Skulduggery Pleasant (27 page)

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This was the only chance she was going to get.

She crept out from behind the pillar, ignoring the fresh pile of dust at her feet. There was no way she could close the distance without giving herself away. He'd hear her, sense her, whatever. But he was holding the Scepter in his hand so loosely. ...

Stephanie narrowed her eyes and stepped forward.

He had heard her and was turning, but she didn't care. The Scepter was coming up, the black crystal starting to glow. She flexed her fingers and splayed her hand, snapping her palm and pushing at the air, and the space around her hand rippled and the Scepter flew from Serpine's grasp--flew away from them both and hit the far wall.

Serpine hissed in anger and turned. They heard the Scepter start to sing as Skulduggery sprinted. He dived into the air, and the space around him shimmered and he shot forward. He crashed into Serpine, taking him off his feet.

They hit the pedestal and it toppled, the Book falling as they sprawled onto 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. '

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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 vapor in his hand, but Skulduggery batted the hand away and 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 onto his shoulder, and Serpine fell to his knees.

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Stephanie had to get to the Scepter before Serpine recovered. She was pushing herself off the ground when she realized 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 was 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 farther back, into the wall, and then he was gone.

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

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

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She was jerked off her feet, but her grip was strong and the tendril broke, becoming vapor, 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 Scepter, and clutched at her broken leg. She shut her eyes against the tears of pain, and when she opened them again, Bliss was walking into the room.

"Where have you been?" Serpine snapped.

"I was delayed," 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."

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?" Bliss asked doubtfully.

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

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. Bliss snatched it out of the air and held it, testing its weight.

Stephanie felt her throat go dry.

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.

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

"No doubt you want to kill me," Serpine said as he approached him. "No doubt you want

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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?"

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

"I'm curious," Serpine continued. "Why the pretense? Why go to all this trouble, why put yourself in this position? Why didn't you just stick with the detective?"

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 Scepter."

Serpine smiled. "And why was that?"

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

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

"No one's invulnerable," Bliss whispered.

"Yes, well," Serpine said with a shrug. "You're certainly not."

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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 he could take no more, Serpine picked him up and, with his hands pressed against him, gathered the purple vapor in his fists. Bliss was blasted backward 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 Scepter 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.

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"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."

Stephanie's hatred became a cold thing in her center.

"But you don't have to join them, Miss Cain. You can survive this. You can live. I see something in you. I think you'd like the new world that's coming."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Stephanie said quietly.

Serpine smiled patiently and leaned his face in close to her. "You can survive ... if you tell me how you got so close without the Scepter alerting me."

With no weapons left, Stephanie spat on him.

He sighed and threw her against a pillar. She smacked into it, and her body twisted and she dropped onto her back.

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Her eyes wouldn't focus. The pain was far away. She heard his voice as if there was a wall separating them.

"No matter. I am about to make slaves of the entire population of this planet, and then there will be no more secrets. There will be no magic hidden from me. And when the Faceless Ones return, this world will be remade as a place of splendid darkness."

He passed her, a vague shape in the corner of her eye. She had to get up. She had to snap out of this.

The pain. The pain from her broken leg--she had to let it in. It was nothing more than a sensation now--she had to allow it to flood her.

She focused on her leg.

It was throbbing, the pain spiking, and with each new height it reached, her mind sharpened a little more. Then the pain came at her, cascaded over her with its full force, and she had to bite her lip to stop from crying out.

She looked up. Serpine was approaching the Book.

She gripped the edge of a countertop and pulled herself up onto her good leg. She

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grabbed the first thing she saw--a glass vial with green liquid--and she threw it. It hit Serpine in the back and it shattered, and the liquid turned to vapor and dissipated into the air. He spun, angry.

"You, my dear, have proven yourself to be far too troublesome for your own good." He raised his red hand, and from somewhere behind her the Scepter began singing again.

And then Skulduggery dropped through the ceiling, landing in a heap next to Serpine. The detective looked around.

"Ah," he said. "I'm back."

"You are," Serpine said, and Skulduggery looked up and saw him.

Serpine lashed a kick into Skulduggery's side and Skulduggery grunted. He tried to get up, but Serpine batted his hands away and grabbed his skull. He drove his knee into the side of Skulduggery's head, and Skulduggery sprawled onto his back.

Serpine looked over to Stephanie and then to the ground behind her and she turned, saw the Scepter. She lunged for it, but a purple tendril wrapped itself around her waist and she

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was yanked back onto her broken leg. She cried out as the pain shot through her.

Serpine whipped the tendril to the Scepter, pulled it into his left hand, and whirled, the crystal flashing with a black light that streaked toward Skulduggery. The detective dived as a whole section of the wall behind him turned to dust. Skulduggery drew his gun and fired, hitting Serpine in the chest.

"Still with that little toy of yours," Serpine said, amused and unharmed. "How quaint."

Skulduggery circled him. Serpine held the Scepter down by his side.

"You'll be stopped," Skulduggery said. "You've always been stopped."

"Oh, my old foe, but this is different. Those days are gone. Who is there to rise up against me? Who is left? Remember when you were a man? A real man, I mean, not this mockery I see before me. Do you remember what it was like? You had an army on your side, you had people willing to fight and die for your cause. We wanted to bring the Faceless Ones back, to worship them as the gods that they are. You wanted to keep them out, so that this infestation of humanity, this celebration of the mundane, might be allowed to live and thrive.

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Well, they've lived, and they've thrived, and now their time is up."

Skulduggery's finger tightened on the trigger. Black blood sprayed from Serpine's chest, and the wound instantly healed. Serpine laughed.

"You have caused me so much trouble over the years, Detective, it's almost a shame that I have to end it."

Skulduggery cocked his head. "You're surrendering?"

"I'm going to miss this," Serpine said. "If it makes it any easier, you can think of your imminent demise as a good thing. I don't think you'll much like the world once my lords and masters remake it."

"So how are you going to kill me?" Skulduggery asked, dropping his gun and holding his arms out. "With your toy? Or one of these new tricks you've learned?"

Serpine smiled.

"I have been expanding my repertoire. So good of you to notice."

"And I see you've been playing around with necromancy again."

"Indeed. My very own pet Cleaver. Every home should have one."

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"He's a tricky fellow to put down," Skulduggery said. "I tried everything I know--he just kept getting back up."

Serpine laughed. "There's an old Necromancer saying: 'You can't kill what's already dead.'"

Skulduggery cocked his head. "He's a zombie?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't associate myself with those wretched things. He can repair, replenish, heal. A difficult process to master, but I am nothing if not accomplished."

"Of course," Skulduggery said, something new in his voice. "The medical equipment in the warehouse. The Cleaver was a test run, to see if the process worked. Then you did it to yourself."

"Ah, the great detective finally figures something out."

"Bells and whistles aside, Nefarian, he's nothing but a zombie. And so are you."

Serpine shook his head. "Your last words are pathetic insults? I was hoping for more. Something profound, perhaps. Maybe a poem." He raised the Scepter. "It will be a slightly less strange world without you; I just want you to know that."

Stephanie screamed his name as Skulduggery dived. Serpine laughed and the Scepter sent