Live and Let Drood

clapped her hands loudly. I laughed out loud at the sheer ease of it. Jagged cracks radiated out across the wall from the hole I’d made, but the wall itself remained, holding itself together. I wriggled my wrist around, but the hole didn’t widen. I tried to pull my hand back and found I couldn’t. My wrist was stuck in the hole. I was glad I had my mask on, so Molly couldn’t see how embarrassed I felt. I struggled to pull my hand back, but it wouldn’t budge. It was wedged in place.
    Out of the corner of my eye I could see Molly trying hard not to laugh.
    “Really not a subject for humour, Molly,” I said sternly. “If I get this wrong and bring the wall down, this whole chamber could collapse around us.”
    “I am reminded of a little Dutch boy…” said Molly.
    “Don’t go there,” I said. “Really. Don’t.”
    I raised one foot and planted it firmly against the wall and pulled steadily on my trapped hand, throwing all the armour’s strength against the hole. And soon enough my golden hand jerked back out. I stepped back and braced myself, ready for the wall to decide enough was enough and just fall to pieces…but apart from a few more radiating cracks, everything was still. Some more dust fell from the ceiling, but I was getting used to that. Egyptians knew how to build things to last in those days.
    I went back to the hole in the wall and carefully worked the edges, a few inches at a time, crushing the stone with my powerful fingers and throwing it aside. And inch by inch the hole grew bigger.
    “You are sure it’s in there?” Molly said helpfully. “Whatever it is we’re looking for that you still won’t talk about.”
    “There is quite definitely another chamber on the other side of this wall,” I said patiently. “The object in question was sealed in there. For protection.”
    “I’m not Seeing any magical protections.”
    “Well, that’s probably because there aren’t any. The feeling was that any magical shields in such an out-of-the-way location would only draw people here to find out what there was that was worth protecting. We just have to hope that the traitor in my family didn’t give up the secret of this location to our enemies. Though he might not have known about it; this was one of our most important and most restricted secrets. We can’t be sure what the traitor does or doesn’t know until we know who he is.”
    “First things first, sweetie,” said Molly. “Do you think you could speed up the wall destruction just a bit? I really would like to get out of this tomb sometime this week, preferably.”
    “Why the rush?” I said. “Somewhere else you have to be?”
    “I don’t like it here,” said Molly.
    There was something in her voice as she said that…so I armoured up both arms, and widened the hole with savage speed, tearing chunks of old stone away from the edges of the hole, while still being careful not to do anything that might bring the wall or the ceiling down. Even with my full attention focused on the task, on the wall, I could still feel Molly watching me. I knew what she was thinking, but she was wrong. I wasn’t afraid of my new armour. That wasn’t why I was doing it this way. I was just being cautious.
    Finally, I stood back and studied the larger hole I’d made. I’d opened up a good-sized gap some three to four feet in diameter. It had felt good to be breaking something, to smash the stone in my golden hands. To inflict my will on the world and make it follow my needs…I clamped down hard on that feeling. I couldn’t trust my feelings while I was wearing any part of the rogue armour. I couldn’t hear its voice in my head or sense its presence looking over my shoulder…but I had no doubt it was still there. I wasn’t afraid of Moxton’s Mistake. I had no doubt my torc gave me control over it. But I was afraid of what I might do…if tempted. I still remembered what I’d done that night in the Wulfshead when I struck down old friends just because they were in my way. When I beat the Indigo Spirit half to death because he wouldn’t let me do what I needed to do. I’d done my penance at Castle Shreck. That had to count for something. But I was damned if I’d ever give in to that kind of anger again. So I had to be careful when using the rogue armour. I had to be…cautious.
    I leaned forward and peered through the hole I’d made. Molly immediately moved in close behind me, breathing hard on my neck.
    “Well? Well? What do