Playing With Fire

Chapter Twenty-eight GOOD GUYS CONVENE

DLISS, FLANKED BY Cleavers, was waiting at the rear of the Sanctuary. The Bentley pulled up sharply and Bliss yanked the door open, then lifted Tanith out.

Her veins were sickly yellow spiderwebs that spread beneath her waxy skin, and she was barely breathing.

"Out of my way, out of my way," Kenspeckle muttered, shoving people aside. Bliss laid Tanith on the ground and handed Kenspeckle three different colored leaves. Kenspeckle wrapped them around each other, tightly, then held them between his clasped hands and closed his eyes. A light shone from within, bright enough to almost turn his hands translucent.

Valkyrie could see the bones of his fingers.

The light faded. Bliss took a clear tube and held it out, and Kenspeckle opened his hands slightly. He let a fine, multicolored dust — the remains of the leaves — sift gently into the tube.

Bliss added a few drops of a deep red liquid that smelled vaguely of sulfur, and Kenspeckle took the tube and shook it, mixing the contents.

Bliss handed him a syringe gun, and Kenspeckle loaded the tube into it.

"Hold her," Kenspeckle said.

Bliss placed his hands on Tanith's shoulders, Skulduggery held down one arm, and Valkyrie pinned the other. The Cleavers secured her legs. Kenspeckle pressed the syringe gun to Tanith's neck, and the gun hissed with compressed air. The concoction emptied into her bloodstream.

Tanith thrashed and Valkyrie lost her grip on her arm. She grabbed it again, struggled to press it to the ground, eventually had to kneel on it to keep it in place. Tanith bucked and writhed as the antidote worked through her. The yellow veins surged red, and her muscles knotted and strained.

"Try to make sure she doesn't swallow her tongue," Kenspeckle said.

And then Tanith went limp, and the veins were no longer visible. Color returned to her face.

"Will she be all right?" Valkyrie asked.

Kenspeckle raised an eyebrow. "Am I a magic-scientific genius or am I not?"

"You . . . you are."

"Then of course she'll be all right," he said. "Which is more than I can say for my assistants. Do you know how hard it is to get good assistants these days? Granted, neither of them were actually any good, but . . ."He brushed his hands off and shook his head. "They were fine lads. They didn't deserve to die like that." He looked at Skulduggery. "You'll stop it, then?"

"We'll stop it."

"Fair enough." Kenspeckle stood up. "Let's get her inside."

Valkyrie was sore. Her arm was stiffening up and her body was covered in bruises. She had cut her lip without realizing it, and for some reason had a black eye — presumably the result of crashing the van or the tumble she'd taken down the stairs.

Tanith was sitting beside her, and she was sulking. Tanith always sulked when she lost a fight. After she had fought the White Cleaver last year, she had spent most of her recovery time staring out the window, scowling.

The antidote had neutralized the effects of the Helaquin poison, and the wound the stinger had made was already stitched up and healing. The moment she was able, Tanith had gone off and sharpened her sword. It lay on the table before them in its black scabbard.

They were in the Sanctuary meeting room. Mr. Bliss was seated at the far end of the table, and Skulduggery was standing against the wall, arms crossed, and unmoving.

The doors opened. Guild stalked in.

"Who do I blame?" he thundered. "Tell me, who? We had the Grotesquery in custody? We had it and I wasn't informed?"

"I take full responsibility," Skulduggery said.

"You do, do you? That would be quite noble if I wouldn't be blaming you anyway! You went behind my back, Detective. You requested the services of three Cleavers for guard duty and you didn't follow procedure. Where are those Cleavers now?"

Skulduggery hesitated. "They were killed."

"Well, that's marvelous news, isn't it?" Guild snapped. "Tell me, is there any part of this operation that you didn't botch?"

"Operation's not over yet."

Guild glared. "You're lucky I even let you in here, Detective. I don't know how Eachan Meritorious handled things, but your reckless behavior will not be tolerated by the new Council!"

"Council of one," Tanith murmured.

Guild whirled. "I'm sorry? I didn't quite catch that. Could you repeat what you said so we can all hear it?"

Tanith looked at him. "Sure. I said 'Council of one,' referring to the fact that the Council is not the Council until it has all three members."

The Elder Mage bristled. "Your opinion is of little consequence in this country, Miss Low.

You work for the Sanctuary in London; you shouldn't even be here."

"Actually I'm freelance," Tanith responded.

"And I requested her help," Skulduggery said. "It seems we could use it. Didn't you say we would be getting reinforcements?"

Guild's face went red, but Bliss spoke before he could start shouting again.

"All the offers of international aid have been withdrawn. In the past few hours there have been attacks on personnel connected to practically every Sanctuary around the world."

"Distractions," Skulduggery said, "to keep everyone else busy. We've been isolated."

"Indeed we have."

"But who would be powerful enough to organize all this?" Valkyrie asked. "Vengeous?"

"This has taken a lot of planning," Skulduggery said. "Vengeous wouldn't have had the time."

"That's not what we should be concentrating on," Guild snapped. "We have to find the Grotesquery and stop it. That is our one and only concern."

"The lunar eclipse will take place at ten minutes past midnight tonight," Bliss said. "That leaves us with nine hours until the Grotesquery is strong enough to open the portal."

Guild laid both hands flat on the table. "So what are we doing about it? Please tell me we're not all sitting around just waiting for something to happen!"

"We have all the sensitives on alert," Skulduggery said. "Every psychic and Seer we know is reaching out."

"And if they don't find anything, Skeleton?"

Skulduggery, who was still leaning against the wall, still with his arms crossed, tilted his head as he looked back at Guild. "Then I recommend we work the case."

"What does that even mean?" Guild raged. "We are facing a global catastrophe that could mean the end of everything, and you're talking about working the case?"

"I'm a detective," Skulduggery said. "It's what I do."

"Well you haven't been doing a very good job of it, have you?"

Skulduggery stood up straight now, hands down by his sides. "Working backward," he said calmly. "Person or persons unknown have arranged to isolate us just when we need reinforcements to stop the Grotesquery. The Grotesquery is up and about because Vengeous finally got the missing ingredients he'd needed. Vengeous is out of his secret prison because Billy-Ray Sanguine broke in and freed him. Billy-Ray Sanguine knew where this secret prison was located because somebody in a position of power divulged this information."

"You're getting off topic again." Guild scowled.

"Somebody in a position of power," Skulduggery continued, "divulged this information, presumably for a big reward. Now, here's where I start speculating. It's possible that this same somebody rose to this position of power only because he promised that once he was there, he would find the location of the secret prison, and pass it on. He would have made a deal with a powerful person or persons unknown, very possibly the same powerful person or persons unknown who have isolated us from the international community. But very likely he wouldn't have known who these mysterious benefactors planned to break out of that secret prison or, indeed, why."

Guild narrowed his eyes. "You better not be implying what I think you're implying."

Skulduggery nodded to a slim file on the table. "That file is a record of the meetings you've had with other Councils across the world since you were elected Grand Mage. You have had approximately twice the number of meetings with the Russian Council as you have had with anyone else."

"These are official Sanctuary matters and are none of your business," Guild said, the veins in his neck standing out.

"Three of those meetings were about security concerns in the wake of Serpine's activities, where you would have been privy to confidential information including, but not restricted to, the location of various secret prisons in Russian territories."

Guild stalked up to Skulduggery, and for a moment Valkyrie thought he might hit him.

Skulduggery didn't move a fraction.

"You are accusing me of aiding a prison break?"

"Like I said, I'm speculating. But if I were to accuse you of anything, it would probably be more along the lines of treason."

"You're fired," Guild said.

Skulduggery tilted his head. "You can't afford to lose me."

"Oh, we can," Guild snarled, walking to the door.

"I have a job to do," Skulduggery said, "and I intend to do it. You may be a traitor, Guild, but you don't want the Faceless Ones back any more than I do."

Guild reached the door and turned, his lip curled. "Then do it, Skeleton. Stop the Grotesquery. Do your job. And once you're done, never set foot in here again."

He left, and nobody spoke for a while. Then Skulduggery nodded.

"I really think he's starting to like me."