Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 3. Derek Landy

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      THE GAL IN BLACK

      tephanie was woken the next morning by the stereo playing very loudly indeed. Her dad had been trying to tune into a news station and the volume knob had snapped off, so instead of a quiet little traffic report they were treated to Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries at full blast. He had lost the remote control down the back of the sofa and hadn’t the first clue how to turn the stereo off. The music reverberated through the floor and in the walls. There was no escaping its sheer power. By the time her mother had yanked the plug out of the socket, Stephanie was wide awake.

      Her mother poked her head in to say goodbye, and as her parents went off to work Stephanie threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. While she waited for Skulduggery to arrive, she thought about what would be a good name for her to take. Skulduggery had explained how the actual taking of a new name casts a seal around the old one – so if Stephanie took the name Crystal Hammer (she didn’t plan on it) then the name Stephanie Edgley would be instantly immune to any controlling spells. But while she only went by her given name, she was vulnerable.

      If she were to have a new name, it would have to be a name she wouldn’t be embarrassed about in years to come. It would have to be something classy and also something she felt comfortable with. Skulduggery had told her about people who’d taken names like Razor and Phoenix, and how he wouldn’t advise anyone to take a name that seemed cool. He’d once been introduced to a woman who had put on a little weight over the years, and her hair had been a bit windswept and she had spinach in her teeth, and he was told her name was Jet. Jet did not suit this woman, the same way Razor did not suit the short fat man who took that as a name.

      Stephanie looked up from her desk as Skulduggery knocked on the window. She opened it.

      “I thought girls were supposed to be tidy,” he said as he peered in.

      Stephanie kicked some underwear under her bed and ignored the comment. “You OK out there?”

      “I’ve been perched on worse roofs, believe me.”

      “My parents have gone to work, you know. You could have used the door.”

      “Doors are for people with no imagination.”

      “Are you sure no one saw you? The last thing I need is for a neighbour to be passing and see you climbing up the side of the house.”

      “I was careful, don’t you worry. And I have something for you.” He gave her a short piece of chalk.

      “Uh, thank you,” she said slowly.

      “Go to your mirror.”

      “I’m sorry?”

      “Go to your mirror and draw this symbol on it.” He handed her a small card that showed an eye in a circle with a wavy line through it.

      “What’s this for?”

      “It’s to help you. Go on.”

      She frowned, then went to the mirror.

      “No,” Skulduggery said, “a full length mirror. Do you have one?”

      “Yeah,” Stephanie said. Still with no clue why she was doing this, she opened her wardrobe and used the chalk to copy the symbol on to the mirror on the other side of the door. When she was done, she handed the card and the chalk back to Skulduggery. He thanked her, put them away and then looked at the mirror.

      “Surface speak, surface feel, surface think, surface real.” He looked at her again. “Could you wipe the symbol off now, please?”

      “What is going on? What are you doing? Did you just cast a spell on my mirror?”

      “Yes. Could you wipe the symbol off?”

      “Well what does the spell do?” she asked as she used her sleeve to erase the chalk.

      “You’ll see,” he answered. “Are you wearing a watch?”

      “My watch broke. I wore it swimming. I thought it was waterproof.”

      “Was it?”

      “As it turned out, no. Why do you need to know the time?”

      “Oh, I don’t. Touch the mirror.”

      She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

      “Touch it.”

      Stephanie hesitated, then did as he said and reached out, touching her fingers lightly against the mirror. But when she pulled back, her reflection did not. She watched in amazement as her reflection blinked, as if awakening from a trance, then dropped its arm to its side and looked around. Then, very slowly, it stepped out through the mirror.

      “Oh my God…” Stephanie said, moving back as the reflection joined her in the room. “Oh my God,” she said again, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

      Skulduggery looked on from the window. “It will carry on with your life while you’re away, so you won’t be missed.”

      Stephanie stared. “She’s me.”

      “Not she, it. And it isn’t you, it’s a surface copy. It walks like you, talks like you, behaves like you, and it should be enough to fool your parents and anyone else it comes into contact with. When you return, it goes back into the mirror and the experiences and the memories it has made transfer to you.”

      “So… so I can be in two places at once?”

      “Precisely. It can’t spend too long in other people’s company or they’ll start to notice that things aren’t quite right, and it would never fool a mage, but it is ideal for your needs.”

      “Wow.” Stephanie peered closer at the reflection. “Say something.”

      The reflection looked back at her. “What do you want me to say?”

      Stephanie laughed suddenly, then clapped a hand over her mouth. “You sound just like me,” she said through her fingers.

      “I know.”

      “Do you have a name?”

      “My name is Stephanie.”

      “No, a name of your own.”

      Skulduggery shook his head. “Remember, it’s not a real person. It has no thoughts or feelings of its own: they’re all imitations of yours. It’s your reflection – that’s all it is. Operating instructions are as follows: it cannot change out of the clothes you’re wearing when you cast it, so make sure you’re not wearing anything with a logo or insignia. They’ll come out backwards. Make sure you’re not wearing a watch or a ring – they’ll appear on the opposite hand. Apart from that, it’s pretty simple.”

      “Wow.”

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