Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil

Mortal Coil

File:Front of cover book, Skulduggery Pleasant Mortal Coil.jpg Cover of book
Author	Derek Landy
Cover artist	Tom Percival
Language	English
Genre	Children's novel, Fantasy novel
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	September 2nd 2010
Publication place	Ireland
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	320 pp (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	Dark Days (2010)
Followed by	Death Bringer (2011)

Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil is the fifth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy, released on 1 September 2010. After some discussion, the final title was confirmed to be "Mortal Coil". As stated in the end of Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days, it is the first of the Skulduggery Pleasant novels to be published in a September, and the first to be published within the same year as a previous book in the series.

Plot

Solomon Wreath is ordered by the senior necromancers to use a Sensitive to confirm if Valkyrie is the Death Bringer, the person that brings down the wall between life and death. Since the only Sensitive powerful enough, Finbar Wrong, is a friend of Valkyrie, they order Wreath to use a remnant on him to force him to comply. However, when he does so, the remnant can only see Darquesse, making Wreath think Valkyrie will be the one to defeat her. The vision makes the remnant believe Darquesse is a messiah for the remnants, and attempts to possess Wreath. When this fails, it travels to the Midnight Hotel, possesses Shudder, and frees its fellow remnants. Having killed Marr, Tesseract returns to Roarhaven to collect payment from the Torment, but is double-crossed and nearly killed, making him go on a hunt for revenge. He manages to kill one of the conspirators easily, but after he kills the second, the sanctuary is attacked by remnants and he is possessed.

Valkyrie spends Christmas with her family, learning that her cousins Crystal and Carol have become more friendly as their other relatives make fun of them. However, she is told that she must leave to seal her true name, and is taken to Doctor Nye, an androdgynous doctor, who's workshop is filled with body parts, seals her true name but then attempts to experiment on her. Since she is technically dead within the workshop, she struggles to think clearly enough to escape, but succeeds in using necromancy to force Doctor Nye to let her go. She explains to Skulduggery that she is Darquesse and has sealed her name, and the pair track down Scapegrace and take him to Grouse in the hope of preventing his body from decaying further. While the remnants begin possessing people Solomon Wreath goes back to Finbar Wrong to check up on and discovers that he has been partially mentally disturbed by the remnant. When he goes to leave, however, he is possessed.

Valkyrie introduces Fletcher to her parents and they go dancing together, but everyone in the club is possessed by remnants and the pair only narrowly escape. They run into Crystal and Carol, and Valkyrie is forced to explain to them that magic is real in order to persuade them to leave. After several close calls while the remnants take over, searching for Darquesse, the sorcerers regroup at the Hibernian, and arrange a plan to activate the giant Soul Catcher at MacGillycuddy's Reeks to recapture the remnants. In the meantime, Grouse is unleashing a harmless virus which makes people act as though they are possessed, as a cover for the remnants' escape. To complete the plan, Valkyrie reveals Gordon's Echo Stone to help the group with his knowledge on the matter, which Skulduggery claims he suspected all along.

The group split up to find the key to the Soul Catcher, motivating Tanith and Ghastly to confess they have feelings for each other. However, while the key is recovered successfully, the plan comes to a halt when Fletcher is possessed. Valkyrie is rescued from her boyfriend by Billy-Ray Sanguine, who has been hired to bring down the remnants, and who asks after Tanith, hinting he has a crush on her. Valkyrie discovers that Clarabelle has been possessed and murdered Kenspeckle, and is later attacked by Fletcher. She is saved by Caelan before escaping with Skulduggery, Ghastly, Tanith, China and Billy-Ray. The group drive to the Soul Catcher, and Skulduggery reveals to Valkyrie that he suspects that one of their group is possessed. This suspicion is proven correct when China turns on the group, launching a surprise attack on Ghastly, incapacitating Skulduggery, and attacking Tanith using symbols. She orders a Remnant to possess Ghastly instead of Tanith, and kidnaps Valkyrie. However, before she escapes, Sanguine steals the key for the Soul Catcher from her.

While the group find the Soul Catcher, Valkyrie is possessed by a remnant in an effort to spur their messiah's coming, bringing out Darquesse. However, Darquesse is not the remnant in control - instead, it is a part of Valkyrie without emotion that dislikes boredom. It overpowers the remnant possessing Valkyrie, and sets about killing all bystanders with pleasure, with no regard for whose side they are on. Skulduggery arrives after a few minutes and explains that Darquesse is what Valkyrie will become if she refuses to fight back against the apathy, bitterness and hopelessness, and she finally destroys the struggling remnant in her body, which returns her to normal. He then holds Valkyrie hostage (threatening to kill her) to force the remnants to release their bodies, which allows the Soul Catcher to retrieve them. However, the one possessing Tesseract escapes and possesses Tanith. Valkyrie and Tanith fight, but Valkyrie is unable to get her to the Soul Catcher in time: the possessed Tanith escapes.

As the sorcery community recovers from several deaths, a new Council is chosen, with Ravel as Grand Mage, and Ghastly and Madam Mist as Elders - Madam Mist being a close friend of the Torment, who insists she is accepted before allowing the use of the Sanctuary. Ghastly wasn't eager to take the job, but was keen on finding a cure for Tanith. Skulduggery tells Valkyrie that there is no cure for removing a remnant after it has taken over someone for more than 4 days. Fletcher takes Valkyrie to Australia to apologize for his actions while possessed, and she tells him that she loves him, but she finds herself unwillingly interested is Caelan. Tanith arrives at Valkyrie's house, after the four-day period before a Remnant fuses itself to a host, and explains that she does not plan to attack Valkyrie, but rather to lead her subtly towards her "destiny" as Darquesse; Tanith leaves with Sanguine, her new boyfriend. Skulduggery attempts to arrest Tesseract after Tesseract kills the Torment, but during the chase Tesseract is mortally-wounded by a man claiming to be Lord Vile, who says to Skulduggery that he has returned and is building up his strength, and that he plans to kill Valkyrie, who he thinks may be the Death Bringer, and all of the Necromancers. Before he dies, Tesseract recalls that Skulduggery never fought Vile, and asks if Vile's necromancy reanimated him, but Skulduggery does not answer. Tesseract asks Skulduggery to bring him outside as a dead man's last request and he dies looking out at the sunrise.