“The Desolation Engine could go off at any moment. If it does, it won’t care how strong you are or how tough. It won’t be something you can fight.”

“I’m staying with you.”

“Damn it, Valkyrie, if it goes off, I won’t be able to save you.”

“I’m not going to need you to save me.”

“I didn’t involve you in all this just so you could die by my side, do you hear me?”

“You didn’t involve me in this – I involved myself. I tagged along after Gordon was killed, I got you to teach me magic, I did it, OK? You didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

“For once, please will you do what I ask?”

“Not a chance. And the more we argue about it, the less time we have to stop Scarab.”

Skulduggery looked at her then wrapped his scarf around his jaw. “He’ll be among the crowd now,” he said. “It’s the safest place for him now that he knows we’re after him. We’ll have to keep each other in sight at all times.”

“I’ll be able to move faster than you. I don’t have to worry about a disguise slipping off.”

“You’ve got blood all over you.”

She snapped up the collar of her coat. “Better? Now come on, we don’t have much time.”

46 ENDGAME

46
ENDGAME

Guild watched Scarab move in off the steps and take a seat in the crowd. There was a time when an assassin of Scarab’s calibre would never have allowed himself to be followed like this, but that time had drifted by while Scarab had been sitting in his cell. Now he was just an old man who thought he had escaped. There was an empty seat beside Scarab and Guild sat in it.

“Hello, Dreylan,” he said. “Don’t try to run. I wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself.”

Scarab’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t move from his seat.

“Look what I found in the Repository,” Guild continued, opening his hand. The copper disc he held was almost as wide as his palm and it had eight thin legs curled up against its underside like a dead spider. “Do you recognise it? I’m sure you do. You built it, didn’t you? How many did you kill with this particular little weapon?”

“I didn’t keep count,” Scarab said.

“It just attaches to its target, isn’t that right? And releases all this awful energy? So, for example, if I were to press it against you, the power it would release would be enough to give you a heart attack a hundred times over, yes?”

The eight legs flexed, as if the device had sensed a new victim.

Scarab swallowed. “Yes.”

The crowd roared and people jumped to their feet around them. Guild and Scarab remained seated.

“Where’s the Desolation Engine, Scarab?”

“In my pocket.”