Skulduggery Pleasant_The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy

Author:Derek Landy [Landy, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

Twenty-three

A NATHEM MIRE

THE TUNNEL opened into a huge cavern, the size of a football stadium. Shafts of light pierced the ceiling like stars in the night sky and fell upon the two-story house that stood before them. Valkyrie stared at it, somewhat stunned.

“That looks familiar,” she eventually remarked.

“It does,” Skulduggery agreed.

“That looks a whole lot like Gordon’s house.”

“It does.”

They stayed where they were and looked at the house. It wasn’t an exact twin. It was thinner, and the windows were too narrow, and the door wasn’t in the proper place. The roof was a lot higher and the angles were wrong. It was like a memory of Gordon’s house, filtered through a bad dream.

Valkyrie didn’t like asking obvious questions. In fact, she hated it. There were times, however, when the obvious questions were the only ones available.

“How do you think it got here?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Skulduggery answered. “Maybe it got lost.”

They walked toward it. The house was dark. Some of the curtains were closed. Skulduggery didn’t bother scouting around. He knocked on the front door and waited, and when no one came out, he pushed the door open.

“Hello?” he called. “Anyone home?”

There was no answer, so he took out his gun and stepped in. Valkyrie followed. It was somehow colder in here than it was in the caves, and she shivered. If it hadn’t been for the flashlights, they would have been enveloped in pitch-black.

There were no power lines down here, no access to electricity, so when Valkyrie flicked the light switch, she wasn’t expecting the diffusion of sickly green that rose in the dust-covered lightbulbs.

“Interesting,” Skulduggery murmured.

It was an unsettling feeling, to stand in a place familiar yet alien. The staircase that, in Gordon’s house, was solid and wide was here narrow and twisted. There were paintings on the walls, images of depravity and torture.

They moved into the living room, and Skulduggery turned on a few lamps. That same sickly green changed the absolute darkness into an unhealthy murk. The color was making Valkyrie nauseous.

There was an armchair and a sofa by the cold fireplace, and an ornate mirror above the mantelpiece. Valkyrie nudged Skulduggery and pointed. Someone was sitting in the armchair.

“Excuse me,” Skulduggery said.

The figure didn’t stir. All they could see was part of an arm, and the top of a head.

They moved slowly to the sofa, giving the armchair a wide berth. Valkyrie saw a shoe now. Then a knee. A man was sitting in the chair, his right hand on the armrest, his left in his lap. His suit was old-fashioned and stained with something dark around the chest. His mustache drooped over the corners of his mouth, down to either side of his chin. His hair was dark. He looked to be in his fifties. His eyes were open and gazing at nothing.

“Hi,” Skulduggery said in greeting. His tone was warm and friendly, but he hadn’t put his gun away. “I am Skulduggery Pleasant and this is my partner, Valkyrie Cain. According to our map, there is a vein of black crystals in the rocks around this cavern.

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