She had to stop. She sank down, sat with her back to a tunnel wall. It had all gone wrong. They were supposed to have won, for God’s sake. Darquesse had been reduced to an untethered entity. She was a ghost. She should have been nothing more than an annoyance. A nuisance. How the hell had this happened?

Valkyrie took the stone from her jacket. “Oh, Gordon,” she whispered.

The stone lit up weakly, and Gordon appeared before her.

She jumped to her feet. “Gordon! You’re OK!”

Gordon’s image flickered, and he frowned. “Hello? I can’t … I can’t see anyone. Who is that? Who’s talking?”

She waved her hands in front of his face. “It’s me, it’s Valkyrie.”

Relief washed over him, but he still wasn’t looking at her. “Oh, thank God. Darquesse, she was here. She took over—”

“I know,” said Valkyrie. “But she’s gone now. Are you OK?”

“I’m fine,” said Gordon. “Not a bother on me. The stone, on the other hand …”

“What? What’s wrong with it?”

His eyes widened, and focused on her. “I can see! I can see you! I don’t mind admitting, that was getting a little worrying. I could hear you, but couldn’t see a single …” He looked around. “I know this. See that rock formation? See how it looks like an old man’s face? Mire mentioned this tunnel. If you keep going straight, you’ll come to a chasm. I don’t know how you’d cross it, but the stairs to my house are on the other side. Maybe if you fashioned a rope bridge out of hair and spiderwebs …”

“What’s wrong with the stone, Gordon?”

He hesitated. “It’s in the process of being wiped clean. Darquesse thought she’d got rid of me, but I was just pushed into a little corner and I’ve been huddling here ever since. I thought that once she left things would get back to normal, but I seem to have misjudged her.”

“But if the stone is wiped clean—”

“Then my personality will be wiped away. I fear I may only have moments left.”

“No,” said Valkyrie. “No, please, there must be something we can do.”

“Darquesse altered the stone so dramatically that there’s no way to stop the—”

He talked on in silence.

“I can’t hear you!” Valkyrie shouted. “I can’t hear you any more!”

Gordon frowned again. He pointed at the stone, mimed shaking it. Valkyrie grabbed it, did as she was told. She smacked it into her open palm a few times, and all at once the sound came back, just as Gordon was launching into the chorus of ‘My Lovely Horse’ from Father Ted.

“OK,” she said, “I can hear you. Stop singing.”

Gordon chuckled softly. “So how are you, my favourite niece? Finding yourself in trouble again, are we?”