Live and Let Drood: A Secret Histories Novel (17 page)

I leaned forward and peered through the hole I’d made. Molly immediately moved in close behind me, breathing hard on my neck.

“Well? Well? What do you see?”

“Can’t see a damned thing,” I said.

“Are you sure there aren’t any mummies in there?” said Molly. “I’ve always been just this little bit freaked out when it comes to mummies. Ever since I saw that old mummy film with Boris Karloff on late-night television when I was a kid.”

“I liked the Hammer version,” I said, “with Christopher Lee.”

“Blasphemer.”

“Listen for the beat of the cloth-wrapped feet.…No, that was a later one. Wasn’t it?”

“It’s all about the bandages,” said Molly, squeezing in close beside me so she could see into the hole, too. “The feeling that it was only the rotting bandages that were holding the mummy together…”

She brought her glowing hand forward and sent cheerful amber witchlight through the gap I’d made and into the chamber beyond. It looked like just another stone chamber, but this time with a raised slab in the centre of the dusty floor that bore a small wooden box. I took my time looking the chamber over, but I couldn’t see anything else.

“That’s it?” said Molly. “That tiny box is what we came all this way to find? Oh, is it a wishing ring? I’ve always wanted one of those.”

“That is very definitely it,” I said. “Just as Uncle Jack described it to me. And, no, it is not a wishing ring. They’re just myths and legends.”

“Lot you know,” said Molly. “Get out of the way.”

She shouldered me aside and thrust her arm into the gap, reaching for the box on the raised slab. I stuck my face into the gap with her. It soon became clear that she couldn’t touch the box. Every time her fingers came anywhere near it, they seemed to just slide away…no matter how hard she tried, or how much she swore.

“Told you,” I said after a while. “It’s protected in a very small and subtle way; only Droods can touch it.”

Molly jerked her shoulder back out of the hole, stretched her arm a few times and then glared at me. “You did not tell me that, or I would have remembered. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to see if the story was true,” I said. “There are a lot of stories about this place, about this box and what it contains. Once people found out that Uncle Jack had told me the secret, they couldn’t wait to come forward and confuse the issue with all the different versions of the story they’d heard. I needed to see if this box is what it’s supposed to be, so I can be sure the thing inside the box can do what I need it to do.”

“So I’m your lab rat?” said Molly. “Your canary in a cage? Are you about to use the words
booby trap
, by any chance?”

“I was pretty sure my being here would defuse them,” I said. “Anyway, I knew you could look after yourself. If you had to. If anything went wrong. Besides, I was here. I would have protected you.”

“You are so full of yourself, Eddie.”

“I’m a Drood.”

“Same thing.”

I reached through the gap and my golden fingers immediately locked onto the box. In fact, it seemed almost to leap into my hand, as though it had been waiting all these ages just for me. I pulled my arm back and held the box out on the palm of my metal hand. Molly leaned in for a really close look, while being very careful not to touch any part of it. I had to say, after coming all this way and placing all my hopes on it, it didn’t look like much. Just a small, flat, square box made from some dark wood, with Druidic stylings carved into the lid. Molly finally decided enough was enough and reached forward to lift the lid. Only to find she still couldn’t touch it.

“Told you,” I said. “This is a Drood secret. Only Droods can access Drood secrets.”

“If I wasn’t so eager to see what’s inside the box and you weren’t the only person here who could open it, I would drop-kick you right through that wall,” said Molly.

I rolled the armour up my arms and back into my torc and then gently ran one fingertip across the lid of the box. It sprang open of its own accord, reacting immediately to Drood contact. Molly and I watched the lid rise, holding our breath. And there inside the box was an old-fashioned compass. Copper surround, glass top, ivory base and a lead needle. There were no markings anywhere on the ivory base.

“
A compass
?” said Molly. “It really is just a compass? I may spit. We came
all this way for a bloody compass
?”

“Getting a bit loud there, Molly,” I said. “We don’t want to disturb the neighbours.”

“What use is a compass with no directions?” said Molly. “Or is this supposed to be some kind of Zen thing?”

“Wait,” I said, trying hard to sound confident. I tapped the clear
glass with one bare fingertip and the needle immediately spun round and round before settling firmly on one direction. And then, no matter how much I shook the compass, the needle wouldn’t nudge from its chosen direction.

“Okay, I am seriously confused now,” said Molly. “Tell me there is an explanation on its way, Eddie, or there is going to be serious trouble breaking out right here, right now.”

“When we finally have the means to go after my family,” I said, “This compass will point whatever device we end up using in the right direction. It will provide exact coordinates. That’s what it’s for. No matter where my family is now, no matter how far from our reality Alpha Red Alpha has sent them, they can’t be hidden from this.…It was created for this one vital purpose: to point to my family.”

“All right, I’ll bite,” said Molly. “How does it work? And why can’t I touch it?”

“Well, basically,” I said. “Very basically…the compass locks onto Drood DNA. Our whole bloodline is…unique. Right back to our beginnings. The Heart had to make subtle alterations in our DNA to make us compatible with our torcs and armour. To make sure no one without Drood blood could ever use them against us. Ethel did offer to change us all back when she gave us our new torcs, but she couldn’t be sure what the side effects might be. So I said, ‘Thank you, but no. Respect what works, and leave us the way we are.’ ”

“So Droods…aren’t human?” said Molly.

“Think of us as more…human plus,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Molly. “You would think that. Are you sure Ethel didn’t make any changes to your family’s DNA to make you compatible with her strange matter? I mean, that stuff nearly killed you the first time it got into your system.”

“She swears she didn’t. And I don’t see why she’d want to hide it when she’s been so open about everything else.”

“Yes, but…”

“I know. We have to trust her, Molly. Because my family doesn’t have any other source for our armour. Don’t you trust her?”

“I like her. She’s very likeable. But you’ve always been far too trusting, Eddie.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I know.”

We looked at each other for a long moment and then both decided that this was a subject for another time. We looked back at the compass, sitting there so quietly and patiently on my palm.

“This compass is specifically attuned to our altered Drood DNA,” I said. “It’s powerful enough to detect it and point to it, no matter where it may be. In this world or out of it.”

“What powers the compass?” said Molly. “I mean, there’s not much of it.”

“I was afraid you were going to ask that. I did ask the Armourer, and he gave me a half-hour speech that had all my little grey cells lined up and kicking the crap out of one another. Let’s just say one of our previous Armourers hit this thing with the science stick until it agreed to work…and leave it at that.”

“Hold everything. Go previous. Hit the hand brake,” said Molly. “You said this whole scheme was cooked up centuries ago. Are you telling me Droods knew about DNA way back then?”

“Who knows what my family knows, or when they knew it?” I said. “Though I have a sneaking suspicion, from certain hints Uncle Jack couldn’t keep himself from dropping, that time travel may have been involved at some point. I hate time travel; it really messes with your head.…”

And then both our heads came up as we looked around sharply. We stood very still, listening.

“Did you just hear something?” said Molly.

“I was really hoping that was just me,” I said. “What did you hear?”

“Something moving. Something that might have been footsteps…”

“Listen for the beat of…”

“
Shut up
!
”

We looked carefully around us, Molly holding her left hand high to spread the witchlight evenly around the chamber. She even raised the
intensity of the light, making the shadows seem very deep and very dark. Molly moved her hand jerkily back and forth, and shadows jumped violently all around us. But there was definitely no one else in the chamber.

“When I broke into the adjoining chamber,” I said slowly, “it is entirely possible that I broke all the original Drood seals and protections. In which case none of this is hidden anymore from the eyes of the world. The whole place probably lit up like a beacon. If someone was lying in wait, keeping an eye on things here…”

“Then they just got an eyeful,” said Molly. “Any chance this watching someone might be Crow Lee or one of his people?”

“Seems likely,” I said. “If he’d learned enough about my family’s secrets to remotely control Alpha Red Alpha, who knows what else he knows? You don’t get to be the Most Evil Man in the World without keeping three steps ahead of everyone else. Whoever’s watching knows what’s just happened. They might not know exactly what was hidden here, but they must know it’s out in the open now and vulnerable.”

“So they’ll be coming for it,” said Molly.

“Seems likely,” I said.

“They’re already here,” said Molly. “That’s what we heard. It’s mummies. I just know they’ve sent mummies after us.…”

“Look on the bright side,” I said. “Might not be mummies; could be daddies.”

“Really not helping here, Eddie! I hate mummies! They’re going to come crashing through the walls, I just know it, dusty old things wrapped in rotting bandages, and they’ll wrap their horrible arms around me, and…”

“Easy, girl. Easy! I can see years of therapy starting right here.” I put my hands on her shoulders and gripped them comfortingly. “Molly…What are you so scared of? You’re the wild witch of the woods, free spirit of anarchy and queen of all the wild places!”

“If fears were rational,” said Molly, with some dignity, “they wouldn’t be fears. Would they?”

“How old were you when you first saw this mummy film?”

“Five. Maybe six.”

“Well, you’re not five or six anymore. You’re not a helpless child anymore. You are a very grown-up, very powerful, very adorable and only sometimes scary adult. Anything in bandages turns up, you set fire to it and I will stamp it into the floor. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Molly. “Thanks, Eddie. What are you afraid of?”

“Losing you.”

She smiled. “You say the nicest things, sweetie.” And then she stopped and held herself very still, only her eyes moving. “Look around you, Eddie. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Our shadows are moving…and we’re not.”

“In fact,” I said, holding myself very still, too, “there are far too many shadows in this chamber. The enemy is with us, Molly. On guard.”

I armoured up, the cold metal rushing over me in a moment. I kept the compass enclosed with one hand inside the armour. Molly sent up a ball of witchlight from her hand to bob against the low ceiling, providing illumination while leaving her hands free to do more destructive things. We moved quickly to stand back-to-back, without having to discuss it. We’d danced this dance before. I actually felt a lot better now that I had a proper enemy to confront. Shadows danced wildly all around the stone chamber, deep and dark and menacing. Full of an awful, inhuman life. They took on human shapes, distinct but distorted, the better to terrify us, and entirely separate from Molly and me…leaping and jumping, stretched across the bare stone walls. They had nothing to do with Molly’s witchlight; they were something from outside. No faces on their dark heads, not even any eyes, but still the shadows seemed to know exactly where Molly and I were.

They whipped around the chamber, circling us like sharks, darting in and out, peeling themselves away from the walls to threaten Molly and me with sudden sharp movements. Dancing like demons, jumping and stretching and moving closer to us with every attack. They swirled around us, leaping and looming. Mocking, maddening things.

“Can I just quietly remind you that self-control would be a very good thing right now,” I said quietly to Molly. “One destructive blast in
the wrong place might well bring this whole place down on our heads. And we really are a very long way underground.…”

“Like I need you to tell me that,” said Molly. “Self-control, carefully aimed destruction and brutality and viciousness at close quarters; that’s what’s needed here. Look at the stupid things jumping up and down and trying to be scary.…We can handle a bunch of shadows.”

I smiled briefly behind my mask. “Of course we can. We are, after all, professionals.”

And then all the shadows attacked at once, plunging in at us from every direction, striking like solid things with solid blows and supernatural strength. Suddenly they all had huge brutal fists and clawed hands…and a lot of good that did them against my armour. Jagged claws clattered loudly across my golden face and neck and raised showers of sparks as they skidded across my armoured chest; doing no damage at all. I actually relaxed a little. I hadn’t been entirely sure the rogue armour would be as strong and secure as the strange matter I’d grown used to. Shadows smashed and slammed into me from every direction at once, and one dark force hammered into my chest like a battering ram, making my armour sound like a great bell. But they couldn’t even rock me back on my feet.

The shadows retreated for a moment, shaken.

Molly filled the chamber with all manner of fierce and dangerous light, throwing mystic attacks at every moving shadow. Terrible energies flared around her hands, and the close air trembled with the impact of the Words she spoke. Dark leaping things exploded as her energies overpowered them, but most of the shadows just opened up holes inside them so that her magics flashed right through them without touching or affecting them at all. They came at her again and again, but she’d already surrounded herself with a shimmering screen that kept them back. The shadows beat at it with their dark fists and cut at the screen with their barbed claws, and none of them even came close to breaking it. I could feel the presence of the protective screen even through my armour. A tingling, not unpleasant sensation.