Live and Let Drood

Eddie. Thanks for the rescue.”
    “You plotted with Crow Lee to destroy my family,” I said.
    “Your family, my family…I think maybe it’s time all of us stopped defining ourselves by our families.”
    “Yes,” I said. “But not quite yet.”
    I looked at Louisa, who smiled brightly.
    “I knew everything would work out! Group hug!”
    The three Metcalf sisters moved together and held hands, and there was a brief burst of swirling lights and coruscating energies that filled the whole study. Molly let go and stepped back and stretched luxuriously, like a cat in the sun.
    “Ah…Now, that’s more like it! My magic is back, every last bit of it! Let us have words with Crow Lee.”
    “Hard words,” I said.
    We marched over to the door leading into the next room. It was locked. Molly laughed and snapped her fingers at it. The heavy wood of the door groaned loudly and rattled furiously in its frame, but it wouldn’t open. Isabella and Louisa said a Word of Power together, and the veneer jumped right off the door, but still it held. So I got out my skeleton key, slipped it carefully into the lock and turned it slowly, with just the right amount of pressure, and the protections on the door just threw their hands in the air and said, Have it your own way, then, and the door opened.
    Crow Lee was scrabbling through the contents of a chest of drawers. He spun round as we entered, and the remote control was in his hand. I knew what it was, what it had to be, just from the look on his face. The thing didn’t look too complicated. Crow Lee snatched up along ironwood staff and held it out defiantly before him. I immediately stopped short and made sure the others did, too.
    “No one move,” I said. “No one do anything. That is Oath Breaker.”
    “That is?” said Isabella. “I’ve only ever read descriptions of it. I’d expected a lot more, to be honest.”
    “What’s Oath Breaker?” said Louisa, frowning prettily.
    “One of the Drood forbidden weapons,” said Molly. “It revokes all agreements and bonds, right down to the atomic level.”
    “Oh goody!” said Louisa, clapping her hands together. “I want one!”
    “You’re dangerous enough as it is,” said Molly.
    “Girls just want to have fun!” Louisa said brightly.
    “Is she always like this?” I said quietly to Molly.
    “This is her being relatively stable,” said Molly. “God knows how long it’ll last.…Now you know why we never let anyone meet her.” She glowered at Crow Lee. “I don’t care what you’ve got. You do not get to walk free after everything you’ve done.”
    “My offer of a deal still stands,” said Crow Lee, ignoring the Metcalf sisters to stare directly at me. “The remote control, the coordinates it contains and the return of your Hall and family in return for immunity for all the things I may have done.”
    “We might have made a deal,” I said steadily, “but not now. I can’t let you walk out of here with Oath Breaker. Throw it aside and we’ll talk.”
    “How did he get his hands on that thing, anyway?” said Molly.
    “From the Original Traitor Drood,” I said.
    “And where’s he?” said Isabella.
    “Dead,” I said.
    Molly looked at me sharply. “You have been busy while I was gone. Mr. Stab and the Original Traitor?”
    “Let’s not get distracted, people,” said Crow Lee. “This remote control can guide your Merlin Glass straight to your family, Eddie. And their safe return is all that really matters, right? And don’t even think about taking the remote from me; I’ve got it rigged with a dead man’s switch. If the remote leaves my hand without my permission, it’llself-destruct. And then no one will be able to find the Droods. You’re not going to risk that, Eddie. So, I’ll be leaving you now. With the remote and Oath Breaker. I’ll be in touch, from a safe distance, and then we can work out the terms of our agreement, like civilised people.”
    “You make one move to leave and I’ll kill you,” I said.
    “Like Mr. Stab and Adrian Drood?” said Crow Lee. “You are getting a taste for it. Aren’t you, Eddie? But I don’t think so. All your armour and all the Metcalf sisters’ magic are still nothing when set against the ancient brute force of Oath Breaker.”
    And that was when Major Michaels came slamming through the other door on the far side of the room, with a whole bunch of heavily armed mercenary soldiers. Who took one look at me and the Metcalf sisters and