Live and Let Drood

as you said she was.
    Molly looked at me. “You primed him to say that.”
    “This is a dragon,” I pointed out. “Very hard to get a dragon to say anything he doesn’t want to.”
    I like the view here, said the dragon. Not as dramatic as the Rhine, but this is a much more…peaceful location. And the company is much more convivial. The Immortals never lowered themselves to speak with me. Just dumped their rubbish on my hill. Arrogant little tossers. Too busy messing up the world to stop and chat with a mere dragon’s head. I like it much better here. The younger Droods are always popping out to sit around the mound and talk about all kinds of things. I had no idea the world had changed so much since my time. You miss a lot, buried under a hill. The Armourer’s promised to set up something called a television for me, and I am looking forward to that. I like the children, too. Always coming and going…It makes me feel like part of the family. And it’s good to be in a garden again, to be a part of Nature once more, to see the flight of birds and hear their song, to see the animals running to and fro, to feel the silent pulse of growing things all around.…
    “Sorry to interrupt you,” I said, and I genuinely was. “But somethingbad has happened to the Hall and my family. Did you see anything?”
    There was a great roar, said the dragon slowly. Not a living sound, not a thing of the natural world. And after that, everything went quiet. No one’s been out to talk to me in ever such a long time. Has something happened to the family, Eddie?
    “Yes,” I said. “But don’t worry. Molly and I are on the case. We’ll put everything back the way it should be.”
    I wish there was something I could do to help; but I’m just a head. The Armourer has promised me a body, but that’s still a long way off in the Future.
    “Keep an eye on things for me,” I said. “And don’t talk to any strangers.”
    The dragon chuckled. Not much else I could do to them. Though I could shout Boo! very loudly if they came close enough.
    “You are…happy to be here?” said Molly. “You don’t feel you’re held here against your will?”
    Of course not, Molly. Eddie brought me here, brought me home. I love being a Drood. They’re very…dragonlike, in their way.
    We made our good-byes and walked on. Molly strode along beside me, thinking so hard I could practically hear it. Finally she started talking again, though at rather than to me.
    “I just don’t get you, Eddie. Or your family. You dig up a dragon’s head and bring it back with you like it’s some stray dog you found, because you felt sorry for it. Your family adopts it and makes it part of the family. But you’re also the kind of people who make those bloody scarecrows.”
    “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. Andbecause 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.