"Don’t do this, Alex," I said carefully. "You know this is all bullshit. You know I could never be a traitor. You were the one who knew me best of all, once."
"I thought I did," she said. "But then you went away, and you didn’t take me with you."
"I did ask," I said.
"You knew I couldn’t go! I had to make a new life for myself here at the Hall. A life in which I have become very powerful, Eddie. And you are most definitely a traitor, to the true spirit of the family. You’re a threat to the family’s future, Eddie. And I can’t, I won’t allow that."
She stepped forward, raising Torc Cutter, and the Armourer snapped out a single Word. The ugly black shears jumped right out of Alexandra’s hands and into the Armourer’s. She looked at him with something like shock as he stuffed the shears carelessly into his coat pocket, smiling smugly.
"I put a Safe Word into everything that passes through my lab, just in case they should fall into the wrong hands. And all the most deadly weapons have passed through the Armoury just recently, thanks to the Matriarch’s instructions. Mother always was a little paranoid, and luckily she passed a healthy dose of it on to her children." He then took a needle gun out of his other pocket and shot Alexandra in the throat. She just had time to slap a hand to her neck, and then she crumpled to the floor, out like a light. The Armourer blew imaginary smoke off the barrel of his gun, and then put it away again. "I always keep that handy for when my lab assistants get a bit overexcited. She’ll sleep for an hour or so. Put her somewhere comfortable, Eddie, while I go get the key for the Codex."
"Then you’ll help me?" I said.
"Yes. I won’t let you die with a traitor’s name hanging over you, Eddie. I can do that much for you. Besides, if Alexandra’s running around armed with Torc Cutter, God alone knows what else is out there. You’re going to need Oath Breaker."
"I promise I’ll return it safely," I said.
"Too bloody right you will," said the Armourer. "Don’t make me come after you, Eddie. I know some dirty tricks you never dreamed of in all your years in the field."
"I always wondered why your old files were blocked," I said.
Molly and I propped Alexandra up in a corner. She muttered querulously in her sleep, but that was all. Molly looked down at her.
"Would she really have killed you with that thing?"
"Probably," I said.
"Want me to kick her while she’s down?"
"No. I don’t do that."
"Wimp." She looked at me consideringly. "So, this Alexandra was once an old flame of yours?"
"A long time ago," I said. "When we were both a lot younger. She wasn’t always like this, you know. You’re not jealous, are you?"
"Me? No! Why would I be jealous? I’ve had lots of boyfriends in my time. Dozens!"
"They probably didn’t appreciate you like I do," I said.
The family keeps the Armageddon Codex in a pocket dimension for extra security. Only the Armourer and his designated successor can even approach it, let alone access it. The Codex contains the family’s most powerful weapons, too dangerous to be used unless reality itself is under threat. Normally you have to fill out reams of paperwork before you’re even allowed to approach the Matriarch with a request. The Armourer was trusting me a lot, to let me take Oath Breaker. He wouldn’t do that, for all his sympathy, unless he was already convinced that there was something seriously wrong with the family.
To get to the Armageddon Codex, you have to pass through the Lion’s Jaws. At the very back of what used to be the old wine cellars, before they were converted into the present armoury, there is a giant stone carving of a lion’s head, complete with mane. Perfect in every detail, twenty feet tall and almost as wide, carved out of the dark blue-veined stone that makes up the cellar’s furthest reaches. The lion’s eyes seem to glare, the mouth seems to snarl, and the whole thing looks like life itself frozen in stone. As though just waiting to pounce, if it could only force the rest of its body through the stone wall that held it. Not all that surprisingly, Molly fell in love with it at first sight and stood right before the stone face, running her hands over the detailed carving and cooing delightedly.
The Armourer stepped up to the lion’s snarling mouth and slipped a long brass key into a hole in the mouth that I couldn’t even see. He turned the key twice, subvocalising a whole series of Words, and then withdrew the key and stepped smartly back as the Lion’s Jaws grated slowly open. The upper lip rose steadily, operated by some hidden mechanism, revealing huge jagged teeth, above and below. The jaws continued to open, until the lion’s mouth gaped wide, revealing a tunnel big enough to walk through without having to duck your head. The throat of the lion, which led to the Armageddon Codex.
"Is it…alive?" Molly murmured.
"We don’t think so, but no one knows for sure," I said. "It’s as old as the house. Maybe older. The family might have made it, or just made use of it. Legend has it that if you pass through the Lion’s Jaws, you must be pure of heart and pure of purpose, or the jaws will close on you."
"And then?" said Molly.
"Have you never seen anyone eaten by a stone head?" said the Armourer.
"I did, once," I said. "I was down in Cornwall—"
"I was speaking rhetorically!" snapped the Armourer. "I’m sorry, Molly, my dear; he always was terribly literal, even as a child."
"You mean it really does eat people?" said Molly. "If they’re not…pure in heart?"
"Oh, yes," I said.
"Think I’ll wait out here," said Molly.
"Relax," said the Armourer. "It’s just a story we tell the children to stop them from messing around with the jaws. The crafty little buggers are always getting into things they’re not supposed to. Trust me, Molly; you’ll be perfectly safe as long as you’re with us. Just as well, really. I haven’t been pure in heart since I was ten years old, with my first erection."
He waggled his bushy eyebrows at her, and Molly smiled dutifully. She still stood very close to me as we followed the Armourer through the Lion’s Jaws and down its throat into the Armageddon Codex. Which turned out to be just another stone cavern but with terrible weapons hanging in rows upon the stone walls, like ornaments in Hell. Some hung on plaques; others stood in special niches carved from the bare stone. None of them were identified; either you knew what they were and what they could do, or you had no business touching them. I knew some of the weapons by sight and reputation from my extensive reading in the library.
There was Sunwrack, for putting out the stars one at a time. Beside it was the Juggernaut Jumpsuit. And there, the Time Hammer, for changing the past through brute force.
The Armourer noted me studying the hammer and nodded quickly. "Studying that gave me the idea for the reverse watch I gave you, Eddie. A lot of thought went into that. I hope you’re taking good care of it."
I just nodded absently, still fascinated by the terrible weapons arrayed before me, things I’d never dreamed I might someday see in person. There was Winter’s Sorrow, a simple crystal ball full of swirling snowflakes. It might have been a paperweight or a child’s toy. But all you had to do was break the crystal, and it would unleash the Fimbulwinter: an endless season of cold and ice, all across the world, forever and ever and ever. Molly reached out a hand to touch it, saying, "Oh, cute!" And the Armourer and I both yelled at her and dragged her away. We sent her back to stand at the entrance, and she went, sulking. And then, finally, there was Oath Breaker.