Derek Landy - Skulduggery Pleasant - Books 4 – 6 The Death Bringer Trilogy

These novels are entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in them are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollins Children’s Books

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2014

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2010 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days), 2010 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil), 2011 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer)

Copyright © Derek Landy 2010 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days)

Copyright © Derek Landy 2010 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil)

Copyright © Derek Landy 2011 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer)

Cover illustration © Tom Percival;

Illuminated letters © Tom Percival;

Skulduggery Pleasant™ Derek Landy; Skulduggery Pleasant logo™ HarperCollins Publishers

Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007382279 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days), 9780007414352 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil), 9780007455430 (Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer)

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780007520756

Version: 2019-05-01

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page Skulduggery Pleasant 4-6 Derek Landy

Copyright

Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days

Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil

Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer

Keep Reading

About the Author

Also By

About the Publisher

Table of Contents Cover Title Page Skulduggery Pleasant 4-6 Derek Landy Copyright Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer Keep Reading About the Author Also By About the Publisher

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Laura.

I’m not going to make any jokes here, because apparently you are the one person on Earth who does not find me even remotely funny.

I am HILARIOUS. Ask anyone. Ask your sister. She thinks I’m HYSTERICAL (you do, don’t you Katie…?)

And yet, even though you refuse to recognise my comedy genius, and you refuse to publically admit how impressed you are by everything I do, you’re still getting a book dedicated to you – because without you, Skulduggery wouldn’t have his Valkyrie.

You’re my best friend and my muse, and I owe you a lot.

(A “lot” being, of course, entirely figurative, and in no way implies that you’re getting a share of the royalties.)

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

1 - Scarab

2 - Home Invasion

3 - The Plan, Such as it is

4 - Bring Me the Head of Skulduggery Pleasant

5 - The Revengers’ Club

6 - Into the Sanctuary

7 - Back to Aranmore

8 - Calling Dibs

9 - Dead New World

10 - Blood and Bullets

11 - The Faceless Ones

12 - Down the Barrel

13 - No Thanks

14 - The Fact of the Matter

15 - Back on Cemetery Road

16 - The Temple

17 - Dead Man Talking

18 - Darquesse

19 - The New Pet

20 - The Zombie Horde

21 - The Raid

22 - The Man who Killed Esryn Vanguard

23 - Crux

24 - The Plot Thickens…

25 - Last Vampire Standing

26 - Kidnapped

27 - When Kenspeckle Met Scarab

28 - The Midnight Hotel

29 - The Sit-Down

30 - Mid-Afternoon of the Dead

31 - Billy-Ray

32 - Things Get Worse

33 - Possessed

34 - The Meeting

35 - Myron Stray

36 - Playtime

37 - China’s Dark Secret

38 - The Castle

39 - Hollow Man

40 - With Gordon

41 - The Exorcists

42 - The Necromancers

43 - The Road to Croke Park

44 - Revenge

45 - Searching for Scarab

46 - Endgame

47 - Crazy

48 - A Quiet Moment

49 - Escorting the Prisoner

50 - Back to Haggard

51 - Whispers

1 SCARAB

hen Dreylan Scarab had been locked away in his little cell, he’d thought about nothing but murder. He liked murder. Murder and long walks had been two of his favourite things when he was younger. He’d walk a long way to kill someone, he’d often said, and he’d kill for a long walk. But after close to 200 years in that cell, he’d kind of lost interest in walks. His passion for murder, however, burned brighter than ever.

They let him out of prison a few days early, and he stepped into the Arizona sunshine an old man. They had kept his power from him, and without his power his body had withered and aged. But his mind stayed sharp. Try as they might, the years could not dull his mind. Still, he didn’t like being old. He counted how long it took him to cross the road and wasn’t pleased with the result.

He stood there for two hours. The dust kicked up and got into his eyes. He looked around for something to kill, then quelled the urge. The entrance to the underground prison was within spitting distance, and killing something while the guards were still watching was probably a bad idea. Besides, Scarab’s magic hadn’t returned to him yet, so even if there were something in this desert worth killing, he might not have been able to manage it.

A shape came through the shimmer of the heat haze, solidifying into a black, air-conditioned automobile. It pulled up and a man got out slowly. It took Scarab a moment to recognise him.

“ Why the hell didn’t you break me out?” Scarab growled. His voice depressed him. In the open air, away from the confines of the prison, even his growl sounded old and frail.

The man shrugged. “I was kind of hopin’ you’d die in there, to be honest. You sure you didn’t? You look pretty dead. Smell dead, too.”

“I’m staying alive long enough to do what has to be done.”

The other man nodded. “I figured you’d be wantin’ revenge. Eachan Meritorious is dead though. Nefarian Serpine killed him. Few others’ve been killed since you were put away, too.”