“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to upset you. Is there anything I can do to take your mind off your impending demise? A joke, perhaps? A witty anecdote?”

“I suppose you can tell me why you quit as Commander of the City Guard.”

He tilted his head again, this time at an amused angle. She knew all his angles. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“Hey, you offered.”

“OK,” he said, “I’ll tell you. Do you remember China’s little Council of Advisors?”

“Vespers, Praetor and Drang.”

“All of whom are new additions,” Skulduggery said. “Drang succeeded Warheit as German Grand Mage, Vespers replaced Graves as English Grand Mage and, most recently, Praetor took over from a man named—”

“Cypher.”

“Yes. China had given Cypher control of the American Sanctuary because he’d fed her information back when his predecessor was in charge. Cypher was ambitious and cunning, and that got him the job. But his ambition didn’t stop there. He saw what China had and wanted it for himself, so he tried to have her assassinated.”

“But you foiled it,” said Valkyrie.

“Naturally. But, while in our custody, one of the members of the City Guard got a little carried away in the interrogation stage, and Cypher was killed.”

“That Yonder guy, right? The one who doesn’t like you?”

“That’s the one. Some people called his actions overzealous. Some called it murder. China quite liked the rumour going around, that we’d executed Cypher in his cell for daring to oppose the Supreme Mage. She felt it set a healthy precedent, and Yonder was released with a reprimand. I resigned the next day.”

Valkyrie picked some dried blood from beneath her fingernails. “So why wouldn’t you tell me this? You quit because you didn’t like the way things were going. What’s so bad about that?”

“That was the straw, Valkyrie. The catalyst. But everything leading up to that point … that’s the part of the story I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want to tell you about Somnolent.”

She frowned. “Who’s Somnolent?”

But he was already turning his head to the sound of an opening door, then footsteps, getting closer, and muttering. Skulduggery stepped back, clearing the way for Destrier to walk past. His head was down, his brow furrowed, his fingers moving like he was tapping a small, distorted keyboard.

“Destrier?” Skulduggery said.

Destrier spun suddenly, eyes wide, like he was shocked to find himself among people. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, sorry, I … I got lost there. For a moment. In my head.” He glanced into the cell. “You’ve got to bring her. The girl. The Valkyrie. Lethe is ready to begin.”

“Excellent.”

Destrier nodded. He went to move off, then stopped, turned, hesitated.

Skulduggery stepped into his line of sight. “And where are you going?”