The Dying of the Light (33 page)

“Don’t misbehave,” says Jeremiah, looping the rope round his hand. “You really don’t have much of a chance of emerging from all this alive, not if I’m being honest, but you’ll live longer if you’re good. Now hop in.”

Jeremiah pulls on the rope and Danny is jerked to his feet. Standing, the pressure on his windpipe is lessened. He looks into the trunk.

“I don’t have to get in there,” he says. “I’ll behave. I’ll be good.”

“In,” says Jeremiah.

“I’ll freeze.”

“It’s more comfortable than it looks. In.”

“Jeremiah, please, you can let me go. I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”

“Me and Mr Gant are driving away,” says Jeremiah. “You can either climb in the trunk right now without any more complaints, or I’ll tie this rope to the tow bar and we’ll drag you behind us the whole way home. It’s a long way, Danny. You’re gonna be a red smear on the road before we get fifty miles. Up to you.”

Danny climbs in.

alkyrie led the way down the stone stairs, her torchlight pushing back the gloom with every step, Skulduggery behind her and Gordon drifting through solid objects with barely concealed delight. Cold down here. The ground flattened as much as it was able and they walked quietly through a tunnel carved into the rock, till the walls around them vanished and the ceiling disappeared and they emerged into the first of many caverns. Slivers of captured sunlight criss-crossed its length and breadth and Valkyrie put away her torch so that she could grip the tranquilliser gun with both hands. She liked the tranq gun. Skulduggery held its long-barrelled twin. He liked to keep them as a set.

Unspeaking, they took the tunnel to their right, walked on through patches of darkness and light. Around them, the skittering of tiny legs, of sharp claws on stone. The tunnel got narrower. The first hints of claustrophobia crowded at the edges of Valkyrie’s mind. The first time she’d come down into these caves, they had been searching for the Sceptre of the Ancients. The second time, she’d been held captive by what was left of Anathem Mire. Her last trip down here had not been any happier. The memory of being dragged into a tightening hole, too narrow to even move her arms, slipped by her defences and she took a shallow breath. Then she caught herself, made her heart turn to steel, and she pushed the fear away from her. If Skulduggery noticed the slight hesitation in her step, he didn’t say anything.

Something brushed by her foot and she jumped back, clenching her jaw to stifle the scream. There was more skittering now, these little creatures drawn to the magic that held Skulduggery together. Valkyrie forced herself onwards, swinging her feet to kick them out of her way. Her boot connected solidly with some living thing of bloated but yielding mass, then another that was made of sturdier stuff, and the others seemed to get the message – stay out of the way of the girl in black.

They went over a bridge that crossed a chasm, out of which belched steam and cold winds that tossed Valkyrie’s hair and threatened to snatch her off the edge. Then they took a tunnel as wide and tall as a chapel but as long as a racetrack. The ground got slippery. Somewhere, the sound of running water, all gurgles and rush.

They got to another bridge, a narrower one, and Skulduggery stopped, his hand out, reading the air.

“Just once,” he said, “I’d have liked things to have gone without a hitch.”

On the other side, a creature emerged from the shadows.

The size of a small tiger, its grey and black fur was short and fine, and grew up around the protrusions of bones at its joints and around its skull.

“Mire had a name for these things,” Gordon whispered. “He called them Phalanx Tigers. They were responsible for the death of more than one expedition member.”

“Well, maybe this one’s friendly,” Skulduggery muttered.

The tiger padded slowly across the bridge, and Skulduggery went to meet it.

“Easy, girl,” Valkyrie heard him say as he raised his gun. “Just stay very still …”

The tranq gun whispered just as the tiger growled, and the dart bounced off its rows of teeth. Its
multiple
rows of teeth.

Its jaws opened in two directions. Its mouth was vast. The teeth looked sharp, and they were everywhere. It leaped at Skulduggery and he dodged, barely. The tiger landed and spun without pause, and Skulduggery took off, lifted into the air. But the tiger jumped, collided with him and they went down. Those jaws closed over his forearm and Skulduggery yelled in pain. He used the air to roll himself sideways, took the tiger with him, and they rolled off the edge of the bridge and fell.

They dropped into the chasm. On the way down, the tiger released Skulduggery’s arm.

The tiger continued to fall, as Skulduggery swooped up and landed beside Valkyrie.

She glared at him. “You let it fall.”

He held up his torn sleeve. “It bit me.”

“It was a tiger. You don’t let tigers fall. They’re endangered.”

“Up there, yes,” he said. “Down here, no. You also seem to be forgetting the fact that it bit me.”

“Still,” she said, scowling, “cruelty to animals.”

“What about cruelty to me?” he asked, loading another dart into the gun.

“Um,” said Gordon, “if I may? Mire called those things Phalanx Tigers for a reason. From the Latin, meaning battle line. They never hunt alone.”

They looked back over the bridge, where a dozen Phalanx Tigers were grouping.

Skulduggery wrapped his arm round Valkyrie’s waist. “We’re getting out of here.”

“Wait,” said Gordon. “If you lead them away, your magic will make them follow you. They’ll ignore Valkyrie.”

Valkyrie frowned. “I don’t want to be left behind.”

“You don’t have to be. Skulduggery, lead them east. You’ll get to a narrow tunnel. Go through it, turn right. There’ll be a gap they can’t cross but you can. Take the only tunnel you see, and it will lead you straight to the other side of this bridge, where we will be waiting.”

The tigers were crossing the bridge.

“Good plan,” Skulduggery said. He handed her his gun. “Valkyrie, get behind that rock. I’ll meet you over the other side.”

Gordon disappeared into the Echo Stone and Valkyrie couldn’t think of a good enough reason why she shouldn’t do as suggested. She hurried away, got behind cover, and peeked out at Skulduggery, waving hands that were full of flames.

The tigers broke into a run, and the flames went out and Skulduggery started sprinting. They caught up to him easily so he started flying. He led them away.

Valkyrie peeked out. No stragglers. She emerged, and jogged to the bridge. She looked straight ahead as she crossed it. The bridge was the width of a country lane and she could walk a country lane without stepping on to the grass verge on either side. She should be able to do this without a problem. But there was no grass verge here. There was only a drop and darkness. She could feel her heartbeat.

She got to the other side, kept walking without looking back. Finally, she stopped, tucked one of the guns into her waistband and took out the Echo Stone. Gordon flickered into existence.

He looked around. “Did my plan work?”

“He led them away,” Valkyrie said. “How long will it take him to get back to us?”

“A few minutes,” Gordon said. “We could play I spy while we wait. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with c.”

“Caves,” said Valkyrie.

“You’re really good at this.”

“We should probably conserve the stone’s power.”

“Ah, yes, I suppose you’re right. Let me know when Skulduggery gets back.”

He faded again, and she waited.

Gordon reappeared. He looked around. “Where’s Skulduggery?”

“He hasn’t got back yet,” Valkyrie said. “It’s been half an hour.”

Gordon’s smile dropped. “Oh. That’s … that’s unexpected.”

“Are you sure your directions were accurate?”

“Absolutely,” said Gordon. “There is no doubt in my mind. I suppose … I suppose there may have been a cave-in over the years, something that could have cut off the tunnel, but …”

“Do you think he’s in trouble?”

Gordon was quiet for a moment. Then he brightened. “I know what’s happened. If there was a cave-in, and there may very well have been, he probably went further on. The next tunnel he found would lead him on a more complicated route, but so long as he kept going in roughly the same direction, he’ll rejoin us shortly. Not here, though – further on. Do you think it’s wise for us to go on alone?”

Valkyrie glanced back at the bridge. “I don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of being here if those tigers decide to come back.”

“A wise precaution,” said Gordon. “Very well, then, straight on we go. Oh, I do love adventures. I like this one especially, because I don’t have to walk anywhere.”

Valkyrie grunted, and started walking.

She followed Gordon’s directions, even when she was sure he was making it up as he went along. But every time he said they were about to encounter a particular feature, that feature duly appeared, so she stopped doubting him. He led her through the light and into the dark, and it was while she was in the shadows that her foot kicked something that clattered across the rock floor.

She flicked on the torch and crouched. The light glinted off empty shell casings.

“Hmm,” said Gordon. “A lot of bullets were used here.”

“Automatic weapons,” Valkyrie said, scattering the casings with her fingers. “High-powered rifles. Explosives, too, judging by the craters on the wall over there – looks like rocket-propelled grenades. All recent.”

Gordon sounded impressed. “You’re turning out to be quite the detective.”

“For my fifteenth birthday, Skulduggery gave me a three-month course in ballistics. Some of it stuck.” She stood up. “Whatever attacked them was driven away. Doesn’t look like Foe or any of his friends were hurt.”

“At least we’re getting closer,” said Gordon. “Let’s keep going.”

Valkyrie put her torch away and walked on for another ten minutes, and then Gordon said, “There’s something up ahead.”

She advanced cautiously, tranq gun in hand, but what at first appeared to be a person lying down turned out to be a bundle of old clothes. She nudged the bundle and it rattled.

“Bones?” Gordon asked.

“This looks like the suit Anathem Mire was wearing,” Valkyrie said. She looked around. “This is familiar. Are we heading to that messed-up house of his?”

“We’re heading to the fountain,” said Gordon.

“Maybe he built his house near it.”

Gordon nodded. “That would make sense. According to his journals, the fountain is in a cavern that the creatures here stay away from. If he were going to build a house of magic, that would be the only place to do it. But then what is his body doing all the way out here?”

“He promised he’d find me,” Valkyrie said. “He was convinced I was to be his wife, or his queen or whatever, and I’d stay forever in that house that moved and changed and melted and … Anyway, I escaped, and when I was running off he was screaming at me,
I’ll find you, I’ll find you,
blah blah blah. I think he tried to do exactly that. I think he tried to follow.”

“So his spirit returned to his body,” said Gordon, “and he gave chase. But he was vulnerable from the moment he left that cavern, and the creatures here got him. Picked his bones clean.”

Valkyrie grimaced. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer chap. Think his spirit is still around?”

“Without a form to inhabit, it would have dissipated long ago,” Gordon said. “Pity. I would have liked him to sign his journals. They were surprisingly well written. Come along now, the fountain can’t be far from here.”

It wasn’t. Five minutes later, Valkyrie stepped into a vast cavern. The last time she’d been here, there had been a replica of Gordon’s house in the exact centre. Now there was nothing. The ground was flat and the cavern, as far as she could see, was empty.

“Can’t see a fountain or a pool or even a puddle,” she whispered.

Gordon pointed. “That way. We can’t see it from here, but there should be an opening in the cavern wall that leads to the chamber with the fountain.”

Valkyrie chewed her lip. “Darquesse could be in there. With Foe and Mercy and Samuel.”

Gordon nodded. “We should wait for Skulduggery. Good idea. Better safe than sorry, after all.”

She looked back, willing Skulduggery to appear. “No. We have to do something. If they’re in there, maybe I can, I don’t know, delay them.”

“You have no magic.”

“I have the tranq guns. And I have my shock stick. It’s fully charged. If I’m lucky, I can take out three or four of them.”

“I do not like this plan,” said Gordon.

“It’s barely a plan.”

“That doesn’t make it better. Please. Wait here. For all we know, Foe and his friends took a wrong turn somewhere and there’s no one even in there.”

Valkyrie stood. “Then there won’t be any harm in taking a look.”

She crept out and, when nothing bad happened immediately, she started jogging. Gordon was swept along with her.

“There,” he whispered.

She saw it. A crack in the cavern wall. No more than a fissure. She reached it, breathing slightly more heavily, and listened. No sounds from within. No light in the dark.