Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 183 - The Spear

Chapter 183

They were only halfway to Poland when the news came from Corrival. Just a simple message, nothing more.

'Spiders stormed Germans. Took knife. Everyone dead.'

When they landed in Poland they found that information was slightly faulty. They had only taken Valkyrie's fake Dagger. And not everyone was dead. Just most of them. And not everyone was on the same page about who did it. No one suspected Tanith's cover and no one was really allowed to suspect the Dead Men as they were in America and no one really knew about them splitting up for this mission. That had left a gap in who to blame seeing as the German Sanctuary and all its allies were only interested in saying Ireland wasn't under attack from Spiders and telling the world they had been attacked by Spiders would wound their pride so...

They were claiming hitmen did it for the Irish Sanctuary. Representatives from almost all Sanctuaries across the world were threatening to come together to form a Supreme Council, which was only different from a war council in name. Irelands allies were being suspiciously quiet also, and that was making Valkyrie uncomfortable. Thank God they still had Meritorious with them to tell the other Sanctuaries to keep the peace for at least for a few more weeks, but it didn't look as if it would hold them back for much longer.

Valkyrie had hoped for more time.

It was with a heavy heart they stopped to refill in a rundown looking airfield and deboarded. They were all stiff and looking forwards to getting to the hotel to sleep the day away before snatching the Spear and leaving. Valkyrie sighed, pausing her walk with her arm over Nadia so she could wrap the other around her sister's waist, the bag with the two God-weapons safely on her back. Tanith looked up at her and smiled tightly.

"Not too long now," Valkyrie whispered.

"Yeah," Tanith sighed, clutching her bag closer like that would help satisfy the need to hold her baby again.

Their hotel wasn't far from the beach where the hermit with the Spear was but still far enough away the Spiders shouldn't find them if they were in the area. Valkyrie was fairly confident in their info on how many Spiders there were – a big group in America, a few hundred or so, a medium group in Europe but all scattered around, not many in Australia or Russia, but fairly large in Africa and Asia. They were imagining around five thousand actual Children of the Spider. One area of worry was of if there were secret Spiders in Australia no one knew about, but they were not in a position to check. In their area of Europe right now they could be confident they could sleep the day away without fear. Once night came that could change.

"Where should I sleep?" Wilhelm asked her, holding his three bags like it pained him and trying to stay on his laptop while walking.

"Pick a room."

"We only have four rooms," he frowned.

"Find a sofa then," Valkyrie raised an eyebrow at him. Nadia took Tanith's hand and pulled her quickly into a room with no window. "We have to bunk together. Be glad you're not on the floor."

He turned to Aurora, who glared and slammed her door shut. He turned to the Monster Hunters who quickly jumped through a doorway and closed their door. Valkyrie backed into her room as Wilhelm looked up at Frightening with wide, scared eyes. Frightening looked down at him with a smile.

She closed the door.

"These people are crazy," Valkyrie sighed, finding Tanith laid on her back at the end of the bed and Nadia checking her phone to find the nearest laundromat. "Are you going to be okay, Tan?"

"Yeah. We'll only be here for a day and then we'll be in England for the Sword and I can go see her again," Tanith said, staring straight up at the ceiling. "You know what's even worse? I was pumping this morning, in the shitty tiny plane bathroom, 'cause someone was in the bedroom, and that Wilhelm guy almost walked in on me. I forgot to lock the stupid door. I started crying, Val. I'm falling apart."