Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle

With a snarl, the officer closed his mouth and nodded jerkily. “We surrender, sir,” he said.

Gil nodded and twirled the stick in his hand. It gave a small ‘beep’ and the glowing tip faded out. Gil stared at it a second and then casually rested it on his shoulder. “That’s good,” he said honestly.

“You all know how the House of Wulfenbach treats captured soldiers,” he continued. “You may join our forces and retain your present rank, or return home to your families with a month’s pay, a full pardon, and an honorable discharge. Our troops will be here shortly to collect your arms. You have until then to make your decision.”³⁰

He gave them a minute to let the expected murmurs of relief swell and subside. “All I want is your Commanding officer!”

That stopped them. As a rule, even if they weren’t festooned by several kilograms of gold braid, said officer was easy enough to spot. Either by all his men trying to shelter him—or by them all pointing at him. Klaus Wulfenbach had formulated set responses for both instances. This time, however, there seemed to be some genuine confusion. Several of the men tentatively raised their hands, but to Gil’s educated eye, he guessed that they were the ranking officers aboard individual machines. Finally, he swung his head back to the disgruntled fellow he had noticed before, who—seeing Gil focusing his attention upon him—squared his shoulders and stepped forward. Oh, yes, Gil thought, this man could be trouble.

“Our commander was General Lord Rudolf Selnikov. You hit him with lightning, sir.”

Gil nodded. That sort of thing happened. “Second in command?”

“His Grace the Third Duke D’Fisquay. You also hit him with lightning, sir.”

Gil had met the Duke D’Fisquay while he was in Paris. Statistically speaking, the population of Europa was now slightly more intelligent. Still, it was inconvenient… “Third?”

“Engineer First Rank Niccolangelo Pollotta, sir. He was in the second machine.”

This was taking too long. Gil sighed, “Fourth?”

“That would be me, madboy!” And then the officer was leaping forward with a dagger upraised. Gil saw it approaching—pointed at his throat—

A stout throwing knife seemed to appear in the man’s eye and he collapsed to the ground, twitching only once before lying still.

Gil became aware of people behind him, around him—wait—people?

“Hoy!” A green-skinned Jäger made another knife dance along the tips of his fingers as he addressed the shocked crowd of soldiers. “So who else vants to be promoted?”

Gil frowned. “I…” His thoughts were becoming disorganized. What was happening? “I could have handled that.”

Another Jäger—a female—insinuated her arm under his. “Ov cuzz. Now lean on me all sobtle-like befaw hyu falls down.”

Gil realized that this was good advice.

Atop the walls, the crowd was beginning to disperse. Agatha and her companions remained, searching for any sign of Gilgamesh. Wooster pointed at a double column of troops marching towards the city gate. Another squad, in the distinctive blue uniforms of the Wulfenbach infantry, was moving out to meet them.

“They’re surrendering to the Empire’s troops. I guess Master Gil managed to keep them calm.” Wooster found that he was actually pleased about this. It was true that the Wulfenbachs were Britannia’s most dangerous rivals but, privately, he put that down to the irreconcilable differences between the Baron and Her Undying Majesty, Queen Albia.³¹ In his opinion, an Empire run by Gilgamesh would be easier for Her Majesty to deal with. Gil was more relaxed about certain things. Ardsley had been Gil’s friend for two years, and his valet for six months. Aside from the job title, little had been different. He knew that things between them could never be the same as they were, but he did hope that they might, somehow, remain friends. The necessary first two steps towards this brighter future would be both Agatha and Gilgamesh remaining alive.

Agatha scanned the smoking field. “But where is Gil?”

Krosp sighed in resignation. “He’ll be back.”

Agatha felt a tap upon her shoulder. Turning, she saw Carson, looking a bit more composed. It was obvious that the old man was a bit embarrassed about some of the things he had said while sharing his head with the spirit of the Castle, and he spoke with a stiff formality. “Now that we’ve all seen the show, we have to get you into the Castle as quickly as possible.” With that he spun about and strode off.

They hurried to catch up. “Those fools in their machines were just the first. The Empire is weak at the moment and all the vultures will be on the move.”

Agatha glanced back at the pillars of smoke coming from the shattered machines. “You think that’ll be seen as weak?”

Carson grimaced. “No, that’ll be seen as impressive. It’ll make a lot of them think twice. But the Baron was defeated at Balan’s Gap. A crack has appeared in the Empire’s heretofore-impenetrable façade. A lot of powerful Sparks will see this as the best chance they’ve had in a decade!”