The Faceless Ones

Chapter Thirty-three. Jailbreak

Valkyrie brushed the dried mud off the bottoms of her jeans. Dust rose as muck fell, and she brushed it off the bed.

Scapegrace moaned, and she sat forward. He didn't make another sound for a minute or so, and then he moaned again, and moved slightly. She watched him return to consciousness and prepared to spring into action.

He raised his head, looked at the bandage that tied his broken fingers to the leg of the bed, and made a sound like a particularly dim and miserable cat. He looked at the cell door, then swiveled his head and saw Valkyrie. "Oh, no," he mewled.

"If you move--" she began to threaten, but he interrupted her.

"I'm not going to move," he said. "I'm just going to lie here. I'm not going to do anything."

"Because if you do move ..."

"I'm not going to!" he insisted. "If I didn't have a broken hand, then yes, I probably would move, and I'd probably try to kill you."

"No talking. Talking is not allowed."

He glared at her. "You know, every time I see you, you're more and more like him."

"Like who?"

"The detective. You think you're so smart and superior."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"You shouldn't. I've heard stories about him, you know. About the things he's done. He's not this great and good hero you think he is."

"You don't know what I think of him."

Scapegrace laughed. "I can see it in your eyes. Everyone can. It's cute, actually, the way you follow him around, believing every word he says."

Valkyrie shifted her weight slightly, and the bed creaked and moved, and the bandage tugged on his fingers. Scapegrace howled.

"Sorry," she said unconvincingly.

"You did that on purpose!" he raged.

The slot in the door opened up and a pair of eyes peered in.

"What's going on in there?" a voice demanded. Valkyrie bounded to her feet, jarring the bed and making Scapegrace howl again.

"You can't keep me here!" she called.

"Who is that? Are there ... are there two people in there?"

She recognized his voice now--the cell guard they had encountered the previous day. "Weeper?" she said.

His eyes found her and they widened in shock. "Valkyrie Cain?"

"Remus Crux put me in here, with a man who wants to kill me. You can't keep me here. Please."

Beneath her, Scapegrace snorted contemptuously. She nudged the bed with her foot and heard him mewl in pain.

"Why did he make you share a cell?" Weeper asked. "We've got four empty ones. Are you okay? Have you been injured?»"Please get me out of here."

"I can't transfer prisoners without orders from my superiors."

"But this isn't even a transfer! This is just moving from one cell to another! Please, Weeper. If you leave me in here another minute, he'll kill me."

She looked down at Scapegrace and glared, and he sighed.

"She's right," he said reluctantly. "I'll kill her."

On the other side of the door, Weeper was shaking his head. "I'm sorry, there is a procedure to follow. Just wait there; I'll get this sorted out in ten minutes."

"Don't go!" Valkyrie cried. She had moved her hands behind her back, and was hoping Weeper wouldn't have noticed that they had been at her sides. "Please, move me to an empty cell and then check with your bosses. I'm defenseless in here. Please, Weeper."

She made her eyes as wide as possible, and Weeper sighed.

"Fine," he said gruffly. "Put your hands through the bottom slot so I can cuff you."

"I'm already cuffed. Crux didn't bother removing my handcuffs when he threw me in here.»"That is strictly against protocol," Weeper muttered disapprovingly, and she saw him open the cell directly across from hers.

"Okay then," he said. "You are to move directly into the empty cell. You do not engage me in conversation or stall in any way. Clear?"

"Clear."

"And Scapegrace, you stay on the ground or I'll have the Cleavers here so fast ..."

"I'm not moving," Scapegrace said.

"All right then. I'm opening the door."

The door swung open, and Valkyrie breathed with relief. "Thank you," she said.

"Move to the empty cell."

She stepped into the corridor. "Thank you so much."

"The cell. In. Now."

"I'm really sorry about this," she said as she brought her hands up and pushed lightly at the air. The space between them rippled, and Weeper stumbled backward into the empty cell, tripping over his own feet. Before he could recover, Valkyrie slammed the door.

Immediately, his eyes appeared at the open slot. "Oh, no. This can't happen again.»"I'm so, so sorry."

Scapegrace got to his feet, carefully untying the bandage from his fingers. "How stupid are you?" he laughed. "Locked in your own cell, twice in two days! They give out medals for morons now, do they?"

He was grinning as he moved to leave, but Valkyrie stood in front of him, clicking her fingers and conjuring fire into her hand.

"And where do you think you're going?" she growled.

He blinked at her. "We're escaping."

"We?"

"Yes, we. We're breaking out."

"You're not going anywhere."

"But I helped you!"

"You lay on the ground and whined."

"In a helpful manner," he insisted. "You're going to need my help to get out of here. You think you're going to be able to just stroll out? You're going to need backup, an extra pair of eyes, even a distraction--and I think I've proven what a good distraction I can be."

She wanted to slam the door in his face, but he was right. If she was discovered, they could split up and the Cleavers would automatically go after the adult first.

"Give me one good reason why I should even run the risk of helping you escape. Your grand ambition in life is to kill people."

"Yes, but ..." Scapegrace faltered, then looked down at his shoes, and his bottom lip quivered. "But as you keep pointing out," he continued, "I'm not very good at it, now am I?"

"I... suppose not."

Valkyrie sighed and let the flames go out in her hand.

"Fine," she said. "Come on and stay quiet."

She hurried to the desk and opened and closed drawers, searching for her phone. She found it, noted the five missed calls on the screen. She dialed Skulduggery while Scapegrace, a smile on his face, fished out loose money from an open drawer. She tapped the drawer closed with her foot, catching his fingers. He yelped and leaped back, grabbed his right hand with his left by pure instinct, and yelped again as both sets of injured fingers came into contact.

"Valkyrie," Skulduggery's voice said on the phone. He sounded relieved but urgent. "Where are you? «Scapegrace hopped and screamed in silence beside her, and she did her best to ignore him.

"I'm in the Sanctuary," she said. "Did the trade happen?"

He hesitated. "Yes. They have Fletcher, we have Guild, but he's unconscious. We're still fugitives until he wakes up. You're going to have to get yourself out. Can you do that?"

"Course I can. I'll use the secret passage."

"Don't. Guild will have deactivated it after last time. You're going to have to leave through the main door. If you're not out in ten minutes, I'm coming in after you."

"Someone's coming--I have to go."

Valkyrie jammed her phone into her jeans and motioned to Scapegrace to hide. They flattened themselves against the wall, and she peeked out. A sorcerer passed in the corridor ahead, never even glancing at the holding area. She waited until his footsteps had faded away.

They didn't have much time. Every second spent undetected was a second stolen.

Then the lights went out.

Valkyrie whirled, bracing herself for the attack. The space around her was silent. She held out a hand, doing her best to read the air, and the only movement she felt was Scapegrace behind her.

"What's happening?" he whispered.

"How should I know?"

"You didn't do this? Or the skeleton? Or your friends? "

"This isn't us. Maybe there's a power cut."

"In the Sanctuary? Sanctuaries don't have power cuts. This is an attack. Maybe it's my friends, breaking me out."

"You don't have any friends."

"Which would make it unlikely, but not impossible."

She clicked her fingers, taking the spark into her palm and feeding it magic, letting the flame grow bigger and brighter. The light flickered off the walls.

She could hear someone shouting, and even though the shout was urgent, there was no danger in it. If Scapegrace was right, if this was an attack, then maybe it hadn't begun yet. And maybe she could use it to her advantage.

They picked up their pace, jogging through the dark. Occasionally, they'd see another flame ahead of them or behind them, and they'd divert course to stay away. Valkyrie was struggling to keep her sense of direction, following a map in her mind that she hoped was accurate.

Something moved ahead of her and she jerked back, stifling a scream. It was a Cleaver, crossing their path and immediately disappearing into the gloom. Either he hadn't seen her face or else he just didn't consider her a priority. Valkyrie wondered if they could see in the dark.

There were voices in the next corridor, so they turned right in an attempt to circumvent any crowds. So far, Scapegrace hadn't been a whole lot of help, and she was starting to think of the best way to abandon him.

She heard a familiar voice and stopped. Scapegrace ran into her, squashing his hands between them. He spun around and fell to his knees in muted agony.

"Quiet," she whispered, and extinguished her flame. Mr. Bliss approached, talking with a slender woman holding a flashlight. Valkyrie recognized the Administrator's soothing tones.

"With the respect due to your position," the Administrator was saying, "security matters are handled by the Cleavers, not the Elders. Besides which, with the Grand Mage injured, you need to be kept safe."

"By the time someone gets around to telling me what has happened," Bliss responded, "it may be too late to do anything about it."

Valkyrie straightened up. Bliss would help her get out, and the Administrator would do whatever she was told. This would also be the perfect opportunity to send Scapegrace back to his cell.

"Sir," the Administrator said sharply, and they stopped walking. The beam of her flashlight had picked out something on the wall. Valkyrie could see a carved symbol. The Administrator edged forward curiously. "I've seen this before," she said. "I just can't remember where."

"Stay away from it," Bliss ordered. "Symbols are my sister's forte, not mine, but even so ..."

"Sir?"

"It's a warning sigil, a silent alarm. If we pass, it will alert whoever is waiting in the corridor ahead."

Valkyrie frowned. If there were enemies lurking nearby, ready to spring an ambush, then she hadn't seen them.

The Administrator stepped back. "We should go the other way and send the Cleavers."

Bliss crouched by the symbol. "Shine the light here."

"Sir, this isn't safe."

"Shine the light."

Slowly, Bliss reached for the symbol, and it started to glow. He shook his head.

"I was wrong. This isn't a warning sigil."

"No," the Administrator agreed, "it's not."

She stepped back as a dozen symbols lit up, catching Bliss in a circle of blue light.

He tried to stand, but energy crackled and streams of light seared through his body, connecting the symbols to each other, with him at their center. The Administrator, no longer needing her flashlight to light up her surroundings, flicked it off.

Valkyrie stared. The Administrator was the traitor--the one who had told Sanguine how to open the Grotesquery's cage, the one who had told him how to find Baron Vengeous's prison cell last summer. The Administrator, brought in by Guild but working for the Diablerie.

Bliss grunted and fell to his knees. His strong shoulders sagged, and his head lolled forward."You're not an easy man to kill," the Administrator said. "Batu worked for a long time researching this. Another few minutes, and then it'll be over. He assured me it would be quite painful."

Valkyrie turned to Scapegrace to try to formulate a rescue plan, and she caught sight of him just as he fled around the far corner. Seething, she looked back. Even if she somehow performed the miraculous feat of overpowering the Administrator, she didn't know how to deactivate the trap. That meant she needed the Administrator conscious, which added another layer of the impossible.

She couldn't think of anything clever to do, so she crawled, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. When there was no more room to sneak, she took a breath and launched herself forward. She pushed at the air, and the Administrator whirled, her own hands open and flat. The spaces between them rippled and surged, the disturbance warping the Administrator's smile.

Then the Administrator waved, and Valkyrie was yanked off her feet. She slammed into a wall, and the Administrator raised her arm and Valkyrie slid upward, to the ceiling.

"You're a beginner," the Administrator told her kindly. "You couldn't expect to defeat me. But it was a noble effort."

The air around her was heavy, too heavy to shift. Valkyrie strained to move her arms, but she was pinned tight. She turned her head to take a breath, but there was nothing to take.

"Sorry," the Administrator said. "I can't allow you to breathe. You have to die, just as Mr. Bliss has to die. It's all part of Batu's plan, you see."

Valkyrie gasped uselessly. She tried clicking her fingers, but with a gesture from the Administrator, the rest of the oxygen whistled away from her, and no flame would grow.

Her lungs, however, were burning fiercer than any fire.

She heard something beyond the blood pumping in her ears. Someone was screaming and the scream was getting closer. Her eyes flickered to the left as Scapegrace pelted out of the darkness, hit the wall, and hurtled off again in another direction. Two Cleavers raced after him, then came to a sudden yet graceful stop when they saw Bliss in a circle of blue, Valkyrie pinned against the ceiling, and the Administrator standing between them, with a look of shock on her pretty face.They unsheathed their scythes.

The Administrator released her hold, and Valkyrie fell to the floor, gasping. The Administrator stepped back.

"Don't. Just ... Listen to me. Just ... don't ..."

The Cleavers darted forward, and the Administrator turned, tried to run, but Valkyrie stuck out her foot and she tripped. The Administrator toppled into the circle of blue, and all those streams of energy branched off from Bliss and struck her. She screamed and her body twisted. There was a loud pop, a smell of ozone, and the blue light vanished.

Darkness again, but for the hazy blue images that swam in Valkyrie's vision. A flashlight was turned on. The Administrator was on the ground, unmoving, and one of the Cleavers was checking Bliss.

The second Cleaver was standing over Valkyrie. She began to crawl away, and the Cleaver moved to stop her.

"Leave her," Bliss whispered.

The Cleaver stopped, and Valkyrie scrambled to her feet and ran.She ran blindly through the dark until she saw moving lights ahead. She ducked into a room. She heard Crux in the lead and waited for them to pass before stepping out and continuing on. She reached the foyer, where someone had set up emergency lights, and she kept her head down as she joined the line of people leaving. She took the stairs out of the Sanctuary and passed through the disused Waxworks Museum. The sorcerers around her were talking about an attack and exchanging theories, and at the first opportunity, Valkyrie detached herself from the group.

She left the Waxworks Museum, stepped out under a gray sky spilling rain, and jogged to the street. The Purple Menace pulled up sharply, and she got in.

"Where are the others?" was the first thing she asked.

"Already on their way to Aranmore."

"Let's go."

Skulduggery put the black bag containing the Scepter into her lap, and with a squeal of tires, her prison break was complete.