destruction all around it. In the mirror I hardly recognised the man standing beside Molly. I ve been trained to be a field agent, trained to blend in anywhere and not be noticed, to look like no one in particular. The man before me looked damaged and angry and dangerous. Anyone sensible would run a mile from such a man. Molly was still a delicate china doll of a woman, with big bosoms, bobbed black hair, huge dark eyes and a mouth as red as sin itself. She looked as beautiful as ever to me, in her own eerie, threatening and subtly disturbing way. Right now she was looking at me as though wondering where I d come from.
I turned away from the reflection to look at Molly. I did my best to smile normally. I know, I said. But it s still me, Molly. You can have your Eddie back when this is all over.
When will it be over, Eddie?
When everyone who had any hand in this is dead, I said.
I looked around the room. Something about it troubled me.
I think I remember being here before when I was just a child. If this is the room I think it is. I would have been very small, maybe four or five years old. I d been brought here to meet my grandfather Arthur. Martha s first husband. I can t remember who brought me here, though. Isn t that odd? I m pretty sure it wasn t Martha. I can remember being brought into this room and meeting Grandfather Arthur, but not who brought me here or why.
Arthur Drood he seemed very old to me then, though he couldn t have been more than fifty or sixty. I remember he poured himself a cup of tea but it was too hot to drink, so he poured some of it into the saucer to cool it and sipped his tea from the saucer. Yes. I thought that was a great trick, and demanded to be allowed to try some. He smiled and offered me the saucer, and I took a sip, but I didn t like it. I pulled a face, and everyone laughed. Who laughed? Who else was in the room with me? Why can t I remember them? As though I m not supposed to, not allowed to
Wait a minute, said Molly. Hold everything. Go previous. I thought you said your grandfather Arthur died back in the fifties. You weren t even born then.
That s right, I said, frowning. He died in 1957, in the Kiev Conspiracy.
What was that? said Molly. Some old Cold War thing? Well before my time. And yours.
I don t know, I said. I was frowning so hard it hurt my forehead. There was something I couldn t quite remember, something just out of my reach. Something important.
I don t know the details of how he died. No one ever told me. It was just 1957, and the Kiev Conspiracy. Why did I never ask more about that? Why did I just accept it? I never used to accept anything they just told me. But I am sure I ve been here, in this room, before.
And then the ceiling came crashing down on us. No warning, not a sound; the ceiling just bulged suddenly out above us and then broke apart, everything coming down on our heads at once. I subvocalised my activating Words and called for my armour, but nothing happened. The armour didn t come. I froze where I was. I couldn t believe it. Molly threw an arm around me and thrust her other hand up at the descending ceiling. She said a very bad Word, and a shimmering protective shield appeared around us. The broken ceiling fell down, hit the shield and fell away, unable to touch us. The whole room shook as the entire ceiling came down in heavy chunks and pieces, followed by parts of the compressed floors above. Molly grabbed my arm and hauled me through the doorframe and out into the corridor. The shield came with us, still protecting us. Safely outside the room, Molly held me close as smoke and dust billowed out of the room after us. The room was filling up with wreckage from above, hammering loudly together as though annoyed it had missed its chance at us.
Molly dismissed the shimmering shield with an impatient wave of her hand and looked at me anxiously.
Eddie? Are you okay? What happened in there?
I raised a trembling hand to the golden torc at my throat. It was still there. It felt warm and alive, just like always. So why hadn t my armour come when I called it?
How long? I said numbly to Molly. How long have I been walking around with a useless torc at my throat? How long have I been naked and defenceless in the face of my enemies?
Eddie, take it easy.
You don t understand! I shouted at her.
I ve never been separated from my armour! It s been with me my whole life, in one form or another. First from the Heart and then from Ethel How can I be a Drood if I don t have my armour?
And just like that I was off and running, ignoring Molly as she called out behind me. I sprinted down rubble- strewn corridors, jumped over piles of collapsed brickwork, ignoring the angry sounds of shifting stonework all around me and heading for the one place in the Hall where I thought I might still find some answers. The one room you could always count on. The Sanctity. The heart of the Hall and of the family. I raced down broken corridors that were little more than death traps of holed floors and collapsed walls, staring straight ahead, thinking of nothing but where I needed to be. Running so hard my leg muscles ached, so fast I could barely get my breath. I could hear Molly running behind me, calling after me, but I didn t look back once. After a while she just concentrated on running and keeping up with me. I like to think it was because she trusted me to know what I was doing.
I ran on, and sometimes I ran through corridors that were there, and sometimes down corridors I remembered that were whole and undamaged. Sometimes I ran through memories of places and people, with ghosts of old friends and enemies. And sometimes I think I ran through rooms and corridors that weren t there anymore. Until finally I came to the Sanctity.
The great double doors had been smashed open and were hanging drunkenly, scarred and broken, from the heavy brass hinges. There should have been guards, Drood security; there should have been powerful protections in place. But they were just doors leading into a room. I stood there before them for a while, bent over and breathing harshly, trying to force some air back into my straining lungs. My back and my legs ached and sweat dripped down from my face. I could hear Molly catching up, but I didn t look back. I straightened myself up through sheer force of will and strode forward into the Sanctity, slamming the doors back out of my way with both hands. I didn t even feel the impact.
Inside the great open chamber, the walls stood upright and untouched and the ceiling was free from signs of assault or damage. The marble floor was dusty but unmarked. As though the enemy had never come here. But still the damage had been done. The great auditorium was empty, deserted; just a room. There was no trace of the marvellous rose red light that usually suffused the chamber when Ethel was manifesting her presence. The light that could soothe and rejuvenate the most hard-used spirit. Ethel, the other-dimensional entity I d brought to the Hall to replace the corrupt Heart to be a new source of power for the Drood family. A source of new, strange matter armour.
Ethel! I said her name as loudly as I could, so harshly I hurt my throat. My voice echoed in the great open chamber and then died reluctantly away. There was no response. Ethel? I said, and even to me my voice sounded like that of a small child asking for its mother. I stood alone in the Sanctity and no one answered me. I heard Molly behind me, at the door, but I didn t look around.
If she was anywhere, anywhere in the Hall, she d hear and answer you, said Molly. You know that. She s gone, Eddie. Gone, like everyone else.
If she were anywhere in the world, she d hear me, I said. No wonder my armour s gone.
I can t believe there is anyone or anything in this world that could destroy or even damage an other- dimensional entity like Ethel, said Molly, moving cautiously forward to stand beside me, careful not to touch me. Except perhaps another other-dimensional entity, and what are the odds of that?
They could have driven her away, I said. I felt empty. Forced her back out of this world. With all the Droods dead, what reason would she have to stay? And if she s gone, so is the source of our armour. No more Drood armour, forever. Perhaps that s why she chose to leave so our enemies couldn t force or coerce her into giving them her strange matter. Maybe that s why we ve only seen one armoured corpse. Because she took the rest of her strange matter with her when she left. After all, the Droods were dead.
Then why have you still got your torc? said Molly.
My hand rose to touch the golden collar at my throat again, and then I shook my head slowly. So many questions; so few answers. How can I be a Drood, the Last Drood, without my armour?
You still have your knowledge and your training, said Molly, practical as ever. She moved forward so she could look me in the face. I know you re going through a lot, Eddie, but if you don t snap out if this fast and start acting like yourself again, I am going to slap you a good one and it will hurt.
A smile twitched at the corner of my mouth. You would, too. Wouldn t you?
Damn right I would, Molly said briskly. You still have all your experience, all your old contacts there s still a
