Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle

Baron Wulfenbach disliked dealing with Othar for so many reasons. Most of them had to do with the man’s staunch determination to “right wrongs and fight injustice,” while steadfastly ignoring the effects his often spectacularly destructive efforts had upon the delicate game of give-and-take necessary to maintain the fragile political structure that was the Empire of the Pax Transylvania. Still, probably the most personal reason was that, whenever he was in Othar’s presence, the Baron invariably found himself acting like an over-the-top villain in a Heterodyne play, which was just embarrassing. Today was no exception.

“I suppose I really should just kill you,” he said.

Othar paused in his dramatic speech. “Oooh. I didn’t see that one coming.”

Klaus smiled evilly, caught himself, and grimaced. “But, in fact, I won’t. I have a job for you.”

Othar considered this. “Why do I think I’d prefer to be killed?”

Klaus regarded him with raised eyebrows. “Good heavens. It’s possible that you really are smart. The Heterodyne girl—”

“Ah! That would be the lovely young innocent who escaped your evil clutches—with some small assistance from myself.” Othar interjected with a semblance of modesty. “Of course, I didn’t know who she was then…”

Klaus nodded. “You are somewhat responsible for the current situation, but only somewhat. There are two Heterodyne girls at present. One is an obvious fake, part of a plot against the Empire that has already been crushed.

“But both girls are now inside Castle Heterodyne. In the fake I have little interest. But this ‘Agatha Heterodyne’—as she calls herself at the moment—I have to believe that she has the potential to hold the Castle. The people will follow her. My own son has entered the Castle with the stated intention of aiding her. At this rate, all too soon she’ll be securely entrenched within an impenetrable fortress, firmly established as a Heterodyne, and allied, in the mind of the people, with the House of Wulfenbach. She’ll be able to do anything.”

Othar mulled this over. “But… if she is working with your son…a loathsome concept! But…” Othar paused. “But why do you speak as though this is a bad thing? Agatha struck me as a good girl!” He shrugged. “Well, as good as a Spark can be, anyway.”⁶⁴ He looked at DuPree. “Am I missing something?”

DuPree waved a hand. “Whenever he goes on like this, I just think of how many different ways I can spell ‘eviscerate.’”

The Baron’s voice rose until he was nearly shouting: “Because this girl, the girl you ‘rescued’ from me, is actually the Other!”

Othar’s breath caught. “The Great Enemy!” He frowned. “But the Other hasn’t been active in nearly twenty years!”

“Well she’s active now! Her slaver wasps and her machines are responsible for the mess in Balan’s Gap. I’ve talked to her. She didn’t even try to hide it.”

Othar shook his head. “I cannot believe that the innocent girl I aided is the Other! Her age! Her behavior—”

“Believe it, sir.”

Everyone looked around in surprise at Sergeant Scorp. He was amazed at his own audacity, but determined to speak. “Your pardon, Herr Baron, but my squad’s the one that found her at Sturmhalten.” He turned back to Othar. “The city’s full of revenants. A new type, not your usual mindless shamblers. Most of the time, they look and act normal.”

He paused. “I gotta tell you, there was something about that girl. I’d’ve trusted her with my life. And then…then she shot her friend point-blank in the back just because he was tryin’ to warn us. She ordered the townspeople to kill us.” Scorp looked ill at the memory. “And they sure as hell tried.”

He looked up at them now, a fighting man talking to other fighting men. “I’ve been a soldier close to thirty years. I know how to…to read people, you know? I just got the knack. And I have never been as wrong about anyone as I was about her.” His eyes met Othar’s. “I know you don’t got no reason to trust me, Herr Tryggvassen, but I was there and that’s the truth of it.”

Othar stared at the sergeant and nodded slowly.

Klaus blinked. There was a change in the man. The constant air of unspoken braggadocio was gone. It…he can’t always be…acting…can he? The thought was chilling. Klaus had always considered Othar a clown. If this was all just a game to him…

“Assuming this is true,” Othar asked the Baron, “what do you want from me?”

Inside Castle Heterodyne, Agatha, Tarvek, Moloch, and Violetta squeezed past a collapsed doorway into a large open atrium. Carved faces leered down at them as they picked their way through the rubble and dust.

Moloch looked back the way they had come. “Wulfenbach should be inside by now. Aren’t we going to get him?”

“No,” Agatha snapped. “I’m still mad at him.”

Tarvek, who had been leading the way, stopped and hitched his toga up. “We should go get him.”

Agatha bit her lip. “I really don’t want to waste any time while you try to ‘sort him out’ for me.”