chapter 3

Skulduggery pressed the button on his phone and held it up to his head, "hello?"
A gruff male voice came out of the speaker, the voice of the night administrator at the sanctuary. he was a small, balding man with a ridiculous twiddly moustache. He was called something along the lines of Ravache, but everyone at the sanctuary had another name for him.
"Pleasant," growled 'Tache, who had a good idea who had started the nickname, "there's' been another incident."
"I'm busy."
"Tough. It's only a few minutes away. Go pick up your partner, and get to the Carrick-Cotter hospital. A necromancer's there, and says it urgent."
skulduggery was silent for a moment, his gut giving a little pang of irritation at the thought of having to deal with a necromancer. "Fine. Roarhaven's not far. I'll be at the hospital in an hour."
"Good." grunted 'Tache, and with that he hung up.
Skulduggery sat in the car silently for a moment, letting his mind clear itself. he wasn't particularly concerned about keeping the necromancer waiting. He knew who it'd be.
Eventually, he picked his pine up and dialled Valkyrie' number. He'd better make sure she was ready.

Not far away, Valkyrie Cain was having a bad dream. it was an old, familiar terror. She was running, as fast as she could. Her whole body ached with exhaustion, her breath came in ragged drags of air that felt cold on her burning insides. Her teeth chattered and she imagined the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.
All around her, darkness flowed like oil. Clawed hands grabbed at her from all around, and a thousand eyes glared at her from every angle. And then, like a sudden spring  storm, it was gone.
She staggered forwards, collapsing onto her knees exhaustedly. She lay on a barren waste. Behind her, a grey sea hurled itself screaming onto the sharp rocks of the shore, its cold fingers clawing at the land, leaving wet furrows that glistened like blood for a moment, before dissapearing beneath the gore of a new onslaught. Beneath her, scratchy grass and stony soil rubbed her knees raw beneath her clothes. the earth was damp, and smelled of salt and decay.
In front of her, clearer than ever before, was a circle of stones, silhouetted against an angry grey sky. Amongst the ancient monoliths, a figure stood. It was human in shape, but where flesh and blood should have occupied space, there was nothing. Like a tear in the skin of the world. There was only darkness, and where the eyes should have been, two silver stars glowed with impossible light.
It walked towards her, its movements unsteady and weak, and reached out a dark hand, sharp fingers of dark impossibility clawing the air between them. a voice, so warm and rich, echoed around them, whispering a single, lingering word filled with an wonderfully, impossibly, seductive hatred and malice
"an-ci-ent...."

and then, it was gone. the dream ended, abruptly and cleanly. Valkyrie opened her eyes to the familiar darkness of her room, and sat up. in her mind, there was only a lingering memory of the voice, and the word it had called.
Ancient.
she shuddered at the fading thought, but was pulled back into the material world by a buzzing sound beside her. She fumbled groggily for her phone, and eventually managed to answer.
"what?" she mumbled, suppressing a yawn.
"did i wake you?" asked skulduggery, hos voice a little tinnier from the phones speaker.
"no, no...I was already awake."
"Aw..." he whined, "that takes all the fun out of it."
"what do you want?" asked Valkyrie, teenage irritation at having sleep denied to her showing through.
"get dressed, we've got work to do." said skulduggery, "I'll pick you up in two minutes. If your'e not there, I'll call fletcher. and we shall have great adventures together together without you."
"you'd kill him after five minutes."
"so, for his sake, make sure you're outside your window in two minutes."