Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 7 - 9

“Shaking hands,” Fletcher said. “Like adults. I just want you to know that this past year has changed me. I’ve grown, as a person. I’m not the same Fletcher you used to know.”

“You look a lot like him.”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“And you have the same ridiculous hair.”

“Can we just shake hands?”

“Of course we can,” Skulduggery said, and they shook. “Now what?”

“I, uh... I don’t really know. What do adults usually do after they shake hands?”

“Generally, the first thing they do is let go.”

“Oh, right,” Fletcher said, and Skulduggery took his hand back. “So, Skulduggery, how’ve you been? You’re looking well. That’s a really nice tie.”

“It’s blue.”

“And such a nice shade.”

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie. “You promised me he wouldn’t be annoying.”

She glared. “And you promised you wouldn’t be mean.”

Skulduggery sighed, turned back. “Fletcher, how is your training progressing? As the last Teleporter, it’s important that you take your responsibilities seriously.”

“I am,” Fletcher said. “I do.”

“When I was your age, I met the last Kineticist. Do you know what that is? He had the ability to absorb kinetic energy and store it as pure strength. Essentially, the more he was hit, the stronger he became. When he died, all the secrets of his discipline died with him. A few years ago a young sorcerer decided to train to be the first Kineticist in four hundred years. Do you know what happened?”

“No,” Fletcher said. “What?”

“He was really rubbish at it.”

Fletcher frowned. “Oh.”

“Let that be a lesson to you,” Skulduggery said, and walked back the way he’d come.

Fletcher edged closer to Valkyrie. “I thought that story would have a more dramatic ending,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she whispered back.

She took him on a tour. Kalvin was there to meet them at the Arboretum, and he explained what they needed to keep in mind when transporting the birds and animals. It was decided to just take everything, trees and all, to empty plots of land around the world according to the needs of whatever was being transported. Valkyrie stood by and let them talk, becoming quietly impressed with Fletcher as he steadily got all the information he needed.

When they were done, Valkyrie took him to see Lenka, whose reaction was, as she had expected, one to treasure. Fletcher walked in, and Lenka laughed so hard she fell off the table on which she’d been sitting.

“His hair!” Lenka gasped from the floor. “Oh my God, his hair!”

Fletcher sighed.

Lament came in, shook Fletcher’s hand and asked him to ignore the hysterical girl rolling across the ground. He took them to the Cube, and Fletcher peered in at Argeddion.

“You’re sure he’s asleep?” he asked.

“We were,” Lament said, frowning slightly. “These days, we’re not so sure. And so time is of the essence.”

Fletcher nodded, and looked at the machine. “So you need all of this moved at the same time?”

“Yes,” said Lament. “The Tempest, that’s the pyramid there, won’t be needed once we’ve attached the Cube directly to the Accelerator, but that will require a day or so of work. In the mean time, we’ll need everything just as it is – but in the Sanctuary. Do you think that would be a problem?”

“Wouldn’t say so,” said Fletcher. “It’s all hooked up and everything is connected, so it doesn’t look like anything will be left behind. Should be a clean teleport right into the room Ghastly showed me.”

“You’ve seen the Accelerator?”

“Yep,” he said. “Weird-looking thing.”

Lament smiled. “Thank you very much for doing this, Fletcher. I don’t know how we’d manage it without you.”

Fletcher shrugged. “Just doing my bit to help out,” he said, and walked from the room with an extra bit of swagger. Valkyrie rolled her eyes, and followed.

The clearing-out of the mountain facility took a few hours. Valkyrie stayed with Fletcher for most of it, having a laugh and chatting while they waited for the next shipment of equipment or animals or whatever to be made ready. Lenka had tears in her eyes when it was time to say goodbye to some of the monkeys, but Fletcher transported them to nice safe places, and this helped her sniffling. The last thing to be moved was Argeddion himself and all the machinery that held him in stasis.

Fletcher looked tense. Valkyrie felt for him. If this went wrong, they’d be releasing a sorcerer on the world who was more powerful than anyone else alive.

Lament and his three sorcerers came together and joined hands.

“This place is our home,” said Lament. “We came here thirty years ago to protect the world from a threat, and in doing so we found a new place to love. It certainly hasn’t been easy living here, isolated and alone, but we got through it. We didn’t think we’d ever return. But now, thanks to these people standing beside us, the impossible is possible, and we have a second chance at life. I’ll miss this place.” He smiled sadly. “But I won’t miss it a lot.”

There were a few laughs, then everyone linked arms and Fletcher placed a hand on the chair, and in less than an eyeblink, much quicker and more easily than seemed to befit the gravity of the situation, they were in a large room deep within the Sanctuary, beside a machine that could only have been the Accelerator.

It was done. No explosions, no screaming, no all-powerful sorcerer suddenly loosed upon the world. It was, if Valkyrie was being honest, a bit of an anticlimax.

Ravel came in to welcome them, and Lenka turned and threw up all over his shoes.

Valkyrie and Fletcher sneaked away while the introductions were going on. They left the Sanctuary and took a walk around the lake. The stagnant water wasn’t very pretty, but it was the only walk available.

“Good job,” Valkyrie said. “Thanks.”

He shrugged. “It’s not easy being the one you all run to in an emergency, but I cope admirably well.”

“That you do,” she said with a laugh. “Are you heading off now?”

“Unless there’s something else I’m needed for.”

She stopped walking, and looked at him. “Well,” she said, “I’m not doing anything for the next few hours...”

He looked back at her, and his smile dimmed a little. “Oh.”