Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
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Chapter 17
When the Dead Men got their next call that could go in the 'Save the World' category, it was just past July of the next year, just as Nadia and Valkyrie were an official couple that people knew and believed were really dating each other, from Grand Mage Meritorious. They were all asked to come in immediately.
The Waxwork Museum the Sanctuary was hidden beneath was empty on the top but as soon as Crow pressed the little button to open up the wall, noise blared out at them. They looked at each other, since they were most familiar with the Sanctuary than any of the others and seemed to both agree the activity wasn't threatening but certainly wasn't normal.
They walked on down into the secret building, finding the various people jogging from one place to the other looking quite harassed about something. The administrator, appointed just two weeks previously when the other one quit due to the pressure of the job, went passed them with three phones, an earpiece, two folders, a bag of papers slowly flying everywhere and hair all over her face. "They're waiting for you," she screeched at them as she passed to some unknown place.
Valkyrie shook her head. "What's got everyone in a tizzy?"
Wolf, on her right, shrugged. "Beats me. They're in the Grand Hall then?"
"It's not a Grand Hall," Crow muttered and lead them into the new meeting room. It was grand, with new dark floorboards like the rest of the Sanctuary, wallpapered walls, thrones with steps leading up to them and a big round meeting table with three high-backed chairs to offset the feeling of equality.
"Dead Men," Meritorious greeted when they closed the door behind them. "You're missing one."
"Tanith Low is away in England on business right now," Crow said formally.
"Her mum's birthday," Valkyrie added. "Why did you call us?"
On Meritorious' right was Elder Crow, which often confused Valkyrie to have two Crow's but she came up with the names as a child so it wasn't her fault. On Meritorious' left was the new Elder, Thurid Guild, and whilst the Grand Mage and Elder Crow had come to respect her as the Dead Men's prodigy, Guild would obviously love to kick her onto the street with no memory of the Sanctuary at all except perhaps him kicking her out. As it was, he clenched his fists as soon as she spoke.
He barely glanced at her but did manage to speak right before Meritorious – which really amused Valkyrie because it really annoyed Meritorious – saying, "We have been informed that Baron Vengeous has been freed from his confinement in Russia."
Crow paused. "How?"
"Violently," Meritorious took over, giving Guild a dirty look. "As well as nineteen Cleavers and three quarters of the other staff and guards, he took out over half of the other prisoners before vanishing. That facility was the third safest in the world. There has never been a breakout, no magic should have been possible. The only positive, and I say this lightly, is that most of the prisoners he took out were some of their worst. No one will be missed out of them, at least."
Valkyrie raised her eyebrow at Crow and he answered her unspoken question. "Vengeous was one of Mevolent's Three Generals. He's not to be underestimated – dangerously fanatical, extremely intelligent and very, very powerful. If he did that without magic, I assure you he'd have razed that facility to the ground with magic."
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Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain
Fanfiction(This story is written as a fanfiction, but can be read as a story without having read any of the books.) Valkyrie Cain, the adoptive daughter of the Dead Men, has had a life full of love and magic. But as she gets older, times become scarier and sh...
