The wind over the vast city parted for them, making for a smooth, quiet ride.
“She’ll be OK?” Valkyrie asked. “You shot her in the head.”
“Your sister will be unconscious for thirty-seven minutes and then she’ll awaken with nothing more than a headache,” Cadaver said. “She’s the Child of the Faceless Ones, Valkyrie – bullets only slow her down. Oh, could you possibly do me an enormous favour? There’s a cloaking sphere in my inside pocket. If you would be so kind …”
“Sure,” Valkyrie said. It was awkward with the handcuffs, but she reached in, found the sphere and twisted both sides and a bubble of invisibility enveloped them. They suddenly altered course and flew on over Roarhaven. “Is that how you’ve evaded capture?” she asked.
“Sorry?”
“The sphere. Is that why they haven’t been able to find you?”
“One of the reasons,” he said. “You’re looking healthy, Valkyrie.”
“Thank you.”
“A bit heavier than I remember.”
“Careful.”
“I only mean that you’re more muscular.”
“Still careful.”
“Though I’m glad to see your vanity is unchanged. ”
“You know how I’m here?”
He nodded. “You’re a time-traveller.”
“You know why I’m here?”
He turned his head to her slightly, and she could have sworn his skull grinned. “Oh, yes,” he said.
They touched down on the edge of a forest and Cadaver led her to a contraption that was little more than a pair of bucket seats and a steering wheel.
“What the hell is that?” she asked as he dragged a covering of light branches off the canopy.
“It’s a car,” he said.
“And where’s the rest of it?”
“This is all that’s needed. Hop in.”
“No.”
He took out a pocket watch, glanced at it. “Valkyrie, Tanith will be lighting the Jericho Candle in exactly eleven minutes, and Malice—”
“How do you know about—?”
“And Malice,” he interrupted, “once she wakes, will be able to track those handcuffs you’re wearing. My point is, we don’t have time to be picky about our transportation.”
“But where’s the Bentley? Or the Phantom? Even the Canary Car would be better than this.”
“The Bentley is gone. The Phantom is missing. The Canary Car was, sadly, destroyed in a fire that I believe was started deliberately – possibly by the car itself. Besides, nobody drives anything with an engine any more. These days, everything is powered by one’s own magic.”
Valkyrie scowled, and took her seat beside him. The moment he touched the steering wheel, the whole thing lifted off the ground and the canopy closed over, sealing them in a transparent bubble. They moved off silently, skimming over the grass.
“I hate it,” she said .
“I hate it, too. It’s better for the environment, though – not that the environment needs any help.”
“Magic solved that problem, eh?”
“Within four months.”
They crested a hill, picking up incredible speed.
“OK,” said Valkyrie, “this part’s actually fun.”
“There’s an upside to everything, it seems.”
She looked at him. “Cadaver Cain, eh? What was wrong with Skulduggery Pleasant? I liked Skulduggery Pleasant.”
“It just felt right,” he said. “I was embarking on a new chapter in my life. A new adventure, as it were.”
“I see,” she said. “An exciting, fun new adventure, or a grim, joyless new adventure? Because Cadaver Cain sounds a little grim and joyless, if you ask me.”
“It suits my purpose.”
“You don’t seem particularly surprised to see me.”
“Don’t I?”
“You do not.”
“I knew you’d be back, Valkyrie,” he said. “I have faith in you.”
“At least one of us has. So what’s it been like here? Alice gave me her version of events—”
“Malice,” Cadaver corrected.
“—and now I’d like to know how it really is.”
They veered on to a trail and, astonishingly, picked up yet more speed.
“After Malice was Activated,” Cadaver said, “things went downhill. For a start, Creed had figured out a way to widen the rifts to the Source. Suddenly every sorcerer on the planet was stronger – more powerful. As you can imagine, this led to some rather reckless behaviour, and suddenly the reality of magic was the lead story in every newspaper and on every website and news channel. There were riots, shootings, terrorist attacks … and that was just the initial mortal response.
“The Sanctuaries, under Creed’s instruction, struck back – taking out the mortal leadership, imposing order … and asserting control.”
“So from my viewpoint,” Valkyrie said, “all this happens in the next few months?”
“Seven weeks was all it took for us to take over the world,” Cadaver said. “I say us but, of course, there were plenty of mages fighting by the side of the mortals, and that continued for years. It was a long, drawn-out war – but compared to the war against Mevolent it was over in a heartbeat. We put our faith in the Child of the Ancients. The power at his fingertips … it was extraordinary. Then Malice turned sixteen and she killed him.”
He went quiet for a moment.
“That was the sign, I suppose – the act that proved to Malice that she was now strong enough to do what Creed had been pushing her to do.”
“Bring back the Faceless Ones,” Valkyrie said.
“Billions of mortals died. The rest – slaves. This world is, despite its reclaimed beauty and vitality, hell. But, now that you’re here, we can change history and prevent it all from happening – but the first thing we must do is get those shackles off.”
They slowed, pulling up behind the ruins of a small house. The canopy opened around them.
“Is this where you live?” Valkyrie asked, trying to sound upbeat as they stood.
“No.”
“Oh, thank God. I didn’t want to say anything in case you did live here, because, I mean … wow. What a dump.”
“This is only my summer home.”
She froze. Nodded. “Oh, that’s cool. I like it. It’s very open, you know? Lot of light.”
He tilted his head. “You’re still funny.”
“You’re not.”
“Lies,” he said, and pulled camouflage netting over the thing- that-wasn’t-a-car, then led the way into what had once been inside, but now – without a roof – remained an outside. He indicated a circle drawn on the ground. Around the circle, sigils were carved into the old concrete. “Step inside, if you please.”
Valkyrie checked the time as she stepped into the circle. One minute until Tanith lit the Jericho Candle back in her time. She pocketed the phone and Cadaver took out his lock picks as he knelt, and went to work on the cuffs.
“So what’s the plan?” Valkyrie asked. “How do we change history?”
“We stop Creed,” Cadaver said, his lock picks clinking softly. “Without his plans, without the structures that he put in place, without the secrets only he knew, none of this would have happened. None of what I’ve lived through would come to pass.”
“Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that Creed’s dead,” Valkyrie responded, “what will happen to the people here? What will happen to you?”
“The versions of the people here will never get the chance to exist. There’ll be different versions. Happier versions, I hope. China Sorrows would definitely be happier. As for me, I’ll blink out of existence and be replaced with a more well-adjusted version. Whatever happens, I’m prepared to sacrifice it all in order to bring back everyone and everything that has been lost. Otherwise, what’s the point? What’s the point of the struggle, the constant pressure to win, the refusal to stay down, to admit defeat …? What does it all mean, Valkyrie? What does any of it mean?”
“I really hope you’re not expecting an answer.”
“Before you came along,” he said, “before we met at your uncle’s funeral, I was asking these same questions. I’d been around for hundreds of years and then, all of a sudden, the war was over. Soldiers became Operatives. I became a detective. The mortals were safe from evil sorcerers and it was our job to keep it that way. But all that death, all that pain and destruction and loss and trauma … what was it for? Was something new and grand forged in that furnace? Did we advance in great leaps and bounds because of it? Did we grow? Evolve? No. After centuries of fighting, we looked around, figured out what the normal was now, and we went back to it.”
The handcuffs clicked open and dropped, but Valkyrie frowned. “My magic isn’t coming back,” she said.
Cadaver stepped out of the circle. “Yes,” he replied.
“Why isn’t it coming back?”
“It will in a moment. When I allow it.”
Frowning, she tried following him. An invisible wall stopped her. “I don’t get it,” she said.
“The years can change a person, Valkyrie. They changed you. They certainly changed me.”
“Am I … Am I trapped?”
“You seem to be, yes.”
“Why have you trapped me, Skulduggery?”
“I’m not Skulduggery,” he reminded her.
“OK then – why have you trapped me, Cadaver? We’re friends.”
“We were friends,” he said. “Then you turned into an evil harpy and now, every time we see each other, you try to kill me. That can sour a relationship, it really can.”
“But I’m not her. You can’t blame me for something I haven’t done yet.”
“I can and I will,” Cadaver said. “But that’s not why I’ve trapped you. By now, Tanith will have lit the Jericho Candle. In a moment, I’m going to expel you from this time period and you’ll use the candle to guide you home. You won’t have a choice in the matter, I’m afraid.”
“Why?”
He gestured, and a gust of wind cleared the rubble and dust from the ground beside the circle. “Things have obviously not worked out well for me. For you, either, come to that. Someone needs to stop Creed’s Activation Wave. ”
“That’s what I’m going to do.”
“No,” he said. “Unfortunately, you’re going to fail. I have to be the one.”
“I’m sorry?”
He lay on the floor, placing his hat on his chest. “I’m going to be hitching a ride with you, Valkyrie. I’ve been experimenting with my life force over the last few years, but I’ve never actually possessed anyone before. I hope this isn’t too uncomfortable for you, but if it is – apologies in advance. Are you ready?”
“Wait. Stop. What do you mean? What’s going to happen?”
“Just close your eyes,” he said. “Can you smell the candle?”
“I’m not going anywhere till I get a—”
He tapped a sigil on the ground beside him.
The circle powered down and Valkyrie’s magic came back and then, before she could even move, it surged unexpectedly. It surrounded her, blinding her, the aroma from the Jericho Candle filling her senses, but there was something else in here, something new, a force, an entity. Cadaver.
Her lightning took her apart and she lost all sense of who she was and she became nothing but streaks of light and energy, rushing back to her own time.