Derek Landy - Playing With Fire

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2007

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins website address is:

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at:

www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk

Derek Landy blogs under duress at

www.dereklandy.blogspot.com

Text copyright © Derek Landy 2008

Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2008

Skulduggery Pleasant logo ™HarperCollins Publishers

Skulduggery Pleasant ™© Derek Landy

Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com

Cover illustration © Tom Percival

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

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 e-book 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.

Source ISBN: 9780007257058

Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780007302123

Version: 2019-10-23

This book is dedicated to my family – because otherwise I’d never hear the end of it …

Nadine: warm, kind and considerate. I am all of these things .

Audrey: the greatest thrill of your life is probably the fact that I’m your brother .

Ivan: meaningless words such as “brilliant”, “amazing” and “inspirational” have been used to describe me, but not nearly enough .

If any of you thought that there’d be anything sincere or heartfelt in your dedications, allow me a moment to quietly laugh at you …

Because the heartfelt sincerity is reserved for my nana .

Chic, this book is also dedicated to you, for all the love and support you’ve shown me over the years. I love you much more than any of your other grandchildren do, I swear .

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1: Hanging Around

Chapter 2: Killer On The Loose

Chapter 3: Vengeous

Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast

Chapter 5: The Terror Of London

Chapter 6: Fireballs In The Park

Chapter 7: Unwelcome Visitors

Chapter 8: Billy-Ray Sanguine

Chapter 9: The Hidden Room

Chapter 10: The Armour Of Lord Vile

Chapter 11: The Terrifying Brain-Sucker Of London

Chapter 12: Barfight

Chapter 13: Roarhaven

Chapter 14: Springing Jack

Chapter 15: Point Blank

Chapter 16: The Switch

Chapter 17: Grave Robbing

Chapter 18: Old Enemies

Chapter 19: On The Run

Chapter 20: Under The Ground

Chapter 21: Donning Darkness

Chapter 22: Blood And Shadows

Chapter 23: Elephants And Bunnies

Chapter 24: Argus

Chapter 25: A Smattering Of Slaughtering

Chapter 26: Murder In The New Morgue

Chapter 27: Rise Of The Grotesquery

Chapter 28: Good Guys Convene

Chapter 29: Picking Up A Tail

Chapter 30: Fight

Chapter 31: The Edgley Family Reunion Thing

Chapter 32: Shadow Shards

Chapter 33: The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter 34: Unfinished Business

Chapter 35: Attack Of The Vampires

Chapter 36: Giant Spider Madness

Chapter 37: Tooth And Claw

Chapter 38: Those About To Die …

Chapter 39: Facing Vengeous

Chapter 40: Fight To The Death

Chapter 41: Billy-Ray Sanguine’s Erstwhile Employer

Chapter 42: Bad Things

Keep Reading …

The Skulduggery Pleasant series

About the Publisher

alkyrie Cain hit the parapet and tumbled, unable to stop herself, and with a panicked gasp she disappeared off the edge.

The church tower stood high and proud, looking out over Dublin City. The night breeze was brisk and carried snatches of laughter from the street below. It was a long way down.

A man in a tattered coat walked up to the edge and peered over. He smirked.

“This is insulting,” he said. “Don’t they know how dangerous I am? I am very, very dangerous. I’m a killer. I’m a trained killing machine . And still, they send you . A child .”

Valkyrie felt her grip on the ledge loosen. She ignored the goading of the man standing above her, and looked around for something else to grab on to. She looked everywhere but down. Down was where the street was, where the long drop and the sudden stop was. She didn’t want to look down. She didn’t want anything to do with down right now.

“What age are you?” the man continued. “Thirteen? What kind of responsible adult sends a thirteen-year-old child to stop me? What kind of thinking is that?”

Valkyrie swung herself gently towards the tower, planting her feet against a small buttress. The fear started to work through her and she felt herself freeze up. She closed her eyes against the oncoming wave of paralysis.

The man was Vaurien Scapegrace, currently wanted in five countries for various counts of attempted murder. He hunkered down at the edge and smiled happily.

“I am turning murder into an art form. When I – when I kill , I’m actually painting a big, big picture, using blood and, and … messiness. You know?”

Below Valkyrie, the city twinkled.

“I’m an artist,” Scapegrace continued. “Some people don’t appreciate that. Some people don’t recognise true talent when they see it. And that’s fine. I’m not bitter. My time will come.”

“Serpine tried to bring the Faceless Ones back,” Valkyrie managed to say. Her fingers were burning and the muscles in her legs were screaming at her. “We stopped him. We’ll stop you, too.”

He laughed. “What, you think I want the old gods to walk the earth once again? Is that it? You think Nefarian Serpine was my leader? I’m not one of those nutbag disciples, all right? I’m my own man.”

Valkyrie had one chance, but she needed to be calm to take advantage of it. Her powers, limited though they were, were Elemental – the manipulation of earth, air, fire and water. But at this stage of her training they didn’t work when she was panicking.

“So if you don’t want the Faceless Ones to return,” she said, “what do you want? Why are you doing this?”

He shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s grown-up stuff. I just want a little appreciation for who I am, that’s all. That’s not much to ask, is it? But of course, you wouldn’t know. You’re just a kid.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. Time to die.” He reached down to shove her.