Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 12 - Fight! Fight! Fight!

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Chapter 12

Valkyrie had decided Tanith didn't need a code name – or rather, they were having more fun using insults as code names for each other and that after just a day they were both responding to all insults quite readily so it didn't matter. On the battlefield, their enemies would hear phrases such as "Bitch, on your left!" and "Duck, cow!" and they were both perfectly okay with this.

They had just left a warehouse, where they had encountered what Valkyrie had named the White Cleaver, and just barely escaped with their lives. Panda had been about to use the earth element when Tanith had pushed him out the way of the White Cleaver and saved him. Needless to say, she was now officially on their side and not a temporary help, as Crow had so lovingly told her. They couldn't be certain where the Cleaver had gone.

"We still need to find Serpine," Valkyrie said when she'd had enough of the bickering over his inability to say things nicely. "I'm assuming we all agree he's not at his castle still?"

"Yeah," Crow said smoothly. "He would have moved on as soon as he attacked the Sanctuary, or maybe even after we escaped. His last place was this warehouse and that was a trap in itself."

"So, where do we go?" Tanith asked.

"I'm still working on that," Crow muttered.

"I think I have an idea," Weasel said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Is it appropriate?" Tanith asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Tanith, don't be so unprofessional!" Valkyrie snorted, getting her an elbow in the ribs from the woman. "You said when you talked to the Echo stone it mentioned other objects that could kill Gods, right? Well, what object other than the Sceptre is ancient, has a rich history, destructive, can't be destroyed and is just out of Serpine's reach?"

"The Book," Snake said suddenly. "He wants the Book!"

"What book?" Valkyrie asked quickly.

"The Book of Names," Crow told her. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before! Of course, he needs the Elders dead to get to it."

"It's a book kept in the Irish Sanctuary that holds everyone's three names, erasing them when the die and adding them as soon as they're born, adding a Taken name if it's applicable," Tanith explained to her. "The three Irish Elders use the strength of their will-power to keep it from being taken. It's a spell or signals or something that uses their magic to make you think or want to not go to it."

"That's right," Crow continued. "Even if you want it more than anything, even if you are at gun point, you will not be able to get to it no matter what. The only way for someone to get close would be to kill all three Elders."

"So, he's targeting the Elders, I get it," Valkyrie stated. "You said they're in a safehouse? We need to go to them and protect them then. He'll come to us."

"My thoughts exactly."

.*****.

The group of six were driven in the van by Crow, though it felt more like a maniac. Valkyrie had slid and fallen all over the place until Panda as reached out pulled her onto his knee and the ride had been pretty easy for her after that. Everyone else sat motionlessly in place, made of more muscle than anyone she'd ever met before. It was super cool.