Daemons Are Forever

He was dressed in the formal clothes of his original period, all stark black and white, with a top hat and even an opera cloak. When stalking his victims he could blend in just like anyone else, but when he was off duty, so to speak, he preferred the clothes he was most comfortable with. He was a tall and powerful man, with broad shoulders and long arms. He had a broad, paternal face, like a kindly old family doctor…until you looked into his eyes. And saw all the horrors of Hell looking back at you.

He turned slowly to face us as we drew nearer. “Molly,” he said. “How nice. And Edwin Drood, again. An honour.”

“What are you doing in a place like this?” said Molly, blunt as ever.

“Just…visiting,” said Mr. Stab. He smiled vaguely, showing large, blocky teeth grown brown with age. He gestured at the graves around him. “Once this was a fashionable place, with people just dying to get in. Special trains brought the fortunate deceased here from all over the country. Long ago now, and no one remembers anymore. Except me. I have friends and family here, people who knew me when I was just a man. The last people to remember me as I was, before I became a name to frighten people with.”

I found it hard to think of Mr. Stab as ever being normal, with a normal life, and he must have sensed it, because he made a brief dismissive gesture and looked at me coldly.

“What do you want with me, Edwin Drood?”

I explained the situation, but he was shaking his head even before I finished. “What makes you think I would be so foolish and trusting, to place myself into the hands of my long-time enemies? More importantly, even if you could manage to convince me of my safety, why should I go to the one place where I would never be allowed to kill? I must murder, Edwin. It is my nature.”

“After the tutoring is done,” I said, “you can murder as many Loathly Ones as you like.”

“The Droods have opened up their old library,” said Molly. “Packed full of forgotten and forbidden texts from centuries back. Somewhere in that Library there must be information on how to … if not reverse, at least moderate the conditions of your immortality. Give you some control over it. So you wouldn’t have to kill all the time.”

Mr. Stab considered her thoughtfully. “And what makes you think I want that?”

“Because you’ve refrained from killing me, and my friends,” said Molly. “And I’ve never known you do that for anyone else.”

He nodded slowly. “You want me to do this thing, Molly? Even though you must know it can only end in tears?”

“I want you to do this, so it won’t,” said Molly.

“Then so be it,” said Mr. Stab.

I opened the Merlin Glass to the Armoury, and waved Mr. Stab through. He was greeted by a very harried-looking Armourer, and I shut the mirror down quickly before Uncle Jack could say anything. He looked very much like he wanted to say something, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything I wanted to hear. I put the Glass away and turned to Molly.

“I think we’ve done enough for one day, don’t you? I think we’re owed a little downtime, before we have to report back. What shall we do?”

“Well,” said Molly, linking her arm through mine, “I did promise you a good meal, and since we’re in London for the evening…What say we take in a West End show, and have di

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “But we’ll never get tickets for anything decent at such short notice.”

“I’m a witch, sweetie, remember? Trust me, tickets are not going to be a problem.”

I thought it best to give the family time to adjust to their new tutors before I showed my face at the Hall again, so a show and a nice meal it was. We went to see the new production at Shaftesbury Avenue: Prince of Thieves: The Musical. Starring Robbie Williams as Robin Hood, Paris Hilton as Maid Marion, and Ricky Gervais as the Sheriff. Music, book, and lyrics by no one you’ve ever heard of. Tickets were not a problem; Molly did a Jedi mind trick with the theatre staff, and we ended up in a private box. Afterwards we went to the Ritz and ordered the very best of everything, secure in the knowledge that we had no intention of paying for any of it.

Hey, I keep the world safe and humanity protected. I’m entitled to a few perks and privileges.

“An interesting production,” I said to Molly over pieces of lightly browned toast piled high with Beluga caviar.

“Yes…but why is there such a preoccupation with translating successful films into stage shows? And why didn’t they sing the Bryan Adams song? It’s all most people remember about the film anyway.”

Several bottles of really good champagne later, we stiffed the waiter with an imaginary credit card, tangoed giggling down the Ritz steps, and used the Merlin Glass to take us home. We stepped through into the Armoury, where the Armourer was waiting for us. He did not look at all happy.

“What the hell did you think you were doing, landing me with those four psychopaths? I have enough trouble looking after the psychopaths who work under me! And I have more than enough work to do, without babysitting your special-needs friends!”

I looked around, but there was no sign of any of my tutors. I fixed the Armourer with an only slightly owlish look.

“Uncle Jack, what have you done with them?”

He sniffed loudly. “I handed them over to Pe

I looked at him, shocked suddenly stone cold sober. “You did what? She’ll never be able to handle a dangerous bunch like that! The Blue Fairy alone could walk all over Pe

“I’m sure I don’t know. Ask Pe

I activated my mental link with Strange, in the Sanctity.

“Red alert, emergency, emergency!”

“Oh, hello Eddie! Welcome back. Did you have a nice time in town? Did you bring me back a present?”

“Never mind that now…”

“You didn’t, did you. You forgot all about me.”

“Where’s Pe

“At the lecture auditoriums, of course. She’s already got the first tutorials up and ru

I cut contact with Strange, before I said something one of us would regret, and used the Merlin Glass to transport Molly and me straight to the lecture halls in the south wing. I had this horrible mental picture of a lecture hall full of dead Droods, with blood ru

“Thanks a whole bunch for dropping those four on me!” she said, the effect somewhat limited by her hushed tone.

“Blame the Armourer,” I said automatically. “Where are they, Pe

“None at all,” said Pe

“And there haven’t been any…incidents?” said Molly.

“Not yet,” said Pe

“Why are we whispering?” I said.

Pe