Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle

Gil’s face went pale. “WHAT?” he roared. “I did no such—” He suddenly remembered Vole. He studied the girl’s face. “Maybe I did,” he said slowly, “But I never told him to kill her. He’s not like other Jägers, but I never thought he’d…”

He remembered his father’s reaction to his sending Vole after Agatha and his hand tightened upon his mug. “But my father wasn’t surprised…My father is convinced that she’s…the Other.” He looked for a reaction in the girl’s face and saw nothing. A chill went through him.

He set his drink down. “If you know something, tell me. I mean…I don’t really know Agatha that well, but I…I don’t want to believe it.”

He took a deep breath. “If it was just about me, I would take my chances. But the Other devastated Europa. I’ve read the accounts. I’ve seen the results. And now the reports coming out of Balan’s Gap—whatever went on there was the work of the Other. There’s no question. And there’s also no question that Agatha was right there in the middle of it all.”

He looked the green-haired girl in the eyes. “I’ve never known my father to be wrong about anything. Anything! Not until Agatha came along. He was wrong about her then, and I hope he’s wrong about her now, but what if I’m missing something?”

He paused, his mind swirling with conflict. He was sure it could be seen on his face but he kept going anyway. “The last thing I want is to unleash all that death and destruction upon the world—again—just because I fell in love.” As he slumped forward, the fine gold chain around his neck shifted and a small ring-shaped gas connector slid into view.⁴⁰

The girl eyed it and nodded slowly. She took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, a gesture that, oddly, reminded Gil of his father.

“Okay,” she muttered from behind her hand, “You’ve convinced me.” She straightened up and looked at Gil seriously. “Agatha is fine, for now. She sent me to make sure that you were all right after that stunt you pulled outside the city.”

Gil leaned forward. “Did she like that?”

The green-haired girl rolled her eyes. Sparks. “Yes, she did. But because she’s a smart girl, she’s not ready to trust you, but I can tell you that she likes you.” She held up a preemptory finger. “And not just because you blew up invaders on her doorstep—though that never hurts.”

The girl then reached down and grabbed hold of Gil’s hair, dragging his face up to hers. “But I don’t care who you are, Agatha is my Zumil, and if you hurt her—I will kill you.”

Gil didn’t try to pull back. “I don’t know what a ‘Zumil’ is, but I get the idea. However, there is this whole Other thing…”

The girl rolled her eyes and released him. “Yeah, that. Okay, I’ve heard you’re smart, and I really do believe that you care about her, so I’m going to explain things to you and hope you can actually help her, because she could probably use it.”

The girl took a deep breath. “Agatha isn’t the Other. But apparently, her mother was. Or is. I’m a little unclear about the details, but the Other took over Agatha’s mind for a while. They had some kind of machine back in Sturmhalten Castle that was able to shove the Other in there.”

A cold fury filled Gil’s face. “The Sturmvarous family. Another thing my father was correct about.”

She held up a hand. “But Agatha is back in control now. She’s got a locket. It’s something her Uncle Barry built for her a long time ago. She says that it damped down her brain—kept her from Sparking out while she was growing up. It let her hide—gave her a chance to grow up like a normal person. She’d lost it before I met her. She said it had gotten stolen in Beetleburg—”

“Oh!” Gil’s eyes widened. “Von Zinzer! Yes, I see…go on.”

“Now for some reason, the Baron had it on him when he tried to capture Agatha back in Balan’s Gap. Looking at it now, it’s obvious that this Other was in control of Agatha at the time. She put this locket on and I saw the Other get shut down hard.” She sat back and spread her hands. “And Agatha’s been herself ever since.”

Gil processed this for several moments. “So the only thing keeping the Other in check is this locket?”

The girl shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. We haven’t taken it off her to find out.”

Gil shook his head. “This is very bad. It means—”

“It means that when you get her alone, you make damn sure that she keeps that locket on.”

Gil’s train of thought derailed with a crash. He stared at her. “I’m reasonably sure that there are more important considerations than that.”

The girl made a face. “Not if you want to avoid kissing the Other.” She saw Gil’s face and sighed. “Look, I said Agatha’s interested in you and it’s obvious that you’re interested in her, even though the two of you don’t really know much about each other. That means it’s a physical attraction. So the best thing to do is get it all out of your system first so you can start talking to each other intelligently.”

Gil’s face was now beet red. “I never thought there was anyone out there with a poorer grasp of romance than myself.”