Live and Let Drood

Mistake was forgotten, or more likely suppressed, and the Maze became just another of the family’s mysterious secrets. The armour should have been destroyed when the Heart was destroyed, but I suppose Moxton just made it too independent.…”
    “You Droods,” said Molly. “It’s not enough that your successes and triumphs should be so great; your failures have to be equally magnificent and memorable, as well.” She looked into the entrance of the Maze. “Can’t see a bloody thing…but I am feeling something.…” She shuddered briefly. “This suit of homicidal armour. Could it actually be stronger than the strange matter Ethel gave you?”
    “No way of knowing,” I said. “And given that I can’t access my armour with Ethel gone…it doesn’t matter. I need armour if I’m to do a Drood’s work and bring my family home. This is the only Drood armour left in the world, in this Maze.”
    “Hold everything,” said Molly. “Stand right there. Don’t move! Are you crazy? Are you seriously proposing to go in there and try to…persuade Moxton’s murderous mistake to act as your armour? It’ll kill you on sight! And even if it doesn’t, how the hell could you hope to control it?”
    “I can’t,” I said. “But I think…I can make a deal with it. Service for a while, in return for freedom.”
    “Even if it should agree, which it won’t, how are you going to get out of the Maze? It’s designed to keep anything from getting out!”
    “But it never met you and me, Molly. This is where you come in. You’re going to be my beacon. I want you to connect us magically, heart to heart and soul to soul…a bond that nothing can break. And then all I’ll have to do is follow the thread back through the labyrinth to you. You can do that, can’t you?”
    “Yes,” said Molly. “I can do that. But I’m not going to. I am not letting you walk into that death trap on your own, to face that murder machine on your own. You’re too used to having your armour, to being untouchable. That thing hates Droods! It’ll kill you on sight! You need me with you to protect you. To keep you alive long enough to…negotiate with the bloody thing.”
    “We can’t force it to do anything,” I said steadily. “My only hope is to persuade it. One Drood on his own shouldn’t seem any kind of threat.”
    “Even if it does agree, it’ll only be biding its time till it’s free of the Maze,” said Molly. “Then it’ll just stamp you into the ground and head off. Do you really want to be responsible for letting such a thing loose on the world? The only existing Drood armour, with all that strength and power, and nothing to restrain it?”
    “Once I put on the rogue armour I’ll take command through the torc,” I said. “My own little trap. It shouldn’t suspect anything. Theydidn’t know about strange matter back then. I’m gambling the strange matter in my torc will give me some measure of control over the armour. Not for long, probably, but hopefully long enough to get my family back. And then there’ll be the whole family, in strange-matter armour, to stand against it. We have Ethel now, not the Heart. That should make all the difference.”
    “But…”
    “I know, Molly! I do, really. I don’t like the odds, either. But what else is there?”
    “You don’t need armour to be a hero, Eddie. You never did.”
    “That’s sweet of you, Molly. But I need armour to be a Drood. The Last Drood, with all my family depending on me. And the Maze…is where I have to go to find it.”
    “I really don’t like this,” said Molly. “Far too many if s and maybe s…Far too many things that can go wrong!”
    “I don’t like it, either, and it’s my plan,” I said. “I’ve spent all this time trying to come up with something else, but the family has to come first. The world needs my family, and only I can find them and bring them back. Anything for the family. ”
    “But what if the rogue armour is too powerful for you? What if it traps you inside it, like Moxton, and you can’t control it?”
    “That’s where you come in again. While I’m in the Maze, I need you busy out here, whipping up some kind of magic to give me the upper hand.”
    Molly nodded stiffly. “I can do that. You’d be amazed what I can do when I’m motivated enough.”
    “Look. I promise I’m not going to be stupid about this,” I said. “If it clearly is too powerful or crazy to be controlled, I shall run like hell and