We circled each other, looking for weaknesses in each other’s stance. This was all taking far too long. Taking up time I needed to locate and rescue Molly. So when in doubt, cheat. My first thought was to use the Merlin Glass. Take it out, slap it over Sir Bors, and just teleport him somewhere else. I switched my sword from right hand to left. I was good enough to hold him off that way for a while. Sir Bors hesitated, then fell back a step, wary of a trick. I used that moment to reach through my armoured side with my free hand, into the pocket dimension I kept there. But the Merlin Glass avoided my grasp. The damned thing refused to be brought out. So instead, I grabbed hold of my Colt Repeater, brought that out, and pointed the gun at Sir Perryvale.
“Stand down!” I said to Sir Bors, my voice sounding cold and authoritative, filtered through my mask. “Or I’ll shoot your Seneschal. I don’t need him to get answers from your oracle.”
“Please don’t let him shoot me,” Sir Perryvale said quickly.
Sir Bors hesitated, looking from me to the Seneschal and back again. “You wouldn’t . . . You wouldn’t dare!”
“Of course he would!” said Sir Perryvale. “He’s a Drood!”
Sir Bors lowered his sword and stepped back into the open doorway. “And you are still a London Knight, Perry, for all your sins.”
“Get out of here,” I said to Bors. “Go take a little walk, just long enough for me to conclude my business with the oracle. And then you can have your Seneschal back and I’ll get the hell out of Castle Inconnu.”
Sir Bors nodded slowly, reluctantly. “I’ll be back. With reinforcements! And if our Seneschal is harmed, your death will be a slow and terrible one!”
“Why, Bors,” said Sir Perryvale, “I didn’t know you cared.”
Sir Bors sniffed loudly and disappeared out the door. I listened to his heavy footsteps retreating back down the stairway, then pulled the sword back into my glove and armoured down. I realised I was still holding the Colt Repeater, so I put it away. Sir Perryvale looked at me thoughtfully.
“I won’t ask,” he said.
“Best not to,” I agreed.
He turned to face the well and raised his voice.
“Lady Gaea, it is Sir Perryvale of the London Knights who calls you! It is the Seneschal of Castle Inconnu, who invokes you! Come forth and speak, for we have need of your knowledge and wisdom! Come to us. In Arthur’s name!”
There was a long pause, and then from deep in the well there came a great roaring sound, of something huge rushing towards us. Building and building, with all the strength and power of an approaching tidal wave or tropical storm. I could feel pressure on the air, the sense of a growing presence, of something coming. Something too large to fit easily into our small, fragile, and easily breakable world. A feeling of something condensing itself so it wouldn’t overpower or damage our reality. I realised Sir Perryvale had stepped back from the well, pressing his back flat against the wall, so I did that as well. A solid jet of water blasted up out of the well, dark blue-green seawater. It slammed against the stone ceiling overhead and fell back as a shower of rain. The waters formed themselves into a human figure that suddenly snapped into focus, and there, standing elegantly on the still surface of the water in the well, was a beautiful woman. Not a single ripple moved across the surface of the water from where her bare feet made contact. She was wearing a long emerald-green dress, with a bright golden sash around her waist. She smiled dazzlingly at me and the Seneschal, and stepped forward. She placed one foot on the stone rim of the well and reached out a hand to me so I could help her down. I took hold of her hand automatically, and she stepped down to stand before me. I was amazed at how normal, how human, her hand felt in mine.
Because I knew there was nothing normal or human about her. She was Gaea. All the world in a woman. I just knew.
I let go of her hand and studied her openly. She had a classic face, with a strongly defined bone structure. A great mane of night-dark hair, warm blue eyes, and a really nice mouth. I thought she could be any age—until I looked into her eyes. They were old, so old; older than any living thing had a right to be. I dropped down on one knee before her. Just because it felt like the right thing to do. Sir Perryvale was already kneeling, and bowing his old head respectfully. I bowed to Gaea too. She felt like my mother. Like everyone’s mother.
Mother Earth.
“Lady of the Lake, welcome,” said Sir Perryvale. “Lady Gaea . . .”
“Oh stop that,” she said. “And get up. You know very well I’ve never required any of you to kneel or bow to me.”
I got to my feet. I could see Sir Perryvale was having trouble with that, so I helped him up. His knees cracked loudly.
“We don’t do it because it is required, Lady Gaea,” said Sir Perryvale. “We do it because it’s you.”
“Call me Gayle,” she said. “I haven’t used that old name in ages. How many times do I have to tell you? So knock it off! Or I’ll get cranky.” She looked at me. “Well. A Drood. It’s been a while . . . What do you want with me?”
I filled her in quickly on everything that had happened. She was very easy to talk to, nodding in all the right places.
“It seems likely Molly has been kidnapped by the Powers That Be,” I said finally. “Do you know who they are? Where they are? Do you know what’s happened to my Molly?”
“Of course,” said Gayle. “I know everything. And when I don’t, I make it up. Though you’d be surprised how often it all turns out to be true anyway. Molly Metcalf has been taken by the Powers That Be, taken out of this world so she can participate in the Big Game. And yes, I know you already know that; I’m just confirming it. As to who the Powers That Be are . . . not all of my knowledge, or all of my secrets, are mine to share.”
“Why not?” I said. “Who is there powerful enough to compel you to keep things secret?”
“I am,” said Gayle. “I am the world, and the balance must be maintained.”
“Am I supposed to understand that?” I said.
“No,” said Gayle.
“Just as well,” I said. “All right, what can you tell me? Can you See Molly? Can you See where she is?”
“Yes,” said Gayle.
“She’s still alive?” I said. “She’s all right?”
“She’s still alive,” said Gayle.
I could tell she was being careful about what she said. I wanted to shout at her, demand more information, make it clear to her how much I needed to know this and how angry I was; but I could tell . . . that would be a really bad idea. She really was everything she seemed to be, and more. So I clamped down hard on my emotions and said, very carefully and very politely, “What can you tell me, to help me?”
“Molly can’t save herself,” said Gayle. “You must go to where she is and save her.”
“How do I find her?” I said.
“You need a Door,” she said. “To take you to the Shifting Lands. A very special, very powerful Door.”
“I have the Merlin Glass,” I said.
“You say that like it’s a good thing,” said Gayle. “If you only knew what’s inside that Glass, watching you . . . The Glass can’t help you this time. It isn’t powerful enough to take you where you need to go.”
“There’s the Doormouse,” I said. “And his House of Doors. He’s always boasting he can provide a Door to anywhere . . .”
“To anywhere else, perhaps,” said Gayle. “The Doormouse does good work. But the way to the Shifting Lands, and the Big Game, is protected. The only way in is by invitation. And if the Powers That Be had wanted you, they would have taken you along with Molly. There’s a reason they take people, Eddie Drood. Have you ever entered into any binding Pacts or Agreements?”
I did think about the deal I once made with the rogue armour, Moxton’s Mistake, but I didn’t say anything.
“You need to find a Door powerful en
ough to punch right through all the defences,” said Gayle. “And for that you need to pay a visit to the Travel Bureau.”
I winced at the name. Sir Perryvale saw me do it.
“What?” he said immediately. “What is this . . . Travel Bureau? And why haven’t I heard of it?”
“Because you don’t move in those kinds of circles,” I said. “I’ve heard of them. They’re a kind of Underground Railroad, for people who need to get away. In a hurry. Before certain other highly motivated people can track them down and express their extreme displeasure with them. The Travel Bureau offers a one-way trip to the destination of your choice. The price is everything you own. Because you can’t take it with you, and you definitely won’t be coming back for it. The Travel Bureau provides Doors for desperate people who need to disappear without trace. The most powerful Doors to be found anywhere in this world, or out of it. So they say.”
“Where are they?” said Sir Perryvale. “Do you know?”
“Of course I know!” I said. “Droods know where everyone is. Or at least that’s what I always thought. The Shifting Lands . . . are new to me. Let’s hope the Tourist Bureau has heard of them. They have a Departure Lounge, hidden away in a private pocket dimension, in the space between spaces. Tangentially attached to a particular location in London, from where they can access every point in Space and Time. According to their brochure. The problem is you can only get in if you make contact through the proper channels. They’d never willingly admit a Drood . . . but they might let Shaman Bond in. There is a chance their security measures might detect my torc; if that happens my cover identity will be blown. But I’ll risk it. For Molly.”
We all looked round again, at the sound of heavy armoured feet pounding up the stairs towards us. It seemed that Sir Bors had found his reinforcements. I nodded quickly to Gayle and looked at Sir Perryvale.
“Are you going to be all right if I leave you here to face Sir Bors? He knows you let me in.”
“Don’t worry,” said Gayle. “I’ll vouch for Perry.”
“You’re too kind,” said Sir Perryvale.
“Yes,” said Gayle, “I am.”
I reached into my pocket for the Merlin Glass, so it could make me a Door to leave by, and again it stubbornly avoided my hand.
“Oh come on!” I said. “Don’t you dare play up now!”
“It’s not the Glass,” said Sir Perryvale. “Sir Bors will have reinforced the Castle’s security wards. Once they’re set to Red Alert, nothing can get in or out. You’re trapped here, Eddie.”
I thought quickly. “Not necessarily. I can still fight my way out. Through the Knights, through the Castle, all the way to the main entrance. But not without hurting people. I don’t want to do that, but I can’t afford to be stopped. Not now. Not when Molly is depending on me.” I looked at Sir Perryvale. “How many reinforcements can Sir Bors call on?”
“Twenty Knights,” said the Seneschal. “That’s the full complement left behind to guard Castle Inconnu.”
“What about the security people?”
“Those are the security people!” said Sir Perryvale. “Twenty London Knights in their armour could stand off an army. Normally they answer to me, as Seneschal, but I don’t think they’ll be in any mood to listen to me after everything Sir Bors will have been saying about me.”
I was still thinking hard. If I did take on the London Knights, that could start a war between the Knights and the Droods. Particularly if I beat them. I could tell from the look on Sir Perryvale’s face that the same thought had occurred to him.
“My family will just have to disown me again,” I said. “Declare me rogue and throw me to the wolves, to save the family honour. I can live with that. I’ve lived with it before. Anything for Molly.”
“You really think you can take on twenty London Knights?” said Sir Perryvale.
“I have to,” I said.
“Hold everything,” said the Seneschal. “I’ve had an idea. A way out of a very dangerous situation, for all concerned. I am now declaring this a security drill. You are my invited guest, called in by me to test the Castle’s defences. To check just how secure this place really is, while the army’s away. I’m allowed to do that. Technically . . .”
I looked at him. “Your people will buy that?”
Sir Perryvale shrugged quickly. “They will if you break through them, and leave, and don’t get caught. That’ll prove my point. But, Eddie, you mustn’t kill anyone. Not even accidentally. That would mean war . . .”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I don’t do that any more.”
“Of course, Sir Bors will never believe any of this,” said Sir Perryvale. “But luckily no one likes him much anyway. A brave enough fighter, but a stuck-up little prig.”
“I may have to get a bit rough with the Knights,” I said.
“Fuck them if they can’t take a joke,” said the Seneschal.
I looked to Gayle. “Will you be getting involved in this?”
“No,” she said. “Let the children squabble . . . But I always was a sucker for true love. So go with my blessing, Eddie Drood.”
I bowed to her, nodded to Sir Perryvale, armoured up, and left the room.
* * *
I charged down the long, winding stairway, and met Sir Bors coming up, accompanied by three other Knights. All in their armour. Sir Bors stopped and gestured quickly for the others to spread out and block the way. They hesitated a moment, impressed by my golden armour, and then moved quickly into place. I stopped and looked down at them from behind my featureless golden mask. Sir Bors levelled his sword at me.
“Surrender, Drood!”
I had to chuckle. “You haven’t met many Droods, have you?”
The long sword shot out of my golden glove, and I went down the steps to meet Sir Bors. As I expected, he didn’t wait for the others; he just stormed up the steps to confront me. He raised his sword with both hands and brought it swinging down with all his strength behind it. I waited till the last moment, and then stepped smartly to one side. The sword slammed down, missing me easily by inches, and Sir Bors staggered forward, caught off balance. I placed one armoured boot on his lowered armoured shoulder and shoved him back, hard, with all my armoured strength. Sir Bors went flying backwards and tumbled helplessly down the stairs, making a hell of a racket. He slammed into one of the other Knights, who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and knocked the man right off his feet. The two of them crashed down even more steps, making angry, pained noises all the way. The other two Knights jumped back to the sides, out of the way. And I ran straight through the gap they’d opened up and charged down the stairs, passing the two still-off-balance Knights along the way. A sword lashed wildly out at me as I dashed by, but it didn’t even come close. I bolted down the steps, taking them two and three at a time. I could hear some of the Knights coming after me, but they couldn’t match my armour’s speed, and I soon left them behind.
I reached the bottom of the stairway and sprinted through the open stone corridors, not even breathing hard. I could hear voices calling my family name, and not in a good way, coming from more than one direction. I ran through a portrait gallery, lined with some of the more famous faces from the Castle’s long history, all of them depicted in their armour, in a whole bunch of different styles. And as I passed them, each of the images came to life. They turned their heads to watch me go and leaned out of their frames to sound the alarm. I kept running.
At the end of the gallery, three armoured Knights appeared to block my way. They at least had the sense to hold their ground and make me come to them. There was no way past them, and no point in turning back. I had to go through them. And not kill any of them. Though I doubted they’d show me the same courtesy. I was an intruder in their home. I had sworn not to kill anyone, and especially not men like these, who thought they were the Good Guys, but I couldn’t allow myself to
be stopped. Not while Molly needed me. So I slowed to a walk and went to meet them with my sword at the ready.
I cut at them savagely with my strange matter sword, which could normally cut through anything, but while sparks flared where my golden blade met their spelled swords and armour, they still held their ground. I managed to sneak a few hits past their defences, but my blade couldn’t pierce their armour. They spread out, so they could attack me from three sides at once, and only my armour’s speed allowed me to hold them off. I knew I couldn’t keep that up for long, so I concentrated on putting all my armoured strength into every blow. Just the impact of each blow was enough to send the Knights flying backwards, off balance for a moment. I slammed my shoulder into one Knight, knocking him over, and kicked the feet out from under another. The remaining Knight came straight at me, head-on; I just dodged round him and ran.
The Knights called out angrily behind me, shocked that I hadn’t done the honourable thing and fought my way free. I grinned behind my mask. Droods are trained to win. Whatever it takes.
My armour remembered the path I’d previously taken through the Castle, when I was following the Seneschal; all I had to do was trace the route in reverse. I pounded along corridors and down stairs, all of them vaguely familiar, following a glowing arrow floating on the air before me, generated by my armour, seen through my mask. But it didn’t take me long to realise this route only led back to Sir Perryvale’s bedroom. I needed the way to the main entrance. I accessed the maps stored in my armour’s memory, hoping against hope for something useful, and was astonished to find a complete floor-plan for Castle Inconnu. Some Drood must have been here before me after all. Probably my uncle Jack. Another glowing arrow appeared, and I followed it.
I was running at full speed now, pounding through the stone galleries with my arms pumping at my sides, driven forward by my own desperation and my armour’s unnatural vitality. Just a golden blur, in the depths of the Castle. I could hear people moving and shouting all around me, but none of them could match my speed, and I soon left them behind.
From a Drood to A Kill: A Secret Histories Novel Page 24
