The Faceless Ones

The Faceless Ones (Skulduggery Pleasant #3)

Derek Landy

This book is dedicated to my agent, Michelle Kass.

I'm not going to be sappy here, okay? I'm not going to talk about how much you've done for me (which is a lot), or the impact you've had on my life (which is immense), and I'm not even going to talk about the advice, encouragement, and counsel you've given me since we met. And I'm not going to mention conversations on tractors either, or iPods at dinner tables, or the number of Yiddish words you've taught me that I've promptly forgotten.

All of which, surprisingly, leaves me with nothing much to say.

Sorry about that.

CONTENTS

One The Scene of the Crime 1

Two Killer on the Loose 10

Three That First Kiss 25

Four The Sea Hag 36

Five Tracking the Teleporter 54

Six Fletcher Renn 65

Seven Batu 80

Eight The Civilized Man 82

Nine The Enemy 96

Ten Finbar's Little Trip 103

Eleven Wreath 113

Twelve In the Office of the Grand Mage 122

Thirteen The House on Cemetery Road 125

Fourteen The Diablerie 135

Fifteen Breaking and Entering 137

Sixteen Stealing the Grotesquery 151

Seventeen The Dark Little Secret 169

Eighteen In the Flesh 175

Nineteen The Man Who Would Be King 194

Twenty Aranmore Farm 196

Twenty-one Opportunity Rings 210

Twenty-two Conversations with a Late Uncle 212

v

Twenty-three Anathem Mire 224

Twenty-four The Changing House 238

Twenty-five The Raid 247

Twenty-six The Scepter 258

Twenty-seven Blink 267

Twenty-eight Saying Good-bye 282

Twenty-nine Cell Mates 298

Thirty Beryl 305

Thirty-one Old Friends 311

Thirty-two The Trade 320

Thirty-three Jailbreak 338

Thirty-four The Battle of Aranmore 354

Thirty-five Things of Impossibility 370

Thirty-six Enemies 380

Thirty-seven Falling into Place 388

Thirty-eight From All Sides 390

Thirty-nine Crisis of Faith 395

Forty Killing Gods 397

Forty-one The Moment 403

Forty-two Black Lightning 404

Forty-three The Gateway 409

Forty-four The Task 417

vi

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1

One

***

The Scene of the Crime

The dead man was in the living room, facedown on the floor beside the coffee

table. His name had been Cameron Light, but that was back when his heart had a beat and his lungs had breath. His blood had dried into the carpet in a large stain that spread outward from where he lay. He'd been stabbed, once, in the small of the back. He was fully clothed, his hands were empty, and there was no other sign of disturbance in the room.

Valkyrie moved through the room as she had been taught, scanning the floor and surfaces, but

2

managing to avoid looking at the body. She felt no compulsion to see any more of the victim than she absolutely had to. Her dark eyes drifted to the window. The park across the street was empty, the slides glistening with the rain and the swings creaking in the chill early-morning breeze.

Footsteps in the room, and she turned to watch Skulduggery Pleasant take a small bag of powder from his jacket. He was wearing a pin-striped suit that successfully filled out his skeletal frame, and his hat was low over his eye sockets. He dipped a gloved finger into the bag and started to stir, breaking up the smaller lumps.