Valkyrie burst from the tree line, and to her left she saw Skulduggery running parallel. They raced to the top of the meadow, to where Fletcher was once again kneeling with his hands on the Grotesquery. The yellow gateway was opening.
China was doing her thing with the symbols around the circle. Red and black smoke began to rise. 'Where is it?' she shouted.
'Behind me,' Valkyrie said breathlessly. A shadow fell and Skulduggery dived into her as the Faceless One landed where she had just been.
She saw Solomon Wreath, riding a wave of darkness that spilled from his cane. He jumped to the ground beside them and pulled her up, and used the cane to drive a hundred needles of dark into the Faceless One's chest.
'Drive it back!' China shouted from the swirling column of smoke. 'Get it close enough to the gateway so it'll be sucked in!'
The gravitational pull from the yellow portal was immense. Even from where she stood, Valkyrie could feel herself slipping toward it. She forced herself back as Skulduggery joined Wreath in his efforts.
She pushed at the air to dislodge the ground beneath the Faceless One's feet, but she wasn't rewarded. Its movements were solid as it battled, and its steps were impossible to predict.
'Gateway's as open as it's going to get!' Fletcher shouted.
Wreath suddenly started screaming. His right leg buckled and twisted and blood spurted, and Skulduggery snapped his hand against the air, throwing the Necromancer out of the fight before he was killed. Wreath landed and clutched at his leg, but now Skulduggery was the only one left.
The Faceless One grabbed him, its fingers sliding between his ribs and gripping, and Skulduggery screamed as he was lifted off the ground.
'Valkyrie!' Wreath shouted from behind. She turned, and he threw his cane at her feet. 'Use it!'
'I don't know how!'
'Just use the damn thing!»She grabbed it, felt the dark power contained within. Shadows leaked from the cane and wrapped around her wrist. She knew instinctively that if Wreath hadn't given it voluntarily, those shadows would tighten and turn her bones to dust.
She turned the cane in her hand, feeling the drag, as though it was moving through water, and then she whipped it straight out, and a shadow sliced against the back of the Faceless One's leg. The shadow didn't break its skin, but it did get its attention. The Faceless One turned to her.
Valkyrie rotated the cane by her side, like she was gathering cotton candy around a stick, then flicked it at the Faceless One. Instead of cotton candy, shadows flew, hit the Faceless One, and tried to wrap around it. It threw Skulduggery down and brushed the shadows away with one angry gesture.
She ran up to it, swinging the cane. The Faceless One caught it and snapped it. An explosion of darkness hurled Valkyrie backward and sent the Faceless One staggering.
Valkyrie thudded into Ghastly's arms, and he grunted and let her down. She saw the Faceless One, standing just outside the gateway, struggling to escape its gravitational pull.It was almost in. It was almost through.
'Hit it!' she shouted. 'Somebody hit it!'
Ghastly stepped forward and China left the column of smoke, but tentacles burst from the Faceless One's chest, slammed into them, and tossed them back. The tentacles, made of entrails and organs, wrapped around trees and burrowed through the ground in a last-ditch effort, an effort that was destroying its host body to save the god within.
Then Skulduggery stood, looked at the Faceless One, and stepped forward, sinking into the stance. He snapped his hands against the air, and the air rippled. The Faceless One hurtled back, disappearing into the portal, its flailing tentacles yanked in after it, taking branches and clumps of earth along with it. Immediately, Skulduggery whirled.
'The Grotesquery!' he shouted. 'Now!'
Within the column of smoke, Fletcher slid his hands underneath the Grotesquery's torso and heaved, and the torso rolled out of the circle. Skulduggery gestured, and the air caught the torso and brought it into his hands. He grunted and stepped back and launched it into the gateway.
Now that the link was gone, the gateway started to rapidly close.And then a tentacle slid out and wrapped around Skulduggery's ankle.
It tugged and he fell. He clutched at the ground as he was dragged quickly back.
'Skulduggery!' Valkyrie screamed, sprinting toward him.
He looked up and reached out to her, but it was too late. He disappeared through the gateway.
'Keep it open!' Valkyrie screamed to Fletcher.
'I can't!'
She was three steps away when the portal collapsed.
'Open it!' she yelled.
But Fletcher was standing, and through the swirling smoke she could see his stunned face. He shook his head.
'No! Fletcher, no! You've got to open it!'
'I don't have the Grotesquery,' he said. 'I can't.'
China was standing, and Valkyrie ran to her, grabbed her. 'Do something!'
China didn't even look at her. Her blue eyes, so pretty, so pale, were on the empty space where she'd last seen Skulduggery. Valkyrie shoved her away, turned to Ghastly.'Come on!' she roared.
'He's gone,' Ghastly said, his voice dull.
'He can't be!'
Valkyrie turned, turned again, looking for someone who knew what to do, someone who'd have a plan. She saw no one. No one knew what to do.
And then she was on her knees. There were tears running down her face, and it was like a part of her had been cut out, somewhere in her belly, and her thoughts were frozen in her mind.
It was quiet. The smoke had stopped swirling, and it drifted away in the afternoon breeze. It was still, and it was peaceful, and around them were the dead bodies of friends and colleagues and enemies, and the air stank of ozone and magic.
Chapter Forty-four. The Task
Paris had been nice, apparently. Her parent had been home, and her dad had hugged her reflection and then gone to read the newspaper. Her mother had told the reflection all about their weekend as she unpacked. Long walks and fine food and romantic evenings. She'd asked how the reflection had got on staying with Beryl and Fergus, and the reflection had lied with accustomed ease and said it had been fine.
Valkyrie absorbed these memories and didn't bother examining them. In the weeks since her parents had got back, she hadn't even spoken to them--not personally. She was afraid they'd see her and instantly know something terrible had happened. She couldn't deal with that right now. She doubted she'd have even been able to come up with a lie.
Now she stood in the graveyard and waited. It was raining again. It was always raining. She was getting sick of the rain.
She didn't hear him approach, but she knew he was behind her.
'Thank you for coming,' Solomon Wreath said. 'Have you spoken with Guild?'
Valkyrie turned.
'He called me into the Sanctuary last week. He said that I'm no longer a fugitive.'
'That must be nice.'
'Did you know that he's telling everyone that the victory is all down to him and Mr. Bliss? I'm sorry Bliss is dead and all, but he's saying Skulduggery did nothing.'
'I had heard that, but the people who matter know the truth.'
'Everyone should know the truth,' she muttered.
