Playing With Fire

Chapter Twelve BAR FIGHT

A FLY BUZZED loudly. It tapped a grimy window that looked out onto a dead tree.

The bartender came out from behind the bar, and the two men got off their stools.

"Scapegrace," said the bartender, chewing the name as he said it. "You've got some nerve showing your ugly face in my pub."

"Your pub?" Scapegrace said with a scornful laugh. "You won this place off me in a poker game, and you cheated."

"So did you," the bartender said. "I just cheated better. Why're you back?"

"Couldn't stay away, could I? This town holds so many fond memories for me. Actually, Hieronymus, I was hoping your sister might be around — is she here?"

Hieronymus Deadfall looked like he might explode. "Don't even mention her, you hear me?"

Scapegrace shrugged. "What you gonna do about it?"

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Skulduggery tried, but he was ignored.

Deadfall stepped forward, fists bunched at his sides. "How about I finish what we started twenty years ago, how about that?"

Scapegrace scoffed. "You want to kill me, is that it?"

"Oh, it's not just me, pally. Anyone else in here want to kill this piece of scum, step forward."

Everyone took one step forward.

"So that's how it is, is it?" Scapegrace said, acting upset. "After all that talk of friendship, after all those years, all that we've been through . . . you all want to kill me?"

"Kill you," said one of the pool players, "horribly."

"I'd love to help you out, fellas," Scapegrace said, holding up his hands and showing them his shackles, "but as you can see, I'm a little tied up at the moment. Still, I suppose if you manage to kill these two fine people who walked in with me, you might get your wish."

Deadfall narrowed his eyes. "Kill a little girl? Yeah, I think we could just about manage that momentous task. And what about you, skinny man? Who the hell are you?"

"We're really not looking for trouble," Skulduggery said.

"Then it'll come as a nice surprise," said the man to Deadfall's left. Electricity crackled in his open hand. Lightning Dave, no doubt.

"We're here on Sanctuary business," Skulduggery tried.

The man on Deadfall's right bristled, and Deadfall grinned. "Hear that, Pete? They're with the Sanctuary."

Hokum Pete snarled. "I hate the Sanctuary."

"Oh," Skulduggery said.

"We all hate the Sanctuary."

"Ah. Then we're not here on Sanctuary business. I was just joking."

"Then you're going to die laughing," Deadfall sneered, "unless you tell us who you are right this second."

Skulduggery observed him for a moment, then removed his disguise and laid it on the pool table.

Eyes widened. Mouths opened. Backward steps were taken.

"The Skeleton Detective," said one of the pool players.

"I'm not going up against the skeleton," said his friend. "No way."

"What's wrong with you?" Deadfall barked. "This is my pub, you understand me? This is my turf. I'm the only one you should be worrying about in here. It's a dead man — what's the big deal? We can take him. There's six of us, there's one of him. Oh, and a little girl. That too much for you, tough guys?"

The pool players glanced at each other nervously, then shook their heads.

"Well, there you go," Deadfall said. "We're agreed. We kill these two, then we kill our dear old friend Scapegrace."

"This is gonna be fun," Scapegrace said, shuffling over to a booth and sitting down. "So how are you going to do it?"

"It's been a while since Brobding got himself some exercise," Deadfall said, and the giant stepped forward.

Valkyrie glanced at Skulduggery. "You can have that one," she whispered.

"I'm gonna kill you," Brobding the giant said in a rumbling bass line of a voice. "Want you to know it's nothing personal."

"That's good to hear," Skulduggery told him. "In which case, I'm going to knock you down and hit you with the pool table, and I want you to know it's nothing personal either."

Brobding laughed. They all laughed.

Skulduggery stepped forward and splayed both his hands, and Brobding the giant hurtled off his feet and slammed into the far wall.

Valkyrie snatched a pool cue off the table and broke it off the first pool player's face. He went tumbling into the corner, and the second player ran at her.

Hokum Pete ran forward and threw a punch that Skulduggery didn't even bother to block.

He moved in past it and shoved, and Hokum collided with Deadfall.

Lightning Dave's whole body crackled with electricity, standing his hair on end and filling the room with the smell of ozone. He charged, and Skulduggery kicked a bar stool. It hit Lightning Dave's legs, and he cursed and fell.

The second pool player was trying to get his hands around Valkyrie's throat. She kicked his shin and poked his eye, and he cried out. He swung wildly and her block couldn't stop it, and his fist hit the side of her head.

Skulduggery kicked Lightning Dave while he was trying to get up, and then Deadfall was on him. Skulduggery grabbed him and twisted, and Deadfall shrieked in a surprisingly high voice as he was hip-thrown to the dirty, sticky floor.

The pool player picked Valkyrie up and slammed her onto the table. The breath rushed out of her. He raised her up again and once more slammed her down. She grabbed the eight ball, and when he raised her up a third time, she smacked the ball against his ear. He bellowed in pain and dropped her.

Skulduggery slammed his fists into Hokum Pete, then twisted his arm and sent him face-first into the wall. Hokum Pete slumped to the ground.

Deadfall roared as Skulduggery turned to him. The bar owner strained, the muscles in his neck knotting and his face turning red, and his fists grew and distorted and turned into sledgehammers. Spittle flew as he laughed in triumph.

Across the room, Valkyrie faced off against the pool player. He was rubbing his ear and he moved with a limp. He was squinting at her with one eye.

"I'm gonna murder you," he threatened unimpressively. She still had the eight ball in her hand, so she threw it. It struck the pool player right between the eyes and bounced away. The pool player stood there, a look of puzzlement on his face; then he fell to the floor and went to sleep.

Valkyrie watched Deadfall slam one of those sledgehammer fists into Skulduggery's side, and Skulduggery stumbled back to the wall. Deadfall swung for his head but Skulduggery ducked, and the fist hit the wooden paneling and went through. Deadfall tried pulling it out, but his fist wouldn't budge.

Skulduggery hit him. Hit him again.

Deadfall twisted and turned and swung his other fist. It hit the paneling and stayed stuck.

"Aw no," Deadfall whimpered.

Skulduggery took careful aim, and punched. Deadfall's head rocked back, and his body slumped against the wall. He would have fallen in a heap were his sledgehammer fists not keeping him upright.

"Skulduggery," Valkyrie said.

Brobding the giant was getting to his feet, and he looked angry.

"Once again," Skulduggery told him, "nothing personal."

Brobding growled, and Skulduggery ran at him and jumped, his body spinning and his right foot snaking out. His kick caught Brobding right on the hinge of the jaw. Skulduggery landed, and Brobding whirled and fell to one knee.

Valkyrie stared at Skulduggery.

"What?" he asked.

"You kicked him," she said. "But you don't do those kinds of kicks. Tanith does those kinds of kicks."

"You're impressed, aren't you?" He put both hands flat against the side of the pool table and shrugged. "I'm probably your hero."

"Oh shut up."

Brobding the giant looked around. Then the air rippled and the pool table shot across the room and crashed into him. The pool table tipped over on impact, the balls flying through the air, and Brobding was sent sprawling. He didn't get up.

"Well," Valkyrie admitted, "you did warn him."

"That I did," Skulduggery said, leaving through the door they had come in through.

A moment later he returned, pushing Scapegrace ahead of him.

"Hey, steady on!" Scapegrace yelled. "These shackles don't make it easy to walk, you know!"

Valkyrie looked at him. "You didn't get very far, did you?"

Scapegrace looked around, at all the still bodies. "Oh good," he said unenthusiastically.

"You beat them."

"Nice try."

He shrugged. "Forgot Deadfall owned the place, honest."

"The cellar," Skulduggery said.

"Behind the bar," Scapegrace grumbled.

Valkyrie went to the bar and peered over, saw the trapdoor. She nodded at Skulduggery.

Skulduggery shackled Scapegrace to a pipe that ran along the wall to stop him from shuffling away.

Valkyrie opened the trapdoor, and Skulduggery went first. Valkyrie followed him down the wooden steps, closing the trapdoor behind them.

The cellar was dimly lit and cold. The steps took them down into a badly wallpapered corridor. The carpet was worn, like a trail in a forest. One doorway led off to their right, and another, a little farther up, led off to their left. A small painting hung at an odd angle. It was a painting of a boat in a harbor. It wasn't very good. At the end of the corridor was a living room.

Music played. "The End of the World," by the Carpenters.

Holding his revolver in both hands, Skulduggery took the lead.

The first room had a single bed and a set of drawers. Skulduggery stepped in, crossed to the bed, and checked under it. Satisfied that the room was empty, he rejoined Valkyrie in the corridor. The second room had a toilet, a sink, and a bathtub. None of these three were particularly clean, and there was nowhere for anyone to hide. They moved on toward the living room.

There was a lamp, and it was on, but the bulb was fading. The closer they got, the more Valkyrie could see. She could see that the carpet didn't match the wallpaper, and the curtains, which must have been added for aesthetic reasons because there certainly weren't any windows down here, didn't match anything.

Skulduggery had his back to the corridor wall and was sliding soundlessly closer. Valkyrie did the same thing on the opposite wall, allowing herself a view of the room that Skulduggery couldn't get.

She saw two old-fashioned heaters, neither of which was turned on. She saw another painting, this time of a ship on a stormy sea. There was an armchair underneath the painting, and a small table beside the armchair. No sign of the Torment, though.

They stopped moving, and she shook her head at Skulduggery. He nodded and stepped into the living room, sweeping his gun from one corner of the room to the other. He checked behind the armchair. Nothing.

Valkyrie followed him in. On the other side of the room were a radio, a portable TV with a cracked screen, and the record player that was playing the Carpenters.

She parted the curtains, which led to nothing more interesting than a wall, and turned to tell

Skulduggery that Scapegrace must have somehow warned the Torment, when she saw the old man glaring at her from the ceiling.

He had long dirty hair and a long dirty beard, and he dropped from the rafters onto Skulduggery and knocked him to the ground. The gun flew from Skulduggery's hand, and the old man grabbed it. Valkyrie threw herself sideways as he fired. The bullet hit the record player and the song cut off.

Skulduggery twisted and pushed at the air, but the old man was already running along the corridor. Skulduggery scrambled up, then stepped sideways as the old man fired twice more.

Skulduggery peeked out to make sure it was clear, then ran after him.

Valkyrie wasn't entirely certain that her armored clothes could stop a bullet. And what about her head? For the first time, she wished her coat had come with a hood.

She ran after Skulduggery just as he ducked into the bedroom.

She got to the bedroom, raised an eyebrow at the opposite wall, which had parted to reveal a stone corridor, and sprinted through the gap. She could just make out Skulduggery ahead of her,

moving fast in the darkness. She saw light flare up, saw his silhouette hurling a fireball.

She ran on, aware that the ground was slanting upward. Her legs were getting tired. Her footsteps on the stone ground were uncomfortably loud in her ears. She couldn't see anything now. It was pitch black. She focused on the energy inside her, then clicked her fingers and caught the spark. The flame grew and flickered in her palm, and she held it at arm's length to light her way. She didn't like the fact that it made her an easy target, but neither did she like the idea of falling into a pit full of metal spikes or something equally nasty.

And then she came to a junction.

"Oh come on," she muttered, in between gasps for breath.

She could go straight, or turn either right or left. She had no idea which direction Skulduggery had taken. She tried to stop herself from imagining lethal traps, or getting lost in a maze of corridors and dying down here, in the darkness and the cold.

She cursed. She had to turn back. She decided to head up and look around the town, try and find where these tunnels would surface. It was better than standing around being useless, she figured.

It was at this exact moment that she heard a rumbling.

The path from the cellar was closing up. The walls were shifting back together.

Right, left, or straight ahead. She chose straight ahead, and she ran.