The Love of a Dead Man

A Betrayer's Tale

"Hello, dear," China said smugly, once Kate and Erskine had teleported into the throne room, a small smile playing on her lips. Erskine ignored her, and bowed deeply before Mevolent, motioning for Kate to do the same. 

"Rise, my boy." He did. "You have lost. We have Valkyrie downstairs, Nye is already extracting the blood we need. But, you... you have lost and so we shall head over the barricades now. Come face Gordon's little pet." Mevolent rose, holding out an elbow for China and she laughed, hooking her arm through, and they teleported out to the fiery death pit. 

Erskine turned to Kate, "Come, my child. We have to walk. I will explain." 

Kate glared at him, "yeah, you will." 

Erskine ignored her pettiness, and started walking down the corridor, "That was Mevolent. At the end of the war, everyone believed Mevolent was dead, myself included. We had won. The rest of the Dead Men had worried about Skulduggery once it was over. The man had nothing left. He was made by the war, you see. It was the only thing that had kept him going for such a long while, that once it was over, none of us knew what to expect. Only Ghastly remained to have so much faith in his friend. It made me feel kind of guilty, but I wasn't sure about the rest of them. So in an attempt to understand my friend a little better, I walked back out onto the old battlefield. We had fought that war throughout the dense forest in America, and I entered on the side that Mevolent had fought, and I saw a building that was still standing. Lord Vile, before he disappeared had flattened all standing structures besides the trees, so I thought maybe there was life. Maybe it was the village people, ready to start up their lives again. But I did not find any village people. No, I found Nefarian standing guard at a door, along with Larriken and Hopeless, two men I fought in the war with. Except they had died. My friends, not Serpine. Skulduggery hadn't gotten his hands on Serpine until a few years later. I didn't know what to think, and they didn't give me a chance to ask any questions. I swift punch to the head, and I was out cold." 

Erskine paused in his story, and Kate put a hand on his shoulder. "Were they zombies?" She asked, looked at his face, at the tremor that ran through his body. He blinked quickly, zapped out of his head as he looked at her, "No. Mevolent dies every day. Valkyrie has seen him die, as he did it in the reality where he won the war." 

"I heard about that," Kate said, "Do you think he'll try and jump over here? I mean, everyone knows that he'd want a rematch with Darquesse after she flogged him so many times." 

Erskine looked horrified at the thought, "I don't know. We could only hope not. Two Mevolent's over here, the world would not survive that. Anyway. They had dragged me down to the cells, and Mevolent was there once I had awaken, with Clarissa Pleasant on his lap. I hadn't seen her since before the war. I knew she had died, that Nefarian had killed her, along with dear little Thalia."

Kate's eyes widened, "Skulduggery's wife and child." 

Erskine laughed, "he did not bring the child back, thank the gods. I thought maybe that she hadn't died. That maybe she had been driven mad with Skulduggery away for so long, that she wanted Mevolent and so she faked her death. You have to understand that Skulduggery wasn't always the man he is today. Sure, he was still as sarcastic and stubborn, but he was nice. He didn't find the need to result to violence, in fact he tried to avoid it at all costs. We thought maybe he would be the first to leave us during the war. But he didn't. With his friends dying around him, people who had been in his life since he was young, after his parents were killed, along with his siblings, he started to change. He liked hurting other people. Only a few of us could spot the tiny differences. He started to loose his sense of humour. When Skulduggery stops telling jokes, you know it's bad. But, no. Clarissa really had died. Mevolent told me that once I had woken up. And needed more people to die. They all played a part, he said, in creating a beast unstoppable, and it would slave the human race. You know of Valkyrie's background. It is taught at the camp. You know how she came into this world, you know about her partnership with Skulduggery and about the blood that runs through her. We need it, as much as we can get to raise this thing. I'm calling it the Grotesquery Number Two because that's what it basically is, despite what Mevolent says. Only two sorcerers can defeat it. Darquesse has been trapped inside Valkyrie's mind by the best Sensitives and Lord Vile is missing, presumed dead. So, nothing can stop it. Besides Dr. Nye. And Nye is controlled by Mevolent. The thing will show mortals what is really in the world, Mevolent will stop it, they'll love him and then we'll enslave them all."

"Yeah, okay," Kate said, shrugged off her jacket in the sudden heat, "We're taught all that at the camp. What have you lost? And I thought Darquesse killed China?"

Erskine shrugged, " Mevolent brought her back, and it wasn't really a bet, more a competition. China has her camp, I have mine. Mevolent said the person who doesn't bring Valkyrie to him first, fights off Gordon." 

"Valkyrie's dead uncle?" 

Erskine smiled, "No, he is alive. Everyone that Mevolent brings back... they adore him. He has given them new life, and as such have to do whatever he says. Gordon is a very narcissistic man, and as such named his pet after himself. No, I have to fight off the dragon he found in the caves." 

He stopped talking, and walked to the hard iron door next to some more steps, and he nodded towards them. "Go up there to the room overlooking, China and Mevolent will be in there, along with some others I'm sure, and watch me fight for my life."