Simon Green - Property of a Lady Faire

Power burned in him. I didn’t need my mask to see it.

“What did they do to you, Hadleigh?” said Molly. “Down in the Deep School, in the Dark Acadamie?”

“They opened my eyes,” said Hadleigh Oblivion.

“What are you doing here?” I said bluntly. “What do you want?”

He ignored me, turning the full force of his dark eyes on the Doormouse, who shuddered suddenly.

“Hello, Mouse. Been a while, hasn’t it? Made any more Doors you shouldn’t have?”

The Doormouse looked startled. “How did you know about that?”

“I know everything,” said Hadleigh. “It’s in my job description.”

“Everything?” I said, not even trying to hide my scepticism.

“Well,” Hadleigh said easily, “everything I need to know.”

“Whatever Doors the Doormouse may or may not have made,” I said, “that’s Drood business. And we will deal with it.”

“We?” murmured Hadleigh. “But you have been declared rogue, Eddie Drood. Rejected and repudiated by your family. And you have entered the Nightside illegally, in defiance of long-standing pacts and obligations.”

“No, he hasn’t!” Molly said immediately, ready as always to defend me. “The House of Doors isn’t in the Nightside, not as such. In fact, by walking through that Door into the Doormouse’s establishment, technically speaking you have left the Nightside! So you don’t have any jurisdiction here, do you?”

“That is a technicality,” said Hadleigh. “But let us agree that we are all of us outside the Nightside. It doesn’t matter. Unfortunately for all of you, I have jurisdiction wherever I go.”

“Who gave it to you?” Molly challenged him.

“It was decided where all the things that matter are decided,” said Hadleigh. “In the Courts of the Holy, on the Shimmering Planes. And in the Houses of Pain, in the depths of the Pit.”

None of us had any answer to that. I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about the situation.

“I won’t let you take me back to my family,” I said.

“Dear Eddie,” murmured Hadleigh. “Always so single-minded. That’s not why I’m here. It has been brought to my attention that you and the witch are looking to gain possession of that most unpleasant of Mysteries, the Lazarus Stone. And that is a threat to reality itself. Because it can rewrite and undo History. No man or woman was ever supposed to have such power. It always ends badly. You can’t be allowed to have it, Eddie Drood.”

“I don’t want it for myself,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Hadleigh. “No one can be allowed to possess the Lazarus Stone.”

“What about the Lady Faire?” said Molly.

“She never wanted to use it,” said Hadleigh. “So it was safe enough with her.”

“You don’t understand why I need it!” I said.

“I don’t care,” said Hadleigh. “No man or woman can be trusted with the Lazarus Stone.”

“Not even you?” said Molly.

“I would only want it to destroy it,” said Hadleigh. “Now, you must come with me, Eddie Drood.”

“So you can hand me over to the Authorities?” I said. “You think my family will stand for that? Rogue or no rogue?”

“I haven’t served the Authorities in a long time,” said Hadleigh. “You must come with me, to the Deep School.”

And something in the way he said that, and something in the way Molly reacted, sent a cold chill racing down my spine.

“Why?” I said. “Because your people have always wanted to get their hands on a Drood torc? On Drood armour?”

“No, Eddie,” said Hadleigh, still smiling that cold, calm smile. “Because we have always wanted to get our hands on a Drood. We have so much to learn-from your flesh, your armour, and your mind. Your history and your secrets. Your education is about to begin, Eddie. I can’t promise you’ll enjoy it, but it will . . . open your eyes. The Dark Acadamie will make a new man out of you.”

“Well, there’s a kind offer,” I said, fighting to keep my voice calm and conversational. “But I think I’m going to have to decline. I don’t have the time right now.”

“You don’t have a choice,” said Hadleigh.

I gave him my best cold smile. “I think you’ll find I do, Hadleigh. I always have a choice. That’s what being a Drood is all about. Now, you’re worrying my girlfriend and terrorising the Doormouse, and I won’t stand for that. I think you should leave here, now. While you still can.”

“Oh, Eddie,” said Hadleigh. “What fun we’re going to have, breaking you.”

I armoured up, my golden strange matter encasing me in a moment. The Doormouse yelped and fell back several steps, looking quickly around for something to hide behind. Molly laughed out loud, shot Hadleigh the finger, and moved quickly to one side to give me room to work. I walked slowly towards Hadleigh, and the carpeted floor shook and shuddered under the weight of my armoured tread. Hadleigh looked into my featureless golden mask and didn’t budge an inch. He raised one milk white hand, and snapped his fingers imperiously. I stopped, and braced myself, but nothing happened. Hadleigh looked startled. He snapped his fingers again, the sound of it loud and forceful in the quiet, but still nothing happened. Molly laughed mockingly, behind me.

“How very odd,” said Hadleigh. “That should have forced your armour back into your torc and put it to sleep. It worked on Droods before . . .”

I grinned broadly behind my mask. A sudden new shot of confidence rushed through me, as I realised Hadleigh wasn’t up to date. He didn’t know about the new Drood armour. Didn’t know about Ethel, and her other-dimensional strange matter. Which meant he wasn’t infallible after all. Which was good to know. I started towards him again.

Hadleigh thrust out an open hand, and it felt like I’d crashed into an invisible wall, stopping me dead in my tracks. I strained against it, with all the strength my armour could provide, but I couldn’t move an inch closer to the Detective Inspectre. I stopped trying, and looked at him. He was frowning with effort. I extruded a long, gleaming sword from my golden hand, concentrating on the edge until it was the sharpest thing I could imagine, and then swung it with both hands. The golden blade sheared clean through the invisible barrier, and there was the sound of a great glass pane shattering. I grinned again behind my faceless mask, and pulled the sword back into my hand. I raised one golden fist and showed it to Hadleigh. And then I raised thick golden spikes out of the knuckles and walked towards him.

He thrust out his hand again, scowling with concentration, and it was like being struck in the chest by a mountain. It stopped me dead again, and it was all I could do to stay upright. Hadleigh thrust his hand at me, and this time my whole armour boomed, like a struck gong. I looked down at myself, and to my utter astonishment I saw long, slow ripples move across the surface of my armour. The kind you get when you throw a pebble into a pond. The ripples rose and fell in the surface of my armour, radiating out and then back again, until finally . . . they settled down, and disappeared. The surface of my armour was still again.

I’d never felt anything like it before. My armour felt . . . shocked. But it was still there. It had survived. Bless you, Ethel.

Hadleigh was looking at me oddly. As though he wasn’t used to having his will, or his power, defied. That made me feel good. I laughed at him.

“That the best you’ve got, Detective Inspectre?”

“Hell no,” said Hadleigh Oblivion.

He started to raise his hand again, and Molly moved quickly forward to stand between him and me. I was expecting her to hit him with a handful of hellfire, or blast him with one of her storm winds . . . and I really didn’t think either of those old reliables would work this time. But instead, she raised her voice and said one commanding word.