guest.”
“For you to be his guest, he would have to have invited you in. That would be rather hard to do, seeing as how he’s been missing for six months.”
“OK then, I broke in,” said Oberon. “He owes me money.”
“How much?”
“Few hundred.”
“Did you get it?”
“No.”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?”
“Well,” Oberon said, “how long did you say he’s been missing? Six months? So, let’s say that I haven’t spoken to him in six and a half.”
“Why are you lying to us?” Skulduggery asked.
“I don’t really see a reason why I should answer any questions at all, to be honest. I’m not part of your Sanctuary thing. You got no jurisdiction over me.”
“We can arrest you.”
“For what?”
“Obstructing an investigation. Wasting our time. Not being forthcoming.”
Oberon gave a little laugh. “That’s a crime now, is it?”
“We’re Arbiters,” Skulduggery said. “That means we can make up our own crimes.”
Oberon sighed and scratched his cheek.
“OK,” he said at last, “I’ll tell you the truth. But you gotta do something for me in return. You gotta help me raid that house.”
Valkyrie sat forward. “Who’s in there?”
“Bad guys,” he answered. “I think they might have my son. I haven’t been able to confirm that because there’s one of me and nine of them – but, with you two, I could probably make a go of it.”
“Why would they have your son?” Skulduggery asked.
“You know who Wilkes was, right? His job?”
“President Flanery’s personal aide.”
“My ex, Magenta, that’s Robbie’s mom, she’s a Sensitive, the kind that specialises in persuading people to do things, oftentimes against their own interests. That’s a very particular talent to have, and it’s one of the reasons we broke up. She’s not a bad person by any stretch, but I don’t think she could resist some small manipulations to get her way every now and then. That’s got nothing to do with anything, though.
“Four years ago, right after we split, she mentioned something about taking a job for a mortal politician – Flanery. It paid good money and it wasn’t overly time-consuming, so she could give Robbie the support and attention he needed. I wasn’t around much, so I got to see him at weekends and whenever I was back this way. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
“Magenta was used to convince senators to vote a certain way, to push judges to make favourable decisions, that kinda thing. She said Flanery had an advisor, a sorcerer.”
“Wilkes,” said Valkyrie.
“No,” said Oberon. “Wilkes came later. I don’t think Flanery knew that Wilkes was a mage. Or maybe he did, I don’t know – but his advisor was somebody else.”
“Where does your child come into all this?” Skulduggery asked.
A muscle flexed in Oberon’s jaw. “When Flanery started his bid for the presidency, he needed Magenta more and more. She resisted. She was talking about quitting. That’s when Robbie was taken.”
Valkyrie’s eyes widened. “Your son has been missing since before Flanery became president?”
“Three years now,” Oberon said. “Every two or three days, Magenta gets to spend a few hours with him. As I’m sure you know, I spent most of that time in a prison cell, so I didn’t know that Robbie had been snatched until I got out of Ironpoint and received a letter she’d left for me.”
“Why were you in Wilkes’s house?”
“I was trying to find what you detectives call a clue. Am I pronouncing that right? Clue?”
“Surely your wife could help you …?”
“I haven’t been able to speak to Magenta,” Oberon said. “I haven’t been able to get close. She’s got the Seven-As-One guarding her.”
Skulduggery grunted, then turned to Valkyrie. “The Seven-As-One are—”
“Seven Sensitive siblings,” Valkyrie said, “who maintain a psychic link at all times. They’re used to guard people and places, making it almost impossible for anyone to sneak up on them without the alarm being raised.”
Skulduggery tilted his head. “How do you know all that?”
“I do get out every now and then,” she said, returning her attention to Oberon. “So you think your son is being held in the house across the road.”
“I don’t know,” Oberon said, deflating slightly. “I only know that the people over there are sorcerers, and they’re involved. Maybe they have Robbie in there, maybe they don’t. But they definitely know more about what’s going on here than I do, so, if you wanna know who’s behind all of this, I’d say that helping me bust in there is a great place to start. And I ain’t gonna give you much of a choice in the matter. I’m going in.”
He got out of the car and started striding across the road.
“Oh, I like him,” Valkyrie said.
“I thought you might,” said Skulduggery. “Go round the back, will you? Let’s at least pretend like we’re professionals.”
Valkyrie put her boot to the door and it burst open and in she went, shock sticks swinging, catching the first guy in the jaw and the second guy in the knee, the back, and then the face. They both fell and she moved out of the kitchen, down the short corridor. There were a lot of crashes coming from the front of the house. Lot of cries of pain.
A woman came hurtling out of a doorway, not even looking where she was going. Valkyrie jabbed her in her chest with both sticks and there was a flash and she went flying back.
“Clear,” she heard Skulduggery say.
“Clear,” she responded.
She put her sticks away, forming a cross on her back, and stepped into the living room. Five unconscious people in here – one still conscious, bleeding from a busted nose and sitting on a chair. Skulduggery and Oberon stood over him.
“What’s
