Simon Green - The Man with the Golden Torc

"Do you know what it was he found out?" I said. "What it was that drove him crazy? He mentioned the Sanctity and the Heart…"

"Did he? Did he now? That is interesting…Means nothing to me, though. No. I’ll have to think about that. Yes. Still, I can’t help feeling we’re probably better off not knowing. Look what knowing it did to a brilliant mind like his…" The Mole blinked rapidly several times, and then deliberately changed the subject. "I’m still working on a history of the Drood family, you know. From a safe distance. You’d be surprised how much information there is on the Droods out in the world, where they can’t suppress it. Oh, yes. I’m constantly finding out all kinds of awful things our family has done, Edwin, down the centuries. Oh, some of the things we’re responsible for…Terrible, terrible things! Yes. Just lately I’ve been concentrating on the real reasons behind certain important and well-known operations. For example, Edwin, do you know why our family is so determined to wipe out the Loathly Ones?"

"Well, yes," I said. "They eat souls."

"Apart from that," said the Mole. "The family needs to silence them so everyone else won’t find out that we were the ones who originally opened the dimensional door and let the Loathly Ones into our reality. We brought them here to act as foot soldiers against Vril Power Inc. during World War Two. Vril had grown powerful enough under Hitler to pose a real threat to the family. Had their own army and everything. Oh, yes, there were a lot of secret wars going on behind and underneath the real conflict, that the world never knew about. Anyway, the Loathly Ones did the job all right, but when the time came for them to return to their own dimension, as had been agreed, the Loathly Ones reneged on the deal and refused to go. They liked it here. The feeding was just so good…The family’s been trying to wipe them out ever since so no one will ever know we were the ones responsible for inflicting them on the world."

"Dear God," I said.

"Oh, that’s nothing!" said the Mole, leaning eagerly forward in his chair. "That’s nothing compared to some of the things I’ve found out! The family history that you and I were brought up on only records the official version of events, not the failures and foul-ups and the secret deals that went horribly wrong." The Mole paused, considering. "I have to say, I still believe that most of what we were taught was true…as far as it went…but you have to place it in the context of what it was all for in the end."

"So that we could be the secret rulers of the world," I said.

"Yes," said the Mole. "Sometimes I wonder…if perhaps there’s another context, beyond that, that I don’t know about yet. Some very secret reason why we have to be the secret rulers of the world, for everyone’s good. I’d like to believe that. Yes."

"Have you found any evidence for that?" I said.

"No," the Mole said sadly. "If only I could access the family library. All the reserved volumes and the restricted books. Learn the whole true history of the Drood family…But not even my resources can hack the Drood library. No. That’s why they’ve always kept everything on paper, because of people like me. And of course I’ve never been able to sneak a single surveillance camera into the Hall. No! No…"

"So you can’t tell me anything about why I was outlawed?" I persisted.

"You must know something," the Mole said sharply. "It’s always knowing things that make you really dangerous to the Droods. Knowing things they don’t want anyone else to know. Secrets that have to be kept inside their precious inner circle. The Matriarch, her council, her favourites…The ones who really run the world."

"But I don’t know anything!" I said. I could hear the desperation in my voice.

"They think you do," the Mole said simply.

We both looked around sharply as loud music blasted suddenly through the cavern. It seemed Molly had grown bored and wandered off on her own while the Mole and I argued over family history. She’d found MTV on one of the screens and jacked up the volume. "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin filled the air, the loud salsa beat echoing back from the stone walls. And Molly danced joyously to the music, stamping her feet and shaking her head and swirling her long dress about her. The Mole and I both watched, too entranced to think of protesting, as the wild witch danced to the music. It felt good to see such a moment of happy innocence in the middle of such dark discussions. Molly understood that life was for living, and living in the moment. Anywhen else, I would have joined her, danced with her, but just the thought made my bad arm ache the more fiercely.

The song finally finished, and the Mole worked his remote control, cutting off the next number. Molly danced on for a moment, and then strode back to join us. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright and happy.

"Spoilsport!" she said cheerfully to the Mole, and actually leaned over him to kiss him on the cheek. The Mole blushed bright red. Molly looked at me.

"Are we finished here, Eddie?"

"Almost," I said. I turned back to the Mole. "What do you know about strange matter?"

"Ah," said the Mole. "Yes, yes! I heard about the elf lord’s arrow! It really punched right through your armour? Interesting…That was, well, I won’t say unprecedented—there are stories—but this is the first authenticated case I’ve ever encountered. All I can tell you for sure is that strange matter comes from another dimension of reality, where the laws of physics are subtly different. So that things which could never arise naturally here are possible there. Like strange matter, with its amazing unnatural properties."

"It’s inside me," I said. "Poisoning me. Killing me. Is there a cure, an antidote? Something I could use to drive it out of me?"

"I don’t know," said the Mole, and I could see it pained him to admit it. "I’d need to know exactly where it came from. Only the elf lord could tell us that, and elves don’t talk to anyone who isn’t an elf. I have some indirect contacts…Yes. Give me a few weeks, and I might have something to tell you."

"I don’t have a few weeks," I said. "And I’m starting to think that the only place which could help me, the only place with the answers I need, is the library back at the Hall."

"They won’t help you," said the Mole.

I smiled unpleasantly. It felt good. "I wasn’t planning on asking them," I said. "I was thinking more about breaking into the Hall, ransacking the library, and taking what I bloody well need. And if that happened to involve beating some answers out of various people, like Grandmother’s beloved consort, that would just be a pleasant bonus."

"Now, that’s more like it!" said Molly, clapping her hands together gleefully. "Hard core, Eddie! No one’s dared burgle the Hall in generations! Let me come too! Oh, please; I promise I’ll make a real mess of the place!"

"Edwin, no; don’t even think it," the Mole said urgently. "You know what kind of security protects the Hall. All the terrible things and forces our family rely on to protect their privacy. Any safe words you might have known will have been cancelled by now. You don’t want to end up as one of the scarecrows, do you?"

"Wait a minute; those are real?" said Molly. "I thought they were just stories to scare people off."

"They’re real," I said. "I’ve heard them screaming. My family really is just as vicious and vindictive towards uninvited visitors as all the stories say we are." I looked at the Mole. "You probably know more about the Hall’s defences than anyone else who isn’t actually an insider. If you were to come with us…"

"No! No. I couldn’t."

"Not even for a chance to strike back at the people who ruined your life?"