Property of a Lady Faire (A Secret Histories Novel) (45 page)

All around the Ballroom, the blood-red men were clutching at their own fresh wounds.

“Well,” I said loudly, “this is interesting, isn’t it? You’re not untouchable any more, Laurence. And neither are your clones. When you get hurt now, you stay hurt. And so do they.” I looked around the Ballroom. “Ladies, gentlemen, others . . . I think it’s time for a little violent revenge. Don’t you?”

Laurence glared around him. “Stay where you are! I still outnumber you!”

“What are numbers?” said a new and very familiar voice, “in the face of retribution?”

The Replicated Meme of Saint Sebastian strode forward, together, all six of them. And something in their natural authority made everyone else fall back to let them pass. They strode forward to join us, Molly and me, Laurence, and the Lady Faire. And then, one by one, they removed their stylised metal masks, and immediately I understood why they’d all seemed so familiar. They weren’t the Replicated Meme at all. They were my uncle Jack, the Armourer; the Sarjeant-at-Arms; William the Librarian; Callan, Head of the War Room; and Capability Maggie, the new Matriarch. And the most powerful telepath in the whole world, joined to us by marriage, Ammonia Vom Acht. Uncle Jack smiled at me cheerfully.

“Stand ready, my boy. The cavalry just arrived.”

“How the hell did you get in here?” It wasn’t much, but it was all I could think to say.

“I still had James’ old invitation,” said the Armourer. “I was able to use that, to track down the Ball’s current location. And then it was easy enough for us to get in, hidden behind the masks of the Replicated Meme of Saint Sebastian. Who were only too willing to give up their current invitation and let us come in their place, after the Sarjeant had a few quiet words with them. Threatening, vicious, brutal words, I’m sure. Sorry we couldn’t let you know, Eddie, but . . . we had to save the element of surprise for just the right moment. You didn’t think we really believed all that nonsense about you being responsible for the killings at Uncanny, did you? You didn’t really think we’d leave you out in the cold again? We know you better than that.”

“We just let the world think we saw you as rogue,” said Capability Maggie. “So we could operate quietly in the background, working out what was really going on, while everyone else was watching you.”

“You did good work against the False Knights, boy,” growled the Sarjeant. “You must have seen me look at you, and let you go?”

“And we brought a little something with us!” William said brightly. “Something to even up the odds!”

“Don’t boast, darling,” said Ammonia. “You’re better than that.”

William nodded quickly. “It’s true. I am.”

“We brought a Door,” said Callan, smiling unpleasantly about him at the blood-red men. “A dimensional Door, to link the Winter Palace to Drood Hall. The Doormouse was most eager to make amends.”

The Armourer snapped his fingers imperiously, and a Door appeared in the middle of the Ballroom. Just an ordinary-looking wooden door, standing tall and wide and upright, and apparently completely unsupported. It swung open and a whole army of Droods in full armour came storming through into the Ballroom. Dozens, hundreds of golden-armoured Droods. More than enough to match the numbers of the blood-red men.

The Lady Faire’s guests fell back, hugging the far walls. They could see a massive clash between two armies about to happen, between golden masks and crimson masks, right in front of them . . . And they really didn’t want to be involved. They knew a grudge fight when they saw one. Laurence glared around him. He straightened up, his hands clenching into fists, and all the blood-red men did the same. And just like that, it was on.

The Droods and the clones slammed together, no quarter asked or given. Laurence tried to snatch the Lazarus Stone away from the Lady Faire, who had it clasped firmly in both her hands. She backed quickly away from him, losing herself in the crowd, and he went after her. I went after him.

Golden fists clubbed down blood-red men, and extended golden swords cut and hacked. The blood-red men fought fiercely, but they had no weapons. They’d never needed them before. And even their unnatural strength was nothing when set against Drood armour. The clones fell in bloody heaps all across the Ballroom, and they did not rise again. Some of them turned on Ammonia Vom Acht, seeing her as an easier target. She just looked at them, and they all fell dead. You don’t mess with the world’s most powerful telepath.

The Droods beat the hell out of the blood-red men, all across the room. I pushed my way through the fighting, ignoring the various struggles. I wasn’t even armoured up. I followed Laurence, until finally he caught up with the Lady Faire again by one of the exits, already blocked by Droods. He wrestled with her, crying angry tears of frustration as he tried to pry the Lazarus Stone out of her grasp. She fought him off, with a man’s strength. I grabbed Laurence by the shoulder and pulled him away from her. He jerked free, and spun round to face me. He had the red puffy face of an angry, thwarted child.

“It’s over, Laurence,” I said. “Time to go home. I’m sure they’ve still got your old Cell waiting for you.”

“I can’t go back,” he said. “I can’t.”

I sighed, despite myself. “We left you alone too long. So in a sense, we made this rod for our own backs. Time to let the Armourer and his lab assistants have a look at you. We’ve come a long way, since you were first locked up. There must be something we can do for you, by now.”

Laurence shook his head slowly, fixing me with his bright, fierce eyes. “They want me dead. Because I know things. All the awful secrets, all the hidden deals, all the terrible compromises . . . Let me go, Eddie, and I’ll tell you something you need to know. Something the whole family needs to know.”

“Laurence . . .”

“Let me go and I’ll tell you who’s really looking out from inside the Merlin Glass!”

Molly moved in beside me. “You can’t trust him, Eddie. He’d say anything. Kill him.”

“I can’t,” I said. “Not in cold blood.”

“Why not?” said Molly. “He killed your grandfather, and he lied about your parents. He would have messed up the whole world and not given a damn as long as he got what he wanted. And he’d do it again, first chance he got.”

“Yes,” said Laurence, nodding quickly. “Oh yes . . . They can’t hold me in Cell 13 any more. I’ll get out, and I’ll kill you all, kill everyone. You’ll see!”

“Put him out of everyone’s misery,” said Molly.

I could hear the fighting dying down behind me. I looked back, just in time to see the last few blood-red men go down. Laurence was all that was left now. If I was going to do something before my family did, I had to do it quickly. I reached into my pocket and the Merlin Glass leaped eagerly into my hand, snuggling against my fingers. I took out the hand mirror and Laurence looked at me oddly, his head cocked slightly on one side.

“For everything you’ve done, and for what you would do, given the chance,” I said. “For all our friends at the Department of Uncanny, and all the innocent bystanders on the Trans-Siberian Express. For all the blood on your hands, directly and indirectly, it’s time for judgement.”

“You won’t kill me, Eddie,” said Laurence. “You haven’t got it in you. Think of all the knowledge that would die with me.” He waited, and when my face didn’t change he spat at me. “I’m not sorry! I’m not! I only wish I could have killed more Droods. Because it was never an accident. There was no accident! They did this to me on purpose! I’m the victim here! You can’t kill me!”

“Anywhen else, you might have been right,” I said. “I like to think of myself as an agent, not an assassin. But after everything I’ve seen, I’m not in a merciful mood.”

I activated the Merlin Glass, and held the hand mirror out before Laurence. He looked into the Glass and froze at what he saw looking back. A slow, terrible horror filled his face. And as he stood there, I shook the Merlin Glass out to full size and slammed it down over him, and sent him away.

I brought the Glass back down to hand-mirror size and put it away. There were shocked gasps all around the great Ballroom as all the blood-red men, the wounded and the dead, suddenly disappeared, leaving only dark scorch marks on the floor. The Droods looked around them, and started to armour down.

“Eddie?” said Molly. “What did you just do?”

“I sent Laurence into the sun,” I said. “I needed to be sure he was dead and gone, and all his secrets with him.”

“Ashes to ashes, and less than ashes,” said Molly.

“We Droods have always known how to clean up our own messes,” I said.

I turned to consider the Lady Faire, and then put out my hand. “Give me the Lazarus Stone, please, my Lady. It’s over. The Stone belongs to the Droods. And just like you, my family never gives up anything that’s rightfully ours.”

The Lady Faire nodded slowly, and dropped the small pockmarked metal sphere onto my hand. It felt heavy, more than naturally solid, as I closed my fingers around it. The Lady Faire gave me an enigmatic smile.

“I’ll always remember you, Eddie. The one who got away.”

She smiled sweetly at Molly, and then turned and walked away, to talk with her guests. Molly looked after her, and then at me.

“I won’t ask,” she said.

“Best not to,” I agreed.

And then Molly snatched the Lazarus Stone out of my hand, and teleported away.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

What Really Matters, at the End

I
stepped through the Merlin Glass and into Molly’s private forest. The wild witch’s very own wild woods. Shafts of dazzling sunlight fell down through the packed trees, like spotlights pushing back the gloom from the overhead canopy, and, after the artificial cool of the ice cavern, the warm air of the endless summer was like a caress on my face. I shook the Glass down and put it away, never once taking my eyes off Molly, sitting quietly on the grassy bank overlooking her favourite pool. She didn’t look round, though she must have known I was there. She just stared into the deep dark waters of the pool, her face empty, her eyes far away.

I’d instructed the Merlin Glass to take me straight to Molly, and it hadn’t even hesitated. Molly hadn’t tried to hide where she was going. I stayed where I was, looking slowly and cautiously around me. We were not alone. All kinds of wildlife surrounded us—beasts and birds and other things. Some showed themselves openly, studying me with wary eyes. Others were just bright-eyed shadows, moving restlessly in the dark between the trees. All of them ready to rush in and protect Molly from me, should it prove necessary. I moved slowly forward, and Molly didn’t stir. I sat down beside her, on the grassy bank overlooking the pool.

She was holding the Lazarus Stone in one hand, almost carelessly, not even looking at it. She didn’t look at me, even as I arranged myself carefully beside her. She just stared into the deep dark waters before her, as though they were the most important thing in the world. As though they held all the answers to all the questions . . . We sat quietly together, side by side, as we had so many times before. This quiet setting had always been her favourite place in all the woods, where she would come to think and reflect, when she felt troubled. We sat so close our shoulders almost touched, but didn’t. I could have just reached out and taken the Lazarus Stone away from her, with or without my armour’s help, but I didn’t. Such a betrayal of trust would have ended everything between us.

“You knew I’d find you here,” I said, finally.

“Yes,” she said.

“Your favourite place. Your safe place. And even with the Merlin Glass to guide me, I don’t think I could have entered your woods without your permission. You let me in here. So why did you run?”

“Because I needed time to think,” said Molly.

“You always meant to snatch the Stone, first chance you got,” I said. “For yourself.”

“Yes,” said Molly.

“Why? Why do you want the Lazarus Stone? Who do you want to bring back?”

“My parents, of course!” Molly said angrily, looking at me for the first time, tears glistening unshed in her eyes. “I want my mum! I want my dad! You got your parents back; why can’t I have mine?”

“Because if you were to bring them back,” I said carefully, “to rescue them from their sudden deaths on Trammell Island . . . History would change so much, the odds are you and I would never meet. Never fall in love. And then think of all the amazing things we accomplished together. We saved the world, saved Humanity itself, from the Hungry Gods and the Great Satanic Conspiracy and so many other things. We saved my family from itself . . . The world is a better place because of us.”

“I know.”

“And we wouldn’t have each other, any more.”

“I know! Damn you, Eddie Drood. For making me choose.”

She gave me the Lazarus Stone, placing it carefully on my outstretched hand. It was very heavy for such a small thing. Heavy with the weight of potential responsibilities, perhaps. I held the Lazarus Stone for a long moment, and then I armoured up my hand and crushed the Stone to dust. It didn’t try to resist. I opened my golden glove and let the dust fall away, into the deep dark waters of the pool. It vanished in a moment, leaving no trace of its passing. Molly let out her breath in a long sigh, and then looked at me.

“Wasn’t there anyone you wanted to bring back, Eddie?”

She didn’t mention my uncle James. She didn’t have to.

“No,” I said. “There’s no one I want more than you.”

She slipped her arm through mine, and leaned against me, and we sat together by the pool for a long time, thinking of many things.

“Come on,” I said finally. “We can’t just sit around here forever.”

“I’m game if you are.”

“We have to get back to Drood Hall.”

“We do?” said Molly. “Why?”

“Since apparently I’m not a rogue after all, I need to bring my family up to date on a few things,” I said.

“Cut the apron strings, Eddie. Be your own man! You don’t need them.”

“They need me,” I said.

“Hold everything,” said Molly, sitting suddenly upright. “Whatever happened to that little box, the one your grandmother left you in her will? Do you still have it?”