Night Fall

  The Armourer Maxwell and Victoria were also sitting close together, in battered lab coats that looked like something really nasty had happened worryingly close, not that long ago. More than ever they looked like school-children who’d been summoned before their Headmistress and were anticipating harsh words. Given the way they’d let their side down at the last Council meeting, by not being able to give the Matriarch what she wanted, they were clearly hoping for a way to ingratiate themselves and get back in her good books. Eddie didn’t like the thought of that. The Armourer was never more dangerous than when they were feeling personally threatened.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Eddie,” the Matriarch said loudly. “What happened? Why have you returned?”

  Eddie fixed the Matriarch with his best cold stare.

  “Never mind that! How were you able to take control of the Merlin Glass in mid-flight? The only person who could do that was the old Armourer, and Uncle Jack swore to me he was the only one who knew how!”

  Eddie turned his glare on Maxwell and Victoria, but before he could accuse them of anything, Ethel’s voice rang out on the air.

  “I did it.”

  There was no trace of the rose-red glow that usually marked her presence, just a calm voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

  “Why?” said Eddie, cramming a whole world of questions and emotions into just the one word.

  “Because the Matriarch asked me to,” said Ethel.

  “You’re being very obliging to her, all of a sudden,” said Eddie. “It wasn’t that long ago the two of you weren’t even talking to each other. So what brought this on?”

  “Events are escalating,” said Ethel.

  Eddie waited for her to expand on that . . . and when she didn’t, he had no choice but to turn back to the Matriarch. “All right, why are you still talking with the Council, Maggie?”

  “Yeah,” said Molly. “What he said, only with much more of an implied threat and an added air of sudden and unrestrained violence.”

  “We have to stay on top of things,” said the Matriarch, carefully keeping her gaze fixed on Eddie. “To make sure they don’t get out-of-control. Make your report, Eddie. What happened in the Nightside, that you had to come home in such a hurry?”

  “No one in Strangefellows knows anything about the boundary changes,” said Eddie. “Which effectively means no one in the long night knows. And we had to leave in a hurry because someone blew Molly’s cover.”

  “They knew me,” said Molly. “Both of me.”

  “Did you know them?” said the Sarjeant.

  “No,” said Molly. “So somebody must have told her, then aimed her at me.”

  “Are you implying someone knew you were going to be in the bar, as Roxie?” the Sarjeant asked.

  “I’m not implying anything,” said Molly. “I’m stating it as a fact.”

  “And the only people who knew where we were going, and when we’d be there, are in this room,” said Eddie.

  There was a stir among the Council, but the Matriarch was already shaking her head.

  “No one here betrayed you, Eddie. Ammonia would know. Ethel would know.”

  “Then how the hell did this happen?” said Eddie.

  “There’s a lot going on that we don’t understand right now,” said the Sarjeant. “But my people are working on it.”

  “I feel so much more secure for knowing that,” said Eddie.

  “You should,” the Sarjeant-at-Arms replied.

  “I’m going to miss Roxie,” said Molly. “It was always so much fun, being her.”

  Eddie turned to look at her. “You’ve always enjoyed being Molly. Even when it was wholly inappropriate and downright dangerous to everyone around you.”

  “Well, yes,” said Molly. “But as Roxie I was free to do all the things that Molly couldn’t.”

  “I won’t ask,” said Eddie.

  “Best not to,” said Molly.

  “If we could get back to discussing why this mission was as big a failure as your last one,” said the Sarjeant.

  “None of what happened was Molly’s fault!” said Eddie. “We had no way of knowing someone was going to sabotage us.”

  “Bad things happen in Strangefellows,” said Molly. “It’s that kind of bar.”

  “There is that,” said the Sarjeant.

  The Matriarch turned her cold glare on him. “You told me you’d stopped drinking there.”

  “I have,” said the Sarjeant. “I stopped when Jack died. It wasn’t as much fun without him. But it was the spontaneity of the place that made it so interesting. Anything could happen.”

  “Why are all of you still here, still talking?” Eddie said loudly. “I thought it was agreed you weren’t going to make any decisions till Molly and I had returned with more up-to-date information?”

  “We received new information, not long after you left,” said the Matriarch. “One of our agents in the Nightside informed us that the Authorities are planning some kind of pre-emptive strike against us.”

  “What kind of strike?” said Eddie.

  “Never mind that,” said Molly. “Since when have the Droods had agents inside the Nightside?”

  “Since always,” said the Sarjeant. “We have agents everywhere.”

  “Why was I never told about this before?” said Molly.

  “Because you didn’t need to know,” said the Sarjeant.

  Molly turned to Eddie. “Did you know?”

  “No,” said Eddie, looking thoughtfully at the Sarjeant. “This is news to me too.”

  “I didn’t just go drinking in Strangefellows for my own pleasure,” the Sarjeant explained. “It was a good way to make contacts with useful people. So we’d always have some idea of what was going on in the long night.”

  “I summoned the Council to discuss this new threat,” said the Matriarch. “Because if the Authorities are behind it, we could all be in danger.”

  “You can’t keep calling William back here just because you need your hand held!” said Ammonia. “It’s not good for him.”

  The Matriarch nodded, accepting the point, and nodded reassuringly to William. “If you need to be excused from future meetings, Librarian . . .”

  “No, I do not,” William said stiffly. He met the Matriarch’s gaze firmly. “If the family is in danger, I need to know what’s going on. Don’t fuss, Ammonia. I can cope.”

  Ammonia didn’t look even a little bit convinced of that, but she didn’t say anything.

  “What kind of pre-emptive strike are we talking about?” Eddie asked, determined not to be side-tracked. “An open assault, on Drood Hall?”

  “Possibly,” said the Sarjeant. “If John Taylor can appear in our grounds out of nowhere, despite all the shields and protections we put in place just to keep people like him out, what’s to stop him coming back at the head of an armed force?”

  “You assured me such an invasion was impossible, after all the very expensive upgrades I authorised,” said the Matriarch.

  “This is John Taylor we’re talking about,” said the Sarjeant. “A man with an extensive history of doing things everyone else believed impossible.”

  “Do these local agents of yours know anything about what the Authorities might be planning?” said Eddie.

  “Not so far,” said the Sarjeant. “Did you hear anything at Strangefellows?”

  “No,” said Eddie. “But then, we didn’t know to ask.”

  “And the Authorities have a lot of experience when it comes to holding their cards close to their chest,” said Molly.

  “Whatever the Authorities are planning, they’ve made their intentions clear,” said the Matriarch. “So, we have decided the only way to stop the expansion of the Nightside, and put an end to the Authorities’ plans, is to bring the whole of the long night
under Drood control.”

  “And to hell with the Pacts and Agreements,” said the Sarjeant-at-Arms. “They no longer serve any useful purpose.”

  “It’s long past time we put a stop to the Nightside,” said the Matriarch. “Pretty much every evil we face has its roots there.”

  “It’s always been a safe haven, for all kinds of villains and dubious characters,” said the Sarjeant.

  Eddie looked at the Sarjeant, surprised he wasn’t defending some of the more appealing aspects of the Nightside. Like drinking in Strangefellows. Something had changed in the Sarjeant, and Eddie wanted very much to know what.

  “The only way to seize control of the Nightside, and hold it,” Eddie said carefully, “would involve a full-on invasion. You’d have to commit all of the Droods, the entire family, in their armour.”

  “Yes,” said the Matriarch. “No holding back and no quarter; surrender or die. We have to do this, Eddie. It’s necessary.”

  “But it’s not practical!” said Eddie. “It would take months of preparation, just to organise such an invasion!”

  “We can be ready to go in a few hours,” said the Sarjeant. “The family has long-standing contingency plans in place, with everything we need to know already worked out.”

  “You have plans to attack the Nightside?” said Molly.

  “We have detailed plans on how to take down all our enemies,” said the Sarjeant. “And all of our friends and allies.”

  “Just how long-standing are these plans of yours?” said Molly.

  “Most of them go back centuries,” said the Sarjeant. “Constantly updated, of course. Because we always knew a day like this would come, when we had to be prepared to fight for our survival, and the world’s.”

  “Do your friends and allies know you’ve always been ready to attack them, as well as your enemies?” Molly asked.

  “Our duty is to protect Humanity from all threats,” said the Matriarch. “Wherever they come from. Today’s friend could be tomorrow’s enemy.”

  “It can happen,” Eddie said to Molly. “Remember, you used to think Manifest Destiny were good guys. Till you saw what they had in their cellars.”

  Molly didn’t say anything. She just glared dangerously at the Matriarch and the Sarjeant-at-Arms.

  “We all hoped these plans would never have to be used,” said the Matriarch, staring unflinchingly back at Molly. “But we had to have them. Just in case.”

  Molly turned her glare on Eddie. “Did you know about this when you were running the family?”

  “I knew there were plans,” Eddie said steadily. “I never looked at any of them because I never needed to. But that could have changed. Remember when we discovered the family had been infiltrated by the Loathly Ones? What if they’d got into any of the other secret organisations, ones we currently think of as friends and allies? We’d have had to take them down, to save the Earth from being destroyed by the Hungry Gods. It has always been our job to be prepared for any emergency. And . . . to do whatever is necessary.”

  Molly turned away from him, to stand on her own. Her back was stiff, and her arms were tightly folded, as though to hold in her churning emotions. She said nothing, thinking her own fierce thoughts. Which worried Eddie. Molly Metcalf was never more dangerous than when she was thinking. But there was nothing he could do about that now. All he could do was concentrate on what was in front of him. He turned reluctantly to face the Matriarch and the Sarjeant-at-Arms. He chose his words carefully before he spoke and addressed them mostly to the Sarjeant, the only other man in the room with the experience of leading Droods into battle.

  “How are we supposed to get into the Nightside? There are no roads for us to drive down, no territory we can fly over or land on. No practical approaches at all, in the real world. We’d have to use the traditional ways: the hidden doors and the shadow roads. And you can be sure the Authorities will have all of them sealed off or barricaded by now. Because they’re bound to have long-standing contingency plans of their own. They’ll defend the entrances they can’t block with all kinds of forces, turn the approaches into bottlenecks and killing grounds, and make us pay in blood and slaughter for every foot of ground we seize. The Authorities are dangerous because they think like us. With the right tactics, they could keep us out forever!” He stopped as a thought occurred to him. “I suppose . . . I could use the Merlin Glass, but you know the size of door it makes. We’d have to file the family through two by two! How big an attack force do you think we’d get in before an army arrived to stop us?”

  His voice had become so loud he was almost shouting at the Matriarch. The Sarjeant-at-Arms was looking at him threateningly because no one was ever supposed to shout at the Matriarch. But she seemed perfectly unruffled by Eddie’s manner or the point he was making. She didn’t even glance at the Sarjeant for support. A cold hand closed around Eddie’s heart as he realised they already had an answer. And from the look on their faces, one they knew he wasn’t going to like.

  “There is a way into the Nightside that they won’t be expecting,” said the Matriarch. “Armourer, if you please.”

  Maxwell and Victoria sat up straight in their chairs. This was their area, and their chance to shine.

  “We can use Alpha Red Alpha,” said Max. “The whole point of the dimensional engine is to translate Drood Hall out of this world when it’s under threat and put it somewhere secure till it’s safe for the Hall to return.”

  “We can use the machine to transfer the Hall right into the middle of the Nightside,” said Vicky. “And the whole family with it.”

  “Alpha Red Alpha is powerful enough to smash through any shields the Authorities could put in place,” said Max.

  “They’ll never see it coming!” said Vicky.

  “And with Drood Hall inside the Nightside, we’ll have an impregnable base right in the heart of the Authorities’ territory,” said Max.

  “Giving us supply lines they won’t be able to interrupt,” said Vicky.

  “Yes, dear, I was just getting to that,” said Max.

  “From such a central point, we could spread out and occupy all the important areas in a matter of hours,” said Vicky. “And take down all the Major Players along the way.”

  “I was just about to say that!” said Max.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, dear,” said Vicky. “You go right ahead.”

  “I’m going to, dear,” said Max. He gave the Matriarch his most confident look. “If we hit the Nightside hard enough and fast enough, we should be able to bring the invasion to a successful conclusion with minimal damage and loss of life.”

  “On either side,” said Vicky.

  Molly spun around suddenly to face them, and the Armourer actually flinched back in their chairs. Eddie didn’t think he’d ever seen Molly so angry.

  “And what if you can’t do it quickly, or cleanly? What if it all goes wrong? What if the Authorities dig in, and the fighting goes on and on, and the bodies start piling up?”

  The Armourer huddled together like frightened children, in the face of such a fierce attack, and looked to the Matriarch for support.

  “We’re Droods,” said the Matriarch. “We do what’s necessary and count the costs afterwards. We’re doing this to save the whole world from being overrun by the long night.”

  Molly looked like she was about to erupt. Eddie cleared his throat, and her gaze snapped to him. He met her anger calmly and shook his head slightly, meaning: We’ll talk more about this when we’re alone. Molly scowled and subsided reluctantly. Eddie nodded thankfully to her. He wasn’t sure which side of the argument he was on, but he could tell there was no point in arguing with people when they’d already made up their minds.

  “Thank you, Molly,” said the Matriarch, her voice carefully calm and reasonable. “We will take your opinions under consideration.”

  Eddie winced. Moll
y had never responded well to people who tried being reasonable. Particularly if she decided they were just being patronising. Eddie let his hand drift down to the trouser-pocket where he kept his pocket dimension. If necessary, if someone pushed Molly too far and it looked like she was about to lose it, he was pretty sure he could whip out the Merlin Glass, slam it down over Molly, and send her somewhere else before she could do something everyone but her would regret. And then hope he could make it up to her later. He couldn’t allow Molly to attack his family, not when they might be needed to save the world.

  “You possess the most up-to-date knowledge on the Nightside, Molly,” said the Matriarch, graciously. “It would be very helpful if you could find the time to sit down with some of our people and tell them everything you know. About the place, the people, all the secrets they think no one else knows. Such information could prove invaluable in the war that’s coming.”

  “You really think I’d help you plan the deaths of my friends?” said Molly. Her voice was a very cold and very hard thing. “I’d rather die. I’d rather all of you died . . .”

  The Council stirred uncomfortably. Ammonia let go of William, so she could concentrate on the threat before her. William didn’t notice, his thoughts somewhere else. Maxwell and Victoria thrust their hands into their coat pockets, in search of something they could use to protect themselves. The tension in the room ratcheted up a whole other notch as the Sarjeant-at-Arms took a step forward. Eddie stuck his hand in his pocket dimension and grabbed hold of the Merlin Glass, ready to put himself between Molly and his family. Even if he wasn’t sure which of them he was protecting. But the Matriarch just spoke calmly and rationally to Molly, choosing her words carefully so as not to sound too much like an adult lecturing a wilful child.

  “A bloodless coup is in everyone’s best interests, Molly. The lives you help to save could include your friends’.”

  Molly stood very still, her hands clenched into fists. She said nothing, her face unreadable, then she turned her back on everyone again. Everyone relaxed, just a little, and various hands emerged empty from various pockets. The Matriarch ignored Molly’s behaviour and turned her attention to William.