valkyrie over. It was starting to rain as they entered, and Valkyrie led the way through the screen and into the medical bay.
Fletcher swaggered up, started to say something cocky, but saw the dried blood on Valkyrie's face and
