Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 85 - Boy, she'll kill you!

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

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Chapter 85

The Sanctuary formal hall was usually bare except for those lucky enough to walk through it from office to office, but for their needs they had placed tables in the shape of a large horseshoe within it.

Those sitting were the most important, and those standing were less important but still worthy to participate. There was a horde of Cleavers on guard and a mountain of mages in and around the Sanctuary waiting for news. The Communications room had all its staff sitting and waiting for the official notices and messages to send to other countries.

Valkyrie sighed and put her hand in Tanith's, the only of the 'Dead Men' to get a seat. Tanith had completely refused a seat and snapped and hissed at Panda furiously, and Tipstaff brought Valkyrie a chair. She'd sat before it was taken away, of course, and Tanith had settled into her own with a complete turnaround in mood once she was sitting.

It was busy in the hall. Valkyrie was sitting opposite the Grand Mage – one of the best seats but the tradition was that the most important sat next to him so she was also in the worst seat – and he looked regal and powerful in his robe and high backed chair. Elder Crow was elegant as always and Corrival looked harsh but had more nods of respect than Elder Crow, though that wasn't helped by the Necromancer led manhunt happening outside their doors.

Tipstaff came in and whispered something in Meritorious' ear and left the hall a moment later. When the large doors were shut, a hush fell over the room and they all looked to the Elders.

"Now that we are all gathered, we may begin," Meritorious started formally. "I'd like to thank everyone for attending this emergency meeting. I will have to skip the pleasantries as there is much to discuss and we may not have much time. Detective Cain, would you please tell the room your story."

Valkyrie squeezed Tanith's hand and sat a little straighter, thankful her family was standing right behind her. "I was recently asked by my Necromancy Mentor, Solomon Wreath, if I would live in the Temple for a month to experience being a Necromancer and give me a full picture of their way of life. I agreed, and have been there for two weeks. There was nothing out of the ordinary, everyone acted consistently, until yesterday evening. Solomon Wreath attended a meeting where Cleric Craven..." and she completed the story, going on about Melancholia and how Militsa came with her, them both being in safe hands as they tried to stop the manhunt, and then what she found in the Temple. No one looked upset when she told them her suspicions the High Priest was dead, but they all looked concerned that the Necromancers had no home, no one to pull them in they would fully trust, and that The Torment, another lady and an unknown number of other Spiders had taken the Temple. She finished by saying, "We've had reports back that the Spiders have not left the building, nor has anyone else as far as we know of. Every Necromancer in the Temple is assumed dead or being used as a hostage, but as we aren't sure what the Spiders long-term goal is so we don't know what for."

"What is their short-term goal?" A bulgingly fat man asked when there was a pause at the end of her story.

"We believe they want to kill the Dead Men as revenge," she told the hall. There was a muttering as they all spoke of how Snake had been the one to expose them centuries ago but Meritorious put a hand up and it silenced immediately. "As I mentioned, a hitman for hire called Tesseract from Russia attacked us some weeks ago and we encountered him in the Temple where Skulduggery was able to knock out and bring into the Sanctuary where he is now. Because he and The Torment were both in the Temple, I suspect he had an inside man, and I believe that is Cleric Craven."