Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm

Skulduggery slammed the door of his Bentley, starting the engine. Ghastly ran out after him, opening the side door of his car.

"Surely you're not doing this alone?" Ghastly asked, panting lightly.

"Why not?" Skulduggery replied, putting on his seatbelt.

Ghastly stared. "Because you know Miser, and you know how heavily protected he keeps himself. There's no absolute way you could go in, get Val, and come out completely alive."

Skulduggery shrugged, looking at his reflection in the rear view mirror. He ran a finger around the brim of his hat, brushing off dust.

"Look," Ghastly tried, "take a few cleavers. It can't hurt to have a little help."

"The bigger the operation, the more obvious it will be that I'm there," Skulduggery pointed out.

Ghastly hung his head. "Skul, this is really dangerous."

"And so is her situation, so I'm not delaying this for a few cleavers."

Ghastly considered reasoning with him, but he knew it would be in vain. Stepping away, he closed the side door. Skulduggery gave him an appreciative nod, and drove.

The Elder had an incredibly bad feeling about this. He turned on his heel and made his way back to the Sanctuary, riddled with anxiety.

Skulduggery'd better not fail.

Valkyrie had nice hair.

Billy-Ray Sanguine had noticed this after he'd tunnelled with her, roughly 13 years ago. Jesus, had she grown. But her hair was the best part of her, always shiny, always smooth. Of course, he kept these thoughts to himself, because it would have seemed incredibly creepy back then.

But now he could run his fingers through it, and actually feel it slipping between his fingers. Nope, still felt creepy- though she didn't seem to mind.

Running his hand through her hair also seemed to be brilliant for thinking. Plots formed in his head, ways to escape and find Valkyrie a doctor. She'd probably want to find Skulduggery. He got the feeling that Skulduggery would always come first, in front of Sanguine, but he knew to take this in his stride. He would never be able to change that. Valkyrie had hated him a few months ago; it would be hard for her best friend of over 20 years- or something -to be overtaken by Billy-Ray Sanguine.

How would she get her magic back though? Valkyrie Cain was not Valkyrie Cain without her little shadows, hanging on her every non-verbal word. She said it was stored in an hourglass. Could she-

"Valkyrie!" He cried, sitting up.

She rose slowly, blinking rapidly, still waking up. "What? What's wrong?"

"You said it was stored in the big hourglass, right?" He asked, eyelids wide.

"Um, yeah. If you're talking about my magic, that is."

"What if you broke it?"

Valkyrie paused. "What? You think it would just, like, sift back into me?"

"I have no idea, but it's just a suggestion. It's possible, I think."

Valkyrie slowly shook her head. "How would we get there? I'm way too weak to smash up a giant hourglass thing- and you're too big to sneak around this place."

"Thanks, but if I tunnel, I could find it and smash it. I'm stronger than you, at the moment anyway."

"That's wonderful," Valkyrie said with raised eyebrows, "but you don't have your magic. Unless you get one of those hideous metal bracelets, it's pretty much impossible."

Sanguine smiled. Valkyrie groaned.

"And how're you going to manage that? Think you're just going to smack Dimitri around the head and be done with it? Miser's henchmen are twice your size, in case you hadn't noticed."

"I have my ways," he murmured, flashing a smile.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, good luck."

"Disbeliever."

"Moron."

"Why don't you have any faith in me?"

"Shut up. I'm sleeping."

Sanguine smiled. He needed to get her out. She sounded stronger than she was, and he knew it. Much more of it all, and she'd die- and that wasn't happening.

Nope.