Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
....................................................................
Chapter 28
It took several hours to drive up to Glendalough, a rocky area in Wicklow Mountains National Park, in the east of Ireland, not far down from Dublin. It took until ten at night to reach the area and in the Autumn weather, the girls were cold.
"I am not happy in this weather," Valkyrie muttered. "I don't know how you do it."
Tanith laughed quietly, letting out little puffs of condensation. "I look good though."
"All your important bits are gonna fall off one day."
"Like my brain?"
"You have a brain?"
Tanith snorted a laugh.
The area looked like a forest covered mountain had had a chunk pulled out right in the middle, leaving little mountains surrounding a crystal-clear lake in the centre. It was silent and pitch black. Valkyrie could see all the stars and the moon above. It was stunning. Smiling to herself, she thought about how much Nadia would like to visit the national park with her once spring came. It would be a nice date.
"You're smiling again," Tanith whispered as Crow reached into a tree stump by the side of the lake.
"Shut up."
"You look like a lovestruck fool."
"Maybe I am. Crow, what are you doing?" Valkyrie finally asked. He had been looking and waiting.
"This, my dear girl, is the bell that calls the sea hag," he said, presenting a dainty silver bell. He rang it and it was almost inaudible from where she was standing beside him. He put it back.
"That was bloody rubbish," Valkyrie said. Tanith nodded beside her. "It was tiny! I bet she didn't even hear."
"I'm sure she did," he said.
"You'd think a summoning bell would be big though. Something with a toll, not a tinkle."
He nodded. "It was rather unimpressive."
"Why does it live in the lake?" Tanith asked him suddenly.
"I think we are about to find out," he said quietly, watching the lake. Valkyrie and Tanith turned and watched the water ripple and, slowly, an ugly, mossy, old mermaid-like creature immerge.
"Who disturbs me?" She said in a voice that sounded like someone drowning. It had a surprisingly Irish twang to it considering she supposedly lived in the water with next to no human contact.
"I do," Crow said. "My name is Skulduggery Pleasant."
"That is not your name," the sea hag scowled.
"It is the name I have taken. These are my colleagues, Tanith Low and Valkyrie Cain."
"You put so much power in names," she said almost sadly. "I once had a name but have long since submitted it to the Deep. It brings happiness. Tell me, have you ever seen such happiness as this?"
YOU ARE READING
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...
