Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 10 - 12. Derek Landy
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Abyssinia.”
Skulduggery turned his head slightly.
“You know who that is?” Valkyrie asked.
“I might,” he said. “I’ve only known one Abyssinia in all my years.”
“Does she have silver hair?”
Skulduggery looked at her. “She does.” He looked back. “Doctor, what were you told about your role in all this? What do they need you to do?”
“Please call me Richard. From what I can gather, I’m to facilitate a resurrection. I’ve done it before, more or less, on patients who’ve died on the operating table, but never before on someone long dead. This would be exponentially more difficult.”
“It would be,” said Skulduggery. “For a start, I would imagine that Abyssinia is the one in need of resurrection, as she’s been dead for three hundred years.”
Valkyrie looked back at Melior. “Is that possible? Could you do that?”
“I … I guess so. Under the proper circumstances.”
“If that is the case, you’d have one further complication,” Skulduggery said, “in that all that is left of her is a heart.”
“I’m sorry?”
Skulduggery stood. “Richard, would you excuse us for a moment?”
“Uh … of course.”
“Thank you. If you try anything sneaky, I’ll shoot you. Valkyrie?”
Frowning, she followed him into the bedroom, and he shut the door.
“Right then,” she said, “you’re acting sufficiently suspicious about this, so who is she? Who is Abyssinia?”
Skulduggery crossed to the window and looked out. He took a moment, and turned. “Abyssinia,” he said, “was many things.” “Fiercely intelligent, incredibly manipulative, savagely violent. She was a mage and a murderer but also, and this is where things could be said to take a surprising twist, were you inclined to be surprised by twists, she was a …”
“A what?”
“I suppose you could call her, if you had to, if you needed to find a label, even though I’m not fond of them myself, I feel they can be far too restrictive though there are, of course, exceptions, you could possibly call her, if you desperately needed to call her anything at all, an … ex-girlfriend.”
Valkyrie stared. “What?”
“You probably require an explanation,” Skulduggery said.
“I probably do.”
“Would you like to sit down?”
“Do I need to?” Valkyrie said. “Yes, I’ll sit down. No, I won’t. I need to walk around for this. I feel I need to be moving. Tell the story.” She started pacing.
“Very well.” Skulduggery sat on the bed. “Where to start …”
“Start at the skeleton booty call and move on from there. Oh, wait!” She swung round. “Was she a girlfriend before you were killed, or after?”
“After.”
“Oh.” Valkyrie resumed her pacing. “Go on.”
“It doesn’t matter how I met her. It doesn’t matter where. What does matter is what state I was in.”
“What state were you in?”
“A bad one. The war was never-ending. Friends were dying all around us. Every time I got close to Serpine, he’d slip away again. My anger was growing. My hatred was at its peak. Abyssinia knew this. She saw it. She latched on to me. She told me she loved me. I hadn’t had anyone say that to me since my wife died. She influenced me. I didn’t even notice it happening. Ghastly did. He warned me, but I didn’t listen to him. I listened to her, though. Her words infected me; they weighed me down. Dragged me down. She knew I was … what did I call it once? Magically ambidextrous. She encouraged me to explore other types of magic.”
Valkyrie froze. “Wait … was this …?”
“I rediscovered Necromancy,” Skulduggery said, “and she gifted me with a very special suit of armour.”
“She turned you into Lord Vile?”
“No. I did that. I turned myself into Vile. But she was there. She made sure I stayed on course.”
“That … that cow …”
“By this point, I no longer cared about which side I fought on. I just wanted to fight. I just wanted to kill. Meritorious’s army had too many rules so I switched. Abyssinia brought me over. With the armour on, nobody knew who I’d once been, and the truth was, I wasn’t me any more. I wasn’t,” Skulduggery tapped his chest, “me. I was him. I was my anger and I was my hatred. I quickly became one of Mevolent’s generals. I didn’t even mind that I was now fighting alongside the man who had murdered my family.”
“And what did Abyssinia do?”
“She was beside me the whole way. She tore the life force from her victims, used it to heal her wounds or get stronger. We slaughtered entire villages together. She had an appetite for bloodshed that I found … fascinating. I’d stop sometimes, just to watch her kill. She was born to it. It came as naturally to her as breathing.”
“This is getting weird.”
“While I was becoming a general, Abyssinia was integrating herself into the upper echelons of Mevolent’s army, which had been her plan all along. China Sorrows herself invited her to join the Diablerie. Abyssinia was as fervent and fanatical as any of them, and was just as dedicated. Or so it appeared.”
Valkyrie frowned. “It was an act?”
“Abyssinia was full of surprises. One of the reasons she latched on to me was because she saw something in me, something she could twist. She used me to get close to Mevolent. And she wanted to get close to Mevolent in order to kill him, and take his army for herself.”
“Ambitious.”
“Yes, she was,” said Skulduggery. “But she made a mistake. One single, solitary mistake.”
“Which was?”
“Me.”
“She underestimated you.”
“She trusted me. In whatever sick form it took, she actually believed she loved me. She believed I loved her back, even as Lord Vile. Her mistake was to tell me her plans. She wanted me by her side, you see – king to her queen. She planned to kill Mevolent at a feast he was hosting – she was gambling that a move so ridiculously bold would actually be well received by those in attendance. Kill Mevolent in front of everyone and watch them bend the knee. She was probably right, actually. It probably would have worked.”
“What … what happened?”
Skulduggery took off his hat, adjusted the brim. “Mevolent held the feast and, even though China and Serpine and Baron Vengeous were in attendance, it was Abyssinia who was seated at Mevolent’s side. She must have felt like all her work had paid off – that she was among his most trusted. Her plan – our plan, or so she thought – was to wait for the toasts. When they were both standing, I would strike, incapacitating him. Then she would take his head.
“The courses were served. I didn’t eat, naturally. I didn’t drink. I watched them all. They talked and laughed and got full and got drunk. Even Abyssinia drank too much. Overconfidence, I suppose. Mevolent stood up, singing Abyssinia’s praises for all to hear. But, when Abyssinia rose to toast him in return, I