him pass. I raised my head slowly, against the pain, and concentrated, and a great rush of relief passed through me. I knew his face. It was the Armourer, my uncle Jack. The one person in my family I knew I could depend on to never let me down. The feeling of relief faded away as the Armourer drew closer, leaving me confused. It seemed to me that something was wrong. That there was something I should remember . . .
Uncle Jack came to a halt right in front of me and smiled at me. Warmly, and kindly. I smiled back. I wondered if I was dreaming. I started to say something, and then my legs buckled and I almost fell. Jack was immediately there to grab my good arm and hold me up. I leaned on him heavily, unashamedly. He felt reassuringly real and solid. I almost cried out with relief. My legs grew stronger, and I straightened up again. I stepped back to study his face.
The Armourer looked just as I remembered him from the last time I’d seen him. Standing tall and steady in his stained and burned white lab coat. But now he had all his old strength and vitality back. He didn’t look tired, or worn out . . . And it was only then, as a slow chill moved through me, that I remembered why that had been the last time I’d seen him.
“Uncle Jack?” I said. “Aren’t you . . . dead?”
“Aren’t you?” said the Armourer.
I thought about it. “No,” I said decisively.
“Well, that’s a start,” Jack said cheerfully. “Come with me, Eddie, if you want to live.”
He started off back down the street, and I went along with him, leaning heavily on his supporting arm. Wondering if I was so ill I’d started hallucinating. I could be imagining it all. But no; if this was all just in my head, I wouldn’t hurt so much.
“I went to your funeral, Uncle Jack,” I said.
“Did you? That was kind of you, Eddie. Good turnout, was it?”
“So you are quite definitely dead?”
“Oh yes . . .”
I thought about it. “Is . . . Uncle James here too?”
“I’m afraid not,” said the Armourer. “Only one guardian angel to a customer. That’s how it works. I don’t make the rules.”
“Who does?”
Jack looked at me. “Do you really want to know?”
“Possibly not,” I said.
“It’s all right to lean on me, Eddie,” said Jack. “You’re in a bad way. Someone put the really hard word on you.”
“Am I dying?”
“Maybe,” said the Armourer. “That’s up to you.”
“Where are you taking me, Uncle Jack?”
“We’re going underground,” said the Armourer. “Where all the dead things go. How long you stay there will depend on you.”
And then he stopped abruptly, and I had no choice but to stop with him. Up ahead, two large and very determined-looking men were heading towards us. I recognised them both immediately. The Vodyanoi Brothers, Gregor and Sergei. Thugs and bully-boys, villains for hire, werewolves. Tall and leanly muscled, in expensive long black leather coats, with shaven heads and nasty smiles. They crashed to a halt before me, and looked me over with hot, anticipatory eyes. Even standing still they looked violent, and vicious with it. Gregor gave me his best menacing sneer.
“Yes! It is being you! Eddie the Drood, you remember us. Gregor and Sergei Vodyanoi. Very dangerous people!”
“Incredibly dangerous!” said Sergei, determined not to be left out.
“Yes, little brother, but you will be remembering that we did agree I would be the one to do all the talking,” said Gregor. “Because I am best at.”
“Then get on with it!” said Sergei.
“You always did bolt your food,” said Gregor. “It is no wonder you are being a martyr to your digestion.” He glared at me. “Our grandfather called us in. Because of what you did to him, at the Wulfshead. The way you treated him!”
“And we are being glad to come here!” said Sergei, unable to contain himself. “Come to make you pay, Eddie Drood, for the way you have always treated us.”
“For getting us thrown out of the Lady Faire’s Ball!” said Gregor. “We had to walk home! The long way!”
“And when we heard you are being hurt, and injured,” said Sergei, “weak and vulnerable, at long last, well! It is all our birthdays come at once.”
“Icing on the cake,” said Gregor.
Sergei looked at him. “What cake? No one said anything about cake.”
I looked at Jack. “Normally I’d find them funny. But today I’m just not