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"What have you got?" I said. "What were you concentrating on?"
"I wasn’t thinking about anything! I didn’t catch this; it caught me!"
I hit the button on my reverse watch, and nothing happened. I hit the button again, and still nothing. I shook my wrist vigorously.
"Oh, shit," I said.
"It sounds so much more helpless when he says it," said Janissary Jane.
"He’s had a lot of practice recently," said Molly. "What’s wrong, Eddie?"
"I appear to have broken the reverse watch," I said. "Or exhausted its batteries, or whatever the hell the damn thing runs on. I think I asked too much of it when I forced it to save you."
"So it’s my fault?" said Molly.
"Always," I said, smiling.
We all looked on as the Blue Fairy wrestled with the fishing rod, the taut line jerking back and forth across the pool. It snapped abruptly, and the Blue Fairy stumbled back. And something huge and long and inhumanly strong burst up out of the golden pool, reaching for him. It was a single tentacle, dark purple in colour and lined with rows of suckers full of grinding teeth. More and more of it burst up out of the pool, snapping back and forth.
"Get out of here!" yelled the Blue Fairy. "I’ll handle this!"
"Don’t be a damned fool!" Janissary Jane yelled back at him. "You can’t handle this on your own!"
"It came through my blood," the Blue Fairy said grimly. "So only I can put it back down. Go. You’ve got things to do. Things that matter. This…is my business. No damned thing from the vasty deeps is going to get the better of me in my own home! Will you all please get the hell out of here, so I can concentrate? And Eddie, make your family pay! For what they did to you, and what they did to me."
More and more of the tentacle was forcing its way into the room, yards and yards of it, straining against the edges of the pool that contained it. The Blue Fairy threw his fishing rod aside and sketched ancient signs and sigils on the air with dancing hands, leaving bright incandescent trails on the air. He was chanting in Elvish in a form so old I couldn’t follow one word in ten. Magic spat and crackled all around him, and for the first time, he was smiling. A cold, inhuman smile.
Molly and Janissary Jane and I left him there, standing on the edge of the golden pool, defying the monstrous thing that had come fishing for him. I left him there, because I had important things to do, and because…it was the only gift I could give him, for his help. A chance to stand alone against a fearsome foe and either win back his pride…or gain the good death he craved. I looked back at him, one last time, before I closed the door. He stood tall and proud and powerful in his magic; and for the first time it wasn’t difficult at all to see the elf in him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
You Can Go Home Again (Provided You Carry a Really Big Stick)
Molly and Janissary Jane and I stood in the street outside the liquor store, looking up at the Blue Fairy’s window. The vivid flashes of light had stopped, and it had all gone very quiet. People passed by, paying us no attention. Thinking this was just another day, no different than any other. They didn’t know there was another world, a more dangerous world, that they would see if they would only stop and look. Molly and Janissary Jane and I looked up at a silent, empty window and finally turned away.
"Should we…?" said Molly.
"No," said Janissary Jane. "Either way, it’s over. Finished."
"It’s time to go home," I said. "For I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."
"I love it when you talk literary," said Molly.
"Eddie…" Janissary Jane said. "I’m sorry, but I’m not going with you. I know my limitations. Fighting demons in Hell dimensions is one thing; taking on your family in the seat of their power…that’s way out of my league. I’d just get in your way. So…I think I’ll sit this one out, if that’s all right with you."
"It’s all right, Jane," I said. "I understand. Trust me; if I didn’t have to do this, I wouldn’t be doing it either." I looked at Molly. "You don’t have to do this, Molly. My family probably doesn’t even know you’re involved. You could still walk away. I’d understand."
"Hell with that," Molly said cheerfully. "I’ve been dreaming of sticking it to the Droods where they live for years. Besides, you wouldn’t last ten minutes without me to back you up, and you know it."
"Thank you, Molly," I said. "That means a lot to me."
"Just promise me one thing," she said. She held my gaze with hers, fierce and demanding. "Promise me that we’re going back to tear the place down. Promise me you won’t go soft and beg them to take you back."
"Not a chance in hell," I said, meeting her gaze. "This isn’t about what my family did to me anymore. It’s about what they’ve done to everyone."
"You’ve come a long way, Eddie," said Molly. "I wish…I could do something to help you. To save you from what’s inside you. All those years I spent trying to kill you, and now something else is beating me to it…I would save you if I could, Eddie. You do know that?"
"I know," I said. "But…I’ve lived more these last few days with you than in all those years on my own."
"Oh, get a room, you two," said Janissary Jane. "I’m out of here before you start comparing favourite poems."
"We are not an item!" said Molly.
"Definitely not," I said solemnly.
"Yeah, right," said Janissary Jane. "I’ll take the black car, and visit my local union branch. See if I can organise some direct action against Manifest Destiny for allowing Archie Leech to use me as a weapon in their fight. The mercenaries’ guild looks after its own. And we’ve always come down very hard on unfair competition from amateurs. If secret societies want to build up their own private armies, they should come to us. And pay the going rate. So…Eddie, Molly. This is good-bye. Good luck, guys. You’re going to need it. And Eddie…thank you. For saving me from Leech. You could have just destroyed my body and got rid of him that way. It’s what most people would have done."
"I’m not most people," I said.
"Got that right," said Molly.
We all laughed a little, and then Janissary Jane turned and walked away without looking back. She’s always been a sentimental sort, for a mercenary. Molly and I watched her drive away in the big black car, and then we stood together on the pavement outside the liquor store and looked at each other. I really didn’t know what to say to her. Were we an item? Were we…a couple? This was all new to me. Unfamiliar territory. I admired Molly. Liked her, respected her, enjoyed her company…and I risked my life to save hers without even thinking about it. Could this be love, come to me late in life, and unexpected? The family allows its agents to have friends, even lovers, but never loves. Marriages are decided by the family. It’s just another way of controlling us. Love is something that comes afterwards, if you’re lucky. Duty and family must always come first.
Because we protect the world. I’d kill them all, for that lie.
And because I of all people know my family aren’t fit to rule the world. They had to be stopped, brought down, and humbled. While I was still strong enough to do it. I might not be able to save myself, but I could still save the world. One last time.
"I know what you’re thinking," said Molly.
"Rather doubt that," I said.
"Let’s just say I’m as much in the dark as you are," said Molly, her hand resting gently on my right arm. "You’re a good man, Eddie. I think I could become very fond of you…in time. But we don’t have much time, do we? So let’s just do what we have to and worry about other things afterwards. If there is an afterwards." She smiled suddenly. "Hell, your family will probably kill us both anyway. So let’s just concentrate on what we’re going to do next."