They entered the Room of Prisms. China sat on her throne, sorting through a sheaf of papers. Saracen, Donegan and Gracious were talking with Fletcher and Tanith. To one side stood Solomon Wreath and Melancholia St Clair. To the other, Dusk.

“Woah,” said Valkyrie.

Dusk looked at her, the scar she had given him reflected in a thousand tiny mirrors. “I bear you no ill will,” he said.

She blinked. “Right. OK.”

Skulduggery looked up at China. “Reading anything interesting?”

“Preliminary reports following our raid on the Church of the Faceless,” China said, putting down the papers. “Finding a lot of names mentioned – possible worshippers we never knew about. Gettamein, Verdant, even your new friend Keir Tanner, the prison warden.”

“He liked me,” Skulduggery said. “I could tell.”

China stood. “All right, then. Before we begin, I think we’re all glad to see Valkyrie back on her feet, and we appreciate Fletcher being here after what happened. Tanith has also rejoined us.”

Tanith smiled. “It’s nice to be loved.”

China ignored her. “First of all, what is our current situation as regards the Remnants?”

“We’ve lost them,” Saracen said grimly. “Any chance we had of tracking them down vanished when they took Dexter.”

“The moment they make trouble, though, we’ll know about it,” Donegan said. “So far, and this is both fortunate and worrying, there hasn’t been a peep.”

China nodded. “Focus your efforts here. Darquesse is our only concern from this moment on. How are we on that front?”

“Erskine Ravel is staying in the circle,” said Skulduggery. “Darquesse hasn’t smashed down the door, so I think we can assume it’s doing an adequate job of hiding him from her senses.”

“So we have our bait once again. How fares the trap?”

“That bit’s trickier.”

“I’m sure.”

“Darquesse doesn’t have an obvious weakness as far as we can see,” Skulduggery said. “Like anything, if we hit her enough times, she’ll eventually die, but the question then becomes what shall we hit her with?”

“Dear Liza,” Gracious mumbled.

“The weapon Mevolent used,” China said. “That had an effect on her, yes?”

“It drained her power for a few seconds at a time,” said Valkyrie. “But we have no idea how it worked.”

“Magical technology has been flourishing in that reality for the last two hundred years,” Skulduggery added. “They’re far more advanced than we are. We’ve no hope of replicating the magic-sucker.”

China’s lip curled. “That’s what we’re calling it?”

Valkyrie nodded. “That’s the technical term.”

“What about the Sensitives? Have they seen anything new?”

“I’ve just spoken with Cassandra,” said Saracen. “They’ve been having the same dreams and visions. Details change all the time, but the result is always the same. Death and destruction.”