Moonbreaker

  And immediately I was answered. By a calm, assured voice that felt like it came from down below, from the deepest part of the frozen Earth . . . and yet it sounded like Gerard was standing right in front of me. Molly almost jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t expected to be able to hear him too.

  “Hello, Eddie,” said Gerard Drood. “Welcome back. I’ve been expecting you.”

  Molly looked at me. “Only three sentences and already he’s freaking me out. How could he be expecting us?”

  “Because I arranged all of this,” said Gerard. “Hello, Molly Metcalf. You are welcome here too. Try not to get in the way.”

  Molly glared at me. “He knows who I am. How does he know who I am?” She raised her voice. “How do you know who I am?”

  “I foresaw all of this long ago, before the family imprisoned me,” said Gerard. His voice was calm and even and very patient. “It’s why I allowed them to put me away.”

  “Who?” I said. “Who put you away, exactly?”

  “They called themselves the very-secret agents,” said Gerard. “So secret I never even knew they existed. They watched and waited, until I weakened myself in a moment of sentiment, transforming the surface of the Moon. And then they struck. Using weapons and powers I had no idea existed, because the family never knew they existed. Sneaky, underhanded sons of bitches . . . Typical Drood agents, really. Do they still exist, these very-secret agents?”

  “Not any more,” I said.

  “Good. I knew I couldn’t beat them, not then, so I didn’t even try to fight. I let them put me in the earth, so I could rest and gather my strength—and become more powerful than the family ever dreamed possible. To grow stronger as the family grew weaker.”

  Molly leaned in close so she could murmur in my ear. “Do you actually believe any of this?”

  “Some of it rings true. As for the rest, maybe he believes it. Maybe he made himself believe it.”

  “You can’t hide anything from me,” said Gerard. “I’m listening to your thoughts, not your voices. Picking the modern words right out of your heads. Language has changed so much since my time, become larger and more evocative. I approve. Only living things change and grow, even if they have their roots in dead things. The Droods are the past, and I am the future. I know why you’re here, Eddie.”

  “Bet you don’t,” I said.

  He laughed suddenly. “How refreshing to have an element of surprise in my life again. I’ve missed conversation.”

  “I thought you might,” I said. “That’s why I’m here.”

  I was surprised at how calm and easy Gerard’s manner was. Apparently centuries of being buried alive, wrapped in unbreakable chains, had done nothing to break his spirit. He was still talking as though he was in charge. I did my best to sound earnest and convincing. The rational voice in this conversation.

  “You need to go back to sleep, Gerard. Your time is over. Everything you know is gone. You wouldn’t even recognise the world as it is today.”

  “Then I’ll just have to change it until I do,” said Gerard. “That was always my intent, after all.”

  “I have to ask,” said Molly. “What was your plan, exactly? Once you’d subjugated all of Humanity, and made everyone in the world think your thoughts . . . what then?”

  “Why stop at Humanity?” said Gerard. “Why stop at the world? I wanted to remake the whole universe in my image.”

  “Is that why you carved your face into the Moon?” said Molly.

  “A moment’s weakness, for which I paid dearly. It wasn’t even why I went to the Moon. The family left something there long ago. I just never got the chance to use it.

  Eddie knows what I’m talking about, don’t you, Eddie?”

  “Moonbreaker,” I said numbly. “You’re talking about Moonbreaker. You really meant to use that?”

  “It would have set me free. Set us all free.”

  “What’s he talking about, Eddie?” said Molly.

  “Not now.”

  “Eddie!”

  “Not now! Gerard, what good would it do you to gain the world if you destroy it in the process?”

  “Birds have to leave the nest if they’re to learn how to fly,” said Gerard. “I would have made a new world and a new heaven. Isn’t that what gods are supposed to do?”

  “You were never a god,” I said. “Just a Drood with an upgrade. How did you do that, Gerard? How could that old Heart armour transform you so completely?”

  “By my not thinking of it as armour. Such a limiting concept. I took it inside me, joined with it on every physical and spiritual level there is. It wasn’t easy; the process nearly killed me. But then . . . I woke up. All the way up, and found myself a god.”

  “If you were a god, the family wouldn’t have been able to stuff you in a tomb, wrap you in chains, and bury you all the way out here,” I said.

  “I allowed all of that to happen,” Gerard said patiently. “Because what is Time to a god? All that matters is I’ve won. I used you, Eddie, to set in motion events that would inevitably lead to this moment. When I shall throw off my chains, walk out of my tomb, and be free again.”

  “With my help,” said Edmund.

  I spun around and there he was, some distance behind me, standing before a Door-sized Merlin Glass, smiling happily. He wasn’t wearing his armour, but the cold didn’t seem to bother him at all. Molly snarled something and started forward, but I stopped her with a sharp gesture.

  “Going head-to-head with him hasn’t gotten us anywhere, Molly. We need to be smarter this time.”

  “Finally, you’re getting the hang of things,” said Edmund. He looked around him. “So, this is the proper location for the tomb. Looks just as dreary as the other place. I should have known the book would be misleading; it’s what I would have done. I was just considering what to do next when you set off a fireworks show just for me! And now . . . here I am. Hello, ancestor Gerard! I’ve come to set you free.”

  “Hello, Edmund,” said Gerard. “Here you are, just as I foresaw. Though not quite what I expected. I’m no ancestor of yours . . . because you’re not from around here, are you?”

  I could see Edmund was thrown by that, but he recovered quickly. “It doesn’t matter where I’m from; what matters is what I’ve brought with me. The Immaculate Key! Just the thing to open a tomb that was never meant to be opened.”

  “I know,” said Gerard. “That’s why I created it. So it could do what I needed it to do.” He laughed softly. “Don’t look so surprised, Eddie. When you’re a living god, Time is just another direction to look in.”

  “I won’t let you do this,” I said to Edmund.

  He smiled happily. “You can’t stop me, Eddie.”

  I charged forward, churning up the bloodstained snow as I headed straight for him, because there was nothing else left to do. And I had to do it now, while I still had the strength. Molly sent a lightning bolt crackling past me. Edmund armoured up, and the vicious energies shattered harmlessly against his golden chest. And while I was still ploughing through the deep snow, Edmund bent calmly forward and thrust the Immaculate Key into the ground. I think I cried out then; because for something like the Key, intent was everything.

  I staggered to a halt, and Molly quickly caught up with me. And then we both grabbed hold of each other as the ground beneath us shook violently as something exploded deep underground. The ground cracked jaggedly and then tore itself apart, crimson snow collapsing into the widening gap. Molly and I clung on to each other to keep from falling, riding the ground as it rose and fell. The crack widened into a crevice, and up from out of the depths rose Grendel Rex’s tomb. It hung unsupported on the air above the break in the earth, a brightly glowing golden coffin.

  I should have known. What else could my family use to make Grendel Rex’s prison, except their own armour? The very-secret agents of that tim
e had sacrificed their torcs and their lives to do their duty.

  Anything for the family.

  And it had all been for nothing. Hairline cracks raced across the surface of the coffin, lengthening and branching as the ancient bindings grew weaker, until suddenly the tomb just disappeared. And Gerard Drood, Grendel Rex, the Unforgiven God himself, stood alone on the air, hovering effortlessly over the bottomless drop.

  It was all I could do to stay on my feet. The last of my strength was running out, like the sand from a broken hour-glass. I’d left it too late. I felt sick and weak. I didn’t even want to think about what state my body was in now underneath my armour. I slowly realised Molly was shouting at me. I forced the weakness back by sheer strength of will, and made myself concentrate on what was happening in front of me.

  Gerard Drood was just a man, after all. An ordinary-looking man in a plain white robe, with an entirely unremarkable face. He still wore his chains, lengths of fiercely crackling energies wrapping around him in overlapping coils that blazed so brightly they hurt my eyes, even through my golden face mask. Knowing they would die when they gave up their torcs, the very-secret agents had given up their life energies to make the chains that would bind Grendel Rex. The only chains that could hope to hold a living god and outlast eternity. For a moment, I allowed myself to hope, and then the Immaculate Key jerked itself out of the ground and shot through the air to slap into the waiting hand of Grendel Rex. The Key sank into his hand and disappeared. Gerard flexed his arms, and the glowing chains shattered and blew away, dissipating into the freezing air.

  I don’t know whether I heard the last dying screams of the very-secret agents then or whether I just thought I did.

  Gerard stepped lightly forward across the open air, as easily as walking on water, before finally stepping down onto the crimson snow. He looked around him, entranced by the light of a world he hadn’t seen in a millennium. Edmund hurried forward to greet him, smiling easily, as though he met living gods every day. The Merlin Glass vanished from where it was and reappeared beside the two of them. Gerard barely gave it a glance. Through the open doorway I could clearly see the dusty grey surface of the Moon. Air rushed and whistled through the open Door, sucked in by the vacuum beyond.

  I raised my voice, calling out desperately to Gerard. “Don’t go with him! You can’t trust him! He murdered all the Droods in his world!”

  Gerard favoured me with his smile. “A man after my own heart.”

  Edmund gestured grandly for Gerard to go first, and the living god stepped calmly out of this world and onto the Moon. Edmund waved cheerfully to me, and followed Gerard through. The Door slammed shut and the Merlin Glass disappeared, while I just stood there, paralysed with shock. Molly grabbed me by my golden shoulders and shook me hard, shouting right into my face.

  “Eddie! What are we going to do now? What can we do?”

  “We go after him,” I said. And she never knew how much it cost me to keep my voice calm and steady.

  “How?”

  “Dragon!” I yelled. “Where are you?”

  He dropped out of the sky to land lightly right in front of us.

  “Where have you been?” Molly said loudly.

  “I was busy,” said the dragon. “No need to brief me; I know what’s happened. Pretty inevitable, really, all things considered. I know where they’ve gone, and, yes, I can take you there. Climb aboard.”

  This time, Molly had to shove and then half carry me up the side of the dragon and plant me on his back. My hands were numb inside my gloves, and my feet weren’t much better. I barely had enough strength to settle into place on the dragon’s spine. Which rather raised the question of what use I was going to be once we caught up with Edmund and Gerard. I pushed the thought aside. I would find the strength to do what needed doing, when I needed it. Because I was a Drood and that’s what Droods do. Molly swung into position behind me and put her arms round my waist. As much to hold me up as anything else. I made myself sit up as straight as I could, for pride’s sake.

  “Eddie . . .”

  “It’s almost over, Molly,” I said. “I can do this. One last chance to save the day. Business as usual.”

  “Tell me you’ve got a plan!”

  “I’ve got a plan.”

  “Oh good,” said Molly. “For a moment there, I was worried.”

  I laughed despite myself. “Droods are never more dangerous than when we’re dying. Because that’s when we’ll try anything!”

  “I feel so confident,” said Molly.

  “Dragon!” I said. “Follow that god!”

  “To the Moon!” said the dragon. And he threw himself into the sky, heading straight for the waiting Rainbow.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Journey’s End

  "W here were you when we needed you?” I said to the dragon. “And don’t just say busy.”

  “But I was!” protested the dragon.

  “Doing what?” said Molly.

  “I had to contact the Droods,” the dragon said patiently. “I could tell they were trying to reach you, Eddie. It’s a dragon thing. But something about the tomb was keeping them out. They really needed to talk to you about something that was urgent as well as important, so I had to fly outside the affected area. And that took some time.”

  “Why didn’t you just jump there, through the Rainbow?” said Molly.

  “Because you only use something like the Rainbow when it’s really important,” said the dragon. “It’s a miracle, not a convenience. Anyway, once I’d crossed the boundary I was able to phone home. Your family were really impressed that I was able to talk to them directly.” The dragon paused. “Actually, impressed isn’t quite the right word. I think shocked and appalled would probably be more accurate. But they soon settled down and stopped hyperventilating, and the Matriarch gave me a message to pass on. She’s had people reading through the Drood Diaries. Quite a lot of them, given the sheer number of Diaries. First, they found Gerard’s diary.”

  “You’re kidding!” said Molly.

  “No, I don’t do that. It’s not a dragon thing. This particular diary was written when Gerard was just another Drood. Before he went off the deep end, for a long swim in the Dramatically Disturbed Pool. Apparently he was part of a team of Droods sent to the Moon to install a very important device.”

  “Moonbreaker,” I said.

  “Yes!” said the dragon. “That was it. What’s Moonbreaker, Eddie?”

  “One of my family’s oldest secrets,” I said. “And a very unpleasant one. If Gerard was involved with that, it could explain why he ended up losing the plot so completely.”

  “There’s more to the story,” said the dragon. “Gerard was married to Elspeth, also part of the installation team. Something went wrong during their time on the Moon, and Elspeth was killed. Gerard was never the same after that.”

  “I told you!” said Molly. “I knew there’d be a love gone wrong at the bottom of all this.”

  “He lost his wife doing his duty to the family,” I said. “Much becomes clear.”

  “It does?” said the dragon.

  “He wanted to punish the family, and he wanted everyone else to be him, so he’d never have to be alone again.”

  “But instead he ended up condemned to spend centuries on his own,” said Molly. “Buried alive in his tomb. Life can be cruel.”

  “Yes,” I said. “It can.”

  I would have liked to spend some time just sitting and brooding on the unfairness and injustice of life, but Molly knew better than to let me feel sorry for myself.

  “Hey, dragon,” she said. “And second?”

  “What?” said the dragon.

  “You said, ‘First, they found Gerard’s diary.’ Which rather implies there was a second thing they found.”

  “Oh! Yes!” said the dragon. “They also found Peter’s diary.
The Librarian got quite excited over that. It seems Peter was the last of the very-secret agents in the family, and they don’t usually write Diaries.”

  “We know about Peter,” I said. “We met him.”

  “You did?” said the dragon. “I swear, no one ever tells me anything. Anyway, he knew all about the Moonbreaker device. Where it is and how to activate it. And a whole bunch of other things that not even the Matriarch knew. Somewhat to her surprise. Peter only wrote all this down because he was the last of the very-secret agents, and didn’t want the knowledge to die with him. The Matriarch said I was to pass all this information on to you, Eddie. So you can stop Gerard and Edmund from doing anything unfortunate with Moonbreaker.”

  “Do we need to link again?” I said.

  “No, Eddie. We’re always linked now.”

  I was still trying to figure out how I felt about that when a blast of information hit me in the brain like a steel peg being hammered into the ground. I cried out, and swayed heavily on the dragon’s back. I would have fallen if Molly hadn’t had her arms around me. She had to wrestle me back into place as I reeled under the impact. My thoughts scattered like a flight of birds after a shock and only slowly settled down again. My head ached fiercely, but now I knew all there was to know about Moonbreaker. I realised Molly was shouting at me.

  “Eddie! Eddie! Are you all right?”

  “Yes. I’m fine. And please stop shouting. I have a headache.”

  “You’ve got really grumpy since you started dying,” said Molly. “Next time I’ll let you fall.”

  “Are you all right, Eddie?” said the dragon. “I know it was a lot of information to assimilate.”

  “I’m fine!” I said. “But please stay out of my head. There’s really only room in it for me.”

  “Gladly,” said the dragon. “Don’t you ever clean up in there?”

  “Don’t you think it’s time you told me what Moonbreaker is, Eddie?” said Molly. Just a bit pointedly.

  “Later,” I said. “When I’m feeling stronger.”