I was ready to turn my back on all of it, take a deep breath and grab my spiritual second wind, when I felt strangely drawn to one particular Door. I moved closer, peering curiously into a confused place of flaring lights. Dark shapes drifted towards the Door, but somehow never quite seemed to reach it. A sound issued from the Door, coming clearly to me through my armour. I lunged forward, and Molly grabbed me by the arm and hauled me back. I jerked my arm free and turned on her angrily.
“What is the matter with you? Can’t you hear that? There’s a baby screaming in there! We have to save it!”
“Listen to yourself,” Molly said steadily. “There is no baby. It’s just something pretending, to lure you in. No, Eddie, stay where you are! Stop and think! What would a human baby be doing in there? How could it even survive?”
I looked back at the Door, and the baby’s screams grew louder and more desperate, but somehow less real. Like an impostor trying too hard. I turned my back on the Door and the crying cut off immediately. I shuddered as I realised how close I’d come to charging blindly through the Door. I moved back to the centre of the chamber, and Molly went with me. I swallowed hard and nodded quickly to her.
“I’m back,” I said. “I’m not sure I could have got through the Door, anyway. My armour would probably have stopped me.”
“Of course,” said Molly. “I was just being cautious.” She looked at the Doors surrounding us. “You know, some of those worlds are simply . . . incredible.”
“That’s why the Selenites created the Doors,” I said. “As an escape from their dead world.”
Molly grinned at me suddenly. “Of course! I get it now! This is what you meant when you said all the Selenites were gone. They didn’t die; they left through the Doors!”
“Got it in one,” I said. “Centuries sitting on top of Moonbreaker did nothing for their nerves, and they finally decided they’d had enough and wanted out. Drood Armourers and a whole army of lab assistants worked for years to help the Selenites build all of this; that much is in the family records. Though why the Selenites chose some of these destinations . . . I suppose they just wanted as wide a choice as possible.”
“No accounting for alien taste,” said Molly. “Do you know where they went in the end?”
“No,” I said. “No one was here when they left. We respected the Selenites’ privacy. Maybe . . . they went to all of them.”
“Did any of the Selenites ever change their minds and come back?”
“No. But, then, why would they want to return to a dead world?”
Molly looked at some of the things pressing up against the other sides of the doorways. “I hope there are defences in place to keep those guys from coming through. They don’t look like tourists to me.”
“Relax,” I said. “My family put some serious locks and protections on these Doors after the Selenites left.”
“You sure about that?”
“You don’t think we’d leave Moonbreaker here if it was at all vulnerable? The Selenites could come home, but no one else.”
“Where is this appalling device?” said Molly. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
“Buried under the City,” I said. “Miles down. This is simply where you access the controls.”
“I don’t see any controls either.”
“They were designed to reveal themselves only to a Drood,” I said patiently. “Like this.”
I knelt down, placed one golden hand flat on the brightly shining floor, and said my name. And then I stepped back quickly, as one whole section of the centre floor disappeared and Moonbreaker’s control column rose steadily up before me. When it finally came to a halt, it stood ten feet tall and almost half as wide. Crusted with silicon grafts like coral growths, studded with blinking lights, interspersed with all kinds of switches and levers.
“What the hell is that?” said Molly. “It looks more like a piece of modern art than a control column.”
“Supposedly, the core mechanism was retrieved and repurposed from a crashed alien starship, and everything else was just . . . wrapped around it. I know it looks a bit crude to modern eyes, but given that this was cobbled together by my family back in the Eleventh Century, I don’t think they did too badly.”
“Do you know how to work it?” said Molly.
“I don’t want to activate Moonbreaker,” I said, “just secure the control column so Edmund and Gerard can’t.”
“Sorry, Eddie,” Edmund said happily behind me. “But that’s not how things are going to work out.”
I spun round to see Edmund and Gerard standing before a Door-sized Merlin Glass on the other side of the chamber. Edmund smiled cheerfully at me. He wasn’t wearing his armour but seemed entirely unaffected by his surroundings. Presumably the fake torc the Immortals made for him came with its own built-in protections. Gerard didn’t seem bothered by the lack of air or pressure or gravity, but, then, he was a living god and presumably above such things.
I made myself concentrate on Edmund. Whatever kind of torc he had, it was no match for my strange-matter armour. I had to believe that. Whatever happened in this place, Edmund was going down. No more tricks. No more last-minute escapes. In this chamber full of Doors, deep beneath the surface of the Moon, his story and mine would finally come to an end.
“Hi guys,” said Edmund. “Miss me?”
I didn’t answer him, just placed myself between Edmund and Gerard and the control column. Molly was right there with me, scowling impartially at both of them. The Unforgiven God didn’t look at her or me. His expression was cold, uninterested, his gaze strangely far away. Edmund struck a casual pose, leaning on Gerard as though the living god were just something useful that happened to be there.
“We had no trouble finding this place,” he said. “Gerard spent a lot of time here, after all, helping to install Moonbreaker. We’ve just been waiting for you to catch up. Somewhat impatiently, I might add. We were beginning to think you were never going to get here. Isn’t that right, Gerard?”
The living god said nothing. His expression didn’t change. Edmund didn’t even glance at him.
“Gerard has been very forthcoming. I could have called up the control column at any time and given Moonbreaker its long-awaited marching orders. But where would have been the fun in that?”
“Really?” I said. “How very strong-willed of you . . . Or could it be that you did call, and the column wouldn’t respond to your fake torc? If you don’t have real Drood armour, you’re not really a Drood. Are you?”
“You can talk,” said Edmund. “Lounging around in those newfangled strange-matter pyjamas.”
“My family updated Moonbreaker when we took on the new armour,” I said. “Because we think of everything. The control column will never take orders from that fake armour of yours.”
“Possibly,” said Edmund. “Good thing for me, then, that I’ve got Gerard. He helped design Moonbreaker, and apparently he put in a few backdoor commands that he never got around to telling his family about. Believe me, Eddie, I can set off the bomb anytime I want. But I had to wait, so you could watch me do it. I need you to see the look on my face as I destroy not just your family, but your whole world as well. I’d like to see the look on your face as you realise you’ve lost everything. But you can’t drop your armour now, can you? Not after what my lovely poison has done to your poor, defenceless body. I’ve seen the end results on some of my victims. Bodies riddled with cancers, twisted and deformed by the poison’s progress. Flesh rotting away from the bones . . . What’s left of you inside that armour must be pretty high by now.”
“You bastard,” said Molly. And her voice was a cold and deadly thing.
“Hush, dear,” said Edmund, not looking round. “Adults talking.”
“Talk to me, you little turd,” said Molly. “Why do you need to destroy the whole world?”
Edmund sighed and
turned his charming smile on her. “You’re expecting me to say for revenge, aren’t you? That it’s the only way I could be sure of wiping out Eddie’s dismal little family. Really, Molly, do you honestly think I’m that petty? That limited in my vision? No, I’ve got something else in mind. The energies released by Moonbreaker’s destruction of the earth will be enough to fill the Merlin Glass to capacity. Energies I can then use to transport me back to my own earth. And of course there’s nothing like having your very own living god at your side, to make sure everyone will bend their knees and bow their heads. Oh, the fun I’m going to have . . . I mean, your earth is all very well, but there’s no place like home, is there? So, blow up the Moon, return home in triumph, and kill off a whole family of Droods in the process! A plan with no drawbacks!”
“You don’t need Moonbreaker to get you home,” I said. “Look around you. You’re surrounded by dimensional Doors. It shouldn’t be too difficult to reprogram one to take you home.”
“Dear Eddie, always the reasonable voice,” said Edmund. “But, really, if all I wanted was to go home, I could have used Alpha Red Alpha and then slammed it shut behind me. I wanted to go home with enough power to put me in charge forever. For that I needed Grendel Rex. And besides, I want to destroy this earth. Just because it’s yours. I want to make you suffer, Eddie. I need that like I need to breathe. For all the indignities and inconveniences you’ve brought into my life.”
“You’d destroy the whole world and all the people on it just for spite?” I said.
“Of course!” said Edmund. “That’s the difference between you and me right there, Eddie. You don’t think big enough.”
“I saw the statue of Kali in your Drood Hall,” I said. “Saw the blood caked around her feet. You grew up in a culture of human sacrifice, didn’t you?”
“Now, you say that like it’s a bad thing,” said Edmund. “But killing the unworthy was actually one of the few things about my family that I never had any problems with. I loved getting involved, and they were always happy to see someone with a real enthusiasm for the task . . . Right up until they discovered I’d been quietly sacrificing fellow members of the family to Kali. They reacted very badly to that, the hypocrites.”
“No,” Molly said bluntly. “I still don’t get it.”
Edmund looked at her patiently. “What don’t you get, Molly?”
“Why you turned out the way you did,” said Molly. “Why you’re so different from Eddie. His family made him rogue and tried to kill him, but he still came back to take control and change them for the better.”
“You want everything to be so simple, don’t you?” said Edmund. “You want me to reveal some terrible secret, some private hurt or loss, to explain everything. But I am the way I am . . . because I’ve always been this way. And I love it! The family only ever held me back. They named me rogue and threw me out. But having to fly the nest early turned out to be the making of me. The sheer joy I felt when I discovered I didn’t need them. And the satisfaction I took watching them all die because of me. The only real difference between your darling Eddie and me, dear Molly, is that I know how to have a good time!”
I looked past him at Gerard. “And you’re prepared to let him do this, Grendel Rex? I thought you wanted to rule Earth when you returned? You can’t rule it if Edmund destroys it, and it doesn’t sound like he plans to share his toys once he gets back to his own world.”
But Gerard didn’t say anything. He just stood where he was, looking at nothing, and for the first time I realised how empty his eyes were.
“Gerard?” I said. “What’s wrong with you?”
Edmund sniggered softly. Like a schoolboy who thinks he’s gotten away with something and can’t wait to show you how clever he’s been.
“I’m afraid the Unforgiven God isn’t home right now. He only answers to me. You do remember, I told you there was someone else inside the Merlin Glass, imprisoned there by Merlin himself long ago? I found them waiting for me when I was forced to hide out inside your Glass. And they were ever so grateful for the company, after so many centuries in solitude. I made a deal with them, for the temporary loan of their power. To hide me from the Powers in this world, so I could operate as Dr DOA and put my plans in motion, and now to make sure Gerard only does what I tell him to do. In return, I will take the Glass and its prisoner back to my world, where it should prove much easier to help them escape.”
“Why do you need to control Gerard now?” said Molly.
“Because Edmund thought he could use Gerard to control Moonbreaker,” I said. “But even with Gerard’s knowledge, he couldn’t raise the control column. He needed me and my new armour to do that. By coming here, I’ve given him what he needs.”
“You’re so clever, Eddie,” said Edmund. “Almost as clever as me.”
“The only way you’ll get to Moonbreaker’s controls,” I said steadily, “is over my dead body.”
“Oh, dear sweet Eddie . . . I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And then he stopped smiling as I laughed at him. “You’ve miscalculated, Edmund. And I mean really screwed up. Thanks to you, I have nothing left to lose. And a man who knows he’s dying can do anything.”
For the first time, Edmund appeared uncertain. He looked at me and then at the control column. He tried his smile again, but his heart wasn’t in it. So he just shrugged and turned to Gerard.
“Be a good little living god, Gerard, and strike down these unbelievers. Remove these inconveniences from my life. Kill them both, and make it bloody. And then bring me Eddie’s torc, so we can get this show on the road.”
Gerard stepped forward, his face entirely empty. My armour picked up the power gathering slowly around him, like the wrath of God manifesting in the world.
“Wake up, Gerard!” I said loudly. “You’re a living god and a Drood! Fight back!”
But nothing moved in Gerard’s face. I glanced at the Merlin Glass behind him. Who the hell had Merlin imprisoned in that thing with power enough to control Grendel Rex? I was still trying to decide what to do for the best when Molly stepped forward, putting herself between me and Gerard. She raised her hands, and dark magics stained the air around her closed fists. Fierce and deadly energies from the primordial heart of the wild woods. Edmund sneered at her.
“Oh please. Even the infamous wild witch is no match for the power of the Unforgiven God.”
“She can be if she has allies,” said Molly.
She raised both hands above her head in the stance of summoning and spoke a Word of Power. A new tension, a new presence, formed in the chamber, and Molly grabbed hold of it with both hands and threw it at the nearest Door. Brilliant lights crackled and coruscated all over the Door, and then the visual static snapped off as all the locks and protections blew apart. The flaring lights then jumped from Door to Door, racing around the perimeter of the chamber, blowing locks apart like a string of firecrackers. And one by one . . . the Doors opened.
Strange creatures stepped through the opened doorways all around the chamber. Some tentatively, as though they couldn’t believe their good fortune, while others burst through as though afraid the Doors might slam shut at any moment. Some strode, some lurched, and some were so big they had to bend right over to squeeze through the openings. Some of the new arrivals were almost human, and some were so monstrous their very presence threatened to break the underlying laws of our reality.
Edmund stared wildly around him, his face slack with shock and horror. “What have you done, you bitch? What have you done?”
“Evened the odds,” said Molly.
A thing made out of sticks headed straight for the control column. It smelled of forest fires and the decaying materials from which all life springs. A flood of writhing tentacles burst through another doorway lined with unblinking eyes and barbed sucker mouths. They snapped forward to wrap themselves around Gerard, only to stop abruptly a
s he looked at them. More and more creatures emerged from the opened Doors: things with insect heads, machine heads, star-shaped heads—or no heads at all. Creatures lunged forward from all sides, with vicious snapping teeth, metal claws, and limbs like bludgeons. There were faces that shone like the sun, and others too awful to look at.
Soon the chamber was packed from wall to wall with enough monstrosities to overwhelm all of us, including a living god. But fortunately for us, they all took one look at each other and went mad with rage. Each launched itself at its nearest enemy, attacking with savage strength and terrible intensity. Blood sprayed across the chamber in a dozen different colours, splashing on the struggling crowd. Some fell to the floor, to hiss and steam as they ate into the glowing stone.
Molly and I stood back to back by the control column, ready to defend it and ourselves, but for the moment none of the creatures seemed interested in us.
“Gerard!” Edmund screamed, his back pressed up against the Merlin Glass. “Stop this! Send them all back!”
And just like that, every single creature stopped dead, frozen in place, brought to a standstill by the power of Grendel Rex’s will. Creatures still emerging through open doorways were stopped and forced back by the sheer psychic pressure in the chamber. Slowly, one by one, the creatures turned away from their private war and headed back to their own Doors. Grendel Rex was sending them home, because we already had enough monsters in this chamber.
Molly looked at me. “Go on, Eddie. Get Edmund. Gerard won’t stay distracted for long.”
Some of the creatures were already fighting the compulsion of Gerard’s augmented will. Molly moved quickly forward to guard his back. She hit the struggling creatures with blasts of her own magic, driving them on like a cattle prod. Slowly, the chamber began to empty.