Фил Фоглио - Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle

Agatha’s face was now filled with a look of wonder. Gil continued. “As far as I can determine, there’s almost no memory loss. They’re still recuperating, but—” All at once Gil found his arms full of Agatha. She was hugging him with almost bone-cracking force.

“Gil! You’re wonderful!” She kissed him and thanked him over and over again, still holding him tight.

Gil tried to enjoy the moment, but he could almost feel Tarvek glowering at him.

“Seriously? The old ‘bring her family back from the grave’ gambit?” Tarvek’s lip curled. “Have you no shame?” He turned away from Gil and Agatha, picked up a syringe, and got back to work, muttering bitterly to himself. “I mean, jeez, it’s such a cliché! The last time I saw it was in Feydeau’s ‘The Clockwork Pantalettes’ ! And the reviews for that were terrible!” 99

Violetta kicked him in the shins. “Are you listening to yourself?”

Gil tried to ignore Tarvek’s jealous rambling. “They’re stable now, but they’re back on Castle Wulfenbach. I’ve left orders for them to be transferred to the Great Hospital as soon as it’s possible.”

Agatha let go of Gil sat down abruptly. “I just…it’s amazing.” she said in a daze. “She tore them to shreds.” “The thing we should be asking,” Zeetha said grimly, “Is what will she do to you if she gets a chance?”

Agatha considered this. “She didn’t kill me,” she said slowly. “And she had the chance.” She looked at Gil and Tarvek. “She’s important to these two. I’ll help them now, and, well, try to talk to her later.”

“You may not get the chance.” Tarvek said. “She really is dying, and we don’t have a lot of options down here.”

The angel clank hissed in distress. “This-is-is must-must-must-must not-not-not-not happen!” Its eyes flared. “You can-can-can-can-could-will-will-will—must do this for us-us-us!”

Agatha knelt down beside the stricken device. “Shh. Take it slow.” she said in a soothing voice. “Now…do what? What can I do?”

Lights flashed again within the clank’s eyes. “The M-mu-muse Otilia was pried-torn from this vessel. She-it-she must be-be restored to it, and I—returned to my proper function-instrumentality.”

Agatha straightened up. “You want to return her to this mechanical body? How will that help? It’s dying, too.” “No-no-no. Not dying. Not alive. I am Castle Heterodyne. I am—was—am vast. This engine constrains me. I-I am too much for it. But re-re-restore its muse, and this clank can be salvaged. Re-repaired.”

It jerked its chin towards the mechanisms that littered the room. “This is where it was done. These are the machines. You-she can do this, and you must do it now!”

Agatha stared at the clank. Her jaw firmed and she nodded once. Then she stood and clapped her hands. “Let’s get to work!”

A while later, von Zinzer was peering closely at the inner workings of the control panel on the lift cage. He pushed aside a wire with the tip of his screwdriver and a fierce grin twisted his face. “Oh yeah,” he breathed. “There’s the problem.”

“Herr von Zinzer?”

Von Zinzer turned. “Ah, Fraulein Snaug.”

She smiled at him. Without Lucrezia actually giving her orders, she was able to operate as normally as she ever did.

However, Zeetha had hit her hard in the fight, and she now sported a prominent black eye. She held up a sausage and a pot of beer. “I brought you something to eat.” She indicated the crowd of Sparks at the other end of the room. “They’ll want to get going soon.”

Von Zinzer gratefully accepted the sausage and took a bite, which made him realize just how hungry he was. “Thanks,” he said sincerely. He then tapped the control panel. “Oh…I was just thinking about you.”

Snaug was surprised. “Oh! Really?”

“Sure. That trouble you had operating the lift?” He tapped the panel again. “Not your fault, see? Loose worm gear.”

Snaug blushed and giggled. “Thank goodness! I’d hate for you to think me clumsy.”

Von Zinzer waved a hand. “Oh, not at all. Clumsy people don’t last around here.” He looked at her again and frowned. “Hey. Let me look at that eye.”

The girl felt an unaccustomed wave of embarrassment sweep over her. “Oh! Don’t look…”

Von Zinzer gently took her jaw in his hand and tilted her head to examine her. She was struck by the change that had taken place in him. Snaug had been in the Castle for close to six months. She had seen von Zinzer arrive and had been unimpressed. As far as anyone could tell, he really shouldn’t even have been here at all. Everyone thought of the little mechanic as a hopeless screw-up who was still alive only because no new prisoners had lasted long enough to force him out of the kitchen. But now… now there was a calm surety to him that was almost unknown in this place. He nodded.

“Nice mouse,” he said with a smile. “But it doesn’t really suit you.” He turned and began to dig through a rucksack. He pulled out a small ceramic pot, opened it, and taking a finger full of the white paste inside, gently dabbed it on Snaug’s eyelid.

“I found this earlier. Up in what the Castle calls ‘the red playroom.’ Just dab that on every hour or so, and it’ll fix it right up.” He resealed the jar and handed it to her.

She took the jar and smiled. “You’re too kind. And, so…grounded.”

Von Zinzer looked at her blankly. “Grounded?”

Snaug waved a hand at Agatha and the others. “Able to work so well with Sparks without getting…you know…It’s a rare talent.”

Von Zinzer gave a snort. “No way. I’ve always been terrified around them.”

Snaug’s good eye was wide. “What? But the way you’re dealing with them is amazing. You stand up to them. You contradict them, and you’re still mammalian and everything.”

“Huh.” Von Zinzer considered this and scratched his beard. “You know? It has seemed…easier lately.” He found himself staring at Agatha. “Ever since she showed up and started dragging me around…”

Hexalena’s face cleared and she looked at von Zinzer with a new respect. “Oh, of course! Dr. Mittlemind says that some people are natural minions, and that their lives are…are all confused until they find their proper Master. And now you have.”

Across the room, even the Sparks flinched as von Zinzer’s scream reached them. They all swung around to see what had happened. From beside the huddled form, Fraulein Snaug waved at them cheerfully. “Just a small existential crisis,” she assured them.

Agatha frowned. “What in the world is Snaug doing to Von Zinzer?” she wondered.

Violetta slammed a tool onto the ground and then picked it back up and seeing that it was undamaged, slammed it down again even harder. “Like I care!” She frowned. Why did she care?

Meanwhile, Gil was talking to Professor Mezzasalma and Zeetha. “What we’re hoping to do is transfer the Castle mind out of the Muse body and into one of the Castle’s own subsystems. That will buy us the time we need to transport it to an area where we can restore its control of the main structure. Our best shot is to use that big watchdog clank at the top of the shaft.”

Mezzasalma frowned “Those clanks are enormous. We might be able to transport it down on the lift, but it would be much easier to take the Muse up.”

Gil shook his head with regret. “Don’t I know it. But all the machinery we need is down here, and there’s definitely too much of it to move.” He looked back to the damaged Muse. “Anyway, we don’t need the whole watchdog clank, which is good. Doctor Merlot shot it up pretty badly, if I remember. No, it’s all right if we can’t get it all down here. All we really need are the cognitive engines and a viable power source to run them.”