I felt empty. Forced her back out of this world. With all the Droods dead, what reason would she have to stay? And if she s gone, so is the source of our armour. No more Drood armour, forever. Perhaps that s why she chose to leave so our enemies couldn t force or coerce her into giving them her strange matter. Maybe that s why we ve only seen one armoured corpse. Because she took the rest of her strange matter with her when she left. After all, the Droods were dead.

Then why have you still got your torc? said Molly.

My hand rose to touch the golden collar at my throat again, and then I shook my head slowly. So many questions; so few answers. How can I be a Drood, the Last Drood, without my armour?

You still have your knowledge and your training, said Molly, practical as ever. She moved forward so she could look me in the face. I know you re going through a lot, Eddie, but if you don t snap out if this fast and start acting like yourself again, I am going to slap you a good one and it will hurt.

A smile twitched at the corner of my mouth. You would, too. Wouldn t you?

Damn right I would, Molly said briskly. You still have all your experience, all your old contacts there s still a lot you can do in the world. Though getting your hands on some really big guns probably wouldn t hurt, either. Is there any chance you could get us into the family Armoury? See if anything useful got left behind?

Of course, I said. Large parts of the Hall have always been underground. And heavily shielded and protected. If only to protect the rest of the family from what they did down there. The attackers might not have known about the underground installations or how to access them. Maybe they survived intact.

And maybe there are survivors down there, said Molly.

You ve always been such an optimist, I said. One of the things I ve always admired most about you.

So we went down.