Free Live and Let Drood by Simon R. Green

angry.
    “I’m not having her ignore you like this! You stand back and let me work on her, Eddie. I’ll get her out. I am the wild witch of the woods, after all, and all the elements are mine to command. And I could do with a good stretch of my powers.”
    She struck her usual impressive witchy pose and then undermined it just a bit by dropping me a swift wink. She ran through a quick series of slashing hand and arm gestures while chanting something in debased Celtic. The waterfall poured down the craggy cliff face entirely unmoved…and then slowed and stopped. And then rose slowly upwards, reversing its path.
    There was still no response from the undine. Molly glared at the reverse waterfall, rolled up her sleeves and ran through a whole new series of gestures, throwing in half a dozen really unpleasant Words. The waterfall stopped again and resumed its normal downward path. But even as the waters thundered down the cliff face, they were already starting to steam, becoming boiling hot. The gentle haze at the foot of the fall disappeared, replaced with thick clouds of scalding steam. I backed away a few steps. Molly didn’t.
    Still no sign of the undine.
    Dark brooding thunderclouds appeared out of nowhere in the pleasant summer sky. A shadow fell across the great lake and nowhere else. Thunder roared and lightning stabbed down. Great gusting winds moved across the surface of the waters, raising massive waves that slammed back and forth, sending blasts of disturbed water splashing high over the sides of the lake. And still the undine wouldn’t answer.
    Molly was breathing harshly now and not just from the effort of so much hard conjuring. She kicked off her boots so she could dig her bare feet deep into the grassy lawn. Molly had a lot to say about being one with nature, but that usually meant nature doing what it was told, where Molly was concerned. She shot me a dark look, flicking her dark hair out of her sweaty face.
    “Give me a minute. I’m just getting started. I’m damned if I’m being ignored by a bloody jumped-up water elemental. Soon as I get my breath back, I’ll call up something so impressive and unnerving it’ll blast all the water out of this lake, crush the whole cliff face into rubble and tie the waterfall in a knot!”
    “Let me try something else first,” I said, soothingly. “Just…while you get your breath back.” I walked up to the water’s edge and addressed the steaming waterfall politely.
    “Hello. Sorry about all that.…Look. I’m Eddie Drood. I really do need your help. Please…talk to me.”
    The waterfall seemed to pause, halting itself in midfall while it considered the matter, and then slowly the undine appeared, forming herself out of the falling waters themselves. The whole waterfall bulged out here and there, taking on a human shape some thirty feet tall. She stood before the cliff face, looking down at Molly and me, towering over us. A force of nature made woman by an act of will. I made a point of standing as tall as I could while still remaining respectful, just to show I wasn’t in any way intimidated. Molly stuck both hands on her hips and glared right up at the undine. I don’t think Molly’s ever been intimidated by anything in her entire life. The undine was now a huge naked female shape composed entirely of water, and oddly proportioned.As though the human shape was something she only vaguely remembered. Her face was a smooth blur, more an impression of human features than anything fixed. And when she finally spoke, her voice sounded like gurgling waters.
    Who disturbs me at this time? Did I not make my wishes clear and explicit? Let me sleep, sleep and dream, of better times.…
    “I need to know what happened here,” I said steadily. “I need to know what happened to the Hall and to my family and all the things that used to live here on the grounds.”
    They went away. A storm rose around the Hall, reaching out across the grounds…and when it was gone,