For Heaven's Eyes Only (55 page)

There wasn’t any warning.

I drove the Phantom up the long gravel path to the Hall, laughing and joking with Molly. The first indication I had that something was wrong was when I realised how quiet the grounds were. No gryphons, no winged unicorns, no signs of life anywhere. And then I rounded the last corner, and there was the Hall. Or what was left of it.

The Hall was a burnt-out ruin. The walls were broken, shattered, blackened by fire. The windows were blown out. The roof had collapsed and fallen in. Not one wall remained intact. The Hall was a shell, holding death and destruction within. The front doors had been blasted off their hinges and lay broken and charred in the driveway. A single golden figure lay curled in the doorway, the armour half-melted and fused together. I hadn’t thought that was possible.

I slammed the Phantom to a halt, and Molly and I got out. For a long moment I couldn’t move, held where I was with shock. Molly moved in close beside me. After a while, we went inside to look around.

The Hall had been utterly destroyed. Nothing remained intact. We found a few more golden figures: dead, melted, some almost shapeless. The Hall was gone, and my family was dead, and I hadn’t heard a thing. Too busy playing tourist. I reached out through my torc, trying to reach any other Drood, thinking maybe someone still out in the field might have escaped the slaughter, but no one replied. Not even Ethel.

“Who could have done something like this?” Molly said finally. I didn’t have an answer.

Everything I had had been taken from me. All that remained was duty, and revenge. And to be the last Drood.

ALSO BY SIMON R. GREEN