“So is gravity, but you’re not out to kill gravity, are you? Your friend is dead, you’re angry and upset, you want someone to blame. Perfectly understandable, if completely redundant. Your sadly deceased friend’s own clumsy incompetence does not guarantee you the right to Valkyrie’s life. It just doesn’t.”

“I’ve already staked my claim.”

“Calling shotgun does not guarantee you a front seat, Cadaverous. We’re not children here, are we?”

“Skulduggery,” Lethe said, “I’m afraid we have already agreed that Cadaverous kills Valkyrie.”

Pleasant went quiet for a moment, and sat back, steepling his fingers. “I’m trying to decide,” he said.

“Decide what?” Lethe asked.

Pleasant stood, and took out his gun. “Which one of you I kill first.”

“Sit down,” said Smoke, walking into the room, and immediately Pleasant sat. It was a petty joy that leaped into Cadaverous’s heart, but it was a joy, nonetheless.

“How’s it feel,” Nero asked, “to be his puppet?”

“This is an odd sensation,” Pleasant muttered.

Smoke sat at the table. “I control you. You do what I tell you. If I instruct you to dance for us, you’ll dance for us. If I instruct you to only talk in rhyming couplets, that’s what you’ll do. You are mine – you understand that? You have no free will when it comes to me.”

“This is interesting,” Pleasant said. “But I’m afraid it’s completely unacceptable.” In a flash, the gun was pointed straight at Smoke’s head—

—but Pleasant’s finger froze over the trigger.

Smoke sighed. “You think you’re the first person to try that? Seriously? You can’t and won’t hurt me. Put the gun away.”

“But of course,” the skeleton said, holstering the weapon inside his jacket like it was his own idea. Cadaverous found that vaguely annoying. “Where were we?”

“I was about to suggest a compromise,” Lethe said, “regarding this whole killing Valkyrie disagreement.”

Cadaverous leaned forward. “No compromise,” he said. “We had a deal.”

Lethe held up a hand. “You both will refrain from killing her until, at the earliest, the resurrection of Abyssinia. The moment is close, but has yet to arrive, and who knows what will happen before then? If only one of you reaches the moment, you get to kill Miss Cain. If both of you survive until then, you’ll fight for the honour.”

Cadaverous frowned. “In a place of my choosing?”

“You were first to make the claim, so yes.”

Cadaverous smiled. “Deal.”

Pleasant shrugged. “I’m in,” he said, and clapped his hands. “So, what’s the next step?”

“First Wave,” said Lethe. “This is a crucial juncture and they need guidance. They need Parthenios Lilt.”

“He’s being kept in a cell in the High Sanctuary,” Pleasant said. “Do we break him out?”