Yes, said Mr. Stab. She was. It s better this way, though. We would have had to kill each other eventually, I think.
Help me, I said.
Why should I do that? said Mr. Stab.
Because, I said, if you help me to avenge my Molly and help me find my lost family, I give you my word that the Droods will find a way to put an end to your curse that doesn t involve killing you. Think of the resources at our command! We ll find a way to undo what you did to yourself.
Crow Lee has already promised me that.
But which of us do you trust to deliver on their promise?
I like what I am, said Mr. Stab. I just want to be free of my limitations. Crow Lee will make me a better monster.
That s what you want? I said. What you really want?
That s all that s left for me to want, after everything I ve done.
All right, I said. How about this? You help me, and I promise I won t kill you for everything you ve done.
Hush, Eddie, said Mr. Stab. I don t want to talk to you anymore.
He turned his back on me and walked away to stare out the window. I don t know what it was he was looking at, but I doubt it was the gardens.
I didn t know what to do. I couldn t believe Molly was really gone. Not just like that. I couldn t go after her with the Merlin Glass, because only Crow Lee knew where he d sent her. Even if I did find a way to turn the tables, he d die before he told me, rather than let me win. I had to believe Molly was still alive somewhere out there. But for now, all that was left to me was survival and revenge. If I could just concentrate on that maybe I wouldn t feel the pain so much. I looked over at Mr. Stab, still standing stiff-backed at the window. I reached carefully into the pocket dimension where I kept the Merlin Glass. The soldiers could search me as much as they liked, but only I had access to the pocket. This time I wasn t interested in the Glass. I couldn t risk jumping through the Glass in the middle of Crow Lee s many protections. And I wasn t interested in escaping, anyway. No, I was after something small, so small that hopefully Crow Lee wouldn t detect it. Something the Armourer Patrick had given me.
The hearing aid.
Just a little blob of flesh-coloured plastic with some really clever electronics hidden inside. I eased it out of my pocket, palmed it, and then snuck it into my right ear. I glanced quickly at Mr. Stab, but he didn t seem to be paying any attention to me. I surreptitiously adjusted the tuning on the hearing aid, and immediately I could hear everything Crow Lee was saying in the adjoining room. He was addressing someone else, in his usual arrogant and condescending way, but whomever he was speaking to would have none of it and responded entirely in kind. There was something about the second voice that I found sort of familiar, though I couldn t place it. I concentrated on what they were saying.
I have always been well served by traitors, said Crow Lee.
I m not just any traitor, said the second voice. I am the worm at the heart of the Droods, the viper they have nursed at their bosom. Do you really think I d bow down to the likes of you?
You will if you know what s good for you, Crow Lee said complacently. I am the power here.
And I am a Drood. The First Drood! I am older than your power, little magician. I have lived lifetimes and seen civilisations rise and fall.
But you re not a Drood anymore, are you? You don t have your armour though Eddie does. Isn t that odd?
Odder than you realise, said the traitor.
He shouldn t be able to access his armour with the other-dimensional intruder dismissed along with the Hall. We re going to have to make Eddie tell us where he got his armour from.
We? said Crow Lee, lazily. What s in it for me?
I will have his armour. I want it. And then you ll have a Drood in full armour as your ally. I want that armour!
Well, you can t have it, said Crow Lee.
I m going to strip it off Eddie and then destroy it. Then the Droods really will be gone from this world. Of course, I might decide to keep it for myself. You know how much I enjoy playing with new toys. Where did you get that?
From the Armageddon Codex, said the traitor.
Where all the Droods forbidden weapons are kept. I took it with me before I left the Hall, before it was sent away. It wasn t difficult. I was there when they built the Codex. I helped design the locking systems. Who has a better right to this weapon than I?
What better weapon for a traitor, said Crow Lee, than Oath Breaker?
I couldn t help but react to that, at the thought of one of our most dangerous weapons in the hands of a traitor. I must have made some kind of noise, because Mr. Stab turned around and looked at me. I held myself very still, and he went back to looking out the window.
You have nothing that can stand against me as long as I hold Oath Breaker, said the traitor.
Don t be too sure of that, Crow Lee said steadily. You d be surprised at some of the Objects of Power I ve acquired here and there. But this is no time to be falling out, when we ve achieved so much together! Let us think of our partnership as a balance of power and move on. Come with me, into the study. I want to see Eddie brought down by another Drood.
I quickly eased the hearing aid out of my ear and slipped it back into my pocket dimension. And then I did my best to look surprised when Crow Lee strode back in with the traitor Drood at his side. I didn t recognise him at all. He was a very ordinary-looking man, nothing remarkable about him at all. He did look sort of familiar, but I couldn t place him. It s a big family, the Droods.
You don t know me, do you? said the traitor. Even though we ve spoken many times in passing. But then, that s the point. I m never anyone important or significant, and I don t stand out. I m always just there in the background, perhaps some useful functionary, just another Drood doing a necessary job poisoning the wells in the quiet of the night. Adrian Drood, at the moment. Not my real name, of course. But then, I ve had so many names and identities down the centuries.
You re the Original Traitor, I said.
The one who s undermined and betrayed us over and over. Why?
Because the family has moved away from what I intended it to be, Adrian said calmly. I was the very first Drood. I was there when the Heart first fell to Earth. I made the original pact with the Heart for power and armour. I made the Droods possible! Everything they are came from me! I set us up to be shamans and protectors, shepherds to Humanity but it was never meant that the sheep should forget their place.
The family forced me out of power because I wouldn t go along with their changes. Exiled me, made me the first rogue Drood. So I disappeared, went away, walked up and down the world, hugging my rage and hatred to my cold, cold heart. I spent a lot of time with the Immortals, a family much like mine. I gave their leader the idea for immortality, having begged it from the Heart for myself as part of the deal I made. Centuries later I returned to the Droods. Killed some small nonentity and took over his identity. The Immortals showed me how to do that.
And ever since I have always been there, hiding in plain sight in the background, doing my best to nudge and persuade the family back to what it should be. Just a quiet, influential voice advising and guiding those in positions of power. And removing those who got in my way. Those who wouldn t listen. Nothing like a good accident to stir things up and move people around.
You killed the Matriarch Sarah, I said. So my grandmother Martha could take over.
So I did! Pushed her down a flight of stairs. And then stamped on the back of her neck when she didn t have the decency to die straight away. I have always been well served by accidents.
Why the hell did you bring the Loathly Ones into this world? I said. Did you know what you were doing?
Of course. The Droods have always needed someone or something worthy to fight, to keep them sharp. To keep them the warriors I always meant them to be. I could see the War wasn t going to last much longer, and I wanted to be sure there d be a new villain in place afterwards. Who could have foreseen the Cold War? I was having such fun then, running endless agents and intrigues back and forth across the world that I quite forgot about the Loathly Ones. The Droods really were getting soft by your time, Eddie. I never intended my family to be peace-loving shepherds.