Property of a Lady Faire

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I stepped through the Merlin Glass and into Molly’s private forest. The wild witch’s very own wild woods. Shafts of dazzling sunlight fell down through the packed trees, like spotlights pushing back the gloom from the overhead canopy, and, after the artificial cool of the ice cavern, the warm air of the endless summer was like a caress on my face. I shook the Glass down and put it away, never once taking my eyes off Molly, sitting quietly on the grassy bank overlooking her favourite pool. She didn’t look round, though she must have known I was there. She just stared into the deep dark waters of the pool, her face empty, her eyes far away.

I’d instructed the Merlin Glass to take me straight to Molly, and it hadn’t even hesitated. Molly hadn’t tried to hide where she was going. I stayed where I was, looking slowly and cautiously around me. We were not alone. All kinds of wildlife surrounded us-beasts and birds and other things. Some showed themselves openly, studying me with wary eyes. Others were just bright-eyed shadows, moving restlessly in the dark between the trees. All of them ready to rush in and protect Molly from me, should it prove necessary. I moved slowly forward, and Molly didn’t stir. I sat down beside her, on the grassy bank overlooking the pool.

She was holding the Lazarus Stone in one hand, almost carelessly, not even looking at it. She didn’t look at me, even as I arranged myself carefully beside her. She just stared into the deep dark waters before her, as though they were the most important thing in the world. As though they held all the answers to all the questions . . . We sat quietly together, side by side, as we had so many times before. This quiet setting had always been her favourite place in all the woods, where she would come to think and reflect, when she felt troubled. We sat so close our shoulders almost touched, but didn’t. I could have just reached out and taken the Lazarus Stone away from her, with or without my armour’s help, but I didn’t. Such a betrayal of trust would have ended everything between us.

“You knew I’d find you here,” I said, finally.

“Yes,” she said.

“Your favourite place. Your safe place. And even with the Merlin Glass to guide me, I don’t think I could have entered your woods without your permission. You let me in here. So why did you run?”

“Because I needed time to think,” said Molly.

“You always meant to snatch the Stone, first chance you got,” I said. “For yourself.”

“Yes,” said Molly.

“Why? Why do you want the Lazarus Stone? Who do you want to bring back?”

“My parents, of course!” Molly said angrily, looking at me for the first time, tears glistening unshed in her eyes. “I want my mum! I want my dad! You got your parents back; why can’t I have mine?”

“Because if you were to bring them back,” I said carefully, “to rescue them from their sudden deaths on Trammell Island . . . History would change so much, the odds are you and I would never meet. Never fall in love. And then think of all the amazing things we accomplished together. We saved the world, saved Humanity itself, from the Hungry Gods and the Great Satanic Conspiracy and so many other things. We saved my family from itself . . . The world is a better place because of us.”

“I know.”

“And we wouldn’t have each other, any more.”

“I know! Damn you, Eddie Drood. For making me choose.”

She gave me the Lazarus Stone, placing it carefully on my outstretched hand. It was very heavy for such a small thing. Heavy with the weight of potential responsibilities, perhaps. I held the Lazarus Stone for a long moment, and then I armoured up my hand and crushed the Stone to dust. It didn’t try to resist. I opened my golden glove and let the dust fall away, into the deep dark waters of the pool. It vanished in a moment, leaving no trace of its passing. Molly let out her breath in a long sigh, and then looked at me.

“Wasn’t there anyone you wanted to bring back, Eddie?”

She didn’t mention my uncle James. She didn’t have to.

“No,” I said. “There’s no one I want more than you.”

She slipped her arm through mine, and leaned against me, and we sat together by the pool for a long time, thinking of many things.

“Come on,” I said finally. “We can’t just sit around here forever.”

“I’m game if you are.”

“We have to get back to Drood Hall.”

“We do?” said Molly. “Why?”

“Since apparently I’m not a rogue after all, I need to bring my family up to date on a few things,” I said.

“Cut the apron strings, Eddie. Be your own man! You don’t need them.”

“They need me,” I said.

“Hold everything,” said Molly, sitting suddenly upright. “Whatever happened to that little box, the one your grandmother left you in her will? Do you still have it?”

“In all the excitement I’d forgotten all about it,” I said. I reached into the pocket dimension at my side, found the box, and brought it out. I studied it carefully, with Molly leaning in close for a good look. Just a small, oblong black-lacquered box, about a foot long and four by three inches. Gold-leaf filigree, in intriguing patterns, but no lock or hinges, and no obvious way to open it. I shook the box gently, but it didn’t rattle.

“According to Grandmother Martha’s will,” I said, “something inside this box could make me undisputed Patriarch of all the Droods. No one in the family would be able to stand against me.”

“Why would she leave you something like that?” said Molly. “I mean, she never liked you.”

“More important, she never approved of me,” I said. “Or any of the things I believed in. Still, family love can be . . . complicated.”

“Maybe it’s booby-trapped!” said Molly. “Set to blow you to pieces if you try to open it!”

“The Armourer thought not,” I said. “And I’ve always trusted my uncle Jack.”

“So what the hell is inside the box?” said Molly. “One of the Forbidden Weapons? Secret information on where all the bodies are buried? Blackmail material?”

“See?” I said. “You’re learning to think like a Drood.”

“Don’t be nasty. What do you think is inside the box?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Grandmother made it very clear in her will that I was to be given the box only if I formally agreed to give you up. To never see you again. That was her price for the power to make me Patriarch.”

Molly looked at me. “You’re telling me this, with the box in your hand?”

“Relax,” I said. “I stole it when they weren’t looking.”

Molly laughed. “See? You’re learning to think like me.” She looked back at the black box. “You really believe that what’s in there could set you in charge of your family?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But it certainly put the wind up the Council . . .”

“Do you want to be Patriarch, Eddie?” Molly said carefully.

“You know I don’t,” I said.

I threw the little black box into the pond, and it disappeared into the dark waters. We sat and watched for a while, just in case, but it didn’t reappear.

“Are you going to tell your family you did that?” said Molly eventually.

“No,” I said. “Let them worry.”