Dark Days
Page 26
The nightmare woke her.
She sat up and slowly swung her legs out of bed. It was cold and her room was dark. The house was quiet. It was the middle of the night. Her nightmare clung to her with its smoky tendrils, clouding her mind, and she became aware of a low whispering in the room.
The dream whisperer Cassandra had given her lay on the shelf where she’d left it, and it was talking to Valkyrie in hushed tones that seemed to reach right inside her mind, bringing the nightmare back to her as a headache began to pound against her temples.
And now, finally, she could see it. At last, she could remember what had been plaguing her ever since she heard the name two days ago.
The whisperer kept whispering and Valkyrie saw her nightmare again in her mind. She saw Serpine and his glittering emerald eyes. She saw the fight in the Repository three years earlier, when he’d gone up against Skulduggery. The Book of Names had fallen and she’d glanced at it. She’d seen her own given name of Stephanie Edgley and her taken name of Valkyrie Cain. And, in the last column, the final thing she’d glimpsed that she was only now remembering…
She shouldn’t have been surprised, of course. She had felt it within her, even before she knew of magic, that part of her that was descended from the god-killer. The Last of the Ancients had been powerful and mighty, and he had hurled the Sceptre deep into the earth – but there was no forgetting the fact that he was also a murderer. After he had killed his gods, he had murdered his brethren.
For now Valkyrie remembered where she had seen that name before. In the Book of Names, in that final column. Next to Stephanie Edgley, next to Valkyrie Cain. Her true name. The only name that ever really mattered.
Darquesse.
Preview
Oh hello, fancy meeting you here. You’re looking well, I have to say. Really? Oh, you’re making me blush. Well, I have been working out, it’s true. Ah, you’re too kind.
What am I doing back here? I’m here to announce something, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it. It is good news, yes. At least, I think so.
You see, the Skulduggery Pleasant series has always had an April publication date, but now we’re moving the next hardback to September. Now hold on, don’t start throwing things just—
OW!
Who threw that? Who was it? Was it you?
I’m keeping an eye on you…
As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, this doesn’t mean you’re going to have to wait until September 2011 for Book Five. What it does mean is that, for one time only, you’re going to get two Skulduggery books in the same year…
Skulduggery Pleasant: Book Five.
Coming September, 2010.
Derek
Somewhere in Ireland
Also by Derek Landy:
Copyright
First published in hardback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2010
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
Visit us on the web at www.harpercollins.co.uk
Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk
And has a bebo page at www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3605555366
FIRST EDITION
Copyright © Derek Landy 2010
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Illuminated letters © Tom Percival 2010
Skulduggery Pleasant™ Derek Landy
SP Logo™ HarperCollins Publishers
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, downloaded, 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 © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 978-0-007-38227-9
Conditions of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Find out more about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com