Live and Let Drood

white eyebrows protruding over steely grey eyes. He also had a permanent stoop, from years of leaning over workstations for long hours, designing useful dangerous things for the family. He beamed happily at me, nodded happily to Molly and then stopped dead as he saw who was with us. The Regent stepped forward to smile gently at him.
    “Dad?” said the Armourer. His mouth worked for a moment, as though he couldn’t figure out what to say. And then he plunged forward and hugged the Regent close. It did look a bit odd from the outside. There was a lot of hugging going on today, and we’re really not a touchy-feely kind of family on the whole. The Armourer finally let the Regent go and held him at arm’s length so he could look him over properly.
    “It’s been such a long time, Dad! I did my best to keep in touch, but it hasn’t been easy. I did think you might come home again when Mum died.…”
    “It would only have complicated things,” said the Regent. “At a time when you really didn’t need…distractions.”
    “You’re looking great!” said the Armourer. “I told you that serum would work.”
    And then he finally looked past the Regent, at Patrick and Diana, and his whole face just shut down, as though it didn’t know what to do. He looked blankly at them, and they just looked quietly back.
    “I can’t believe you’re here,” the Armourer said finally. “I can’t believe you’ve come back at last.” He broke off, looked at me and then back at the Regent. “You haven’t told him, have you? Why haven’t you told him? He has a right to know!”
    “Because it isn’t the right time,” the Regent said firmly. “Far too much going on right now. He doesn’t need to be distracted.”
    “I’ll decide what I need to know and when I need to know it,” I said just as firmly. “What’s going on here?”
    “I will tell you everything once this mess is over,” said the Regent. “I give you my word.”
    The Armourer frowned at Patrick and Diana and then noddedslowly. “He’s right, Eddie. You need to focus on what’s in front of you. We all do. Just…trust us. For now.”
    “All right,” I said. “For now. Talk to me about what’s happening here.”
    “We’ve been working on Alpha Red Alpha nonstop, ever since the bloody thing started up for no reason and dumped us here,” said the Armourer, giving the dimensional engine his best There’s going to be trouble scowl. “Power levels are fine. Everything’s doing what I think it should be doing, but…”
    “You don’t have the proper return coordinates,” I said. I ran quickly through what Crow Lee had done and handed over the remote control and the Merlin Glass. The Armourer gave the remote a quick look and then handed it off to a hovering lab assistant, who hurried off with it. The Armourer scowled thoughtfully. “There’s a lot of useful information to be found in that thing, no doubt, but this…Eddie, this isn’t the Merlin Glass I gave you. I know that for a fact, because the original Merlin Glass is still lying on a bench up there in the Armoury, cracked from top to bottom and waiting for me to do something about it. This…is a whole new Merlin Glass. Where did you get it?”
    “It’s from another Drood Hall, from another reality. Long story you really don’t need to know for now. But this Glass can do anything the old one can, and then some. It should be able to point the way home for Alpha Red Alpha. It’s very eager to please.”
    “Not necessarily a good thing, with anything made by Merlin Satanspawn,” sniffed the Armourer. “But never look a gift whore in the mouth.”
    “Language, Jack!” said the Regent.
    “Sorry, Dad,” said the Armourer. “But you’re right, Eddie. Let me work on the Glass. If you and the rest of the family can just keep the monsters at bay for a little while longer…till I can get this heap of junk working…Yes, I’m talking about you, you oversized egg timer! Don’t think I don’t know you’re listening!”
    We left him to it and went back up into the Hall. Which might havebeen under attack by an army of nightmarish monsters, but was still less disturbing than the cavern below.
    Back in the main hallway, we all crowded together in the open front doors, looking out into the clearing. The monsters were pressing closer than ever to the Hall. The shimmering barrier that contained the Earth-normal conditions had been forced back right across the clearing and was now only a