“The real Lord Vile,” Tenebrae said, “and I mean the fully powered Lord Vile, would have obliterated him. That thing he fought was mere… intention. It was simply the armour. Inside, it was empty.”
“Yeah,” Valkyrie snarled. “We thought of that. Vile’s ghost. That’s what it is. Vile’s ghost is controlling it.”
Tenebrae folded his hands in the sleeves of his robe. “Vile doesn’t have a ghost. He’s not dead. Skulduggery is the one controlling it.”
“No, I think you’ll find that he isn’t.”
“Not consciously,” Tenebrae said. “Not willingly. But Lord Vile is a part of him, a part of his subconscious. Evidently, that particular part of his subconscious has… broken away from the rest.”
“What you’re talking about is ridiculous.”
“No, Valkyrie, actually it’s not. Our dear friend Skulduggery is, and let’s be honest here, a little bit insane. He spent ten months being tortured by the Faceless Ones, didn’t he? When you rescued him, was he the same well-adjusted gent you knew and loved?”