“Of course. You’ve earned your place as fourth in command.”

“Wow.” Omen beamed. “Thanks.”

“You’re fourth in a group of four,” Valkyrie pointed out. “You’re in charge of no one.”

Temper slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t you listen to her, slick. You’re in charge of yourself and, in the grand scheme of things, that’s the only authority worth having. So, Valkyrie, what’s our next move?”

Valkyrie took a deep breath, and let it out. “I don’t know. What would Skulduggery do? He’d kick down a few doors until a lead presented itself.”

“And where’s the first door we kick down?”

“I suppose … San Francisco? Maybe? If we can find out where Richard Melior and Savant Vega lived while they were there, we might find someone who knew them, and knew Lilt, back when they were all friends. If we find a lead to Lilt, we’re closer to finding a lead to the anti-Sanctuary.”

“Huh,” said Temper.

Valkyrie sighed. “It doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

“No, it does.”

“But it won’t work, will it?”

“There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.”

“Listen, if you two have any better ideas, please share them. Any ideas at all. In the slightest. Either of you. But maybe not you, Omen.”

“Yeah,” Omen said.

“You probably wouldn’t have anything useful.”

“Probably not.”

“Don’t want to be rude.”

“It’s not rude if it’s true.”

“Temper? Do you have anything?”

Temper shook his head. “Nothing better than what you got. Kicking down doors sounds good to me.”

“It’s a terrible plan.”

“It’s our only plan.”

“On the bright side,” said Valkyrie, “China’s people might locate Coldheart Prison any moment now, and when they do they’ll storm it and it’ll all be over and none of this will matter.”

“Exactly!” Temper said. “The fate of the world might not be resting on our shoulders. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of that.” He looked at them both and smiled. “I don’t know about you two, but I am pumped for this. Really. I’m not even being sarcastic. Not even a little. At all. In the slightest.”

42

Whatever disagreements Skulduggery had with China meant little or nothing now, and Valkyrie sat with the Supreme Mage on the highest balcony overlooking Roarhaven and told her everything. China listened and nodded and asked clarifying questions, and when Valkyrie was finished a silence settled and Valkyrie felt relief. Relief that she had unburdened herself, relief that the problem was shared and relief that someone else could take charge from this point on.