Live and Let Drood

”
    Brilliant light sprang up out of nowhere, blinding and incandescent, filling the whole chamber and throwing back all the darkness. The shadows couldn’t stand against it and were blasted out of existence in a moment. Molly’s shimmering screen was gone, replaced by pure light, and there wasn’t a bit of darkness anywhere. The light reached a peak almost unbearable to human eyes, even through my face mask, and then began to fade. At the farthest edges of the chamber, shadows started to stir again.
    “The Glass!” Molly said urgently. “We need the Merlin Glass!”
    “I know!” I said. “I’m on it!”
    I concentrated on the Merlin Glass, reaching out to it through my torc, and with no shadow attacks to distract me, my trained mind punched right through the barriers that had been put in my way. All Droods are trained in psychic as well as physical attacks. Or we wouldn’t last ten minutes in the Hall, never mind out in the field. We’ve always been a boisterous family. I thrust my hand through the golden metal at my side, into my pocket, and grabbed the hand mirror. I brought it out and shook the Glass to door size. Once again, bright sunlight poured through the doorway from the Drood grounds. Molly went straight through the Glass, with me hot on her heels. The moment I hit the grassy lawn beyond, I turned around and shut down the Merlin Glass. It shrunk to hand size and flew back to nestle cosily into my hand. I put it away. The Drood grounds were full of sunshine, not a shadow anywhere.
    “Where’s the compass?” said Molly. “Tell me after all that, you’ve still got the bloody compass!”
    “Panic not,” I said. “Of course I’ve still got the compass. I’ve been holding it clenched in my hand all this time.”
    She didn’t relax until I opened my hand to show her. I put it away in the same pocket as the Merlin Glass, while Molly breathed heavily and then stretched slowly in the sun, like a cat.
    “Good. Well done. Because I am never going back to that place, not ever. I hate mummies!”
    “There weren’t any mummies.…”
    “There might have been!”
    There’s no answer to a statement like that, or at least none that won’t get you into serious trouble with your girlfriend. I armoured down. And maybe it was only my imagination that seemed to feel a slowness, a slight reluctance, in the armour’s return to the torc. I stretched, too, enjoying the warmth and light of the open grounds.
    And then Molly and I sank down abruptly onto the good green grass and just sat there quietly, getting our spiritual breath back. I think if Molly hadn’t been there, I might well have given myself over to the shudders. The grounds were very peaceful and the quiet was a comfort. Molly and I sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder, leaning companionably against each other. Drawing strength from each other.
    “It’s been a long time since it’s been that close,” I said finally. “If you hadn’t had that last trick up your sleeve…I don’t know what those shadow things were, but they were hellishly powerful. I think they might actually have been able to crush my armour, and me in it, given enough time. And there’s not much that can do that.”
    “We’ve won too many wars,” said Molly. “Got too used to winning. Too many victories make you soft, make you sloppy.…”
    “Crow Lee had to have been behind them,” I said. “Backing them up with his power. We still kicked their shadowy backsides, though.”
    “What’s this we ? I was the one who called down the Light.…You really think Crow Lee was behind them?”
    “I hope so. I hate to think we might have another enemy that powerful after us.” I looked at her thoughtfully. “Walker? You know Walker?”
    “Yes.”
    “Henry?”
    “Yes!”
    “And?”
    “And nothing! We worked together some years back…on certain matters of mutual interest and profit. Cash up front, of course.”
    “Of course. You never said…”
    “You never asked,” said Molly in her most infuriatingly reasonable tone.
    Some conversations, you just know they’re not going to go anywhere good. I let it drop.
    “What time is it, Eddie?” said Molly. “It’s starting to feel distinctly dinnerish.”
    I looked at my watch and then sat up straight. “That can’t be right.…”
    “What?” said Molly, immediately sitting up straight, too. “What can’t be right?”
    “I checked my watch right before we went through the Merlin Glass. Old habit from