to my family, arrange something. We can still make a deal, a trade. Our lives for the Star. You know my family knows all about making deals . . .”
Nicolai took the knife away from Molly’s throat, got up from his barstool, and came over to stand beside me. My stomach muscles unclenched a little, now that Molly was no longer in danger. Nicolai advanced on me, holding the knife out before him. The blade shone supernaturally bright in the gloom. He held the knife up before my face, so close I could almost feel it. But I couldn’t recoil. Couldn’t pull back a single inch.
“Very well, Eddie,” Nicolai said slowly. “I’ll trade you and Molly, for the Star. Your family might not care so much about the witch, but they’ll want to save one of their own. No tricks, Eddie; your torc can’t protect you from this blade, as long as the Hand of Glory still burns.”
“I’m going to reach into my pocket,” I said. “To get my phone. It’s in my pocket dimension.”
“Get it out slowly,” said Nicolai.
I reached carefully into my right-hand pocket and brought out the Colt Repeater I kept there. Nicolai couldn’t see it from where he was standing until it was far too late. I brought the gun up quickly and shot the Hand of Glory. The bullet hit it square in the palm and sent the Hand tumbling backwards. All the flames on the fingers went out, and just like that I could move again. I jumped up from the bar-stool and aimed the Colt Repeater at Nicolai as he stumbled back away from me.
“You really shouldn’t have threatened my Molly,” I said.
He didn’t try to attack me, or Molly; he just turned and ran for the door. I shot him in the left buttock, and the impact sent him crashing to the floor. The silver blade flew from his hand. He gave up then. Just lay on the floor, on his side, an old man weeping angrily. He turned his head back to glare at me.
“Go on, then!” he said through his tears. “Kill me! You know you want to, Drood!”
“No,” I said. “I don’t do that any more. I’ll have my family come here and pick you up. You can have your Star back; we don’t want it. And then I think we’ll hand you back to your own people. I wonder what we’ll get from them for you? A thief, and a traitor . . . Molly, are you all right? Molly?”
I looked around, and saw that Molly wasn’t there. Her bar-stool was empty. There was no sign of her anywhere the club. She was just . . . gone. I turned back to Nicolai. He saw the look on my face and tried to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood behind him. I moved quickly forward and bent over him.
“Where is she?” I said. “Where’s Molly? What have you done with her?”
“I haven’t done anything!” he said, cringing away from me. Holding his hands up before his face, as though that might protect him.
I slapped his hands away with the Colt and stuck the gun right in his face. I pressed the barrel into his left eye. He screwed his eye up and cried out as I pressed harder.
“Where’s Molly?”
He was crying openly now, an old man with all his dignity stripped away, broken by what he heard in my voice.
“I don’t know! I don’t know anything! This is nothing to do with me! Please . . .”
He was so scared, he wet himself. Whatever had happened to Molly, it wasn’t down to him. I took the gun out of his eye and backed away. I might have felt sorry for him if he hadn’t threatened Molly. I went back to the bar, bent down, and picked up the Merlin Glass from the floor. I looked it over carefully, but it wasn’t damaged. The Merlin Glass can look after itself. I held the mirror out before me.
“Find Molly,” I said. “Wherever she is.”
My reflection disappeared from the mirror and was replaced by a grey blur of buzzing static. I stared at it for a long moment. The Glass had never done that before. The Merlin Glass had always been able to find anyone, anywhere, even in places that were completely out of this world.
“Find Isabella and Louisa,” I said. “Where are they?”
The grey blur disappeared immediately, as the Glass showed me Molly’s sisters, talking animatedly together. They broke