"The news about the Scepter is spreading,"

312.

China said. "There are rumors that he is bringing his old allies in from the cold."

Meritorious and Tome joined them.

"If even one of the exiles returns," Meritorious said, "the balance of power will have shifted too much. We'll be overrun."

"We need to get that Scepter from him," Tanith said, "see how he likes it."

"It wouldn't work," China said. "Even if we could get close to it without the crystal warning him that we're near, he owns it now, and no one else can use it while he's alive."

"Then we kill him," Tome said.

Meritorious looked to Skulduggery, who nodded and spoke up. "Unfortunately, killing Serpine is not as easy as it may appear. He should be dead right now. I don't mean wounded, I don't mean dying, I mean dead. But he healed himself."

Stephanie frowned. "He can't be killed?"

"Everyone can be killed," Skulduggery said, turning his head to her slightly. "That's the one great a.s.surance. I haven't encountered one thing on this planet that I haven't been able to kill, and I'm not going to let him be the exception to the rule."

313.

"We need to strike now," Morwenna said, "before he can consolidate his power."

"How can we do that if we don't even know where he is?" Sagacious Tome asked impatiently.

"But we might know where he was," Skulduggery said. "Last night I received a call from a gentleman who supplies me with information from time to time. A distinctive silver car was seen on Denholm Street, near the docks. I made a call or two, established that almost every building on that street is being leased by a reputable firm. The one exception is a warehouse that has been leased to an individual, Mr. Howard L. Craft."

Tome frowned. "So?"

"L. Craft. Lovecraft. Howard Philip Lovecraft wrote a series of stories commonly referred to as the Cthulhu Mythos, about dark G.o.ds who wanted to rule the Earth. Some historians claim that Mr. Lovecraft based his creations, in part, on legends he had heard about the Faceless Ones."

Tome grimaced. "That's your only lead? A trick name Serpine may have used? We don't have time to be wasting on such vague half clues; we've got to act on what we know!"

"Well, what exactly do we know?" Morwenna asked. "We know he has a lunatic scheme 314.

to bring back the Faceless Ones, but we don't know how he intends to do it."

"Mr. Bliss said the Scepter was nothing more than a stepping-stone," Stephanie offered.

"This is a grown-up conversation," Tome said, exasperated. "We don't need input from you, child."

Tanith and China spoke as one. "Don't call her 'child.'"

Clearly unused to admonitions from anyone who wasn't an Elder, Tome spluttered a bit, and his face grew redder. Stephanie did her best to hide her grin behind a mask of serene indifference. Tanith caught her eye and winked.

"If the Scepter is a stepping-stone," Skulduggery said, ignoring Tome's indignation, "then he's going to use it to somehow retrieve the ritual he needs."

"Then it's our job to make sure that doesn't happen," Meritorious said. "Skulduggery, on behalf of the Council of Elders, I apologize for not involving you in this when we found Serpine's surveillance team dead. I also apologize for not listening to your warnings."

"Serpine would have had a backup plan,"

315.

Skulduggery said. "That's what makes him so dangerous."

"Maybe. I'm afraid it's up to you and Miss Cain, and whoever else you might need, to try to find out what his next move is. I'm sorry for saddling you with that responsibility, but my fellow Elders and I are needed to prepare for all-out war."

Skulduggery bowed slightly. "In that case, we'll get right on it."

"Thank you."

Skulduggery wrapped the scarf around his face and put on his hat, then looked at the serious faces around him. "Cheer up, everyone," he said, a new brightness to his voice. "Since we're all going to die horribly anyway, what's there to be worried about?"

Stephanie very much feared she was going ever so slightly insane, because she found herself agreeing wholeheartedly with the living skeleton she was now following out of the room.

The Bentley was waiting for them when they left the Sanctuary. It gleamed like it was glad to be back to its former beauty. Stephanie got in and sank into the seat. The Bentley 316.

smelled nice. It smelled how beautiful cars ought to smell. The Canary Car hadn't smelled nice. It had just smelled yellow.

"It's good to have it back," Stephanie said when Skulduggery got in. "They worked miracles on it, they really did. Two days, and it looks brand-new."

Skulduggery nodded. "Cost me a fortune."

"It's worth it."

"Glad you think so. Also glad that I don't have to eat anytime soon. Or at all."

She smiled and looked at him. He was looking out the windshield. Neither of them spoke for a few seconds.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"You're thinking about something."

"I'm always thinking about something. Thinking is what I do. I'm very good at it."

"But you've just figured something out."

"And how did you know that?"

"You hold your head differently when you've just figured something out. So what is it?"

"It just occurred to me," he said. "In the cave, the Scepter's crystal warned Serpine that I was close--but it didn't warn him that you were right there beside him."

317.

She shrugged. "Maybe it didn't see me as a threat. It's not like I could have hurt him or anything."

"That's hardly the point," Skulduggery said. "We may have found a weakness in the ultimate weapon."

Stephanie frowned. "What?"

"Remember what Oisin, the nice man in the Echo Stone, said?" Skulduggery asked. "The black crystal sang to the G.o.ds whenever an enemy neared, but it was silent when the Ancients took it."

"So, what, it thinks I'm an Ancient?"

"Technically, according to your father at least, you might well be."

"Does that mean you're starting to believe that they were more than just legends and myths?"

"I'm . . . keeping an open mind about it. The thing I still don't understand, however, is why Gordon didn't tell me about your family history. We were friends for years, we had conversations about the Ancients and the Faceless Ones that went on for days, so why didn't he tell me?"

"Does it mean anything else? Being descended from the Ancients, I mean. What does it, what..."

318.

"What does it signify?"

"Yes."

"It means you're special. It means you're meant to do this, you're meant to be involved in this world, in this life."

"I am?"

"You are."

"Then maybe that's why he didn't tell you. He wanted to write about it from the outside, not be stuck in the middle of it all."

He c.o.c.ked his head. "You're wise beyond your years, Valkyrie."

"Yes," she said. "Yes I am."

Chapter Twenty-four.

Planning for Murder

319.

Mr. Bliss stood in the palm of the Grasping Rock and watched Serpine approach. The Grasping Rock was shaped like a ma.s.sive upturned hand, jutting from the peak of the mountain, fingers curled, as if reaching for the sun in the blood-red sky.

Serpine climbed into the palm with ease, and Bliss bowed slightly. Serpine, for his part, merely smiled.

"Do you have it?" Bliss asked.

"Luckily for you, yes."

"Luckily for me?"

320.

"My dear Mr. Bliss, if I had gone down to those caves and emerged without the Scepter, where would that have left you? You would be standing in one of those cages in the Sanctuary's jail, powerless, awaiting judgment. Instead you are here, standing with me, on the verge of a new world. Be thankful."

"You seem to forget that if you had emerged with nothing, you'd be in the cage next to me--"

Serpine looked at him. A short time ago they would have been equals. But not now.

"--my master," Bliss finished respectfully, inclining his head.

Serpine smiled again and turned his back to him, looking out through the curled fingers of the rock and down at the valley below them.

"Is it as powerful as the scholars have imagined?" Bliss asked.

"What the scholars have imagined pales in comparison to the reality. No one can stop us now."

"The Elders," Bliss said.

Serpine turned his head. "I have a plan to deal with the Elders. They are nothing if not predictable, and they will die because of it. Meritorious himself will crumble to dust. Nothing can stand in our way."

"The Elders may be predictable," Bliss responded, "but that is not a trait Skulduggery Pleasant shares with them.

321.

He's cunning, powerful, and very, very dangerous."

"Do not concern yourself with the detective. I also have a plan to deal with him."

"Oh?"

"Skulduggery Pleasant has always had one weakness--he forms attachments to people who are very easily killed. In the past it was his wife and child. Now it is this girl who is with him, this Valkyrie Cain. He is a threat to us only if he is thinking clearly. You know as well as I do that once he becomes angry, his judgment is clouded."

"So what an you going to do?"

"I have already done it, Bliss. I have sent someone to . . . cloud his judgment. In less than an hour, Valkyrie Cain will be dead, and Skulduggery Pleasant will trouble us no longer."

Chapter Twenty-five.