He shrugged, and tried his best charming smile. “Reverting to nature, I fear; my old self coming out again. You know how it is…”
“I’m really not in the mood for civilised chitchat,” I said, and there must have been something in my voice because he stood a little straighten “Talk to me, Blue. Tell me the truth. Or I might just let Strange have you.”
“Your time away has not mellowed you,” said the Blue Fairy. “Very well; I’m afraid I wasn’t entirely honest with you when I arrived. I only came here to help myself, not you. I wanted a torc. I wanted a golden Drood torc … so I could take it to the elves. Present it to the Fae Court and bargain its secrets for admittance to the elven realm. I’m tired of trying to live as a human, in the human world. I’ve never been very good at it. And after my near-death experience, I thought a lot more about the other side of my heritage. And it seemed to me that they might be kinder than you. In the end, it’s all about family, Eddie. The need to belong. You should understand that.”
“Your very existence is an abomination to the elves,” said Molly. “Breeding outside the fae blood is their greatest taboo. They’d kill you on sight, torc or no torc.”
“He knows that,” I said. “But hope springs eternal in the deluded heart. No torc, Blue, not for you. Not now, not ever.”
He nodded slowly. “And you’re not going to kill me?”
“I should. But I’ve already lost one friend today.”
“I did try to warn you, Eddie. Even half elves always have an agenda.”
“That’s right, you did. So here’s your choice. You can go, or you can stay.”
“That’s it?” said the Blue Fairy after a moment.
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t have the energy to be mad at you. But if you stay, and fight alongside us in the war that’s coming, you could win acceptance. And a place here. Friends can be a kind of family.”
“You shame me with your generous spirit,” said the Blue Fairy. “I’ll stay, and I’ll fight. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
I nodded to Molly, and she stepped aside from the door to let him leave. She waited until the door was firmly closed behind him, and then looked at me.
“Are you crazy? You can’t trust him! He’s half elf.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s why I want to keep him close, where I can keep an eye on him.”
“You humans, with your subtleties,” said Strange. “You’re far more frightening than I could ever be.”
Next, Molly and I went to visit the isolation wards in the infirmary, in the north wing. Neither of us wanted to, but we had to see how the infected Loathly One drones were doing. Twenty-eight now, including Sebastian. Twenty-nine, including Molly. I was ready to go on my own, but Molly insisted on accompanying me, and I couldn’t say no. Not when she was fighting so hard to hang on to her humanity.
The family has always trained its own doctors and nurses, to staff its own hospital. Partly because we don’t want the world to know that Droods can be hurt, even with their marvellous torcs, and partly because only we are equipped to deal with the kind of problems faced by Droods, in and out of the field. Our doctors have to be able to diagnose and treat all kinds of physical, spiritual, and unnatural accidents, everything from werewolf bites to long-distance curses to post-possession stress disorder.
Our infirmary equipment is extremely up to date, and sometimes even a bit beyond, but the place itself is still the traditional pale, paste-coloured walls, snotty matrons, and the faint but pervasive smell of boiled vegetables. Molly and I strode quickly through the wards, nodding briskly to the staff on duty. A few looked like they would have liked to object to our presence, but we were come and gone before they could put their objections into words. Most of the ward beds were occupied, far more than normal. Some were clearly dying, despite all the doctors could do for them. A small, cold part of me was glad to see that Harry had been as bad a leader as me, but I pushed the thought aside.
The isolation wards are tucked away in their own private annex. Essentially, they’re a series of heavily armoured, pressurised holding tanks with steelglass walls, designed to contain the more problematic patients, like field agents who’ve brought back a disease from some other dimension, or the seriously possessed. The only entry point to each tank is a closely guarded air lock, whose combination code is changed daily, just in case. There are only six tanks; we’ve never needed more. Now they were packed from wall to wall with the recently rounded up drones.
Molly and I moved slowly down the row of isolation tanks, nodding to the armed guards at each air lock door. Some of the drones came forward to beat on the heavy steelglass with their fists. Their voices came clearly to us through the built-on speakers, saying they were innocent, uninfected, this was all wrong, there’d been a terrible mistake. They called me by name and pleaded for my help. Others shouted threats and curses. But most just sat or stood quietly, their faces expressionless, waiting to see what would happen next. Waiting for us to drop our guard, just for a moment.
In the very last tank, Sebastian Drood came forward to stare mockingly at us as we stopped before the air lock. As the most dangerous, he had a cell all to himself. He looked normal enough now, though there was something wrong with his face, as though he’d forgotten how to look human. Or perhaps he just didn’t feel the need to bother any more. He nodded politely to me, and smiled at Molly. “Dear Molly,” he said. “How does it feel, to be one of us?”
“I’ll never be one of you,” she said steadily. “Whatever it takes.”
“Ah,” he said, shrugging easily. “You say that now…but we all start out feeling that way. We don’t turn ourselves in, like we know we should, because we’re different. We’re strong, we can beat this. We’ll never give in; no, not us. But after a time…you won’t want to fight it. In fact, you’ll embrace it. Because being human is such a small thing to leave behind.” He turned abruptly to look at me. “You haven’t told anybody about her, have you, Eddie? I counted on that. And by the time you realise how hopeless it is, it’ll be too late. Is that why you’re here, Eddie? To kill me before I can tell anyone what I did to dear Molly? Am I to be destroyed while trying to escape?”
“Say what you like,” I said. “No one will believe you. A drone would say anything, tell any lie, to try and undermine the family.”
“Then why are you here?” said Sebastian. “Hoping for a cure, perhaps? Don’t waste your time and mine. There isn’t one. Once someone is one of us, they’re one of us forever.”
“You could do yourself some good,” I said. “Win yourself some better treatment by agreeing to answer a few questions.”
“And don’t waste any time on lies,” said Molly. “I’d know.”
“Yes,” said Sebastian. “You would. Very well, ask your questions.”
“Who was the original traitor?” I said. “Who worked to persuade the family to bring the Loathly Ones back, in 1941?”
“Haven’t a clue,” Sebastian said cheerfully, leaning on the steelglass with his arms folded. “And in case you were thinking of threatening me with truth spells or cattle prods or whatever we use for interrogation these days, yes, I know we’re a hive mind, but we’re kept strictly compartmentalised. Each drone only knows what it needs to know, when it needs to know it. Basic security. I might have known who the traitor was once, but I am currently cut off from that area of knowledge. Or indeed any area that might help you. Same with all the drones here.”
“There are ways of digging out the truth,” I said. “Old ways. Of course, they can be very destructive, to the body and the mind…”
“Dear me,” said Sebastian, smiling widely. “Threats of death and torture, to a helpless prisoner? What are the Droods coming to?”
“The safety of the world has to come first,” I said.
“Oh it does, it does. But can you save the world by damning yourselves? Can you fight monsters by becoming monsters?” Sebastian’s tone was openly mocking now, though his face was utterly expressionless, not even trying to seem human anymore. “The Hungry Gods are coming, Eddie, and there’s not a damned thing you can do to stop us. No one’s ever stopped us. Hello, Freddie.”