“My folks’re both sorcerers. I knew about magic from the time I knew about shapes. Mum and Dad, they’re nice people, so I was taught we’re all equal. Though I did meet some sorcerers who held quite a different opinion.”

“I suppose one group of people will always find reasons to complain about another.”

“Aye, I suppose. But this new strain of hatred … that’s only cropped up in the last ten or fifteen years. It’s scary. Insidious.”

“So the sorcerers hate the mortals,” said Valkyrie, “and the mortals would hate the sorcerers if they knew we existed. This is a story that can only end well.”

Militsa smiled. “As long as there are people like you and Skulduggery Pleasant fighting the good fight, we should be OK.”

“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? We don’t have Skulduggery any more.”

“I realised that just as the words were leaving my mouth. Really sorry. How are you doing?”

“I’m OK.”

“It can’t be easy.”

“He’s not an easy man to out-think.”

“I actually meant that it can’t be easy losing a friend in this way. How are you doing about that side of things?”

“Oh,” said Valkyrie. “It’s …”

“Yes?”

“Scary,” Valkyrie said at last. “Not just having him as an enemy, but … not having him as a friend. Even when I was away, I knew I could pick up the phone and he’d answer. I knew he’d always answer. I was never alone, you know? Never.”

“This may be completely presumptuous,” Militsa said, “but you’re not alone now, either. I’ll help however I can. I’m not the best at fighting, I really don’t like hurting people and I have a serious aversion to being the one who’s getting hurt, but if you need someone to stand there and lecture the enemy on Magic Theory then I am your girl.”

“Thank you for volunteering,” Valkyrie told her, “but don’t worry, I’m not going to hurl you into a pit of danger or anything like that. Helping me out here will do fine … assuming this museum visit will help me out?”

“Hopefully,” Militsa said. “Well, I don’t know how helpful it will actually be, in any useful sense, but, as my old piano teacher used to say, knowledge is power.”

“Was she a sorcerer?”

“No, just a piano teacher, back in Edinburgh. I’m really not sure what she was talking about, but it’s a good motto to live by. When we were on the phone earlier, you described what one of the anti-Sanctuary people was wearing – the guy in the mask?”

“Lethe.”

Militsa nodded. “Lethe, right. Now, I might be wrong, in which case this is a colossal waste of your time, but it sounded a lot like …”

They quickened their pace.

“It sounded a lot like …?” Valkyrie prompted.