Фил Фоглио - Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg

Lucrezia considered this. “Well, it only shoots marshmallows, so the real question is why did she bother taking it at all?”

Tarvek sneered. “Oh, by the way, nice ‘death trap.’ ”

Lucrezia looked embarrassed. “That hole in the ceiling was not part of the original design! You’re not supposed to get in by tunneling straight down.”

Tarvek conceded this and peered up again. “Well, Agatha, myself, and the others came in that way, perhaps we can—”

A flash of light was followed by a hollow BOOM. “Blue fire,” Tarvek yelled, “She’s blown the shaft!” Instinctively, he tackled Lucrezia, pulling her with him as he dived for cover. “RUN!”

The room shook as a small avalanche of rock crashed to the ground. A torrent of dust and smoke poured from the shaft and filled the air, spreading like a wave. Tarvek landed with Lucrezia in his arms, sheltered by a row of huge glass tubes. The avalanche of material flowed around them, demolishing and covering machines and furniture before grinding to a halt.

Then, there was silence. For a moment they huddled, breathing deeply. Tarvek buried his face in “Agatha’s” hair and closed his eyes. Her hair was still soft, but smelled of oil and electricity mixed with stale sweat and dust. None of them had been able to wash for quite some time, and he knew he was in a similar state. Agatha was safe, and somehow that knowledge made her smell wonderful. He pulled back slightly to gaze into her eyes and met Lucrezia’s smirk as she batted her eyelashes up at him. In his panic, he had only thought of keeping Agatha safe, momentarily forgetting Lucrezia was within her. He jolted back in revulsion. “You—!” he snarled. His startled movement made it easy for Lucrezia to slam him back even farther, so that he toppled and fell through the open hatch of one of the tubes. He swung up in time to see Lucrezia shut and bolt the tube’s door, sealing him in. “Me!” she crowed.

It was then they both remembered the self-destruct mechanism. Its patient, automated voice had continued to count down the seconds. Lucrezia looked tired. She glanced over at Tarvek.

“Really, it would be so much easier to just kill everyone here and start over with a new calling. I could see sacrificing all the other knowledge I’ve gained, but I mustn’t allow myself to forget that one of me has been captured by that traitorous niece of mine. She is simply too dangerous.” She sighed and gingerly picked her way through the rubble to the control panel. “No, I’m afraid this body must continue to live for now.” So sayi

ng, she flipped a switch and the voice stopped in mid-sentence.

“You said no power on Earth could stop that,” Tarvek protested, his voice muffled through the thick glass of his prison.

Lucrezia nodded. “I did, didn’t I?” She turned to face him and a look of pleased surprise was on her face. “It looks like we’ve learned something else useful, hm? Little Zola should have known how to turn off my self-destruct system.”

Tarvek nodded. Lucrezia was poisonous and he hated her, but he was always reluctantly fascinated when she talked about her work. “Perhaps if Zola had time to concentrate . . . perhaps your copy is able to hold some things back in the heat of the moment.”

“Or can confuse her with false memories.” Lucrezia clapped her hands. “That is what I would do! Little Zola may not find my memories as useful as she thinks they will be.”

This cheered her up considerably and she began humming as she cleared debris away from the tubes. Tarvek hammered at the door, which didn’t even rattle. Earlier, he had seen Lucrezia place his comrades Gilgamesh and Violetta in the adjacent tubes and they were still there, slumped and unconscious.

“This may work out nicely after all,” Lucrezia mused as she worked. She patted the glass on Tarvek’s tube as she passed. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you, that wouldn’t be fun at all.”

She sashayed over to a control box and flipped a switch. Lights slowly glimmered into existence. “Now these old mind-control devices of mine were an early effort. My beautiful wasps are ever so much easier to administer, but since you’re already there, they’ll do quite nicely.” She gazed at the row of tubes and unconsciously licked her lips. “To have Baron Wulfenbach’s son Gilgamesh and you, the nascent Storm King under my control—” she gazed down at herself and smiled “—the possibilities make me quite giddy.” Lucrezia began to chuckle, which turned into an angry squeal of surprise as she was yanked to the ground.

Lucrezia struggled, but found her ankle trapped in a grip of iron. The battered face of the vicious construct Von Pinn glared at her with furious eyes. “What the deuce are you doing?” Lucrezia screamed. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

Von Pinn grinned, a wide nasty grin full of sharp teeth. She slowly began to drag her broken body forward across Lucrezia’s legs. “Not quite,” she whispered.

“Release me this instant,” Lucrezia said imperiously. “That’s an order!”

Von Pinn hissed in amusement. The leather encasing her body creaked as she advanced. “That will no longer work, you filthy thief of souls. It was not easy, but I have found ways to break your hold on me.”

Lucrezia’s efforts to escape took on a new urgency. “Ridiculous! You cannot resist me! I made sure of that when I built you! Stop, I say!”

Von Pinn’s metal claws hooked into Lucrezia’s belt and the construct pulled herself higher. “Ah, you built this cage, but you did not build me. Have you forgotten your ‘greatest triumph’? Even trapped in this miserable flesh, I am Otilia—the Muse of Protection.” Lucrezia opened her mouth and a hand of steel and leather closed on her throat. Her eyes bulged in terror.

“No . . . ” Lucrezia choked out. “Can’t die. Too . . . important . . . ”

Von Pinn’s face drew close. She glared into Lucrezia’s eyes. Her terrible jaws snapped together in a fearsome grimace. “Then run,” she snarled.

Lucrezia shuddered once, her eyes began to lose focus and close. “Curse you,” she whispered. “I’ll be back . . . ”

She retreated.

Agatha opened her eyes and gave a strangled choke of surprise. “What? Von Pinn! Stop!”

With a smirk, Von Pinn released her grip and collapsed fully atop Agatha.

“What was that all about?” Agatha asked, as she struggled to extricate herself.

“Your mother was always a coward,” Von Pinn said dreamily. “She could never tolerate pain. You should remember that.” Her voice trailed off as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Moloch von Zinzer sat brooding. Ordinarily, he would be assisting the sparks in refurbishing the great cat-like security clank that lay stretched out on the floor. Today, however, with four different sparks crowding around the clank—arguing, jostling, and attempting to work on it all at the same time—he merely watched from a safe distance, perched on a crate that had been pushed to one side of the room.

Beside him sat Frдulein Hexalina Snaug, Doctor Mittelmind’s minion. They were sharing a small sack of raisins. Snaug was observing Moloch closely. The little mechanic had undergone a radical transformation in the last day or so.

Ever since he had been sentenced to work in Castle Heterodyne, Moloch had earned a reputation as a clueless screw-up. The general consensus was that the only reason he was still alive was because no newer prisoners had arrived to take his place in the Castle kitchens.

But that had changed ever since the Heterodyne had appeared. Something about her presence had shaken him so badly that he had undergone a startling transformation. He started handling other minions, sparks, and the Castle itself with an artless efficiently that was the envy of the other minions, and had even been noted by some of the other sparks.