Dark Days recap

Months after Skulduggery was dragged through the portal at Aranmore Farm, Valkyrie is still trying to get him back, while the Irish Sanctuary's new Grand Mage, Thurid Guild, forbids any rescue and treats her as a threat. She is also quietly training in Necromancy with Solomon Wreath, whose order believes she may be the Death Bringer they have been waiting for. Working with Tanith, Ghastly, China and the Teleporter Fletcher Renn, and forcing the cooperation of the killer Billy-Ray Sanguine, Valkyrie assembles the means to cross dimensions and reunites the Dead Men, Skulduggery's unit from the war. They cross into the Faceless Ones' dead world, find Skulduggery and bring him home. Meanwhile the armour of Lord Vile, a Necromancer general missing since the war, has a wearer again, and its return leaves bodies behind it, including the Torment's. Guild's secrets come out and he is removed; Erskine Ravel becomes Grand Mage with Ghastly and Madame Mist as Elders. Skulduggery is back, and nobody knows who Lord Vile is.

Previously: Stephanie Edgley inherited her murdered uncle Gordon's estate, met the skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant, took the name Valkyrie Cain and became his partner in a hidden world of sorcerers governed by Sanctuaries. She killed Nefarian Serpine with the Sceptre of the Ancients, then helped stop Baron Vengeous from using the Grotesquery to bring back the Faceless Ones, the dark gods driven out of the world by the first sorcerers. She learned that she is descended from the last of the Ancients, which is why such weapons answer to her. In the third case, a group called the Diablerie murdered Teleporters until they had cornered the last one, Fletcher Renn, and with him and the Grotesquery's remains they opened a portal at Aranmore Farm. A Faceless One came through; Grand Mage Eachan Meritorious, Elder Morwenna Crow, the traitor Elder Sagacious Tome and Mr Bliss all died, and Skulduggery drove the creature back through the portal and was trapped on the other side as it closed. Thurid Guild took over the Sanctuary and refused to attempt a rescue.

Months have passed. Valkyrie has kept working, mostly with Tanith and Ghastly, and has spent every spare hour on the only question that matters to her: how to reach a dimension nobody can find and bring back a man everyone else has written off. Grand Mage Thurid Guild has forbidden it, and his Sanctuary treats Valkyrie as a problem rather than an asset. She is also being hunted. There are people who want the last of the Ancients' line for their own purposes, and without Skulduggery there is nobody to make them think twice. Fletcher Renn, the Teleporter, stays close, and their friendship has become something neither of them is comfortable naming.

Valkyrie has been keeping something from her friends: she has been training in Necromancy, the magic of death and shadow, under Solomon Wreath, who is patient, courteous and plainly recruiting her. The Necromancers are waiting for a figure from their prophecies, the Death Bringer, who they believe will end the division between the living and the dead, and Wreath has ideas about who that might turn out to be. Meanwhile the practical problem takes shape. Crossing between worlds requires more than a Teleporter, and getting hold of what is needed means dealing with Billy-Ray Sanguine, which means catching him first.

To make the crossing survivable, Valkyrie needs people who have done impossible things before, so the Dead Men are called back together for the first time since the war: Erskine Ravel, Anton Shudder, Dexter Vex, Saracen Rue and Ghastly Bespoke, the unit Skulduggery ran during the fighting against Mevolent. They are older, scattered and out of practice, and they agree instantly. Guild's Sanctuary opposes the whole enterprise, so the operation is run around it. Valkyrie learns more about who Skulduggery was during the war than he has ever told her himself, and the Dead Men are careful about which parts they leave out.

The crossing is made. On the other side is a dead world under the Faceless Ones, and Skulduggery has been alone in it for months with things that do not think the way anything living thinks. They find him, and getting out is harder than getting in, with the dark gods aware of the intrusion and the way home held open by Fletcher for as long as he can manage it. They come back. Skulduggery is battered, thinner in some way that has nothing to do with bones, and unwilling to say a word about what he did to survive.

While the rescue was being run, something else came back. The black armour of Lord Vile, the Necromancer who fought as one of Mevolent's generals and vanished before the war ended, has a wearer again, and Vile is killing with the same efficiency he had a lifetime ago. Among the dead is the Torment, the ancient recluse who had outlived everyone who ever tried to move against him. Nobody can explain who is inside the armour or why he has chosen this moment to return, and the Necromancers, who might be expected to know, are unhelpful. Guild's grip on the Sanctuary weakens as it becomes clear he has been hiding something of his own.

Skulduggery is home, and the Sanctuary changes hands. What Guild had been concealing comes out, he is stripped of the office, and a new Council takes over: Erskine Ravel as Grand Mage, with Ghastly Bespoke and the veiled, near-silent Madame Mist as Elders. For the first time since Aranmore, the people running magic in Ireland are people Skulduggery can work with. Sanguine escapes as usual, the Torment is dead, and Lord Vile is loose with no explanation attached to him. Valkyrie keeps her partner and keeps her secret: she is still Solomon Wreath's student, still carrying Necromancy alongside her Elemental magic, and his order is still waiting to see whether she is the Death Bringer they have been promised.

The rescue works. Valkyrie, Fletcher and the Dead Men cross into the Faceless Ones' world and bring Skulduggery back, and he is himself again, or close enough, after a long stretch alone with the dark gods that he refuses to describe. Thurid Guild's grip on the Sanctuary does not survive the case: what he had been hiding comes out, he is removed as Grand Mage, and a new Council takes over, with Erskine Ravel as Grand Mage and Ghastly Bespoke and Madame Mist as his Elders, which puts a friend of Skulduggery's in charge for the first time in years. Billy-Ray Sanguine is still at large. The Torment is dead, killed by the figure in Lord Vile's armour, and that is the thread nobody can close: Vile is back after a lifetime, he is killing again, and no one can say who is inside the armour or why he has returned now. Valkyrie has also kept something to herself. She is training as a Necromancer alongside her Elemental magic, Solomon Wreath's order believes she may be the Death Bringer of their prophecies, and Skulduggery is not going to like any part of that when he finds out.