Death Bringer (37 page)

Chapter 55
Tunnel Vision

hey got to the tunnel and Valkyrie dragged Melancholia after her. “Hurry!”

“Shut up!” Melancholia snapped, shoving Valkyrie away. “I don't need your help! I killed him once, I can do it again.”

She turned back the way they had come, and took a deep breath. “He's up,” she said. “On his feet. I can feel him. I can feel his energy. It's not like the others. But it's strong. I… there's something… there's something blocking me…”

“What are you trying to do?”

“I'm trying to take his soul.”

Valkyrie punched her, right across the jaw. “I'm not going to let you kill him, you nutcase. You think I'd ever choose you over him?”

“Doesn't matter,” Melancholia said, her voice quiet. “I can't do it. He's cocooned himself away, I can't… I can't kill him.”

“Good.”

Melancholia glared up at her. “If I can't kill him, how are we going to stop him?”

“We're not,” Valkyrie said. “We're going to run and hide, that's what we're going to do. What the hell is wrong with you, anyway?”

“I'm covered in blood and you're still going to ask me that?”

“No, I mean what did he do to you? That isn't just a cut he gave you.”

“These symbols,” Melancholia said reluctantly. “They're designed to take the power of my Surge and loop it around my body continuously.”

“I know,” Valkyrie said. “Craven turned you into a self-charging battery. So what?”

Grimacing, Melancholia held her wounded arm up. The gash cut diagonally across her flesh, splitting symbols. “Vile's damaged me. The power isn't looping like it should. I'm not recharging like I should. It's going wrong.”

Valkyrie knelt by her. “Release the energy you stole.”

“Get us out of here.”

“Release the energy, then I'll help you.”

“He's after us!” Melancholia snapped. “If he catches us, I'll need all the strength I can find! And you want me to just release
half
of it?”

“Yes.”

“That doesn't make sense.”

“Release it now, at once, immediately, or I walk away and leave you here.”

“You wouldn't do that.”

“It's you or my friends, and I'm always going to pick my friends.”

“Help me up before he comes. We can argue about this later.”

Valkyrie stood back.
Leave her here
, said the voice in her head.
Vile will kill her, the energy will return on its own. Leave her. She's not worth it
.

Valkyrie gave Melancholia another few moments, then she turned and started to walk away.

“You can't be serious,” Melancholia said. “You're really going to abandon me?”

Keep walking.

“You're really going to let him murder me?”

Don't look back.

“Fine!” Melancholia shouted. “Fine! I'll release it!”

Valkyrie turned, and waited.

Melancholia glared at her then shut her eyes. Her breathing became strained and she winced. Something like steam rose from her, drifting up and disappearing into the tunnel wall. She opened her eyes. They were no longer red. She was sweating. “There,” she said, panting. “Happy?”

“That was it?” Valkyrie asked dubiously. “That was the energy of three hundred people? A little bit of steam?”

“What were you expecting? Sparkling lights? A ray of sunshine? It is what it is. Now help me up.”

Valkyrie took out her phone, dialled Ghastly's number. Even though her phone was magically enhanced, she barely had a single bar down here in the caves. Even so, it was enough for the call to go through, and enough for her to hear Ghastly's tired voice, like he had just woken from a deep sleep.

“Ghastly?” she said. “Can you hear me? Can you—?”

She lost the signal, and put the phone away.

“Satisfied?” Melancholia asked.

“Very.”

“I hope you're this smug when Vile catches up with us and I can't do a thing to stop him.”

“Me too.”

They moved on, struggling to maintain a decent pace. More and more of Melancholia's weight pressed down on to Valkyrie, and with every step her injured leg took, the Necromancer's face would screw up in pain. She wasn't going to last long in here, that much was obvious.

The ground dipped ahead of them and Valkyrie stopped, looked back, looked around.

“What are you waiting for?” Melancholia said. “Come on. Keep going.”

Valkyrie ignored her, looked up, saw a ledge. “There,” she said. “Climb.”

“What? Why? We'll be faster going downhill.”

“We can't go deeper. We have to stay as close to the surface as we can.” She tried pulling Melancholia to the ledge, but Melancholia yanked her arm from Valkyrie's grip.

“I'm injured, you silly little girl. I can't go around climbing everything for no reason at all. I say we vote on it.”

“We're not voting. You're going to do what I tell you.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because I've been down here before. If we go deeper, we're going to get lost. If we do manage to avoid Vile, we'll either die of thirst or get killed by one of the things that live here. Either way, we end up dead.”

“I'd rather take my chances with rats and creepy-crawlies than with Lord Vile.”

“There are monsters down here, Melancholia, and they're immune to magic.”

“Rubbish,” Melancholia said. “Nothing is immune to magic.”

“Well
they
are, and they're a
lot
bigger than rats, believe me.”

Melancholia looked up at the ledge, and scowled. “Give me a leg-up.”

Valkyrie interlaced her fingers and crouched. Melancholia steadied herself on her wounded leg, placed one foot in Valkyrie's hands, and straightened as Valkyrie heaved. Melancholia grunted and cursed, but eventually hauled herself over. Valkyrie used the air to give herself a little boost, and she joined Melancholia.

“There,” she said, nodding to a gap in the rocks ahead of them. She led the way, and Melancholia followed.

“Why?” Melancholia asked as they moved.

“Why what?”

“You know what. Why didn't you let him kill me? Why are you doing all this for me?”

Valkyrie frowned back at her. “I don't… I don't really know. I'm sick of people dying, I suppose.”

“Even your enemies?” Melancholia said. Her eyebrow rose. “That's ridiculous. The only point in having enemies is so you can defeat them, kill them, brush them aside.”

“Or give them a chance to redeem themselves.”

Melancholia smiled. “You honestly think I'm going to change my ways? I want to kill you. I want to kill everyone. I finally understand what death is. I understand its beauty, but I'm not stupid. I know very few people will share this view. You want to stop me from spreading the beauty of death. You think I'm the villain, don't you?”

Valkyrie shrugged as she walked. “One of them.”

“And I think
you're
the villain for trying to stop me. I have nothing to redeem myself for, because I've done nothing wrong.”

“You're something of a sociopath, then.”

“No, I've just moved beyond what living people think of as important. Living is not important. It's just not. Neither is dying, for that matter. But the two of them together, this wonderful stream of existence… Wait till you see it. You'll wonder why you ever tried to stop me.”

Valkyrie stopped, and turned. “See, you're talking, and in theory your words are linking up and making sense, but I still haven't a clue what you're on about. And even if you do have a deeper understanding of life and death than the rest of us, which I doubt, that's still no reason to start killing millions of people.”

“I'm going to kill them because I
can
kill them, that's all. Lives are meaningless.”

“I don't think you believe that.”

Melancholia laughed. “Oh really?”

Valkyrie resumed walking. “I think, OK, for a moment, you glimpsed a great truth about life and death. Maybe your power surged in such a way that it pushed you a little further, opened your mind a little wider. OK, I can accept that. But that's not how you feel now.”

“How would you know what I feel now?”

“Because you are running from Lord Vile, just like I am.”

She heard Melancholia's smile fade from her voice. “I don't
fear
death,” she said. “I just don't want the inconvenience of it right now.”

“You can look at it like this, if it helps. For a few moments, your power drove you insane, made you a sociopath with glowing red eyes who wanted to kill millions of people. But you got better.”

“I wasn't insane.”

“You were a little.”

“I think I'd feel OK about killing
you
.”

“Don't worry,” Valkyrie said, looking back, “that'll pass.”

“My eyes were really glowing red?”

“Yep.”

Melancholia nodded to herself. “Cool.”

They walked on for another ten minutes, until Melancholia's leg buckled under her and she fell against the wall of the tunnel.

“I can't go on,” she said. “I just can't.”

“You're sure?” Valkyrie frowned.

“Of course I'm bloody sure.”

Melancholia was pale and sweating, and her hands were shaking. Valkyrie took a leaf from her jacket pocket, and handed it over. “Chew this. It'll numb the pain.”

Melancholia stared at it. “You had this? You had this in your pocket the whole time and you waited until now to give it to me?”

“It's the only one I have, and it wouldn't have lasted for the whole journey.”

“I've been in agony!”

“So get chewing.”

Melancholia stuffed the leaf into her mouth, and staggered back against the wall. Valkyrie sat on a pile of small rocks.

“I hate you,” Melancholia said, still chewing.

“I know.”

“I've never hated anyone so much.”

“Is it working yet?”

“Yes,” Melancholia snapped. “But I still hate you.”

“You're allowed,” said Valkyrie. The pile of rocks shifted beneath her, and when she put her hand down to steady herself, they scattered and she slid to the ground. Her first instinct was to laugh, but the rocks swarmed her, a chattering mass of legs and teeth, dozens of them. She swiped three of them off her chest, realised she was moving, they were carrying her, and she tried to gain some purchase, tried to get up, but there was nothing to hold on to.

“Help!” she shouted to Melancholia, who stood there, open-mouthed. “Help me!”

Valkyrie twisted, glanced at where the things were taking her, saw nothing but the tunnel wall with another pile of rocks at its base. That pile came alive too, and parted, revealing a dark hole, and they carried her through. She clicked her fingers, summoned a flame, saw smooth rock passing above. The creatures, whatever they were, remained unaffected by the light. All she saw were legs and teeth beneath those rock-like shells, no eyes. They didn't need eyes down here.

The tunnel got narrower and her claustrophobia kicked in. She kept her arms bent, hands at her chest. Her shoulders scraped the tunnel walls. A sudden fear flashed through her, that she'd get jammed in here, unable to move. She let the fire go out and covered her face with her hands. She was sweating. Breathing fast. Close to panic. Her progress slowed, the creatures working to get her through. The tunnel walls were tight against her shoulders. Her arms were forced down by her sides. It was too small. The space was too small. Too narrow and too low. She wanted to scream and lash out, flail and kick, but there was no room for that. She had to keep it together. She had to. She had to remain calm. She had to keep control.

The creatures were all over her. All she could hear were their scuttling legs and her own breathing. Another sound escaped her. A sob. Was she crying? No, not yet. But close. Very close.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please please please please.”

The creatures gave another determined shunt, and her head banged painfully off the tunnel ceiling and her shoulders jammed and she came to a sudden, jarring halt.

She was stuck.

Her arms were trapped by her sides. She could open and close her hands, and she could kick her feet a few inches, but that was all.

Valkyrie opened her eyes to complete blackness. She heard the creatures scuttling away to either side, which meant the tunnel had opened to something wider. She just had to get her shoulders through this last narrow bit, and she'd have room.

She started wriggling. She couldn't bend her knees much, but she tried her best, tried to gain a foothold and push off from it. Her fingers scraped the rock. Her hips squirmed as much as they could.

Her shoulders wouldn't budge, though. Nothing she was doing was moving her further on.