p in the balcony, Fletcher and Wreath watched Skulduggery walk into the square at the exact centre of the Necropolis. There, another man in a black Necromancer robe stood waiting. Beneath his hood, like the others, his face was porcelain.

Skulduggery approached. “Do you have a name, or are names beneath you?”

That porcelain face smiled. “I am known as the Guardian. I am the final test.”

Skulduggery nodded, looked around, then back to the Guardian. “I go through you to activate the sigil, is that it?”

“In essence. But of course there is more to it than that.”

“Well, of course there is.” Skulduggery tilted his head. “Don’t suppose you’re going to tell me exactly what’s in store for me, are you?”

“True understanding comes later.”

“True understanding usually does.”

The Guardian smiled again. “You are a warrior.”

“When I need to be.”

“You are a violent man.”

“When I have to be.”

“Is it, do you think, an appropriate response to the world around you?”

“Violence?” Skulduggery asked. “Violence is never the answer, until it’s the only answer.”

Another porcelain smile. “Your words are weary.”

“They’re just well travelled. If I could save the world with words, I would. I’d lay down my gun and I’d talk until my bones turned to dust. But words are for reasonable people. And too often, the people I meet are far from reasonable.”

“You have blood on your hands.”

“I do, so other people don’t have to,” said Skulduggery.

“But that is not why you fight. You fight because the fight is all you have. You fight because you enjoy it.”

“What are you looking for?” Skulduggery asked. “An insight into my soul? You want to shock me into admitting some dark little secret that I’ve been hiding away for all these years? I’ve just spoken to beings claiming to be the ghosts of my friends, the ghost of my wife … I saw my child. After all these years, I saw the face of my child again. I’m all shocked-out for today. If we’re going to fight, let’s get to it.” Skulduggery raised his fists. “I’ve got living people to get back to.”

“So be it,” said the Guardian. “If you prevail, you may activate the Meryyn Sigil, and power grafted from the source of all magic shall endow the one who wears the sigil with great strength and protect them from harm, until the last grain of sand falls.”

Skulduggery dropped his hands. “I’m sorry, what?”

The Guardian gestured to the middle of the square, as a plinth rose from the ground. When it settled, an hourglass rose from within the plinth. “Once you have activated the Meryyn Sigil, the hourglass will turn and the sands will run.”