"Nonsense?"

"To be honest, you'll be happy. You were never really interested in this stuff in the first place. The fact is, you found it kind of boring."

Kenny nodded. "It's pretty dull, all right."

"The idea of people with strange powers is just ridiculous, isn't it?"

"It is, actually. It belongs in a comic book."

"That's exactly where it belongs."

"I've been wasting my time," Kenny said. "G.o.d, I've just been wasting my time..."

Geoffrey nodded, and didn't disagree.

Kenny gave him a smile. "Listen, hey, sorry for being such a bother," he said. "I really have to go, actually. I've got a story due tomorrow, and I need to work on it."

"Of course," Geoffrey said. "Don't let me delay you."

Kenny shook his hand and got up, started walking. He put his notebook away, glanced back to make sure Geoffrey wasn't wandering after him. The last thing he needed was a crackpot like that following him home.

When he got back to his apartment, Kenny started packing all that nonsense away. He couldn't believe he had wasted so much of his time on this, couldn't believe he had actually got excited about the possibilities. What possibilities? A group of nutcases who all subscribed to the same delusion? He would have burnt everything, shoved it in the bin, but that wasn't his way. He never discarded his notes a not until the article was done. Everything was useful. He might not write a world-shattering expose on a secret subculture of superheroes, but he could use what he'd learned if he was ever tasked to write about the homeless in Dublin, or the plight of the psychologically disturbed. Nothing, he knew, was ever wasted. Not really.

He flicked through his notes. The Remnants. Darquesse. The Death Bringer a one word or two a the Pa.s.sage. The tall man and the teenage girl: Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. They were real, even if the ident.i.ties they had given him were not. But that was to be expected, after all. Fragments of reality can be glimpsed through even the most fractured of window.

He read back over it, battling the tide of boredom that swept over him. It didn't stop him reading, of course. He was a journalist. Research was what he did, and oftentimes research was mind-numbingly boring, just like this was.

He didn't know why it was boring, though. He couldn't put his finger on it. It didn't sound boring. Super powers and the apocalypse and saving the world. But Geoffrey had known. For all his lunacy, he'd hit the nail right on the head with that one, and the moment he'd uttered those words, Kenny had felt it. The boredom. The dullness. It just seeped in, robbing him of his enthusiasm.

Kenny frowned. Before Geoffrey had told him that this was all boring, Kenny had found it fascinating. He remembered that distinctly. But then it was like a switch had been flicked inside him, and all his interest had faded away. He sat on the arm of the chair, brow furrowed. How had that happened? How could it have happened?

He remembered Geoffrey's face. Smiling. Avuncular. A bit of an oddball, granted. A crackpot, even, as he himself had said. His voice was nice. It wasn't as smooth as the tall man's, but it had a quality that got inside your head. It was a warm voice. Comforting. It made you want to trust him. It made you want to believe him.

Kenny's notes dropped from his hand, scattered across the floor. His eyes were wide. His mouth was half open.

He'd been hypnotised.

He didn't know how Geoffrey had done it, but he'd convinced him with a few short words that he didn't think what he thought, that he didn't believe what he believed.

"Good G.o.d," he said to his empty apartment.

All of a sudden his enthusiasm came back to him, his interest roaring inside him like a furnace in his chest. Finbar had sent him to meet with Geoffrey so that Geoffrey could work his hoodoo on him, make him walk away from what might have been the biggest story of his career.

Kenny grinned. You're gonna have to do better than that.

Chapter 20.

Riding Out.

hina gripped the reins and pulled, straining against the horse's resistance. He was a wilful one, all right. Every turn they made, he tried to shake her loose. Every ditch they jumped, he threatened to throw her into. She'd been fighting him since she swung into the saddle. Her arms ached and her legs burned. Her jodhpurs were splattered with mud and her shirt stuck to her back. Her hands were raw from the reins.

G.o.d, she loved him.

A creature of fierce strength and beauty, and one that made her work to get him to do what she wanted. A challenge.

She used to ride out all the time when she was younger, but as her friends fell away or died, or she betrayed them or they betrayed her, it had become a solitary pursuit a and for a while, she preferred it that way. Just her and the horse and the open countryside, the hoof beats that thudded through her body, clods of gra.s.s and mud kicked up behind them. No talk, no flattery, no professions of love.

But people change, and she was as vulnerable to this phenomenon as anyone. Decades of solitude had hardened her, but isolation without end was a dangerous thing. Suddenly she didn't want to be alone on these afternoons.

Valkyrie would enjoy this, she knew. China had heard her talk of when she rode out as a young girl, before she met Skulduggery a just a beginner, but with a natural's love for it. Maybe one of these days, as soon as Valkyrie got a break from saving the world, China would invite her to the stables. She even had the perfect horse picked out a strong and fast with a hint of mischief. The perfect way to get reacquainted with the saddle.

Providing, of course, that China found a way to settle this Eliza Scorn business. It required not just a single strike against Scorn, or even a strike against Scorn and Prave together, but multiple strikes against multiple targets at the same time. The biggest problem with that, and this was truly the hold that Scorn had on her, was that China didn't know who these targets might be.

There may have been none, of course, Scorn may have been bluffing, but China doubted it. In order to build up the Church of the Faceless, Scorn would need a lot more than China's resources. She had to have benefactors, secret backers and interested parties. She wouldn't have told them what China had done in her misspent youth, but she would have worked out a way to get that information to them if something bad happened to her. Which meant that China needed to find out who these mysterious benefactors were, and take them all down at the same time.

China slowed, pulling the reins firmly until the tired horse complied. She took the trail down to the river, and the creature splashed in gratefully, the fast-moving water cooling his muscles and rising past China's boots, but she didn't mind. She patted his neck, told him how good he was, how he was the best horse to be kept in these stables in twenty years.

When they were done, she guided him up on to the bank, and walked back to the yard. She had a small army there tending to the horses, all unmarried men and women. These were talented people who did their jobs well a she didn't want them leaving their wives and husbands and families just because they'd fallen in love with her. It was easier to deal with love-struck sorcerers, who at least knew her reputation a but mortals didn't stand a chance. At her instruction, all workers were to vacate the yard whenever she was in it unless explicitly asked to stay.

That afternoon, the yard was empty. She dismounted, led the horse into the stable. She undid the saddle, swung it up on to the edge of the door. The horse nuzzled her neck and China smiled. She forked in some fresh hay and stepped out, and there was a man behind her. China swung back her elbow, caught him on the jaw. He staggered and she turned, swept his feet from under him. He hit the floor, went to roll away, then stopped, and held up his hands.

"China," Jaron Gallow said, "I'm not here to fight you."

China raised an eyebrow. "Good. That will make this so much easier."

"I'm here to help."

"Help what?"

"Help you." He rubbed his jaw, and looked up at her. "I know Eliza is back in town. I know she's been hanging around with that Prave idiot. I've been watching them. I saw you visiting."

"Everyone's spying on everyone else," China said. "It warms my heart, it truly does."

"Can I stand up?"

"Of course you can. There's no guarantee I won't put you back down again, but you can at least try."

He narrowed his eyes then stood, moving slowly. He was dark-haired and graceful, though thinner than she remembered. His face was gaunt. She watched him, noticing his right hand for the first time. It was gloved.

"The last I saw of you," she said, "you were chopping that arm off to avoid being used as a vessel for the Faceless Ones. Did it grow back?"

"This? No, this isn't mine. It belonged to a donor."

"Willing or otherwise?"

"Otherwise."

"What do you want, Jaron?"

"I can only imagine what Eliza Scorn has over you. That's why she called you, right? To force you to do something? It must be pretty substantial, whatever it is."

"I can't tell if you're circling a point or just boring me on purpose."

"I know what their plans are. I know they want to build up the Church of the Faceless all around the world. I'm pretty sure that Eliza views herself as some kind of Pope figure, thinks she can lead the faithful into a world where the strong are rewarded and the weak are discarded."

"The same kind of world you're looking for," China reminded him.

He shook his head. "Not any more. People change, China. You know that better than anyone. You led the Diablerie before me, you taught me everything I know. You were a zealot, through and through. And now look at you. Is it so hard to believe that I could have gone through the same transformation? That day, at the farm, when we opened the portal and the Faceless Ones came back... I saw them for what they really were. They're not G.o.ds. They're things. Creatures. Monsters. As powerful as G.o.ds, perhaps, but they certainly don't deserve to be worshipped."

"Blasphemy," China said with a smile.

"Indeed it is. I've lost my faith, China. There is no hope of a beautiful world if they return, and that's been the big lie, right from the start. The idea that we disciples would be spared, that we'd be welcomed while everyone else perished... Ridiculous. Those things don't care about us."

"All right," China said. "So you've had a change of heart. You have seen the light and you have turned away from wickedness. That's all wonderful. But why should I be at all interested?"

"I'm here to stop them."

"Eliza?"

"Eliza, Prave, any and everyone else. I'm here to shut down the Church of the Faceless, but I need your help to do it. I've already wandered in from the wilderness and rejoined them. It'll be like the good old days. They're not going to trust you, but they do trust me."

"So you have infiltrated their ranks a now what?"

"Eliza wants to build the Church's strength. In order to do that, she's going to need a comprehensive plan of how strong, or weak, the Church is right now, right at this moment. She'll have names, locations, funds, resources... She'll have the ident.i.ties of spies and informants loyal to the Faceless Ones. She's already told me of a list of people who are going to help her build the Church back up. Twelve names on it, she said, all powerful sorcerers, most in positions of influence and authority, and unlike you, they won't need to be blackmailed into helping. From what she's told me, some of these people sit on certain Councils around the world."

China kept her smile to herself. "Everything we would need, in other words, to completely dismantle the whole thing."

"Exactly. Once we have that information, we won't need Eliza any more. We can either share it with your friends in the Sanctuary, or take care of things ourselves."

"Travelling the world," China said, "killing everyone on that list. How romantic."

"It's the only way to be sure. These people, what they want... it's all too dangerous. We have to erase them from the face of the planet, to make sure it never happens."

"So dramatic."

"Has it ever been any different when it comes to the Faceless Ones?"

"I suppose not. That's why I was drawn in at such a young age. Now, Jaron, all that sounds very thrilling, and very wonderful, and I'm sure it would be a thoroughly diverting adventure a but why on earth should I trust you?"

"What would I have to gain by lying?"

"I sincerely don't know, but Eliza is a cunning lady, and she always has been."

"You think I'm working for her?"

China smiled. "It is crossing my mind even as we speak."

"You're just going to have to believe me."

"And that, my dear, is where this whole proposal falls flat. I don't believe anyone, let alone someone who once tried to kill me."

"I tried to kill you twice."

"Really?"

"That time in Naples? The fire?"

China laughed. "That was you? That fire scorched my favourite shawl."

"And it killed eighty-three people."

"But the shawl was exquisite. Still, I suppose I can't blame you. I would have done the same."

"You might not be able to trust me, China, but I know I can trust you. You want Eliza gone, you want the Church of the Faceless gone. I'm your only chance to make that happen."

She didn't really have much in the way of other options, so China gave him a smile.

Chapter 21.

The Love of a Vampire.

alkyrie woke. It was getting dark outside, and as usual, it was cold in Skulduggery's house. Her clothes, ripped to shreds as they were, didn't exactly help. She stood and stretched, eased a crick out of her neck and went to the mirror, checking for scars. As much as she hated to admit it, Nye had done an excellent job. She was tired but feeling good, confident that a night in her own bed was all she needed to make a full recovery.

She called for a taxi, went out to meet it and sat in the back. If she had called Fletcher, she'd be home already, but she would have also had to listen to him disapprove of the many injuries she sustained over the course of any given month. She just wasn't in the mood for him, not this evening.

The taxi dropped her in Haggard and she cut through the park. She could almost have predicted who would step out in front of her.

"I failed you," Caelan said.

"Hi Chuckles," she responded. She didn't stop walking.

"I should have been faster," he said from beside her. "I should have torn that Necromancer's throat out. But she took you away before I... I will not fail you again."