Skulduggery Pleasant, Books 4 - 6 by Derek Landy

Author:Derek Landy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

They called Skulduggery to let him know they’d found the first half of the key. He told them to walk to the bus depot and wait for him there.

Up through Drogheda, the streets were frozen and empty. The roads glistened, like someone had carelessly tossed down a hundred thousand tiny crystals. Parked cars were covered in frost, windshields thick with ice. Christmas lights gave it all an unearthly sheen, and somewhere far away a house alarm was going off.

Valkyrie and Tanith crossed the road and kept heading south, towards the bus depot. Valkyrie had her arms crossed, hands jammed under her armpits. Her ears were freezing and her nose was red and running. She stepped on an icy patch and her feet flew out from under her. For the third time in ten minutes, she landed on her backside. Tanith looked back and sighed. Even she had stopped finding that funny.

They crossed the bridge, staying off the pavements, sticking to the road, where it was less slippery. They hadn’t heard one single moving car, let alone seen one. The lights at the depot were on, and the buses sat still and silent. They hopped the low wall and Tanith pushed open the glass door. An old woman looked up from where she was sitting.

Valkyrie nodded to her warily, while Tanith went to the ticket booth. It was almost as cold in there as it was outside.

“There’s nobody else here,” the old woman said. “I tried the office as well. Nobody here at all.”

Tanith glanced at Valkyrie, and went to make sure. When she was gone, the old woman looked back to Valkyrie. “Have you been watching the news? Terrible, isn’t it? All those sick people.”

“It is,” said Valkyrie.

“I’ve been sitting here for hours. I tried calling my son, but I couldn’t get through.”

“The phones are down.”

“Is that what it is? I hope he’s all right. I hope he hasn’t got sick. He’s got children, you know. A ten-year-old and a four-year-old.”

“He’s probably fine,” said Valkyrie.

The old woman did her best to smile. “I just want to get home. It isn’t right. This town is never this quiet. Where are all the people? Are they all sick? The man on the news said that the sick people are prone to outbreaks of violence. If everyone is sick, it’s not safe here. I just want to go home.”

“Us too.”

“What’s your name, child?”

The old woman didn’t look like someone a Remnant would hijack. She was neither young nor strong. She was small, and her hair was white, and even though she was wrapped up against the cold, she looked thin and frail.

“My name’s Valkyrie.”

“That’s an unusual name. French, is it?”

“Uh, Scandinavian, I think.”

“It’s very pretty.”

Tanith came back. “No one here,” she said.

“I told you,” the old woman responded. “I’ve been here for three hours, and you two are the first people I’ve seen. I should just be thankful that you’re not like the ones they showed on the news.”

“Where do you live?” Valkyrie asked.

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