“You think this would look like an accident?”

“You’re an old man, Cadaverous. Old men slip and fall all the time.”

“You’re not thinking clearly. Maybe it’s Smoke’s corruption, I don’t know, but do you really think we’re alone right now? She’s watching. She’s always watching.”

“I take it you mean Abyssinia?”

“If you kill me, she’ll tell the others what you’ve done. It won’t be so difficult to kill you. All it’ll take is a single word from Smoke and then you’ll be the one diving into this magnificent lake.”

“It is rather magnificent,” Skulduggery said, and a moment later he pulled Cadaverous back. “Fine. I won’t kill you, you decrepit old scamp. Not right now, at least. I’ll probably end up killing you at some stage, though, so be warned.”

There was a commotion up on the dais, and the skeleton lost interest in Cadaverous completely, and floated up to see what was going on.

Cadaverous wrapped his anger around a stone, deep in his chest, and when he was sure it wasn’t going to rise to the surface he unclenched his fists and took the metal stairs, emerging on to the second tier. He jumped across to the dais, joining the skeleton and the others near the three metal Xs. No one had yet bothered to clear away the fallen Cleaver scythes. Cadaverous hated mess, but this was not his responsibility.

Nero and Memphis stood there like naughty schoolchildren.

“She’s dead?” Lethe asked. “How did this happen? You were sent to retrieve the third sacrificial lamb. Retrieve does not mean kill.”

“I told him that,” Nero said.

“It wasn’t my fault,” said Memphis.

“No killing!” Razzia whined. “Those were the rules! That’s why I couldn’t go! You cheater!”

“I didn’t have a choice,” said Memphis. “Lethe, I’m telling you, man, the woman was nuts. She figured out why we were there. Heck, she practically killed herself.”

“Ah,” said Lethe. “Yes. I’ve heard of that happening. Someone’s attacked and, in a startling act of self-defence, they break their own neck.”

“She was struggling too much,” Memphis said. “Itching like she was in a fuzzy tree. I told her to calm down, told her to be cool, but she was too busy arguing and crying and such, and she twisted the wrong way and … that’s all she wrote.”

“Smoke and I brought back our sacrificial lamb unharmed,” said Lethe. “Cadaverous and Skulduggery brought back their sacrificial lamb – somewhat unharmed. But you … you couldn’t even manage to bring back your sacrificial lamb even relatively unharmed.”

Memphis swallowed thickly. “We still have enough, though.”

“Oh,” said Lethe, “do we?”

“Yeah, man. The Doc said all he needed were two Neoterics. We have two. The third was just, y’know, a spare.”