“He’s a graduate of the Dark Academie,” said Annie. “The only ones I know of who are actually scarier than Droods.”
“I could talk to Hadleigh,” said Larry. “But he goes his own way, you know that.”
They all looked around sharply at the sound of yet more footsteps descending the metal stairs. Deliberately loud, as though they wanted everyone to know they were coming.
“What do I have to do to keep people out?” said Alex. “Wasn’t a sign saying We’re closed get the hell away from here I have guns and big stabby things enough? Am I going to have to nail the door shut and put down some land-mines?”
And then a sudden silence fell across the bar as Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf appeared at the foot of the stairs. They smiled easily about them. No one smiled back. The Authorities might not be sure who Eddie was, but they all had enough Sight to see the torc around his neck. And everyone there knew Molly Metcalf. One way or another. The Authorities turned as one to face Eddie and Molly head-on, even Jessica. Alex ducked down behind the bar, to make it clear he had no intention of getting involved.
“Hello, Authorities!” Eddie said easily. “Please don’t be alarmed. I am Eddie Drood, but I’m not like the rest of my family.”
“It’s true,” said Molly. “He really isn’t.”
Eddie raised his hands above his head. The Authorities stared at him, taken aback. Whatever they’d been expecting from a Drood, that wasn’t it. Eddie realised Molly hadn’t raised her hands and gave her a hard look.
“We agreed . . .”
“No,” said Molly. “I’m not doing it. It’s undignified. I have a reputation to maintain!”
“Please,” said Eddie. “Just for me.”
“Oh, all right,” said Molly, ungraciously. “Just for you.” She scowled warningly at the Authorities. “No one is to talk about this. Not ever.”
She raised her hands in the air.
“She’s right,” said Annie, after a moment. “On her, it looks unnatural.”
“I don’t understand,” said Julien. “Are you surrendering to us?”
“Not as such,” Eddie said carefully. “I just wanted to make it very clear that Molly and I didn’t come here looking for trouble.”
“That makes a change, in Molly’s case,” said Larry.
“Don’t push your luck, dead man,” said Molly.
Eddie moved slowly toward the Authorities, keeping his hands high above his head. Molly stuck close beside him.
“What do you want, Drood?” said Brilliant.
“I want to talk,” said Eddie.
“Your Sarjeant-at-Arms destroyed the Hawk’s Wind,” said Julien. “And killed several of my friends.”
“Yeah . . .” said Eddie. “He does things like that. One of the reasons we don’t normally let him off the leash. It’s just another sign of how far out-of-control things have got. I am nothing like the Sarjeant. I already tried talking to John Taylor, but that didn’t work out. He was too inflexible. I’m hoping the Authorities have more room in them for a little give and take.”
“You had words with John Taylor?” said Annie. “And you’re still among the living?”
“Of course,” said Julien Advent. “He’s a Drood, and she’s Molly Metcalf.”
“Who sent you here?” said Brilliant.
“The family Matriarch ordered me to come here and seize control of Strangefellows,” said Eddie. “Given that it’s such an important symbol of the Nightside.”
Alex’s head emerged above the bar. “It is?”
“And you wouldn’t believe the problems I had getting here,” said Eddie. “It’s a madhouse out there. But I’m hoping the whole hands-in-the-air thing is helping to convince everyone here that I just want to talk.”
“We should talk,” said Jessica. Everyone turned to look at her. She shrugged. “This is Eddie Drood. We’ve all heard of him and the things he’s done. For and against his family. If he wants to talk, I say let him. Because I don’t think we’d get very far trying to fight him. Or Molly. Hello, Molly.”
“Hi, Jess,” said Molly. “You look very together.”
“You two know each other?” said Eddie. “Of course you do. You know everyone.”
“It does feel like that, sometimes,” said Molly.
“How did you know the Authorities would be here, right now?” said Julien.
“I’m a witch!” said Molly. “I am also a witch who’s arms are beginning to ache . . .”
“Put your hands down,” said Brilliant. “You look ridiculous.”
“See!” Molly said to Eddie, lowering her hands immediately. “I told you.”
Eddie lowered his hands slowly and cautiously, and the tension in the bar eased, just a little. Alex decided that open mayhem and mass destruction might not be about to break out after all and stood up straight. He glowered at Eddie and Molly.
“The last time you were in here you started a riot! It took me hours to clear up the mess. All right, I didn’t do it personally; I got Betty and Lucy to do it because they’ve got muscles, but the principle is the same! You’re banned!”
“I can pay for the damages,” said Eddie.
“You’re not necessarily banned,” said Alex. “You want something to drink?”
“I do!” said Molly.
“Later,” said Eddie.
Molly gave him a hard look. “You keep saying that.”
Alex raised his voice. “Betty! Lucy!”
The two extremely muscular bouncers appeared from somewhere out back, wearing matching T-shirts: NIGHTSIDE ROLLERBALL HELLCAT MUD-WRESTLING CHAMPIONS. Betty was gnawing the meat off what looked very like a human thigh-bone. Lucy had broken hers in half to get at the marrow. They looked at everyone and didn’t seem even a little bit impressed.
“Guard the door upstairs,” Alex said to them. “I don’t want anyone else getting in to see this. Serious enemies, being reasonable, in my bar? I’d never live it down.”
Betty and Lucy nodded briskly and clattered up the metal stairs. The Authorities picked out a table and sat down on one side of it, crammed close together. Eddie and Molly sat down facing them. Brilliant and Molly watched each other closely, both ready to kick off big time if either of them even looked like they were starting something. Julien, Larry, and Annie kept their gaze fixed on Eddie. Jessica was already staring off into the distance, at something only she could see, and everyone else left her to it. Because they all felt safer when she wasn’t looking at them. Eddie tried his most charming smile on the Authorities, then gave it up as a bad idea when it became clear no one was buying it.
“What do you want, Drood?” said Larry. “Really?”
“An end to the fighting,” said Eddie. “An end to the expansion of the Nightside’s boundaries, and a way for both sides to withdraw from this mess with honour.”
“Do you have any ideas on how this might be achieved?” Julien asked.
“I’m hoping this is a first step,” said Eddie.
Brilliant scowled at Molly. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Because Eddie is the reasonable one,” said Molly, scowling right back at him. “I don’t do reasonable.”
“We’re talking to each other,” said Eddie, fixing his attention on Julien. “And not trying to kill each other. That has to be a good starting-place. The next step has to involve your talking to my family. Two of the Matriarch’s top people, Howard and Callan, are on their way to the Londinium Club, looking for you. I can talk to them on your behalf. Arrange a meeting, on neutral ground.”
“But what would we talk about?” said Larry.
“The need for all of us to work together, to try to find out who or what is behind the Nightside’s changing its boundaries,” said Eddie. “And then what we can do to put things right.”
“You really think your Matriarc
h will go along with that, now she’s got the taste of blood in her mouth?” asked Annie.
“No,” said Eddie. “She wants this war too much. I’d have to take control of the family away from her. And the Sarjeant-at-Arms. Getting Callan and Howard on my side would be a good start to bringing that about. My family would listen to them.”
“Only a Drood can stop a Drood,” said Molly.
“All right,” said Julien. “Go talk to them. See how far they’re prepared to go. Then report back to us.”
“I thought you wanted revenge!” said Larry. “The Droods just slaughtered your friends!”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Julien said coldly. “I do want revenge. But this isn’t about me; it’s about the Nightside.”
“And that’s why you’re the best of us,” said Jessica. “Welcome back, Julien.”
Eddie and Molly got to their feet, slowly and cautiously so as not to spook anybody.
“We’ll get back to you,” said Eddie.
They backed away from the table, then hurried up the metal stairs. The Authorities waited until they couldn’t hear them any more and slowly relaxed, with a series of long sighs.
“That went better than we had any right to expect,” said Brilliant.
“How do you work that out?” said Annie. “We’re still at war, aren’t we?”
“We’re still alive, aren’t we?” said Brilliant. “Apart from you, Larry, obviously.”
“I thought he looked very ordinary, for a Drood,” said Jessica. “Almost normal.”
Annie gave Julien a hard look. “Do you really believe anything will come of this?”
“I don’t know,” said Julien. “But we have to try. At least it got those two out of here without bloodshed. And just maybe, a Drood can stop a Drood.”
“We can’t depend on that,” said Larry. “We have to do something! Work out some kind of tactics we can use, to stop an army of Droods!”
Julien looked at him steadily. “I think we need to talk to your brother. Now.”
“Tommy?” said Larry. “What’s he going to do, confuse them to death?”
“I mean Hadleigh,” said Julien. “We need the Detective Inspectre.”
Everyone looked at everyone else. Unsettled, and just a bit unnerved. Hadleigh’s name and title had that effect on people.
“Are we really back to that?” Brilliant said finally. “Calling on the Detective Inspectre for help is like trying to put out a fire by blowing it up with a nuke.”
“I’ve never met the man,” said Annie. “Only heard stories. What’s he really like, Larry?”
“Scarier than the stories,” said Larry. “I’m dead, and he still creeps the shit out of me. His time in the Dark Academie changed him. Made him more than human, or less.”
“But he is a power in his own right,” said Julien. “Would he use that power to help us?”
“He might,” said Larry.
“Then you need to talk to him right now,” said Julien.
“Oh hell . . .” said Larry.
He got out his phone and hit one particular button. “Hadleigh! This is Larry, and yes, it is an emergency. I’m at Strangefellows. The Authorities need to talk to you about stopping the Drood invasion. Can you help? How fast can you get here?” said Larry.
“Look behind you,” said Hadleigh.
The Authorities spun around in their chairs, and there was Hadleigh, standing facing them. Without a phone in his hand. Larry looked at his, shrugged, and put it away.
“Show-off.”
Wrapped in a long black coat that might have been made from a piece of the night, Hadleigh had a bone-white face, a long mane of jet-black hair, deep-set unblinking eyes, and a cold smile. He appeared starkly black and white because there was no longer any room in him for shades of grey. He looked to be in his twenties, though he had to be much older than that.
“The Detective Inspectre,” said Jessica. “He walks in shadows, between Life and Death, Light and Dark, Law and Chaos. The man with responsibility for dealing with crimes against reality itself.”
“You know,” said Annie, “I think I prefer it when you’re not talking.”
“A lot of people say that,” said Jessica.
“You had to make an appearance, didn’t you, Hadleigh?” said Larry.
He was the only one who didn’t seem at all shaken by Hadleigh’s arrival. But then, he was dead. Hadleigh strolled over to join the Authorities, pulled up a chair, and sat down, all of it with studied calm and elegance. His smile didn’t waver once, and his gaze remained unnervingly direct.
“How nice,” he said. “To be sitting where Eddie and Molly were sitting, just a moment ago.”
“How do you know that?” said Annie, bristling. “Have you been spying on us?”
“No,” said Hadleigh. “I just know things. It comes with the job.”
“Can you help us stop the Drood invasion?” said Julien.
“I once tried to stop Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf, in the House of Doors,” said Hadleigh. “The Dark Academie wanted a Drood to examine, to learn the secrets of his armour and his body. I failed.”
“How is that even possible?” said Larry.
“They cheated,” said Hadleigh.
The Authorities looked at each other. None of them knew what to say.
“I never heard that story before,” Annie said finally.
“I should hope not,” said Hadleigh. “And that was just one Drood . . . And the wild witch, of course. To stop a whole army of Droods, in their armour, in full flow . . . We will need power from the Dark Academie. And that means one of you will have to go there with me to take on that power.”
“I’ll go,” Julien said immediately. “And yes, I understand it will be dangerous. I volunteer.”
“I expected as much,” said Hadleigh. “But it can’t be you, Julien. It has to be Larry.”
“What?” said Larry, not unreasonably upset. “Why does it have to be me?”
“Because you are the only one who could survive the experience,” said Hadleigh. “Because you’re already dead.”
“You’re not exactly selling this to me,” said Larry.
“I wouldn’t ask you to carry this burden if I could do it myself,” said Hadleigh. “But I’m not sure any living person could contain this kind of power long enough to do any good with it.”
Larry looked around at the other Authorities, and they looked steadily, expectantly, back at him. Larry was ready to tell them all to go to Hell, just on general principles. He wouldn’t stand for being pressured and bullied into things, even when he was alive. But one of the more unnerving things about the Detective Inspectre was that he always spoke the truth. So if he said this was necessary . . .
“I always knew being dead would come in handy for something,” said Larry, resignedly. “All right. When do we go?”
“Now,” said Hadleigh.
Larry disappeared from his chair, and the Detective Inspectre vanished with him. The Authorities barely had time to react before both of them were back again. Larry was down on the floor on all fours, shaking and shuddering, his eyes wide with shock. Hadleigh stood over his brother but made no move to help. The Authorities jumped to their feet and gathered around Larry, not sure what to do. In the end, Julien knelt beside him and spoke quietly and reassuringly.
“Larry? What’s wrong? What happened to you? You were only gone a moment.”
“Years,” Larry said hoarsely. “It felt like years. In the dark places, in the cathedrals of bone and horror. There’s no light there, even the sun is dark, but I could still see! I was made to see . . .” He turned his head suddenly, to fix Julien with an almost feral stare. “If you could see what I saw in the Dark Academie, if you knew what they do there . . . What they know and what they teach . . . Reality isn’t what we think it is, Julien; a
nd it never was.”
He started to laugh, then to cry. Julien put a hand on Larry’s shoulder, and the dead man flinched away. Annie glared at Hadleigh.
“What did you do to him, you bastard?”
“Nothing he didn’t ask for,” said Hadleigh. “The Dark Academie offered him power, and he accepted it. He will be very powerful now. For as long as he lasts.”
Julien stood up and glared accusingly at Hadleigh.
“He’s your brother!”
“Who else could I trust with so much power,” said Hadleigh. “Except my own brother?”
Larry finally lurched to his feet. He’d stopped shaking, but his eyes were like a wild thing trapped in a snare. He nodded shakily, as though in agreement to some inner question, and looked at Hadleigh.
“We’re going to need Tommy.”
“I know,” said Hadleigh. “I already talked to him. He’s waiting for us to pick him up.” He smiled briefly. “Or, he may not be. He is the existential private eye, after all.”
“What are you going to do?” said Brilliant.
“Take the fight to Drood Hall,” said Hadleigh. “They brought their family home with them, into the Nightside, then abandoned it to go off and fight. There’s only a skeleton staff in place to protect the Hall; probably because the Droods didn’t think anyone would dare attack it. But we are the Oblivion Brothers, and in our own way, we are all-powerful. We can take Drood Hall. Once you are in control of that, and the very useful things inside it, you should be in a much better position to negotiate a peace.”
“These . . . useful things,” said Julien. “Are you sure you’re not planning to keep some of them for yourself?”
“Well,” said Hadleigh, “the Dark Academie did give me a shopping list . . . And the kind of things we’re talking about, you people couldn’t be trusted with anyway.”
“What gives you the right to make that decision?” said Annie.
He looked at her. “I’m the Detective Inspectre.”
And even Annie Abattoir had to look away, unable to meet his gaze.
“We have to go,” said Larry. “I can feel the power moving inside me. It burns . . .”