Casino Infernale sh-6

by Simon R. Green

  Molly leaned in close to me. “Are you sure about this?” she said quietly. “I mean, you know I love your ideas, but . . . can you rely on this lot to do whatever it is you’re about to ask them to do?”

  “Oh, I think so,” I said quietly. “As long as my family is there, looking over their shoulders.”

  “Oh, hell,” said Molly. “Go for it. Genocide always makes me feel queasy.”

  “Take what these machines know,” I said to the generic caretaker, “and use it to set people free. Destroy the financial records of all the evil organisations and individuals, make them bankrupt . . . and then use that money to put right all the wrongs you people have made possible. And set free all the souls you own, so they can move on to wherever they belong. Then, use the knowledge the Shadow Bank has acquired down the years to expose the hidden deals and corrupt conspiracies, and help make the world a better place. I know, Molly, I’m being idealistic again. But we have to try. Because it’s either that, or killing an entire people. And I’m just not in the mood. I’m an agent, not an assassin, remember? You, generic caretaker . . . do you accept the new purpose I give you?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We live to serve.”

  “Good,” I said. “And by the time you’ve finished with everything I’ve just said, my family will have thought of something else that needs doing, to keep you occupied.”

  “Good,” said the generic man. “It will help us to have masters again.”

  “Then tell your people,” I said.

  “They already know. The fighting has stopped. The killing is over. It is no longer necessary. We have a new purpose.”

  “Damn,” said Molly. “You people are seriously creepy.”

  “And you people,” said the generic man, “are seriously scary. Because you’re always so certain.”

  * * *

  We took the elevator back down to the lobby. Molly was almost completely out of magic. We walked out of the lobby, and found our friends and allies standing together outside the hotel. Looking around them in a confused sort of way. The generic army had moved back, and were standing still, awaiting new instructions from their new masters. The moment Molly and I appeared, the whole generic army bowed their heads to us. The Armourer armoured down.

  “Eddie? Molly? What have you done?”

  “We won,” I said cheerfully. “The war is over, the Shadow Bank is no more, and the generic people work for the Droods now.”

  “Bloody typical,” said J.C. He was breathing hard, and there was blood on his white suit. “We do all the hard work, and the Droods reap all the rewards. Don’t the rest of us get anything out of this?”

  “The satisfaction of a job well done,” said Sir Parsifal.

  Dead Boy looked at the London Knight. “You’re weird. And I have to ask, why are some of those empty-faced people gathered around Bruin Bear, and worshipping him?”

  “Because he’s that sort of Bear,” I said. I moved over to the nearest generic person. “Are you sure there won’t be any bad feelings over all of your kind who died here?”

  “We are one,” said the generic man calmly. “What’s a few bodies?”

  “That,” said Molly. “That, right there, is what’s wrong.”

  “No wonder you ran the Shadow Bank the way you did,” I said.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Going Home

  I stood at the end of a terribly long corridor deep within the hotel, with Molly at my side. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of faces lined both walls, staring out of simple wooden frames. Souls, lost souls; lost in games of chance at Casino Infernale. So many suffering faces, held in place behind polished glass, staring endlessly out with haunted eyes. Mouths moving silently, in pleas for help that the world never heard. Like insects trapped under glass, pinned in place, caught between Life and Death, for as long as Casino Infernale, or the Shadow Bank, had a use for them. I looked down the endless length of the corridor, at all the lost souls; and I don’t think I’d ever felt so angry. Molly moved in close beside me, to comfort me with her presence.

  “Some things just aren’t right,” I said. “Some crimes really are inhuman.”

  “I know,” said Molly.

  “I did ask my uncle Jack if he wanted to be here with me when I did this,” I said. “He said thank you, but no. He wanted to make sure the others got home safely.”

  “He probably felt responsible for them,” said Molly. “He was the one who called them to the Summit Meeting in the first place.”

  “No,” I said. “That wasn’t the reason. I think he’s not here because he knew about this and never did anything about it. He just followed the family’s orders. Because they were afraid to do anything that might upset the apple cart. Because they were always ready to deal with the devil they knew . . . rather than risk something worse. And to hell with the cost. My uncle is a good man. A brave man. But he always was too ready to let other people make the big decisions for him.”

  “Good thing the family’s got you, then,” said Molly.

  I looked up and down the corridor, taking my time, refusing to let myself avert my gaze, whenever trapped and suffering eyes met mine.

  “Stop it,” said Molly. “Stop punishing yourself.”

  “I have to wonder,” I said. “Just how many souls aren’t here to be saved because the Shadow Bank already traded them, to Heaven or to Hell.”

  “Never feel guilty about the ones you can’t save,” said Molly. “Be happy for the ones you can. And Eddie, never forget that everyone here . . . is here because they gambled, and lost. They knew the risks they were taking; they knew what they were getting into. They would have been quite happy to take other people’s souls as their property, if they’d won.”

  “They didn’t really understand,” I said. “How could they? They were tempted; taken advantage of. I say that’s wrong and I say the hell with it.”

  Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat came forward to join us. They stood very close together, staring about them with wide, shocked eyes. They held each other’s furry paw, comfortingly. The Goat looked angry; the Bear looked sad. He looked accusingly at me.

  “How could you let this go on for so long?”

  “I didn’t know,” I said.

  “Your family knew,” the Sea Goat said harshly.

  “Turns out there’s a lot of things they didn’t tell me,” I said. “Even when I thought I was running things. But I know now. I promised these lost souls that I would set them free before I left, and I will.”

  “What can we do to help?” said Bruin Bear. “The Horse said we would be needed here, and I think this is why.”

  “That’s why I asked you here,” I said. “I can break open the prison gates, but you have to find somewhere for them to go.”

  “I can do that,” said the Bear.

  “Then stand ready,” I said.

  I held up the safe-cracking device the Armourer had given me. The simple black box that could open all locks. He found it for me, locked away in Parris’ desk drawer. The Armourer could always find the things he’d made; he said they spoke to him, and I was inclined to believe him. The Armourer always did good work. I held the thing up, and then slammed it against the corridor wall. And the whole place exploded in a blast of almost unbearable light and sound. The walls cracked and flew apart, the glass in every frame broke and shattered, and thousands of trapped souls burst back into the world, free at last.

  * * *

  When the sound and fury died down, I was standing on top of a grassy hill under a night sky packed with stars and moons. There was no sign of the corridor anywhere, or any other part of the hotel. Molly stood to one side of me, Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat on the other. And we all looked up into the night sky with wide mouths and wondering eyes. Newly released souls flew back and forth, shooting this way and that like shimmering comets. They rose and fell, danced around each other, wheeled with unconcealed joy like shimmering Catherine wheels, flying free at last. The night sky was full of shining souls, blazing br
ighter than any moon. Molly clapped her hands, and jumped up and down on the spot. Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat danced together, stamping their feet down hard on the purple-tinged grass. And I stood very still, looking and looking. I hadn’t realised just how many trapped souls there’d been, and I couldn’t believe I’d waited one minute longer to free them than was absolutely necessary. I felt Molly’s arm slip through mine as she hugged herself up against me.

  “All right,” she said. “Every now and again, you do something right. So right, even I can’t find a way to knock it. Look at them go!”

  “I promised them,” I said.

  “Of course you did,” said Molly. “You’re that sort of Drood.”

  In the end, Bruin Bear stepped forward and raised his voice to address the souls in the sky. And just like that, they heard him, and stopped. They came down to stand before him in shimmering rows of human forms—thousands of them, blazing in the dark, brighter than stars. Bruin Bear looked fondly on them and when he spoke, they listened.

  “There is a town where dreams go to die,” he said. “Where nightmares end, and hope itself can rest. Where all stories find their endings, and every lost soul finds its way home, at last. Come with me, my friends, to Shadows Fall. And I promise you, I will help you all find your way to whatever place is waiting for you.”

  “Or, we’ll find a way for you to stay on, in Shadows Fall,” said the Sea Goat. “In the place where legends go to die, when the world stops believing in them. It’s a fun place to live . . . or die . . . or be something else. I’m an expert at being something else.”

  Bruin Bear waved a single small paw, and a great door opened in the night. A warm restful Light spilled through it, pushing back the dark. A Light that said Come home. Come home. The Bear and the Goat led the way through the door, and all the returned souls followed them through. And when the last glimmering figure had passed through, the door closed, and the Light shut off. The night was very still and very quiet and very empty. Molly and I were left alone, together, on top of the hill. And the lights in the sky were only stars.

  * * *

  After a while, I turned to look at Molly. “I promised I’d set them free. And I promised you . . . that I’d get you answers. About my grandfather the Regent, and the full truth about how your parents died. The truth, the whole truth, wherever it takes us.”

  “I know,” said Molly. “I never doubted you, Eddie. You are the only thing in my life that I can always rely on.”

  “Really?” I said. “That’s how I feel about you. Come on; let’s get back to London and the Department of the Uncanny so we can start slamming people up against walls until they start telling us things we need to know.”

  “I thought . . . I wanted the truth more than anything,” Molly said slowly. “But now I’m not so sure. I don’t want to separate you from your grandfather, not after you just got him back again. I think that would be cruel. I can live without all the truth.”

  “No, you can’t,” I said. “And neither can I.”

  I took her in my arms and we held each other like we’d never let go. But eventually we did and we stood together, looking out into the empty night.

  “I suppose my soul was in there, somewhere,” I said. “Can’t say I felt it return. Mind you, I didn’t feel it go in the first place.”

  “I don’t think they ever really had it, or your parents’,” said Molly. “They just had a claim. All sorts have had a claim on my soul, for years.”

  I looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m going to have to do something about that. . . .”

  “Sufficient unto the day are the trials thereof,” said Molly. “Let’s go home.”

  “You’ve seen me as Eddie,” I said. “And as Shaman. So, who do you prefer?”

  Molly kissed me unhurriedly. “I love you, you idiot. We’re all . . . just who we have to be. Now, how are we getting home?”

  “I arranged for someone to give us a lift,” I said.

  There was the sound of pounding hooves on the night, drawing near, and then a loud neigh. I looked around, with Molly, and there was the White Horse, shining in the night. Ready to take us home. It’s good to have friends.

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