Secret Histories 10: Dr. DOA (41 page)

“How have you stayed hidden from everyone?” I said. “From Ethel?”

“I made an accommodation with the Merlin Glass,” said Edmund. “Or rather, with Something I found inside it.”

“Something?” I said. “Or Someone?”

“That’s my business,” said Edmund. “The point is, I’ve been able to keep my presence hidden from all manner of prying eyes. Including that dimensional parasite you all bow down to.”

Molly stepped forward suddenly, fixing Edmund with a fierce, dangerous look. “You must have a cure for the poison you use. That’s all I care about. Save my Eddie, and I give you my word I won’t kill you.”

“A cure?” said Edmund. “Are you mad? There is no cure! I brought the poison with me from my world. Just a little something I used to have fun with. I never even looked for a cure. Why would I?”

Molly made a low, defeated sound. I understood how she felt, but I still had work to do.

“Well,” I said. “I guess everyone has to face their evil twin at some point. You brought me here. Now what?”

“You were supposed to be dead long before this,” said Edmund. “I’m still not entirely sure why you’re not. Must be something to do with your armour having a different source than mine.”

“Where does your armour come from?” I said. “When I searched the Other Hall, when it was here . . . the Heart had already abandoned it. And you never had an Ethel.”

“Like I’d tell you,” said Edmund. “All that matters is, I can’t bear to have you around any longer. Your mockery of me, your very existence, offends me.”

“Funny,” I said, “I feel the same way about you.”

“Thought you might,” said Edmund. “Come on, you know some things are just inevitable.”

We both armoured up in a moment and went for each other. Molly
backed quickly away, but I barely noticed. All I could think of was getting my hands on Edmund. My shadow self; my murderer. We slammed against each other with the force of living mountains. Golden fists pounded featureless masks, with a sound like golden bells dying. I couldn’t hurt him, and he couldn’t hurt me . . . but we tried. With all our strength and passion, we tried.

We each struck terrible blows that would have shattered walls and brought down buildings. We beat and clubbed at each other, and our armour took it all. We fought and wrestled, equally strong, equally matched. I grabbed up a workstation and broke it over his head. He threw me through a metal tower. We raged back and forth through the Armoury, breaking everything we touched and smashing through everything that got in our way. Now and again we’d snatch up some abandoned weapon and try it on each other. But though the air shimmered with strange energies, and fires started up all around, we never came to any harm. We were Droods in our armour, and nothing could touch us. We rampaged up and down the length of the Armoury, sometimes wrapped in explosions from the things we destroyed, like the only real things in a paper world.

Driven by a rage not born of reason.

Until Molly suddenly yelled for both of us to stop. And there was something in her voice that commanded our attention. We broke apart, both of us breathing hard from our exertions, and turned to look. Molly was standing by a hidden control panel she’d uncovered in one wall. Her hand hovered over a big red button.

“This is the Armoury’s self-destruct control,” she said loudly. “For when the Alpha Red Alpha Protocol can’t be used, but the Armoury still has to be destroyed to protect the Hall. Your uncle Jack showed it to me, Eddie, because he thought someone outside the family should know. Just in case. He trusted me to do the right thing, when it mattered. The forces this button will unleash are enough to finish off even a Drood in
his armour. They had to be, to ensure the Armoury was completely destroyed. So stand down, Edmund. Or I swear I’ll kill us all.”

“Now, why would you do that?” said Edmund. He sounded honestly curious.

“Eddie’s dying,” said Molly. “If you can’t or won’t save him, then I have no reason to let you live. And I don’t want to live, without my Eddie. At least this way I get to take you with us.”

Edmund armoured down. He smiled at me, and winked at Molly. “Nicely played. But the game’s not over yet. And you won’t kill me until you’re sure I’ve told you the truth about a cure.”

The Merlin Glass shrank down to mirror size. Edmund grabbed it out of the air, turned, and ran for the rear of the Armoury. I armoured down as Molly came running over to hold me. I clung to her like a drowning man. We were both shaking.

“Was that button really . . . ?” I said.

“Yes.”

“Were you bluffing?”

“I’ll never tell,” said Molly.

“We have to go after him,” I said, “before he can escape through the Merlin Glass.”

“How do you know he hasn’t already?” said Molly.

“Because he’s still got something planned,” I said. “He must have some kind of trap set up, just in case he couldn’t finish me off.”

“Then let’s go trigger his trap and break it over his head,” said Molly. “And then feed him the pieces.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said.

We went after Edmund, taking our time because we knew he wasn’t going anywhere. But when we finally caught up with him, at the far end of the Armoury . . . I was still shocked to see what he was doing. Someone had brought the Alpha Red Alpha mechanism up from under the Armoury. And Edmund was at the controls.

It looked just as big and complicated and unnerving as I remembered. A huge plunging waterfall of solid crystal, with glowing wires running through it like multicoloured veins. Etched from top to bottom with row upon row of ancient abhuman symbols. So old I didn’t even recognise the language. And inside all of that, a massive hourglass some twenty feet tall. Wrought in solid silver, with glass so perfect it was barely visible. The top half was full of shimmering golden particles, which Edmund had just set in motion. They tumbled into the lower half with slow, terrible purpose.

I moved cautiously forward with Molly close at my side, trying not to be noticed. Edmund, intent on the controls, didn’t even look up.

“What’s he doing?” Molly murmured.

“Nothing good,” I said quietly. “No one’s really understood how that mechanism works since Uncle Jack died.”

“Who knows what Edmund knew, in his own world?” said Molly.

A Doorway suddenly appeared, not the usual kind; it was more a tear in reality itself. Edmund left the Alpha Red Alpha mechanism and plunged through the new opening. I ran after him, with Molly racing along at my side, and all I could think was,
I can’t let him get away. Not after all this . . .
I ran through the Doorway, and then stopped so abruptly, Molly had to hang on to my arm to stop herself.

We were in the ruins of a wrecked and abandoned Armoury. I’d seen it before, in the Other Hall, from Edmund’s world. I heard a sound behind me, and spun round just in time to see Edmund slip back through the Doorway. Turning, he laughed once in my face, and then the tear in reality disappeared. Shut down from the other side.

“Open it!” said Molly. “We have to go after him!”

“We can’t,” I said numbly. “Look around. There’s no Alpha Red Alpha mechanism in this Armoury. We’re trapped here. He’s won.”

We stood together, in the Armoury of the Other Hall, in a different world. With no way home.

Shaman Bond
Will Return
in

MOONBREAKER

Simon R. Green
is a
New York Times
bestselling author. He lives in England.

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