She turned and, to her horror, saw the White Cleaver standing, pulling the scythe from his chest. He can’t be stopped, she said to herself. Just like Serpine, he can’t be stopped. She ran the last few steps to the door and just as she reached it the breath went out of her.
She stopped, frowning, willing her body to move, but it wouldn’t listen. She looked down, at the tip of the scythe that protruded through her chest.
She turned, cursing herself, saw the Cleaver walking up the steps toward her. That was some throw. She almost laughed. Her right arm was numb and her sword fell from her grip. He stepped up beside her and took hold of the scythe. He circled, moving her around, looking at her like he was observing her pain, remembering what it was like.
A twist of his hands and she was forced to her knees. She gasped when he removed the weapon, saw her own blood, deep red, mix with the black blood already on the blade. Her body was shutting down. She wasn’t going to be able to defend herself.
He raised the scythe. Tanith looked up, ready to die, then realised that when he had circled her he had passed through the doorway, and was now standing out in the corridor.
She lunged, slamming the door in his visored face. She pressed her hand against it and whispered “Withstand.” The sheen spread over the door just as the Cleaver began to pound on it from the other side.
She had failed. She had slowed him down but she hadn’t stopped him, and now Serpine had his attack dog back.
Tanith tried standing but her body couldn’t take any more. She slumped to the ground. The prisoners watched from their cages with delighted eyes, and as her blood seeped through her tunic, they started whispering.
DEEP IN DUBLIN, DEATH
“Valkyrie,” Tanith said. “Get behind me.” Stephanie backed up until she was beside Skulduggery.
“I’ll hold him off,” Tanith said. “You stop Serpine.” She drew her sword. The Cleaver drew his scythe.
Stephanie felt Skulduggery touch her arm and they moved off. “You’re going to have to go after the Sceptre,” Skulduggery whispered as they jogged through the corridor. “You can get close to it, I can’t. It’s not much of a plan, but sometimes simplicity is the way to go.”
The Repository was just ahead. They slowed, and Skulduggery gripped both her arms and turned to her. “But you listen to me. If it goes wrong, if we lose the element of surprise, I want you to get out of here. No matter what happens to me, I want you to run, do you understand?”
Stephanie swallowed. “Yes.”
He hesitated. “Serpine used my wife and child as a weapon against me. In order to do so, he had to kill them. He took my family’s death and he made it about me. Valkyrie, when you die, it will be your death and yours alone. Let it come to you on your own terms.” She nodded.
“Valkyrie Cain,” he said, “it has been an absolute pleasure knowing you.”
She looked back at him. “You too.” If he’d had lips, she knew he’d be smiling.
They sneaked up to the doors. They were already open and Stephanie could see Serpine, the Sceptre in his hand and his back to them, taking slow, deliberate steps towards the Book of Names. Sagacious Tome was watching, but he too had his back to the doors.
“I can’t see Mr Bliss,” Stephanie whispered and Skulduggery shook his head – neither could he.
Stephanie hesitated, then passed into the Repository and crept to her left. She reached a heavy table laden with artefacts and peered around. Serpine had stopped walking, and for a moment she thought he knew she was there, but as she watched he turned and walked back, shaking his head.
“It’s still too strong,” he said.
“It’s as weak as it’s going to get,” Sagacious Tome said. “I thought with Meritorious and Morwenna dead, the barrier wouldn’t pose a problem. But I can’t withdraw my contribution to the spell, not without the others joining me in the ceremony.”
Serpine rejoined Tome, arching an eyebrow. “Then perhaps we shouldn’t have killed them.”
“I didn’t kill them!” Tome said defensively. “You did!”
Stephanie stayed low as she crept from behind the table. Serpine laughed. “I may have been the one to turn them to dust, but you set them up, Sagacious, you drew them in. You betrayed them.”
Tome spun on Serpine, jabbing at the space between them with his finger. “No, I didn’t! It was their weakness that led to their downfall, their own shortcomings. They had all this power and they were satisfied to just, to just sit there and let it all go to waste.”
“Until recently, I had never thought of you as ambitious…”
“No one had. Sagacious Tome, they said, he’s a non-entity. He’s not the strongest, he’s not the wisest… he’s nothing. That’s what they said. I know it. For years, people have been underestimating me. It’s time people recognised my power.”
Stephanie got to her hands and knees and started crawling. She was in shadow and they weren’t looking her way, but if either turned there was a chance they would see her. Stephanie wasn’t in the mood to take any chances.
“I’m going to make them pay,” Tome was saying. “Everyone who ever questioned me. The streets will run red with their blood.”
“How dramatic,” Serpine said and raised his hand. Stephanie saw the Book lift off its pedestal and hover there for a moment, then he grunted impatiently and let it drop again.
“I told you, that’s not going to work!” Tome said. “It’s how close you are to getting it. It doesn’t have to be physically close; it isn’t a physical barrier. It’s a mental barrier!”
Stephanie held her breath. She was behind the pillar next to them. Serpine’s voice was so close he could have been speaking right into her ear. “So with you, the final Elder, remaining, the barrier isn’t sufficiently weakened to let me through, is that right?”
“Yes, but that’s not my fault! I did what I could!”
“Yes, you did, yes, you did. And now there’s one more thing you can do to help solve this little problem.”
“What are you talking about?” Tome asked and then his tone changed suddenly, became afraid. “What are you doing? Point that thing somewhere else, Serpine. I’m warning you, point that—”
There was a black flash, and silence.
After a moment, she heard Serpine’s footsteps move off again, and Stephanie took a peek. He was walking slowly, concentrating on the Book, his back to her. This was the only chance she was going to get.
She crept out from behind the pillar, ignoring the fresh pile of dust at her feet. There was no way she could close the distance without giving herself away. He’d hear her, sense her, whatever. But he was holding the Sceptre in his hand so loosely…
Stephanie narrowed her eyes and stepped forward.
He had heard her and was turning, but she didn’t care. The Sceptre was coming up, the black crystal starting to glow. She flexed her fingers and splayed her hand, snapping open her palm and pushing at the air, and the space around her hand rippled and the Sceptre flew from Serpine’s grasp,