For some moments Solomon didn't answer in favour of working the stone with the shadow-scalpel, letting those words sink in and turning them over in his head. He and Skulduggery had also discussed Malicant's motives, and Solomon had wondered whether Malicant needed the help to properly cross the planal boundaries.

If Malicant had, all this time, been intending to piggy-back on the Foreigners, then--no, it made no sense. "If that's true," Solomon said finally, "why has he waited this long? He implied there were other sets of Foreigners, that he is Asti. If there were other Foreigners, why didn't he do it earlier?"