"We're here to see the Grand Mage," Skulduggery said. "I am Skulduggery Pleasant and this is my associate, Valkyrie Cain."

Phil Lynott's wax head nodded. "You are expected, but you will need an official Sanctuary

12

representative to accompany you through the door. I have alerted the Administrator. She should be arriving shortly."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

Valkyrie stared at it for a few more seconds. "Can you sing?" she asked.

"I open the door," it said. "That is my only purpose."

"But can you sing?"

It considered the question. "I do not know," it decided. "I have never tried."

The wall rumbled behind them, and a door shifted and slid open. A woman in a somber skirt and white blouse stood there, smiling politely.

"Mr. Pleasant," the Administrator said, "Miss Cain, welcome. The Grand Mage is expecting you. Please follow me."

The figure of Phil Lynott didn't say good-bye as the Administrator led them down a spiral staircase, their way lit by burning torches in brackets. They reached the bottom and passed into the foyer. It felt weird, walking into a place that had once been so familiar and now seemed so alien. The irrational part of Valkyrie's brain was certain that the Cleaver

13

guards were glaring at them from behind their visors, even though she knew they were far too disciplined and professional to display such petty behavior.

The Sanctuary, she had only recently realized, was shaped like a massive triangle that had toppled over, and was now lying flat beneath the surface of Dublin City. The foyer marked the dead center of the triangle's base, with long corridors stretching out to either side and a central corridor running straight. The side corridors turned in at forty-five-degree angles and eventually met the central corridor at the triangle's point. Smaller corridors bisected these in a seemingly random pattern.

The rooms along the main corridors were mostly used for the day-to-day running of the Sanctuary and the Council of Elders' business. But down some of those narrower corridors lay rooms that were a lot more interesting--the jail, holding cells, the Repository, the armory, and dozens more that Valkyrie had never even seen.

The Administrator chatted amicably with Skulduggery as they walked. She was a nice lady, brought in as a replacement for the Administrator who had died during Nefarian Serpine's raid on

14

the Sanctuary two years before. Valkyrie closed her mind to the memory of the carnage. She had lived through it once--she saw no reason to do so again.

The Administrator showed them into a large room with no furniture. "The Grand Mage will be with you in a moment."

"Thank you," Skulduggery said, nodding politely, and the Administrator left.

"Do you think we'll be waiting long?" Valkyrie asked, keeping her voice low.

"The last time we were in this building, we accused the Grand Mage of being a traitor," Skulduggery said. "Yes, I think we'll be waiting long."