shook his head. “Nothing better than what you got. Kicking down doors sounds good to me.”
“It’s a terrible plan.”
“It’s our only plan.”
“On the bright side,” said Valkyrie, “China’s people might locate Coldheart Prison any moment now, and when they do they’ll storm it and it’ll all be over and none of this will matter.”
“Exactly!” Temper said. “The fate of the world might not be resting on our shoulders. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of that.” He looked at them both and smiled. “I don’t know about you two, but I am pumped for this. Really. I’m not even being sarcastic. Not even a little. At all. In the slightest.”
Whatever disagreements Skulduggery had with China meant little or nothing now, and Valkyrie sat with the Supreme Mage on the highest balcony overlooking Roarhaven and told her everything. China listened and nodded and asked clarifying questions, and when Valkyrie was finished a silence settled and Valkyrie felt relief. Relief that she had unburdened herself, relief that the problem was shared and relief that someone else could take charge from this point on.
It was raining. From up here, the streets looked slickly smooth, the rooftops polished to a slippery gleam. People hurried, wearing coats or carrying umbrellas or manipulating the rain to divert around them. She could hear the faint splashes of cars driving through puddles. It was wet and cold everywhere but on the balcony – on the balcony it was warm and dry.
“Abyssinia,” China said. “I never thought I’d have to speak that name again.”
“Skulduggery said you were friends.”
China’s eyebrow raised a fraction. “That’s a strong word. But maybe, yes. How much did he tell you about her?”
“Enough to scare me.”
“If you’re only scared, he must have left out some of the more unsavoury aspects of her story.”
“She was that bad?”
“She was worse.”
“Has Lilt said anything about her?”
A flicker of annoyance passed across China’s flawless face. “He is proving to be most obstinate,” she said. “Our Sensitives are having trouble getting past his defences. He’s already sent the City Guards into a booby-trapped apartment – it was a miracle no one was killed. I can arrange for you to see him, if you want. Maybe he’ll talk to you.”
“You’ve got trained investigators,” Valkyrie replied. “You should stick with them.”
“Lilt won’t even talk to them any more. He knows about Smoke turning Skulduggery. Maybe he’ll want to gloat about it. It might be an opening you can use.”
“China, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
China stood up, walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down, then turned. “What’s wrong with you?”
Valkyrie blinked. “I’m sorry?”
China waved a hand at her. “This. You. What’s wrong? What happened to turn you from the feisty warrior I knew and loved to the nervous, apologetic woman I see before me?”
“I quit,” said Valkyrie. “That’s what happened. I walked away.”
“Why?”
“How can you ask me that? You know why. You were there. You saw what Darquesse did to this city.”
“Yes,” China said. “I saw what Darquesse did. Not you. Darquesse.”
“Everything she did is on me.”
“You don’t believe that. You can’t. If you believed that, you wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. The guilt would have already hammered you into the ground. Do you bear some responsibility? Yes. But not all of it. Not even most of it.”
“Even some of it is enough.”
“You’re lying.”
Valkyrie stood up. “Excuse me?”
“You’re lying,” China repeated. “What else happened? What did you do that made you walk away?”
“Being responsible for the deaths of over a thousand people whose names and faces I will never know … that isn’t enough for you?”
“It isn’t.”
“Then I don’t know what to say to you, China. I don’t know how I can—” Her voice caught suddenly, and tears came to her eyes.
China waited.
Valkyrie swallowed and looked away again, feeling the sting in her throat that warned her she was about to cry. She growled instead, and that made China smile.
“That’s a little of the old Valkyrie,” she said. “You always did hate to show weakness.”
But Valkyrie shook her head. “Wasn’t weakness I hated,” she said. “It was losing control.” She swallowed again, took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “It wasn’t the thousand faces I didn’t know. It was the one face I did.” Valkyrie put her hands through her hair, fixing it, recognising even as she did so what a transparent attempt at nonchalance it was. “I needed the Sceptre of the Ancients to fight Darquesse, but it was bonded to my sister.”
“And you couldn’t use it until it was bonded to you,” China said slowly. “So you …”
“I killed her,” Valkyrie said. “She was dead for a few seconds, long enough for the bond to be severed. I used the Sunburst to revive her, the Sceptre bonded with me and I used it against Darquesse. All’s well that ends well.”
“It must have been an unimaginably difficult thing to do.”
“To murder my sister? I’ve done easier things.”
“But you revived her.”
“But I murdered her. You can say your part as much as you like – my part will always be louder. That’s why I walked away.”
“And yet you came back.”
“That may have been a mistake.”
China folded her arms, her chin dipping to her chest. “What you had to do, for the greater good, was horrible. So, if you’ve lost your nerve, tell me. Just tell me and get it over with. I’ll hug you and send you on your way. I’ll give you a squad of Cleavers to protect you until all this is over, and we’ll stop them from resurrecting Abyssinia ourselves.” She raised her eyes. “Is that what you want, Valkyrie?”
Valkyrie looked
