The remaining grey attacked with fists and feet and elbows and knees. The Black Cleaver was a blur. He never tired, he never faltered. The grey made one mistake, responded to a feint when he should have backed off, and the Black Cleaver got his hands on him and added another broken neck to his tally.

He took hold of the blade sticking out of his neck, and pulled it from him. Black blood dripped, and he let the blade clatter to the ground as he picked up another scythe.

“Where’s Fletcher Renn when you need him?” China muttered as she helped Tanith to her feet.

“Go,” Tanith said, grabbing her sword. “I’ll hold him off.”

China stared at her. “You?”

“I’m your bodyguard, aren’t I? Besides, Ravel needs to be stopped and I don’t know the way down to the Accelerator Room. So it looks like a grand and noble gesture is called for.”

China raised an eyebrow. “I’m almost impressed.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not doing this for …”

She stopped. Someone was whistling. Ennio Morricone – the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Black Cleaver looked round.

Billy-Ray Sanguine stood beneath the flickering light, whistling, one hand in his pocket, the other dangling by his leg, holding the God-Killer dagger.

China squeezed Tanith’s arm, and ran.

Sanguine came to the end of his little tune, and he raised his head slightly, and Tanith reckoned he knew damn well that he’d never looked so cool as he did right at that moment.

“You have one chance to walk away,” Sanguine said. “I were you, I’d take it.”

The Black Cleaver faced him, his scythe ready.

Sanguine shrugged, like he was disappointed, and started forward.

88

Darquesse didn’t laugh when Valkyrie fell. She didn’t mention it at all. In fact, she wasn’t even looking. Her eyes were on the man who was emerging from a broken doorway.

“Here he is at last,” she said. “My little traitor.”

“Oh, I’m no traitor,” Dexter Vex said, smiling. “I’m just someone who wasn’t seduced by the carnage you promised. I’m just someone who understands that our goals aren’t exactly … compatible.”

Darquesse shrugged. “Your fellow Remnants believed what they wanted to believe.”

“Yes they did,” said Vex, “and they almost doomed us all.”

Valkyrie forced herself up. Her legs were weak, but her strength was returning. Slowly.

“And you think you can save the day?” Darquesse said to Vex, strolling towards him.

“Me,” Vex said, nodding, “and a few friends.”