Live and Let Drood

the monkey’s hand kept it trapped where it was. If I could just get Crow Lee to send the major away while he questioned us…maybe there was a limit to how far the monkey’s hand could reach. And then…
    I looked around Crow Lee’s gardens as we were led through them, and I managed a small smile. Even though it broke open my split lips and filled my mouth with blood. Molly and I had made a definite impression. His gardens couldn’t have looked more of a mess if a small country had declared war on them.
    The soldiers were still having to half hold me up. I was playing along a bit, so they wouldn’t see me as any kind of threat till it was too late…but I was still shocked at how weak I was. It had been a long time since I’d taken a professional beating. But I was a Drood. Which meant I was used to beatings. The Sarjeants-at-Arms had seen to that ever since I was a small child. I hurt, but my head was still clear. All I had to do was wait for my chance.
    You tell yourself things like that when you’re broken and bleeding and all out of options. That’s part of the training, too.
    The soldiers stopped before the front door of the manor house, and Molly raised her head to look at me. I wouldn’t let myself look away, and I tried to keep out of my expression just how bad she looked.
    “All my fault,” she said indistinctly. “I should have waited for my magics to return naturally, not relied on the Twilight Teardrop. But there just wasn’t time.…”
    “I know,” I said. “It’s all right.”
    I waited, but she didn’t have anything more to say. She let her head droop forward again, and blood resumed dripping off her chin.
    I made myself look away and study the exterior of Crow Lee’s house. Looking for any information or insight I could use for ammunition when we met. The place seemed quiet and even peaceful, though the drawn curtains at all the windows gave it a slightly sinister aspect. There was even a welcome mat set out before the front door. I laughed briefly at that, and got a slap round the head for my trouble. The door swung silently open before us, and I felt a whole new level of tension rise among the soldiers. Crow Lee was waiting. Major Michaels yelled at his men, and they hauled Molly and me inside. The door swung silently shut behind us.
    Inside the place stank. I grimaced as the stench washed over me, of blood and shit, musk and misery. Even Major Michaels was affected by the smell, though he did his best to hide it. One of the soldiers supporting Molly gagged loudly and whipped his head from side to side, as though searching for fresher air. The major snarled at him and led us all down the long hallway.
    Both walls were covered with mirrors, long rows of framed glass. And as I passed them by I saw faces imprisoned behind each mirror, half-starved, scarred and ruined, silently screaming and pleading. There was nothing I could do. Except hope I’d get the chance to do something for them later. The ceiling was covered with old overlapping bloodstains. Mostly arterial spray, by the look of it.
    “Take a look at the rugs on the floor,” Major Michaels said cheerfully. “Every one of them made from the pelts of endangered animals. If you look carefully at the ones where the heads are still attached, you’ll notice the eyes are still alive and full of suffering. He doesn’t miss a trick, that Crow Lee.”
    He pushed on ahead of us, heading for the closed door at the end of the hall. The whole place stank of death and suffering, like a spiritual abattoir. A row of severed heads had been stuck on spikes: men and women, young and old. They were still alive and suffering, too. Their eyes rolled and their mouths moved, though no sound came out of them.
    “Crow Lee had their vocal cords cut out,” Major Michaels saidcasually. “You can listen to only so much screaming before it gets old. And it’s not as if any of them had anything to say that he wanted to hear.”
    I remembered threatening to put the Immortal’s head on a spike, and I felt ashamed.
    We finally reached the door at the end of the hall. The soldiers were looking at each other unhappily, every movement full of tension and fear. Major Michaels gave me some time to look over the door. The heavy wood had been carved with every name and symbol for evil you could think of, including some from civilisations that don’t even exist anymore. The door knocker was an inverted crucifix, with what I took at first to be some kind