Live and Let Drood

leave it behind in the Maze. But I’m pretty sure it’ll talk to me. It hasn’t spoken to a Drood in God knows how long. It’s bound to be…curious.”
    “I don’t think it’s going to have anything to say that you’re going to want to hear,” said Molly. “What if it chases you back through the Maze? Drood armour can run a lot faster than any Drood ever could. What if you lead it out?”
    “Then use your magic to seal off the entrance to the Maze,” I said steadily. “So that nothing can get out. Not even me.”
    “Eddie! I can’t.…”
    “Yes, you can! We can’t risk letting it out, Molly. Do…whatever you have to do. And if I’m…lost in action, go find someone else to help you bring the Droods back to this world.”
    “I can’t leave you in there! I can’t abandon you!”
    “You’ll be saving the world, Molly. From the Droods’ last folly. When the time comes you’ll do what’s right. I have faith in you.”
    “I’ll never abandon you,” Molly said fiercely. “If I have to, I’ll seal you and the armour inside the Maze and then I’ll go find my sisters, Isabella and Louisa, and we’ll all come back to get you out.”
    I had to smile. “Of course you will. All three Metcalf sisters in one place, working together…Even Moxton’s Mistake couldn’t stand against the three of you.”
    Molly stepped forward and hugged me hard. I hugged her back, like a drowning man clinging onto a lifeline. There was a part of me that wondered…if I would ever hold her again. But I knew my duty. I’ve always known my duty. Eventually we let go of each other, and I turned quickly away so I wouldn’t change my mind and walked into the entrance of the hedge Maze. Behind me I could hear Molly muttering urgently, already working hard on her magic, forging the link between us to bind us together.
    I didn’t look back. I wasn’t strong enough for that.
    The moment I walked into the Maze, everything changed. The impenetrable darkness gave way to a pleasant and calm summer’s light…but the air was impossibly tense, charged with anticipation, the feeling of something significant about to happen. Something dangerous, something bad…but something that mattered. I walked steadily forward, taking left and right turns at random, heading hopefully in the direction of the centre, the hidden heart of the Maze.
    I wasn’t alone. I could feel another presence in my bones and in my water…out there, in the endless hedgerows. The hedges themselveslooked pretty fragile and I wondered whether it might not be simpler to just vault over them or crash right through them…but if it was that simple, the rogue armour would have done it long ago. I had no idea what powerful forces had been put in place to hold the Maze together. So I just walked up and down the narrow ways, fighting a constant urge to look back over my shoulder, in case something was sneaking up behind me.
    And then I stopped abruptly and listened. I could hear something moving deeper in the Maze. Something running back and forth, running hard and fast, round and round me in great circles, drawing slowly but steadily closer. Something big and heavy, with great pounding feet that shook the earth. It roared suddenly, a huge and terrifying scream of rage and hate and long frustration. Not in any way a human sound. More like a great steam whistle sounding in the depths of Hell. The roar went on and on, long after human lungs would have collapsed, circling round and round me, moving inhumanly fast. The scream shut off abruptly.
    It wanted me to know it was coming. It was taking its time closing in on me, not because it wanted to frighten me or because it was in any way cautious…but simply because the sheer complexity of the hedgerows worked against it, keeping it from me.
    I swallowed hard, put one hand to the useless torc at my throat and started forward again. Because I needed to feel I was doing something to give myself at least the illusion of being in some control of the situation. Part of me just wanted to get this done and over with, whatever the outcome. My stomach muscles ached from the tension, and my back muscles crawled in anticipation of the attack I’d probably never feel, anyway. Waiting for the armour to jump out and pull me down, like a lion with its prey. I wasn’t used to feeling vulnerable or afraid or helpless. But I kept going. Anything, for the family. I still had that.
    Finally I rounded a corner and there it was, waiting