Major Michaels held his injured hand tightly with the other.
Afterwards, he said tightly, he ll give you to me. And I ll show you what pain really is. You re going to be mine, Drood.
You re not my type, I said.
The major knocked loudly on the door, though I noticed he handled the crucifix rather gingerly, for all his fine words. A happy voice beyond the door called for us to enter. The major pushed open the door, and the soldiers bustled Molly and me through and into Crow Lee s lair.
They threw us on the floor before him. On our knees before the master of the house. I forced my head up and looked round the room, deliberately ignoring Crow Lee. By comparison to the hallway, the room seemed calm and cosy, comfortable, even civilised. A country gentleman s study, with old-fashioned furniture, bookshelves, objets d art and colourful prints on the walls. Crow Lee sat at his ease before us in an oversized armchair big enough to handle his huge frame. The burns Molly had given him in the club library were already gone from his face. Beside him stood his bodyguard, Mr. Stab. He looked down at Molly and me, at our bloodied and broken state, and I thought for a moment he might say something, but he didn t. He just stood there where he d been told to stand, and nothing moved in his face. Crow Lee looked at Molly and me and chuckled happily.
My, my. We have been in the wars, haven t we? But it s a good look for you, Drood. You can go now, Major, and take your men with you. Our words are not for your ears. Clean up my gardens and make sure they re secure, but don t go too far. Just in case I have need of you again. For executions and the like.
Major Michaels nodded stiffly, started to leave and then stopped and came back to hand over the Twilight Teardrop to Crow Lee. He then strode out of the room, not looking back, and his soldiers hurried out after him. The door shut itself behind them. Crow Lee held the ruby pendant in the palm of his hand, and it looked so much smaller and less potent in his huge paw. Crow Lee smiled briefly and then closed his great hand around the Twilight Teardrop and crushed it. I expected bright lights to shine out from between his fingers or strange bloodred energies to manifest and fly about the room, but the ruby just cracked and splintered in his grasp, and when he opened his hand, brilliant red fragments fluttered sadly to the floor.
I ve never allowed myself to become dependent on such toys, he said. So why leave it lying around for someone else to make use of it? He smiled happily down at Molly, slumped in place before him, dripping blood on his expensive carpet. Welcome to my pleasure dome, my country retreat, my private world. Everything here is exactly how I want it. Right down to the books on my shelves, bound in the flayed skin of ruined enemies, and the antique furniture, spoils of war from my feuds with well, I won t call them my peers. My now-deceased competitors. And did you see my door knocker? Of course you did. Ah, the old blasphemies are the best. Don t you agree? It s actually a bit of a strain sometimes, keeping up with what s required of me as the Most you know. He would have been my son, you see, the door knocker. If his stupid sow of a mother hadn t tried to blackmail me. It s not that I begrudged her the money, you understand. It s just that I can t stand ingratitude.
But before we begin the hard talking, Edwin Drood A surprise! A little divertissement! Behold!
He waved one large hand, and the concealing illusion at the side of his chair disappeared, revealing two naked women wrapped in glowing chains, held in place by a cold iron chain that stretched from Crow Lee s chair to the collars round their throats. They were Isabella and Louisa Metcalf. They both looked like they d taken hard beatings and hadn t been fed in some time. Molly looked at her sisters for a long moment.
No wonder I couldn t make contact with you, she said finally. No wonder no one knew where you were. How the hell did Crow Lee capture you?
Oh, I didn t, Crow Lee said immediately, leaning back in his chair and clearly enjoying himself. Your sisters came to me of their own free will, the little darlings. Tell your dear sister the story, my pretties.
Molly looked at me. Eddie, stop looking at my sisters while they re naked.
I m flattered you think I m in any state to give a damn, I said.
It s the principle of the thing, she said.
I can have you both gagged, if you prefer, said Crow Lee. He d stopped smiling. We weren t playing the game the way he wanted. No? Then behave yourselves. Isabella, tell them why you came to me and begged for my help.
I talked with Louisa, said Isabella, steadily meeting Molly s cold gaze. We agreed we needed new help and support if we were to punish the Droods and bring them down. Because you didn t care anymore, Molly. They killed our parents! And you were living there in the Hall! With one of them!
I m not with them, said Molly. I m just with Eddie.
We couldn t rely on you anymore, said Isabella. You d gone over to the enemy. So we needed a new, powerful ally. Someone who hated the Droods as much as we still did. I remembered you saying you d worked with Crow Lee in the past, so I used your name to get invited here. Louisa insisted on coming along. She thought it would be fun.
And you told him all about Alpha Red Alpha, I said.
Oh no, Crow Lee said easily. I already knew all about that. I told you: There is a traitor in your family who serves me very well. Of course, I encouraged Isabella and Louisa to confide in me, to tell me everything they knew about Molly and the Droods and the Hall. And when there was nothing else they could tell me, when I had no more use for them I took away their magic and chained them up and kept them in my kennels! Just because I could! What fun we ve had. Haven t we, girls?
Nasty little man, Louisa said calmly. He has no manners at all.
I will kill you for this, Molly said to Crow Lee, and her voice was cold and flat and completely matter-of-fact. Crow Lee leaned forward in his chair, which creaked loudly as his great weight shifted, just so he could laugh right into her bloody face.
No, you won t, Molly. I think I ve enjoyed about as much of the Metcalf sisters as I can stand.
He waggled his fingers at the ground before him and a great hole opened up a hole in the world, full of darkness, sucking all the air from the room. Isabella and Louisa didn t even have time to scream before they were sucked into the hole and gone, nothing left behind but two lengths of severed iron chain dangling from Crow Lee s chair. Molly was pulled in after them, snatched from my side before I could even react. Crow Lee waved his hand and the hole disappeared. Not a trace left behind, nothing to show it had ever been there. I fell forward, clutching at the carpet with my hands but there was nothing there, nothing at all.
I crouched there on the floor before Crow Lee, so full of shock and horror and loss and pain I couldn t move, could barely think. Somehow I kept it all out of my face. Because I knew Crow Lee was watching, looking for tears or despair, for something he could gloat over. And I was damned if I d give him the satisfaction. I could deny him that, at least. My Molly was gone. It felt like someone had just punched the heart right out of me. All that was left was the cold, hard need for revenge.
When it became clear that I wasn t going to put on a show for him, Crow Lee rose to his feet and sneered down at me.
You ll have to excuse me for a while, little Drood. I do have other business to deal with. Someone important I just have to talk to in the next room. You can talk to Mr. Stab while I m gone. I m sure you ve got so much to say to each other.
He laughed his happy laugh and strode heavily across the room to the side door and left, not looking back once. I watched him go, watched the door close quietly but firmly behind him and then I slowly turned my aching head to look at Mr. Stab. He met my gaze unflinchingly, even though he must have seen murder in it.
She was your friend, I said. Molly was your friend!