Last Stand of Dead Men

Skulduggery raised his head slightly, one eye socket visible under his hat. “I made a promise.”

Darquesse nodded. “Until the end.”

“That’s right,” said Skulduggery, clicking the revolver shut and thumbing back the hammer. “Until the end.”

He raised the gun and fired and walked forward and fired and fired again. And then he fumbled slightly and the gun fell, and a moment later his glove followed it. His fingers spilled out across the ground.

He grunted, unimpressed, as his other hand dropped from his wrist, and now the radius and ulna bones were sliding from his sleeves and his ankles came apart and he stumbled, fell to his knees.

His hips detached and his upper body fell backwards with the sound of clacking bones. He was a ribcage and a spine and a head, trying in vain to sit up. The ribcage collapsed next.

Darquesse stepped over him, reached down, plucked his skull from his spine. She kissed his closed mouth, her lips on his teeth, then she let the skull fall and the jawbone broke and spun away.

Then Darquesse turned, looked straight into Valkyrie’s eyes, and smiled.

The smile dispersed with the steam, and then there was no more Darquesse and no more ruined city, and they were back in the Steam Chamber and Cassandra was opening her eyes.

“Distressing,” she said, her voice hollow.

Valkyrie didn’t say anything. She went straight to the stairs and got out of there.

The tea was hot and a bit too sweet, but Valkyrie drank it anyway. Her hands had stopped shaking, thank God. Cassandra’s hadn’t. Having visions of that nature could not be good for your nerves.

“So you’ll show me a vision of my family dying,” Valkyrie said, forcing some strength into her voice, “but you won’t tell me the name of my next boyfriend? How is that fair?”

Cassandra gave a shaky smile. “Because your next boyfriend might not be something you’d want to miss out on, whereas that particular future most certainly is.”

“The order was different,” Skulduggery said from where he stood by the window. “In the first vision, we saw Ghastly, then me, then Valkyrie, and then Valkyrie’s parents. In this one, it was altered. Is that significant?”

“I don’t know,” said Cassandra. “Maybe. Maybe not. Your knowledge of the future changes it. Sometimes in tiny, insignificant ways. Sometimes in huge, world-changing ways.”

“I spoke more this time,” Valkyrie said. “Did you see that? I was actually talking to me, the me watching. And my parents … they had my little sister with them. They didn’t have her in the first vision.”

Cassandra nodded. “The future is in a constant state of flux.”

“And Ghastly and Tanith,” said Valkyrie, “and Ravel … Was he dying? It looked like he was dying.” She looked up. “How do we stop it? How do we stop all of that from happening? Some things we hadn’t seen before, some things were switched around, so does that mean the events we saw don’t happen in chronological order?”

“Usually they do,” Cassandra said. “Usually. It’s a vision interpreted through my mind, remember, and so it’s subject to my subconscious whims. Maybe I pulled the images of your family forward because I knew that’s where your focus would be.”

Skulduggery turned away from the window. “But if it was in chronological order, then Ravel in pain will be the first of those events to occur. And if we stop that from happening?”

Cassandra shrugged. “Everything else will be affected. Some of it will be changed, even avoided. Some of it won’t.”

“Then we do what we can,” Skulduggery said. “We keep Ravel safe. He was wearing the robes of his office and he only wears those when he’s in the Sanctuary, so we make sure he stays away from Roarhaven. Cassandra, thank you for alerting us. Valkyrie, we need to get going.”

“Not yet,” Cassandra said. “Not while those men are outside.”

Valkyrie frowned at her. “What men?”

“The ones who’ve come to kill you. They should be arriving any moment now.”

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kulduggery whipped round. “You set us up?”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

Valkyrie joined Skulduggery at the window as a van pulled up and armed men jumped out.

“I had another vision,” Cassandra explained.

Valkyrie ducked out of sight. “And you’re only telling us now?”

“I only told you at this point in the vision, too. If I’d given you any more warning, you might do something differently and you won’t walk away.”

“So we win this?”

“Yes,” said Cassandra. “Of course, now that you know the future, you might change it. Fortune-telling – it’s a tricky business.”

Someone was shouting Skulduggery’s name.

He grunted, took off his hat and handed it to Cassandra. “Keep this safe,” he said, and walked to the door. Valkyrie followed him outside. Nine men stood waiting.

“Skulduggery,” said the man in charge, an American. “It’s been a while. You’re looking well for a dead man.”

“The same could be said for you, Gepard. Mind me asking what it is you think you’re doing?”

“Obeying orders. We’ve been instructed to take the two of you out.”

“Attacking us will start a war.”

“You haven’t heard? The war’s already started. Your side executed Bernard Sult live on the Global Link.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Valkyrie said.

“Afraid not. Those two Children of the Spider weirdos did it, not ten minutes ago. There’s a list of people the Supreme Council needs terminated. You two are at the top of that list.”

“But we’re friends, aren’t we?” Skulduggery asked. “Or friendly, at the very least. We shouldn’t have to fight each other.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Excellent. So what are the conditions of your surrender?”

Gepard chuckled. “I’m afraid your advanced years and lack of a physical brain have led to some confusion. I have superior numbers on my side. The outcome of this day is not in any doubt – the only question is how much you want it to hurt.”

“Do you know whose cottage this is? Cassandra Pharos’s. She’s already seen this happen. We win. You lose. Walk away.”

Gepard shook his head. “You think I want to be here? You think I want to fight you? What the hell are Erskine and Ghastly thinking? The Supreme Council has a point, for God’s sake. They’re making sense. They don’t want to take over, they just want to help you maintain order.”