"Your mouth is running away from you again," Solomon murmured, and rose, glancing up at the ceiling. "These circles are the same. The one on the roof might not be related." The location was suspect and it might draw power from this room, but that didn't mean it and the portal these circles generated were intertwined.

Skulduggery's movement made him glance toward the skeleton again, and this time Solomon studied him. He'd never seen Skulduggery like this before, and even if he'd cared he couldn't have been sure whether it was a result of his current state or the presence of the armour as a contrasting force. Either way, Skulduggery's skeleton read differently to the armour, to the presence of pure Necromancy. In fact Solomon could almost see a bloom in the heart of him, like a spider-web of fractures which kept him bound.

He'd been killed by the Red Hand. It scoured away a person's soul until they were no longer bound to their body, separated them thread by thread. That hadn't happened to Skulduggery. There was, still, a connection there.

"I need to see the other portal," he said, but he was still staring, with his head slanted. Skulduggery looked, he thought, as though someone had shoved his soul out instead of properly cutting its ties. However did the Red Hand work? Interesting.