I ripped the dead man s arm off and threw it away. Water ran like blood from the empty socket, but the dead man barely staggered. I punched him full in the face with my golden fist and knocked his head right off. The body didn t fall, so I kicked its feet out from under it and walked right over the thrashing body on the deck to get to the next. I waded into the army of the risen dead, striking about me with vicious strength. I showed them no mercy because they had none in them for Molly or me. I ripped them apart with my armoured strength, tearing them limb from limb, knocking them down and trampling them underfoot, because they were dead and beyond any pain. And because I didn t care. They were just in the way.
They swarmed around me, packing in close, trying to slow me down so they could pull me down. They clung on to me with their dead hands, beat against my armour with their bony fists, and scrabbled at my neck and face with clawed hands. And I just hit them until they fell apart and fell away. They were actually quite fragile after so long in the sea, and all of Crow Lee s power wasn t enough to make them a match for Drood armour. Anyone else might have found the dead men terrifying, even dangerous but for me, in my armour, they were just targets. I hit them and broke them and it felt good, so good. I smashed through their ranks, ripped them apart, tore off their heads and threw them aside. I picked some up bodily and threw them off the edge of the Pier and back into the sea. Where they belonged.
I fought my way into the heart of them, striking out through the curling mists, the dead pressing so close around me now I couldn t have missed them if I d tried. My golden fists made wet squelching sounds as they sank deep into rotting flesh and collapsed chests. I struck them down and walked right over them, hearing brittle bones crack and break under my heavy golden feet. They beat at me with their dead fists but they couldn t reach me inside my armour. Crow Lee thought he could frighten me, thought he could drag me down, because I didn t have my armour anymore without my family, because he thought I was just a man. He should have known better. On the worst day I ever had, I was still a Drood.
Dead hands slipped away from me as fists broke and shattered harmlessly against my armour. I didn t feel their attacks. Sometimes they threw their arms around me, several of them at once, trying to pull me down through accumulated weight and numbers; but I d just break their arms and throw them away again. Sometimes, several of them at once would hang on to my arms, and I could feel their squirming hands through the armour like bloated wet spiders. And then I d throw them off me so violently they left their hands behind and I had to scrape them off me. Torn off heads rolled back and forth on the bare floorboards and I kicked them around like footballs. Sometimes the mouths still moved, jaws opening and closing as though trying to say something. I didn t listen. It wasn t going to be anything I wanted to hear.
I struck them down, I tore them apart, picked them up and threw them away. And laughed while I did it.
Inevitably, some of the dead got past me, ignoring me to head straight for Molly. Probably seeing her as an easier target. More fools, them. I caught glimpses of Molly through the fog as I fought, her standing her ground, her face calm and thoughtful as she lashed out at them with all the magics at her command. She called lightning and it stabbed down through the fog, blasting bodies into pieces and setting others on fire. But some of them were so damp, so saturated with water from their time in the sea, the flames couldn t get a hold. Steam boiled off them, but they kept going. She gestured sharply, and some of the dead just exploded, chunks of rotting flesh flying through the air like soft shrapnel. The explosive spells worked well, but I knew how much that kind of magic took out of Molly. She could only target one dead man at a time. And there were so very many of them.
They pressed forward, reaching out to her with cold implacable hands, and she had no choice but to back away. She threw up a shimmering protective screen between them and her, and the dead men hesitated. Molly forced out a series of powerful Words, and the base of her screen dug deep into the floorboards, securing it in place. It had been powerful enough to hold off the shades in Egypt, but the raised dead were more solid. They pressed right up against the protective screen, throwing all their weight against it, and as more and more joined in, they slowly forced the shimmering screen back inch by inch. The screen s energies burnt dead flesh where it touched, but they didn t care. They couldn t feel it. They forced the screen back through sheer weight of numbers, and Molly had no choice but to back away before it.
The dead shouldn t have been able to do that. They were just bodies. But Crow Lee had put a power in them that would not be denied.
And it happened that I looked back just at the moment when the screen collapsed and the dead surged forward, reaching out for Molly. The fog seemed to hold back just so I could see it. And just like that, my cold and vicious rage fell away from me. Molly was in danger, and that was all that mattered. I turned round immediately and fought my way back through the army of the dead, desperate to get to Molly before the dead could get to her. The dead between us immediately closed together, blocking my way with their bodies, soaking up my increasingly desperate blows with their yielding flesh. And even though I struck them down and threw them aside, there were just so many of them. I d allowed myself to be drawn away, separated from Molly. I surged forward with all my strength, smashing through bodies like they were made of paper, and cried out to Molly.
Hold on, love! I m on my way! Hold on till I can get to you!
She heard me; I know she did. She looked right at me. But I was so far away and there were so many of them almost upon her. Both of us knew there was no way I could get to her in time. I screamed so hard it hurt my throat, fighting desperately to throw off the dead as they clung to me, grabbing at my legs to bring me down. I fought on, knowing it was useless. Knowing they were going to hurt her and kill her and drag her off with them down into the depths of the sea. I knew there was nothing I could do and I thought I d lose my mind.
But fortunately she was Molly Metcalf.
She yelled out to me to brace myself, and immediately I stopped fighting and grabbed on to the safety railings looming up out of the fog before me. I grabbed on with both hands, ignoring the dead men as they hammered at me, trying to pry me loose. They swarmed all over me and I ignored them and just hung on. Praying for a miracle.
And Molly came through. She carefully pronounced one really powerful Word, and a roaring wind came hammering down the Pier and swept the whole damned fog away. The wind blasted the fog right off the Pier and sent it back out across the sea and without its support the dead couldn t stay. They just faded away as the last of the fog dispersed and the raging wind swept the whole Pier clean.
The dead man who d spoken to me first was the last to go. He hung on somehow, intact, looking right at me with his eyeless face.
He ll never let us go, he said. He ll hold on to us, down in the depths, until he needs us again.
I ll get him for you, I said. I slowly let go of the railings and moved forward to face him. I remembered the vicious joy I d felt in fighting and destroying him and his kind, and I felt suddenly ashamed. If they really were just victims of Crow Lee s will, I d done them a terrible wrong. They were just innocent bystanders, caught up in the middle of a war.
I ll set you free, I said. Whatever it takes.
Why would you do that for us? said the dead man.
After everything we ve done, and would have done and will do again?
Because that s what I do, I said firmly.
Because I m a Drood.
Sorry, said the dead man, already fading away, with something that might have been a smile on his rotting mouth.
Never heard of you
The fog was gone, and the last of the day s sunlight washed from end to end of Brighton Pier. I looked out to sea, but there was no sign of fog anywhere. I armoured down and hurried back to join my Molly. I took her in my arms and held her tight, and she held me back just as strongly. And for a long moment we just stood there together. It was all very calm and very quiet. Eventually we let go of each other and looked around. Brighton Pier was back to normal. No trace left to show that anything had happened, except for a few wet footprints on the floorboards, already evaporating.
I am never letting us get separated again, I said. For a moment there, I really thought I d lost you.
For a moment there, you forgot that I can look after myself, Molly said sternly.
My head was all messed up, I said. All I could think of was fighting, and striking down my hated enemy. I was enjoying myself. I forgot all about you. Until I looked back and saw you in danger.
Molly looked at me steadily. Is it the rogue armour, Eddie? Is it affecting you?
