Simon Green - The Man with the Golden Torc

"Thanks for the key," I said. "But I need something else from you."

"Oh, yes; of course! Molly’s a delightful young lady, Eddie. You have my blessing."

"Not that! Well, thanks for that, but…I need something from the armoury. To be exact, I need something from the Armageddon Codex."

The Armourer stopped smiling. "You want me to give you one of the forbidden weapons?"

"Yes. I need Oath Breaker."

He looked at me for a long moment, and his gaze was very cold.

"Why in the name of the good God would you want that awful thing?"

"There’s something rotten at the heart of the family," I said, meeting his gaze steadily. "You know that as well as I do. I need the one weapon no member of the family can hope to stand against. The one weapon they won’t even think of challenging. It’s the only way I can be sure of avoiding bloodshed, Uncle Jack."

"No, boy," the Armourer said flatly. "You’re asking too much."

"He has to," said Molly. "He doesn’t have time to be subtle. He was shot with an arrow made of strange matter. It’s still in his system, poisoning him."

The Armourer looked at me sharply. "Is this true, Eddie?"

I nodded stiffly. "Punched right through my armour. I thought I’d healed the wound with a med blob, but the strange matter’s still in me. And it’s spreading."

"Dear God…How long have you got, Eddie?"

"Three days," I said. "Maybe less."

"Oh, my dear boy…I heard about the arrow, but I never knew…Strange matter. Cursed stuff. I destroyed the only samples I had. Let me call up some old notes, see what I can do…There must be something I can do…"

"I don’t have the time, Uncle Jack," I said. "That’s why I have to do this quickly, and that’s why I need Oath Breaker. You have my word I won’t do anything with it that would hurt the family."

"I don’t know…" said the Armourer.

"I do," said a harsh, cold, and very familiar voice behind me. "You get nothing, traitor, except what’s coming to you."

We all looked around, and there stood Alexandra, tall and proud as ever. She was dressed all in black and carrying something awful in her hands. Molly started towards her, and I grabbed her arm and held her back. The Armourer grabbed her other arm.

"Don’t move, Molly," he said quietly. "She’s holding one of our most dangerous weapons. She’s holding Torc Cutter."

"What the hell’s that?" said Molly, but she didn’t try to fight us.

"Just what it sounds like," I said. "Hello, Alexandra. You’re looking…very yourself. What are you doing with Torc Cutter?"

"I took it out of the security locker just for you, Eddie," she said. Her voice was almost teasing, but she wasn’t smiling, and her eyes were very cold. "Time’s up, Eddie. Game over."

"Would someone please tell me why everyone’s acting so dramatic?" said Molly.

"The shears she’s holding are the only thing that can sever a Drood’s torc," the Armourer said. "It breaks the lifelong connection between a Drood and his armour. The operation is always fatal. Torc Cutter is a very ancient weapon, older than family history. It’s only ever supposed to be used as a last resort, to bring down a rogue who threatens the whole family, when all else has failed. It hasn’t been used in centuries."

"They look like gardening shears," said Molly, and she had a point. The shears were made of black iron, not steel, and looked like what they were: a simple cutting tool. Bleak and functional, but to the eyes of any Drood they were ugly with vicious significance. One of the few things absolutely guaranteed to kill a Drood. I stood very still and made sure Molly did too. Alexandra wouldn’t hesitate to use Torc Cutter. It occurred to me that I wasn’t entirely sure why she hadn’t already used them. I would have. Perhaps…there was just a chance that part of her wanted me to talk her out of using them. We had been close, once.

"Don’t do this, Alex," I said carefully. "You know this is all bullshit. You know I could never be a traitor. You were the one who knew me best of all, once."

"I thought I did," she said. "But then you went away, and you didn’t take me with you."

"I did ask," I said.

"You knew I couldn’t go! I had to make a new life for myself here at the Hall. A life in which I have become very powerful, Eddie. And you are most definitely a traitor, to the true spirit of the family. You’re a threat to the family’s future, Eddie. And I can’t, I won’t allow that."

She stepped forward, raising Torc Cutter, and the Armourer snapped out a single Word. The ugly black shears jumped right out of Alexandra’s hands and into the Armourer’s. She looked at him with something like shock as he stuffed the shears carelessly into his coat pocket, smiling smugly.

"I put a Safe Word into everything that passes through my lab, just in case they should fall into the wrong hands. And all the most deadly weapons have passed through the Armoury just recently, thanks to the Matriarch’s instructions. Mother always was a little paranoid, and luckily she passed a healthy dose of it on to her children." He then took a needle gun out of his other pocket and shot Alexandra in the throat. She just had time to slap a hand to her neck, and then she crumpled to the floor, out like a light. The Armourer blew imaginary smoke off the barrel of his gun, and then put it away again. "I always keep that handy for when my lab assistants get a bit overexcited. She’ll sleep for an hour or so. Put her somewhere comfortable, Eddie, while I go get the key for the Codex."

"Then you’ll help me?" I said.

"Yes. I won’t let you die with a traitor’s name hanging over you, Eddie. I can do that much for you. Besides, if Alexandra’s running around armed with Torc Cutter, God alone knows what else is out there. You’re going to need Oath Breaker."

"I promise I’ll return it safely," I said.

"Too bloody right you will," said the Armourer. "Don’t make me come after you, Eddie. I know some dirty tricks you never dreamed of in all your years in the field."

"I always wondered why your old files were blocked," I said.

Molly and I propped Alexandra up in a corner. She muttered querulously in her sleep, but that was all. Molly looked down at her.

"Would she really have killed you with that thing?"

"Probably," I said.

"Want me to kick her while she’s down?"

"No. I don’t do that."

"Wimp." She looked at me consideringly. "So, this Alexandra was once an old flame of yours?"

"A long time ago," I said. "When we were both a lot younger. She wasn’t always like this, you know. You’re not jealous, are you?"

"Me? No! Why would I be jealous? I’ve had lots of boyfriends in my time. Dozens!"

"They probably didn’t appreciate you like I do," I said.

The family keeps the Armageddon Codex in a pocket dimension for extra security. Only the Armourer and his designated successor can even approach it, let alone access it. The Codex contains the family’s most powerful weapons, too dangerous to be used unless reality itself is under threat. Normally you have to fill out reams of paperwork before you’re even allowed to approach the Matriarch with a request. The Armourer was trusting me a lot, to let me take Oath Breaker. He wouldn’t do that, for all his sympathy, unless he was already convinced that there was something seriously wrong with the family.

To get to the Armageddon Codex, you have to pass through the Lion’s Jaws. At the very back of what used to be the old wine cellars, before they were converted into the present armoury, there is a giant stone carving of a lion’s head, complete with mane. Perfect in every detail, twenty feet tall and almost as wide, carved out of the dark blue-veined stone that makes up the cellar’s furthest reaches. The lion’s eyes seem to glare, the mouth seems to snarl, and the whole thing looks like life itself frozen in stone. As though just waiting to pounce, if it could only force the rest of its body through the stone wall that held it. Not all that surprisingly, Molly fell in love with it at first sight and stood right before the stone face, running her hands over the detailed carving and cooing delightedly.