Stephanie moved closer. Skulduggery's hand was flat against the wall. He moved it, and she could see a slight indentation, almost invisible to the naked eye.
'That's the lock?'
'Yes. This is one of those good old-fashioned key-required locks — the kind a spell won't open.
Damn it.'
'Can you break it?'
'I could break it, but then it wouldn't work, and we couldn't get the door open.'
'I meant break through it.'
'That would work if the door was in the same place as the lock, but things are rarely that straightforward.'
'So we need the key.'
'We need the key.'
'I don't suppose we'll find it on one of Gordon's key chains.'
'Indeed. This is not a regular key we're looking for.'
'We don't have to solve a puzzle to get to it, do we?'
'We may.'
She groaned. 'How come nothing's ever simple?'
'Every solution to every problem is simple. It's the distance between the two where the mystery lies.'
They turned off the light and climbed the stairs out of the dank mustiness of the cellar. They walked into the living room, and a man in a suit — a suit that looked almost Victorian in design — turned to them.
He had black hair and thin lips, and his right hand, which was skinless, glistened with blood and wet muscle. Before Stephanie could even register her surprise, Skulduggery was pulling the gun from his jacket. The man moved as gunshots filled the room, stepping to one side and waving his right hand.
She didn't know what he did, but it worked, and no bullets hit him.
'Run!' Skulduggery said, pushing her out of the room.
She stumbled and something moved beside her, and she turned as another man came at her.
There was something wrong with him — something wrong with his skin, with his features: they didn't look real, they looked almost papery. She tried to hit it, whatever it was, but it was like hitting a bag of air. A fist swung at her, but unlike its body, the fist was heavy and solid, and it snapped her head back. She staggered and it reached for her, but then Skulduggery was there, hurling it away.
Three more of them came through the front door. Stephanie ran to the stairs, Skulduggery covering her escape. Halfway up, she looked back as the man in the suit strolled into the hall.
She shouted a warning and Skulduggery turned to face him, but it was too late.
Purple vapor gathered in the man's left palm, and he released it in a stream that flowed into Skulduggery and arced out behind him and above, flowing back into the man's other hand, forming a circle. Skulduggery dropped to his knees, trying to raise the gun but unable to hold it, and it fell to the floor.
'Take him,' the man said, cutting off the purple stream. Skulduggery sagged, and three of the paper men grabbed him, started dragging him out of the house. The man motioned to the fourth.
'You, kill the girl.'
And he walked out.
Stephanie sprinted to the landing, the papery thing clumping up the stairs behind her. She ran to Gordon's dark study, slammed the door, and pushed over one of the bookcases. It toppled and crashed, and books spilled across the floor.
The door opened an inch and hit the bookcase. Heavy fists started to pound on it from the other side.
She went to the window, opened it, and looked down. Even if she made the drop without breaking her legs, she'd land right in front of the man with the red hand. She backed off, looked around for a weapon.
The bookcase slowly scraped across the floor.
The door was opening wider.
Stephanie turned, moved behind the desk, and hid. The pounding continued. She peered out.
She could see a papery arm now, reaching around. Then a shoulder, and a head. She ducked back into hiding.
One last heave, and the door was open wide enough for the thing to step over the fallen bookcase. Stephanie stopped breathing.
She peeked out. It crossed to the window and leaned out, hands on the sill.
Stephanie rose and launched herself forward. It heard her and tried to turn, but she slammed into it. Its heavy hands slipped off the sill and dragged it through the window, and' Stephanie reached down, grabbed its lower leg, and hauled. The thing tried to turn, tried to reach back through the window, but it was too late, and out it went with a faint rustle of paper.
It landed in a heap, and she saw the man in the suit glare up at her. He waved his arm, and she threw herself away from the window as the air turned purple and the window exploded. Glass shards rained down on her back, but they didn't tear through the coat.
She lay where she was, hands over her head, until she heard a car start up. Then she got up, glass and splinters of wood falling from her, and reached the window just in time to see a silver car leave the estate. They'd left her, obviously deciding it wasn't worth the effort to make sure she was dead.
She pulled the crumpled business card from her pocket, got out her phone, and dialed the number. The call was picked up almost immediately. She spoke urgently.
'I need help. They've taken Skulduggery.'
'Tell me where you are,' China Sorrows said. 'I'll send someone to pick you up.'
Chapter Fourteen
Elemental Magic
China Sorrows was very still. She sat with her legs crossed at the knees, hands flat on the arms of the chair. The sounds of the city at night did not seep into her apartment — they were alone in here, the only two people left on the face of the Earth. Stephanie watched her and waited.
The apartment was vast, occupying the space across the hall from her library. Stephanie had leaped out of the car China had sent, run up the stairs, and been directed in here by the man in the bow tie. No time had been lost. Skulduggery was in danger, and they needed to get him back now.
China spoke at last. 'How can you be sure it was Serpine?'
'What?' Stephanie said, exasperated. 'Of course it was Serpine! Who else could it have been?'
A delicate shrug of delicate shoulders. 'We have to be sure, that's all.'
'I am sure, okay?'
China looked at her, and Stephanie felt ashamed of her impatience. She lowered her eyes and closed her mouth. She was so sore, her body was so sore, but it was all right now, because she was safe, and China would know what to do. Everything would be okay. Stephanie would wait for her to make a decision, no matter how long she deliberated, and she felt sure that Skulduggery would be safe and well. Even if he wasn't, what did it matter? China knew what was best, and if she wanted to wait, then Stephanie would be happy to wait with her.
No, she said to herself, that's the spell, that's China's spell working on me. She dragged her eyes up, met China's gaze, and thought she saw a flicker of surprise.
'What are you going to do?' Stephanie asked.
China rose from the chair in one graceful movement. 'I will see to it,' she said. 'You should go home, dear; you look dreadful.'
Stephanie felt herself blush. 'I'd rather stay,' she said.
'It could take some time before plans are in place. Wouldn't you be more comfortable in familiar surroundings?'
Stephanie didn't like disagreeing with China, but she couldn't go home, not while Skulduggery was in trouble. 'I'd rather stay,' she repeated softly.
'Very well,' China said with a small smile. 'I must leave, but I'll return when I have news.'
'Can I come with you?'
'I'm afraid not, child.'
Stephanie nodded, hiding her disappointment.
