I looked the mechanism over. Damned if I could make head or tail of what it was. A made thing, certainly, from metal, but I hadn t a clue what it was or what it was supposed to do. I d never seen anything like it before in my life, and I d seen a lot of strange things in the Armoury in my time. I walked slowly round the thing, looking at it from different angles, trying to get my head round it. Its shape made no sense, with many of its details changing subtly even as I looked at them. Parts of the machine seemed to blur in and out, as though aspects of it were only sometimes in this world. Given that its purpose was to induce eternally changing patterns inside the Maze, I had the horrible suspicion that quantum was involved. I ve never understood quantum. The few times the Armourer insisted on explaining it to me, I had headaches that weren t even limited to my head.
When I finally reached out to touch the mechanism, the thing actually evaded my hand. It seemed to recede suddenly, in all directions at once, without actually moving. As such.
It does that, said the rogue armour. You can t touch it, you can t harm it and you can t break it. And believe me, I ve tried down all the long years. But if the two of us were to work together
Worth a try, I said, trying hard to sound confident. So, how do you want to do this? Do I just put you on, or
A test first, said the armour. To see if we re compatible.
It reached out inhumanly quickly and laid a golden gauntlet on my hand before I could snatch it away. The metal was horribly cold to the touch, and it took all I had not to cry out. It was like being touched by a dead thing or something that had never been alive. The golden metal lost all shape and rigidity and flowed like liquid across my hand, covering and containing it, becoming a glove. I worked my fingers slowly and the golden fingers moved. And so, bound together, hand in hand, the armour and I moved forward. And I raised a golden fist and brought it savagely down on the mechanism. It smashed into a thousand pieces, as though it had been terribly fragile all along, protected only by its built-in evasiveness. It shattered like glass and fell apart, leaving tiny glistening pieces on the grass at my feet.
The rogue armour took its golden hand back and stared fascinated at all that remained of the thing that had held it prisoner for so long. I flexed my freed fingers surreptitiously as warmth and sensation slowly returned. Moxton s Mistake raised its golden head like a hound that had just caught the scent and looked around. I did, too. Something had changed in the Maze. An overlaying tension was gone from the air.
The Maze is still a Maze, said the rogue armour.
But the hedgerows no longer move. We can leave now. Theoretically. If we can find our way out. It turned its blank face to look at me. I can see the mark of magic laid upon you, Drood. Is that our way out?
Could be, I said. It s certainly my way out. So
So, said the armour. It s time to find out just how much we trust each other.
It leaned sharply forward, and a mouth appeared in the golden face mask, stretching wider and wider until a dead body came slipping out of it. The rogue armour vomited up the body it had held inside it for so long. The desiccated head and shoulders came first and then the body, falling faster under its own weight, until finally the legs and feet slipped out and the dead body sprawled inelegantly on the grass before me. The mouth closed, disappearing into the golden mask.
Moxton s body was a withered, shrivelled thing, its bleached face stretched around an endless scream of horror. I wondered how long it had taken the old Armourer to die, trapped inside his greatest creation. Mourning his mistake. I made myself look away from what might yet be my future. I looked steadily at the rogue armour.
Do it.
It surged forward, too fast for human eyes to follow. I raised an arm in self-defence in spite of myself, and the armour flowed over the arm in a golden wave and hit me in the face. The rogue armour engulfed me in a moment, encasing me from head to foot. I think I screamed. It was nothing like what happened when I called my armour. I can t remember most of what happened that first time, though sometimes there are hints in certain nightmares I try very hard not to remember. I know it was cold, terribly cold, not just of the body, but of the soul. There was cold and then there was darkness as the armour cut off my senses, replacing them with its own. I was alone in the dark, and then there was a presence with me. Not human, but more than just inhuman. Something that had no nature of its own and so had made one for itself; a personality ripped from the darker parts of its creator s mind, born of hate and rage, refined into a delight in such things for its own sake. It could feel how I felt about that. It found it funny.
Light filled my eyes, dispersing the darkness, and I was open to the world again. I stood in the Maze, panting hard, trembling, forcing calm and self-control. I looked down at myself and saw only gold. I lifted my hands and turned them back and forth before me, and they were the heavy golden gauntlets I had seen before on Moxton s Mistake. The armour felt as much a second skin as my old armour had, but there was a distance now between me and the world. As though I was receiving all my impressions of it secondhand. The presence was gone, but I still had the sense of someone looking over my shoulder. There was no trace of the metal voice in my head, but I knew it was still there. Watching and waiting.
I felt strong and vital, more than human, but also full of anger for my enemies, for those who had dared strike at my family. I ached for revenge, for the chance to get my hands on my enemy and make him pay feelings that might not have been entirely mine.
I turned and strode quickly through the hedgerows. With my golden armour about me, I could now clearly see the shining, shimmering lifeline that fell away before me, stretching off into the distance. The connection Molly had made between us. It was lovely to look at, but I had no time for that. I hurried on, moving faster and faster, following the thread out of the Maze. It took me a while to get my balance, training my new armour to move in a human way. But soon enough I was running headlong, my long legs eating up the distance while my arms pumped tirelessly at my sides. My heavy feet tore open the grass beneath me and threw up earth divots in my wake. It felt good to be running so freely, to be exceeding human limitations again, after being limited to merely human moves for so long. And soon, soon I came to the entrance to the Maze and burst through and out of it, back into the world again, where my Molly was waiting for me.
Molly Metcalf took one look at me and hit me with every bit of magic at her command. Terrible energies flared and spat on the air around her upraised hands, striking out to pound against my armoured chest and head, forcing me to an abrupt halt and then slamming me backwards, step by step, impact by impact, forcing me back towards the Maze entrance. But whatever its origin, this was still Drood armour, and I quickly recovered my balance and dug in my heels. I stood my ground, actually leaning forward into her magical attack, and her vicious energies broke and burst against my golden metal, detonating harmlessly about me. Molly scowled fiercely, her flashing dark eyes focused and determined, and hit me again and again with her best sorcerous attacks. And I just stood there and took it.
And then I raised one hand and wagged a single pointed golden finger at her, more in sorrow than in anger. Molly froze. And while her assault was stopped, I concentrated in a certain way and the new armour retreated into my torc. Leaving me open and revealed to the world and my Molly. Her look of surprise was actually comical, but I had enough sense not to laugh. I looked about me. The world seemed a duller and flatter thing now, perceived only through my human senses, but it was still a warm and lovely place and I was glad to be back in it. I fell to my knees as the day s burdens rushed in upon me, and I thrust my fingers deep into the grass and earth before me, rooting myself in the world. It was good to be back. The steady warmth of the summer s day drove the armour s cold out of my body, out of my heart and soul, but my torc still burnt coldly about my throat, as though in warning. I realised Molly was kneeling beside me, saying my name over and over, and I finally found the strength to turn and smile at her.
Eddie! Talk to me, dammit! Are you all right? Do you need me to rip that torc off your throat and throw it back into the Maze?
No, I said immediately, if only to stop the relentless flow of her words. I m fine, Molly. Really. The armour s safe inside my torc. We came to an arrangement inside the Maze. It will serve me. For now.
I slowly got to my feet again, with Molly s help. The experience had taken a lot out of me. Molly was looking at me anxiously, clearly waiting for details of the arrangement I d agreed to, but I didn t tell her. I knew she wouldn t approve.
You were in there for ages, said Molly. It s been almost three hours!
I blinked a few times at that. Time must have moved differently inside the Maze.
I ve been walking up and down outside the entrance, working on my magics, waiting for you to come out, Molly went on, when it became clear I had nothing to say. I wanted to be sure I had something useful in hand, just
