Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

him shimmered as he shot forward. He covered the distance in the blink of an eye. He crashed into Serpine, taking him off his feet.

      They hit the pedestal and it toppled, the Book falling as they sprawled on to the ground. Skulduggery was the first to stand and he hauled Serpine up, shoved him against a pillar and fired off a punch that jerked his head back.

      Serpine lunged but Skulduggery snagged his wrist and stepped in and then under the arm. He turned and wrenched and Serpine yelled in pain as a loud crack echoed through the chamber.

      Serpine tried gathering purple vapour in his hand but Skulduggery batted the hand away, chopped into the side of his neck. Serpine gagged and dropped back, and Skulduggery kicked his legs out from under him.

      “You never could fight worth a damn,” Skulduggery said, standing over him. “But then you didn’t need to, did you? Not when you had lackeys to do the fighting for you. Where are your lackeys now, Nefarian?”

      “I don’t need them,” Serpine muttered. “I don’t need anyone. I’ll crush you myself. Grind your bones to dust.”

      Skulduggery tilted his head. “Unless you’ve got an army tucked away in that fancy coat of yours, I sincerely doubt it.”

      Serpine scrambled up and rushed at him, but Skulduggery drove in a kick and brought his closed fist down on to his shoulder, and Serpine fell to his knees.

      Stephanie had to get to the Sceptre before Serpine recovered. She was pushing herself off the ground when she realised that the Book of Names was lying open right beside her. She glanced at the pages and the columns of names started to rearrange themselves before her eyes. She saw her own name written there, but she looked up when she heard Skulduggery grunt.

      Serpine was on his knees but his lips were moving, and the wall behind Skulduggery came alive with hands that reached out and grabbed him. Skulduggery was pulled back and Serpine stood. There were a series of dull cracks and pops as Serpine’s broken bones mended and realigned.

      “Where are your oh-so-clever taunts now, detective?”

      Skulduggery struggled against the grip of a dozen hands. “You’ve got big ears,” he managed to say, before he was pulled even further back, into the wall, and then he was gone.

      Serpine looked over, saw Stephanie, saw how close she was to the Sceptre.

      He snapped out his hand and a thin purple tendril whipped towards the Sceptre. He pulled his arm back and the Sceptre flew off the ground but Stephanie lunged and managed to grab it.

      She was jerked off her feet but her grip was strong and the tendril broke, becoming vapour, and she hit the floor. She heard a crash and looked around as a table hurtled straight at her. She tried to dive out of the way but she wasn’t quick enough.

      It hit her and she screamed, dropped the Sceptre and clutched at her broken leg. She shut her eyes against the tears of pain, and when she opened them again, Mr Bliss was walking into the room.

      “Where have you been?” Serpine snapped.

      “I was delayed,” Mr Bliss answered. “But you seem to have done fine without me.”

      Serpine narrowed his eyes. “Indeed. Still, there’s one more adversary to deal with.”

      Mr Bliss looked at Stephanie. “You’re going to kill her?”

      “Me? No. You are.”

      “I’m sorry?”

      “If you want to reap the rewards of this night, you have to get your hands a little bloody.”

      “You want me to kill an unarmed child?” Mr Bliss asked doubtfully.

      “Look on it as a test of your commitment to our lords and masters. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

      Mr Bliss looked at him coolly. “Do you have a weapon for me, or do you just want me to beat her to death with a large stick?”

      Serpine took a dagger from his coat and lobbed it over to him. Mr Bliss snatched it out of the air and held it, testing its weight. Stephanie felt her throat go dry.

      Mr Bliss looked at her but didn’t say anything. He just sighed and hurled the dagger, and Stephanie made a face and turned her head…

      … and heard Serpine laugh.

      She looked back. The dagger hadn’t touched her. It hadn’t even come close. It was in Serpine’s hand. He had caught it before it had sliced into his glittering left eye.

      “I thought as much,” Serpine said.

      Mr Bliss flung himself at Serpine, but Serpine ripped his glove off and raised his red right hand and Mr Bliss collapsed. Serpine listened to him scream for a few moments before dropping his hand, and Mr Bliss gasped.

      “No doubt you want to kill me,” Serpine said as he approached him. “No doubt you want to rip me limb from limb, and with your legendary strength, I know you could do it and not even exert yourself. But answer me this, Mr Bliss – what good is legendary strength when you can’t get close enough to use it?”

      Mr Bliss tried to stand, but his knees gave out and he hit the ground again.

      “I’m curious,” Serpine continued. “Why the pretence? Why go to all this trouble; why put yourself in this position? Why didn’t you just stick with the detective?”

      Mr Bliss managed to shake his head. “We mightn’t have been able to stop you,” he said. “I know you, Serpine… you always have plans to fall back on. You were too… dangerous… too unpredictable. I needed you to get the Sceptre.”

      Serpine smiled. “And why was that?”

      Mr Bliss echoed that smile with one of his own, albeit a drained and sickly version. “Because once you had the Sceptre, I could predict your actions.”

      “So you predicted my invulnerability?” Serpine laughed. “Oh, well done.”

      “No one’s invulnerable,” Mr Bliss whispered.

      “Yes, well,” Serpine said with a shrug. “You’re certainly not.”

      Stephanie watched in horror as Serpine again pointed his right hand and Mr Bliss contorted in agony. His screams reached new heights, and just when it seemed like he could take no more, Serpine picked him up and, with his hands pressed against him, gathered the purple vapour in his fists. Mr Bliss was blasted backwards through the air, into a group of shelves at the far side of the room. He didn’t get up.

      Serpine turned back to Stephanie.

      “Sorry for the interruption,” he said as he picked her up. His hands gripped the lapels of her coat and he lifted her off her feet, looking up at her as he spoke. Her right leg dangled uselessly, and that pain was all she felt. “How did you do it? How did you get so close without the Sceptre alerting me? Some magic I don’t know about?” Stephanie didn’t answer.

      “Miss Cain, I know you’re trying to hide it, but I can see the fear in your eyes. You don’t want to die today, do you? Of course you don’t. You have your whole life ahead of you. If only you’d kept out of all this, if only you’d left the death of your uncle alone, you wouldn’t be here right now.

      “Your uncle was a very stubborn man. If he had just given me the key when I asked, you wouldn’t be in this predicament. He delayed my plans, you see, caused a lot of unnecessary stress and bother. A lot of people are dead now because of him.”

      Stephanie’s face twisted. “Don’t you dare blame my uncle for the people you’ve killed!”

      “I didn’t want this. I didn’t want conflict. I just wanted to eliminate the Elders and take the Book. Do you see how simple that would have been? Instead, I had to wade through a river of corpses. Those deaths are on your uncle’s head.”