the fate of the world in your hands. If that’s not godlike, I don’t know what is.”
“Can we change the subject?”
“To what?”
“Anything that doesn’t make me sound like a crazy person?”
He laughed and they walked closer to Skulduggery as Fletcher announced that he was feeling something. They had crossed the yard, standing in the long grass. Fletcher’s eyes were open and his fingers were splayed. His steps grew smaller as he honed in on the spot.
“It’s a buzzing,” he said, “in my fingers, like I get when I teleport. OK, now I can feel it all over.” He turned slightly. “It’s there. I know it is. Right there.”
To Valkyrie, he was staring at empty space, but his voice was strong and his eyes were sure.
“What’s so special about here?” Paddy asked. “It’s just the same as anywhere else.”
“You can’t see it,” Fletcher said scornfully, “but I can feel it. It’s amazing. I can open it right now.”
“No, you can’t,” Skulduggery said. “But well done for finding it.”
“No, I can do more than that,” Fletcher insisted. “I can go through.”
“You can’t and I wouldn’t advise trying,” Skulduggery said, and he’d barely uttered the last word when Fletcher disappeared.
Paddy jumped back. “Good God!”
Valkyrie spun to Skulduggery. “Could he have done it? Could he have gone through?”
“I … I don’t know,” Skulduggery said.
Valkyrie’s hand flew to her mouth. “If he did go through, he’s in there with the Faceless Ones. They’ll tear him apart.”
Skulduggery shook his head. “He didn’t have the Isthmus Anchor. Without that, there’s no way to open the gate, let alone go through. No, it’s impossible.”
“So where is he?” Paddy asked.
Valkyrie’s phone rang and she put it to her ear.
“Hey, Val,” Tanith said on the other end, “did you happen to lose something? Not too bright, vacant expression on his face, silly hair? Ring any bells?”
Valkyrie sighed in relief. “Skulduggery, he’s back at the van.”
“I’m going,” Skulduggery said as he strode quickly past her, “to kill him.”
They got back to Dublin and Fletcher still hadn’t said one word. Skulduggery had spent close to five minutes berating him for what he had tried to do, and by the end of it, even Fletcher’s hair had wilted into a sullen pile. It had been the most fun Valkyrie had had in ages.
Ghastly needed to return to Kenspeckle for a check-up and Tanith agreed to go with him. Now that the two of them were back in the game, Skulduggery was feeling better about keeping Fletcher at the labs. When he said this, Fletcher narrowed his eyes and spoke up for the first time in half an hour.
“This is feeling a lot like everyone is babysitting me.”
“That’s because they are,” Valkyrie smiled.
They left them just as Fletcher was asking Tanith if she’d tuck him in tonight.
“What’s our next move?” Valkyrie asked as they walked to the Purple Menace.
“We have to prepare for the worst,” said Skulduggery. “If, despite our best efforts, they get the gate open and the Faceless Ones return, we’re going to need the only weapon powerful enough to kill them.”
She frowned. “Which is?”
“The Sceptre of the Ancients.”
He got in behind the wheel, and she climbed in the passenger side and buckled her seatbelt. “Skulduggery, you broke the Sceptre.”
“No, I broke the black crystal that powered it. In theory, all we need is another black crystal and we have a weapon capable of killing a god.”
“Do you know where to get another black crystal?”
He started the car and they moved off. “Not exactly.”
“Do other black crystals exist?”
“Almost certainly.”
“How do we find one?”
“Research, my dear Valkyrie.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I hate research. It’s almost as bad as homework.”
“When was the last time you did homework?”
“I always do my homework.”
“Your reflection does your homework.”
“But I still have to suffer through the memory of it. That’s practically the same thing.”
“I hear millions of schoolchildren around the world crying in sympathy for you.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“But don’t worry, your research will be fun.”
“How do you work that one out?”
“Your uncle was planning to write a book about the Sceptre before he died. Knowing Gordon, that means he made quite a lot of notes.”
Valkyrie’s mood lifted. “So all I have to do is read through his notes?”
“You read his notes, I’ll do some research of my own in the library and we’ll see who comes up with an answer first. Agreed?”
Valkyrie kept her grin to herself. “Oh, all right,” she said, trying to sound irritable. Her uncle had been dead for two years, and he’d had a treasure trove of secrets locked away behind his study in his old house. Valkyrie loved going through the secret room and she welcomed any opportunity to do so.
Besides, she hadn’t talked to her dead uncle in weeks.
She emerged from the lake and looked down at a man standing by the shore. “Who disturbs me?” she demanded.
“I do,” the man said.
“What is your name?”
“I am Batu.”
“That is not your name.”
“It is the name I have chosen and so it is my name.”
The Sea Hag sighed. “Why do you disturb me?”
The man, Batu, looked at her. “You have been wronged, my lady. Fifty years ago I gave you a corpse, allowed it to slip beneath your waters and now it has been stolen from you.”
The Sea Hag snarled. “I am aware of what happened. What concern is it of yours?”
“I can offer you an opportunity,” the man who called himself Batu said, “an opportunity to pay back the ones who have wronged you.”