Live and Let Drood

“It covers half an acre. You must have noticed it.…”
    “Don’t you get snotty with me, Eddie. I know where you’re ticklish. All right, you’ve got a Maze! Big deal! Whoop-de-do! What makes it so special?”
    “The hedge Maze is one of the great mysteries of the Drood family,” I said, carefully not looking back at the open book. I still hadn’t decided whether it was a gift or a trap. “One of those disturbing bits of family history that just fell between the cracks and disappeared. The hedge Maze was put in place a long time ago, so long ago that no one now remembers who had it designed and constructed. Or why. There are indications the knowledge was deliberately suppressed at some point. All we know for sure is that the Maze was constructed to contain something really nasty. Too powerful for us to destroy, something so bad it could only be imprisoned…”
    “What could be so powerful that even your family couldn’t destroy it?” said Molly.
    “Good question,” I said. “No one alive today knows the answer.”
    “And you think this…evil thing is still trapped inside the Maze?”
    “Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s still in there. Every now and again the family takes someone they really don’t like and throws them in the Maze to see what happens. None of them ever come out again. And don’t look at me like that. If you knew the kind of people I’m talking about, you’d be first in line to kick their arses through the Maze entrance. And…when I had my near-death experience just recently…When I was wandering inside the Winter Hall, I looked out the top-floor window and saw something moving inside the Maze, raging back and forth, still trying to break out, after all this time.…”
    “I am being very patient,” said Molly. “Look! This is me being very patient! But if you don’t tell me why this is suddenly so important…”
    “Relax,” I said. “It’s the book. It describes exactly what we put inside the Maze and why. And I think…it’s something we can use.” I looked around the rows of silent stacks, holding dark shadows between them, and at the greater gloom that surrounded them, beyond the reach of Molly’s witchlight. Was Pook out there, perhaps? Being helpful? “But it’s not something I feel comfortable talking about in a place like this.”
    “But what is it?” said Molly. “What are we talking about?”
    “Moxton’s Mistake,” I said.
    Something moved out beyond the light. A cold breeze blew suddenly through the Old Library, disturbing air that hadn’t been breathed in centuries. Molly shuddered despite herself.
    “Okay, I can take a hint,” she said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    There was the sound of something moving out in the dark. Something large and heavy.
    “Try the Merlin Glass,” Molly said quickly. “We’ve got to give it a trial run sometime, and this is looking more and more like a really good time. Get us out of here, Eddie.”
    “Cross your fingers,” I said. “And anything else handy.”
    I took the Glass out of its subspace pocket and subvocalised theactivating Words, praying they were the right ones for this Glass. Something in the dark said my name in a not-human voice. All the hairs on the back of my neck went up, and Molly grabbed my arm with both hands. The Merlin Glass glowed with a sudden fierce light, coming alive in my hand, as though eager to be used. I shook the hand mirror out till it was the size of a door and it automatically locked on to the coordinates I had in mind. Bright sunlight from the Drood grounds shone through the new doorway, pushing back the dark of the Old Library. Molly snuffed out her witchlight, and together we stepped quickly through the Glass, out of the Old Library and into the open air of the Hall grounds.
    I shut the Glass down immediately, shook it back to hand-mirror size and put it away. And then I just stood there, looking out over the extensive grassy lawns, breathing in the sweet and pure open air. Molly stood there with me, both of us quite happy not to talk about whatever it was that had just spooked us. Sometimes…you just know you’re in a bad place. After a while we went for a walk across the lawns, taking our time. Without actually discussing it, we both kept our backs to the ruined Hall. It was easier that way. It might not have been my family, my Hall, but they were still Droods, and I had known people very like them. I would avenge their deaths. After I’d rescued my