The Faceless Ones

by Derek Landy

  “Exactly. So all you need is another Anchor.”

  “The Grotesquery is gone. Skulduggery lobbed it through the portal because he didn’t want anybody opening it ever again. There are no more bits of Faceless Ones lying around.”

  “It doesn’t have to be an object that links to the Faceless Ones,” Wreath told her. “It just has to link to something in that reality.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like Skulduggery.”

  “Mr. Wreath …”

  He smiled. “There is a part of Skulduggery still here, in this reality. In this country in fact. And you know what it is.”

  “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re—”

  “Skulduggery Pleasant’s head, Miss Cain.”

  Something fluttered in her belly. “He lost that. He told me. He won the head he’s wearing now in a poker game.”

  “All true. But if you were to retrieve this missing head and give it to Mr. Renn, he would find that the link between the skeleton and his real skull is keeping the gateway from closing over.”

  “And … and he could open it? Fletcher could open the gateway?”

  “And save Skulduggery, yes.”

  “Where is it? Where’s his head?”

  “I’m afraid I have no idea. That part is up to you.”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  “You don’t think I’m doing it because I’m a nice person?”

  “You have something to gain.”

  “You are an astute young lady. I am hoping to gain something, as a matter of fact.”

  “What?”

  “You. In order to conduct this search, in order to do the things you will need to do, you’re going to need more power than you currently wield. I’m hoping you choose Necromancy.”

  He stepped back and tapped his cane on the ground. The shadows moved in, curled around him, and she saw him smile before his face darkened.

  “I’ll be in touch,” he said, and the shadows scattered and he was gone.

  About the Author

  Before embarking on a writing career, DEREK LANDY had adventures. He wrestled a grizzly on a mountainside, foiled a giggling maniac’s citywide crime spree, and found the Lost City of Gold.

  (He promptly lost the Lost City of Gold, due to being unable to remember which “big tree” it was next to.)

  He lives in Dublin, Ireland, where he divides his time between writing books and screenplays and training his Munchkin Army to protect him against the ninjas.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  ALSO BY DEREK LANDY

  Skulduggery Pleasant: Scepter of the Ancients

  Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire

  Copyright

  Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones

  Text copyright © 2009 by Derek Landy

  Illuminated letters © Tom Percival 2006, 2009

  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 e-books.

  EPub Edition © JULY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04388-7

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Landy, Derek.

  The Faceless Ones / by Derek Landy. — 1st American ed.

  p. cm. — (Skulduggery Pleasant ; 3)

  Summary: Fourteen-year-old Valkyrie and the skeleton mage, Skulduggery Pleasant, try to foil a plot set in motion fifty years before to find and open the gate that will allow the Faceless Ones to return to this reality.

  ISBN 978-0-06-124091-1 (trade bdg. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978-0-06-124092-8 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  [1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Fantasy.] I. Title.

  PZ7.L231757Fac 2009

  [Fic]—dc22

  2008051714

  CIP

  AC

  Typography by Larissa Lawrynenko

  09 10 11 12 13 LP/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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