Synecdoche smiled. “Good. Your tests have come back, and you’ll be happy to learn that you are in unnaturally perfect health with no obvious side effects.”

“Darquesse liked to keep me running in tip-top condition,” Valkyrie said. “It’s all downhill from here, I suppose.”

Synecdoche smiled again, but it was a professional smile, the smile that quietly conveyed how busy she was and, really, if you had nothing further to ask, she should be getting back to patients who needed her help.

“I’ll see myself out,” said Valkyrie.

Synecdoche nodded, spun on the heel of her sensible shoe, and then she was gone.

Valkyrie left the Medical Wing. The doctor had been right – she was feeling great. Strong and energetic and well rested. Her body was a temple. Her mind, however, was a ramshackle old cabin in the middle of a forest. It leaked. There were draughts. The doors wouldn’t shut properly, there were noises from the attic and something had died under the porch.

Her mind needed help.

She found the others in the library in the North Tower. There were four libraries in the Sanctuary, but this was the smallest and the least used. Vex sat with his feet on the table opposite Saracen. Gracious and Donegan searched the shelves and, judging by their dismay, they were searching in vain for copies of books they had written. Stephanie and Fletcher sat together in the corner, talking quietly. No sign of Skulduggery or Dai Maybury.

Saracen was the first to see her. Everyone else looked round.

“Hi,” she said.

“Come on in,” said Vex. “Pull up a chair.”

Valkyrie took a few steps, but didn’t sit. “I want to thank you,” she said. “You saved me from … myself, and you stopped me from doing things that I’d never, ever be able to come back from. You risked your lives and I’m just so … grateful.”

“We look after our own,” said Vex.

“Once a Dead Man, always a Dead Man,” said Saracen.

Stephanie stood. “You should apologise to Dai,” she said. Fletcher got to his feet, reached for her, but she pulled away. “No. She has to apologise. Dai has no brothers left thanks to her.”

“Go easy,” Fletcher said softly.

“It’s OK,” Valkyrie said. “She’s right. Of course I have to apologise to Dai. I have to apologise to everyone. Including all of you. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to explain it, but … I don’t know. There was a movie I saw once. Dad made me watch it. It was a Western, and I don’t like Westerns.”

“What was it called?” Gracious asked.

“I don’t remember.”

“Who starred in it?” asked Donegan.