Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 126 - The New Sanctuary

Chapter 126

Solomon had to take a taxi home, and while the driver followed the great laws of Ireland, she sped on ahead just as Tanith had taught her.

At the mansion, Valkyrie parked the bike right by the front steps and left the helmet on the seat since it was a very blue-skied day and didn't look as if it would rain. Apparently it would storm that night, or that's what the radio had said that morning, but for now it was a nice day.

Solomon had to be five or ten minutes behind Valkyrie, so she decided to forewarn the others. In the front entrance, Valkyrie merely whistled loudly and it barely took a moment for the men to rush from all corners of the house towards her. Tanith and Nadia came right behind the men with frowns.

"Damn," Dexter cursed. "Who taught you that?"

"Pa," Valkyrie smirked. "He said he did that to 'bring you forth', and I figured it would still work after a hundred years."

"I feel manipulated," Saracen grinned and they all went into the parlour living room.

"That's conditioning for you."

Valkyrie put an arm around Nadia, hugging her from the side. Nadia looked up at her a little confused, which was understandable because Valkyrie had said she'd come back with Solomon and had turned up happy without him.

"Do you have news?" Anton asked from his chair.

"I found Solomon," she announced to the room, taking her seat with Nadia. "He'll be here in a few minutes, decided the bike was too dangerous for him."

Tanith grinned. "You mean my bike."

"Actually, I've taken it from you," Valkyrie told her sweetly.

"Oh, have you now?"

"Yes. It's mine and you can't have it. I will be teaching your child to ride it in the near future," Valkyrie grinned.

Tanith shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I'll get an upgrade."

"As lovely as this is, I'd like to know what's going to happen with Solomon," Anton put in with a small smile of his own.

"Nothing's going on with him. He was released this morning and he went to Ghastly's house because it was the nearest to the hospital and he didn't know what's been going on these last few weeks. Ghastly had been telling him when I got there, and I updated them both on some outdated information and when Ghastly got upset, he stormed off and Solomon said he'd follow me home. Well, he argued about the bike first, but he'll be here in the next few minutes."

They all nodded slowly. "How is he?" Erskine asked in a small voice.

"Quiet," Valkyrie admitted. "A little slower? I think he's just taking a little longer to take things in, but he talks the same, acts the same, uses magic. He's the same man as before. I think it's all just very overwhelming to have all the change and bad things happen to him in the last few months."

He nodded and Dexter put an arm around his shoulder. "Did he mention...?"

"We didn't talk about that," Valkyrie told him, referring to the torture. "I just updated him on what I know, nothing else. We spoke about Skulduggery and he was obviously upset over him, but he was ready to come with me here, so I don't think he's going to be running after him or anything. Skulduggery was honest about one thing, Solomon didn't know anything about any of this. He's just the victim."

Erskine nodded quickly and took a deep breath. "That's good."

"We'll be there for him," Dexter said quietly, looking at the ground.