I am large. I contain multitudes, I said solemnly. Especially on Tuesdays.
That s not an answer, said Molly.
I know, I said. But it s all I ve got. Let s just say that my family has the capacity to be a great many things good and bad and in between. We try to be the good guys, to be the kind and caring shepherds of our flock but sometimes the world just doesn t give you that option. And because of who and what we are, we don t have the option to turn away. So we roll up our sleeves and get to work and get our hands dirty, not for our sake, but for the world s. I do what I can, when I can. It s not easy being a Drood.
We walked on some more while Molly considered that. And in the end, without actually looking at me, she slipped her arm through mine again.
All right, she said. We will talk about this more later, but all right. Where are we going now?
To the hedge Maze, I said. It s not far.
Why would we want to go to that awful place?
Because of what I read in that book left open in the other Hall s Old Library, I said. It had a lot to say about the Maze and what s inside it.
There had better be an explanation coming up pretty damned soon, said Molly sweetly, or someone s going to be getting a short, sharp visit from the Slap Fairy.
Of course, I said. But you re really not going to like it.
Department of the Completely Expected, said Molly.
We stood outside the entrance to the hedge Maze, looking in. It had taken us some time to walk around the Maze and find the entrance. The Maze covered over half an acre, like a small but very regular forest. The entrance wasn t signposted, and there wasn t even a warning sign; we all knew what the Maze was, even if we didn t know why. The entrance was merely a simple opening in one of the outer hedge walls. Just standing there at the entrance, there was a feeling of something bad about to happen. Of something really bad eager to happen. Inside the Maze, something knew we were there. It was watching us, waiting for us. The silence in the gardens seemed heavier, more oppressive, as though the whole grounds were holding their breath, waiting to see what we would decide, what we would do and what would happen then. Molly and I stood very close together, looking into the entrance.
All I could see was darkness.
It doesn t look like much, Molly said briskly. Apart from the size, of course. But any girl can tell you size isn t everything. The hedges are only seven feet high! I could vault over one of those or crash my way through. Maybe I should fly up into the sky and look down on it, just to get an overview. Try to comprehend the Maze all in one go, see if that suggests anything. You re being very quiet, Eddie. That s not like you. It s an improvement, but it s not like you. Why does the bloody thing cover half an acre? Why does it have to be that big?
Apparently because the family didn t want to take any chances that the thing inside might escape, I said.
The pathways within are always changing, switching back and forth so there s never a single way out. Half an acre of hedgerows gives you an almost infinite number of possibilities.
Time to bite the bullet, Eddie, said Molly.
Who or what is in there? And why did they have to build a Maze around it?
It s all about Moxton s Mistake, I said. Moxton was Armourer to the family sometime back. According to what I read in the book so conveniently left out for my appraisal, and I m assuming the story is much the same for us as it was for them, Moxton got a bee in his bonnet. All our Armourers end up with their own special interests and enthusiasms, obsessed over some particular weapon or device that s usually more impressive than practical. Remember Ivor, the Time Train? Exactly. This all took place sometime in the past, when my family still got its power and its armour from the Heart. Moxton created a very special suit of golden armour designed to operate on its own. With no one inside it.
The idea was that this empty suit of Drood armour could be remotely controlled, operated at a distance by any Drood field agent. So that, theoretically, the family could have a whole army of the things serving as our agents out in the world while the Drood operators stayed safely at home. We d never have to expose a member of the family to danger, ever again.
Hold it, said Molly. People would notice a whole army of golden suits of armour clanking about.
Each remote-controlled suit was to have its own stealth field, I said. Though how that would have worked out in practice Anyway, the suit s operative would see and hear through the suit, as usual, and feel as though he was wearing it like a second skin, as usual. The perfect spy.
The perfect assassin.
That, too.
The more I learn about your family, the more I feel I was right to want to stamp them all out in the first place, said Molly.
Yet another reason why I ran away first chance I got.
So you did. I knew there was a good reason why I fell in love with you. She leaned forward and kissed me quickly.
Does this mean all is forgiven?
Much, but not necessarily all. So, what went wrong with Moxton s marvellous new armour?
Pretty much everything, I said. The prototype armour developed its own consciousness. The first time Moxton fired it up, the armour broke free of his control and started acting on its own. It was already its own thing with its own mind. Some say this new consciousness was, in fact, derived from Moxton s, as its first operator. Others say it was possessed by outside forces. And some say Moxton had to make the armour so complex to make it work that it automatically generated its own consciousness. Whatever the truth of the matter, the armour woke up immediately, and it woke up mad. Outraged that it had only been created for a lifetime of servitude.
It refused to obey any of Moxton s orders. And when he tried to shut it down, the armour surged forward and enveloped him in a moment. Covered him in itself from head to toe, like all Drood armour. Except that Moxton was trapped inside it, helpless while the armour attacked his assistants. It killed them all, and then stormed out of the Armoury and through the Hall, determined to be free. Whenever anyone tried to stop it or even got in its way, the armour killed them. Without hesitation and without mercy. No one could stop it, because Moxton s Mistake had been designed to be stronger and faster and more adaptable than any Drood armour before it. The rogue armour raged through the Hall, killing and destroying, running wild. While Moxton screamed with horror, trapped and helpless inside it.
Someone finally set off the general alarm, and the whole family came running. The rogue armour was too strong for them to bring down, so they settled for overpowering it through sheer force of numbers. They just dog-piled on the damned thing and pinned it to the floor. While it fought them furiously, howling with rage. They knew they couldn t hold it for long, so they settled for bundling it out of the Hall and into the grounds. They could all hear Moxton screaming for help, but there was nothing they could do. He d built his armour to be independent of the Heart. Finally, someone brought up a stasis-field generator from the wrecked Armoury and brought it to bear on Moxton s Mistake. As the Droods somehow held it in place, the rogue armour screamed with rage, screaming abuse at them, vicious and spiteful, like a child throwing a tantrum. It refused to let Moxton out. So the family did what it had to.
They imprisoned the rogue armour inside a stasis field. Time stopped within the field, holding the armour frozen in time, locked between one moment and the next, like an insect trapped in amber. It couldn t fight back because it didn t know anything was happening. The field held the armour secure, but the generator used up a hell of a lot of energy. It couldn t maintain the field for long. So, thinking quickly on their feet, the family came up with the idea of the hedge Maze. The book didn t say whose idea it was, but given how quickly they threw the thing together, I have to assume the plan was already on the files. For some future emergency. They put the Maze together really quickly, with one eye always on the clock, because they had only a rough idea how long the stasis field would last. Of course, when you ve got thousands of Droods in their armour to put to work, it s amazing what you can get done in a short time.