Not back in the Hall ten minutes, and already you re barking orders, said Molly.
I led them all down to the Armoury, that great stone cavern set deep in the bedrock underneath the West Wing. It felt weird, hurrying through deserted workstations and abandoned firing ranges, with not a single overenthusiastic lab assistant to be seen, doing something unwise with something dangerous. It reminded me too much of the deserted Armoury in the ruined Hall. I found the trapdoor lying open at the far end of the Armoury, and we all gathered around it. Nothing to be seen but the top part of the iron ladder leading down into an impenetrable darkness. I didn t give any of them time to think about it, just started down the ladder without looking back. I was quietly pleased that one by one they followed me down, without saying anything. There was no light anywhere, and several times I had to stop and feel for the next rung in the ladder with my foot. The ladder seemed to descend for ages, long enough that my leg muscles had begun to cramp painfully by the time I reached the bottom. The moment I stepped away from the ladder, a bright light flared up, dazzling me for a moment. The others quickly joined me, and then we all waited patiently as the Regent took a moment to quietly massage his old leg muscles.
We had arrived in a truly massive stone cavern stretching away in all directions. It looked to be bigger than the whole Hall itself, and I wasn t even sure exactly where under the Hall we were. The huge stone walls were covered with line after line of carefully delineated mathematical symbols, none of which meant anything to me. The Armourer had called them mathemagics, the bastard child of supernatural equations and description theory. When people start telling me things like that, I usually just nod and move on because I know that even if I do ask questions, I m not going to understand the answers.
Strange machines rose everywhere, set out in no obvious pattern, packing the great cavern from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling, with only narrow walkways left in between. Technology so advanced that none of it meant anything to me. Just brutal and ugly shapes, with no obvious function or controls. Some of the machines appeared blurred or indistinct, as though human eyes couldn t properly perceive or understand them. The result of one Armourer s mad wisdom. Along with gifts from other worlds, dimensions, realities. Our best and craziest Armourers have always been pack rats, putting things we pick up along the way to good use. Drood knowledge is older and weirder than most of us care to admit. Mile upon mile of colour-coded cables held everything together and hung in a complicated web between the upper levels of the machines and the uneven stone ceiling. Sometimes they twitched dreamily, like a dog s legs kicking in its sleep.
I called out to the Armourer, and his voice rose from deep back in the cavern.
Over here! Whoever you are. Unless you re a monster, and then I m out. Leave a message.
I headed for his voice, past colossal machines whose intricate workings were constantly moving, rising and falling, turning this way and that in endless variations, in pursuit of unknown purposes. Some of the structures seemed to lean and slump against one another, half melting, combining into some new and even stranger thing. Some changed shape right before my eyes, as though unable to settle, humming loudly to themselves in complex harmonies. And all the time I had the feeling of being watched and studied by unseen cold and thoughtful eyes. The cavern was comfortably warm and well-lit, but there was a bristling static in the air and the smell of iron filings and something burning, and I couldn t escape the feeling that I just wasn t welcome.
None of the others said anything. They just stuck very close to me as I led them through narrow wandering walkways. Just as well, because I didn t know what I could have said in return, except, Yes, I know. It creeps the hell out of me, too.
And finally, at last, we came to Alpha Red Alpha itself, which looked just as complicated and disturbing and overwhelming as I remembered it. Big as a house, bigger than most houses, rising all the way up to the ceiling, so you had to bend your head right back to see the top of it. It looked mostly like a plunging waterfall of solid crystal with glowing wires running through it like multicoloured veins. Etched all over with row upon row of inhuman symbols. And all of this surrounded a massive hourglass, some twenty feet tall or more, fashioned from solid silver and glass so perfect you could barely see it. The top half of the hourglass was full of shimmering golden sand, with not one golden mote falling down into the lower half.
The Armourer s lab assistants were crawling all over Alpha Red Alpha, clinging precariously to outcropping parts, making adjustments, taking readings and occasionally just hitting it with hammers in a hopeful sort of way.
The Armourer himself came bustling forward to meet us a tall middle-aged man with too much intelligence and nervous energy for his own good, wearing the usual stained and slightly charred lab coat over a T-shirt reading Eat, Shoot and Leave. He was quite bald, apart from two tufts of white hair jutting out over his ears, from where he kept tugging at them while he was thinking, and bushy white eyebrows protruding over steely grey eyes. He also had a permanent stoop, from years of leaning over workstations for long hours, designing useful dangerous things for the family. He beamed happily at me, nodded happily to Molly and then stopped dead as he saw who was with us. The Regent stepped forward to smile gently at him.
Dad? said the Armourer. His mouth worked for a moment, as though he couldn t figure out what to say. And then he plunged forward and hugged the Regent close. It did look a bit odd from the outside. There was a lot of hugging going on today, and we re really not a touchy-feely kind of family on the whole. The Armourer finally let the Regent go and held him at arm s length so he could look him over properly.
It s been such a long time, Dad! I did my best to keep in touch, but it hasn t been easy. I did think you might come home again when Mum died.
It would only have complicated things, said the Regent. At a time when you really didn t need distractions.
You re looking great! said the Armourer.
I told you that serum would work.
And then he finally looked past the Regent, at Patrick and Diana, and his whole face just shut down, as though it didn t know what to do. He looked blankly at them, and they just looked quietly back.
I can t believe you re here, the Armourer said finally. I can t believe you ve come back at last. He broke off, looked at me and then back at the Regent. You haven t told him, have you? Why haven t you told him? He has a right to know!
Because it isn t the right time, the Regent said firmly. Far too much going on right now. He doesn t need to be distracted.
I ll decide what I need to know and when I need to know it, I said just as firmly. What s going on here?
I will tell you everything once this mess is over, said the Regent. I give you my word.
The Armourer frowned at Patrick and Diana and then nodded slowly.
He s right, Eddie. You need to focus on what s in front of you. We all do. Just trust us. For now.
All right, I said. For now. Talk to me about what s happening here.
We ve been working on Alpha Red Alpha nonstop, ever since the bloody thing started up for no reason and dumped us here, said the Armourer, giving the dimensional engine his best There s going to be trouble scowl. Power levels are fine. Everything s doing what I think it should be doing, but
You don t have the proper return coordinates, I said. I ran quickly through what Crow Lee had done and handed over the remote control and the Merlin Glass. The Armourer gave the remote a quick look and then handed it off to a hovering lab assistant, who hurried off with it. The Armourer scowled thoughtfully. There s a lot of useful information to be found in that thing, no doubt, but this Eddie, this isn t the Merlin Glass I gave you. I know that for a fact, because the original Merlin Glass is still lying on a bench up there in the Armoury, cracked from top to bottom and waiting for me to do something about it. This is a whole new Merlin Glass. Where did you get it?