Skulduggery hesitates -- again. Yes, alright, on second thought, perhaps this was a bad direction to take the conversation in.

"I'm not sure," he answers. "At the time, I thought we all survived that final battle. I didn't have time to stop and check. From what I've heard here, though... Saracen, Erskine, and Valkyrie."

Dexter probably shouldn't come as a surprise. Even if he'd survived, he wouldn't have been a Dead Man anymore. But somehow, news of his death did come as a surprise, and hearing about other deaths from Saracen while here in Keeliai... occasionally Skulduggery wondered what China had done with the country when it was missing half its sorcerers.