Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle

Suddenly, Gil’s gaze sharpened and his hand tightened. “Wait a minute, I heard you were seriously injured.” He stared at the man for a second—

Dimo gave a roar of a laugh. “He shoo vas!” He punched Gil in the arm, “Joost like hyu vas ven ve brought hyu in here!”

Gil considered this. “Oh, yes, I suppose so. But why—?”

At that moment Mamma Gkika stepped up. Behind her, the fight continued. She tucked an errant lock of hair back behind a long elegant ear. “Iz hyu folks leafink? Vell please come again!”

She turned to Airman Higgs. “I’m glad to see hyu iz feelink better, sveethot. A gurl likes to pay her debts, yah?”

Higgs shuffled his feet. “I told you that you don’t owe me anything, Ma’am.”

Mamma tilted her head to the side. “Vell, I suppose dot’s a leedle more true now den it vas yesterday.” She turned to Gil.

“Hyu account is schtill op in de air, young man. Hyu gots a lot uf credit for slappink dose guys down mit de lightning.” She leaned in and gave him a hard look. “But if hyu cause Miz Agatha trouble, den der vill be a reckonink.”

Gil looked her in the eye. “Of course I’ll cause her trouble. But I’ll do my best to protect her.”

Mamma’s cheeks dimpled as she laughed and patted his cheek. “Oh, dis vill be so interestink,” she crooned. Then she straightened up. “Hokay, get out uv here!”

Gil turned back to Higgs. “Anyway, you’re assigned to me, now. Come along.”

Higgs sighed. “Yes, sir.”

As they moved off, Zeetha sidled up to him. “So, what did you do for the Jäger lady?”

Higgs kept his eyes straight ahead. “Nothing much. She’s makin’ more of it than she should.”

Zeetha would have continued but they came to a steep set of stairs, almost a ladder, that disappeared up into the darkness. They scrambled upwards for what Gil estimated was close to twenty meters before they came to a wooden hatch that Van opened by throwing a lever set into the wall. The hatch swung up and over on silent, well-oiled pneumatic hinges and they clambered up into—

“A wine cellar?” Gil looked around in astonishment. “How deep underground are we?”

“Deep.” Van selected a lantern from a well-supplied shelf. “And we’re still two levels down.”

Gil nodded slowly as they passed rack upon rack of bottles. He noted that it wasn’t only wine stored here. They passed alcoves neatly stuffed with what appeared to be assorted food stores. Mechanicsburg was still well prepared in case of siege.

“Is this sort of thing common around here?”

Van raised an eyebrow.

Gil waved a hand. “These extensive cellars. I mean, we’re still finding underground passages in Balan’s Gap, and I spent a lot of time in the Paris Undercity,⁴⁴ but does every city have stuff like this? I grew up on an airship. We didn’t really have a basement, per se.”

The Jägers laughed. “Vell, dey’s not all as extensive as ours,” Dimo said thoughtfully.

“Or else Europa vould have collapsed after a hard rain!” Maxim chimed in.

Gil raised his lantern and looked around. “Are there monsters?” He looked back at the Jägers. “Present company excluded, of course.”

Dimo laughed again, “Ho, yaz! But dey all vork for de Heterodynes. Ain’t dot right, Franz?”

This last was asked at a shout, and Gil realized, with a start, that the giant statue they were walking beside was not a statue, but instead, a living creature. Zeetha and Krosp realized it at the same moment. Both jumped and then looked annoyed at having done so.

The monster’s great head swung slowly towards them. Its skin was cracked and pebbled and covered in a grey coating of dust. Enormous nostrils blew out a gust of air redolent with flammable hydrocarbons, and a pair of sleepy green-gold eyes opened slightly. Gil noted a tarnished brass dial set into its nose. The needle flickered at the far left, and there was a trilobite symbol set into the space between its brows. The rest of the enormous body was hidden in the shadows.

“Yeh, yeh.” The gravelly slow voice roiled over them. “Heterodynes forever. Now shottop. I’m trying to get some sleep here.”

Gil stared at the creature with awe. “I didn’t think there were any dragons left,”⁴⁵ he breathed.

The dragon slowly shifted his attention to him and again sighed. “Until de Heterodyne returns,” he muttered as his eyes closed, “you iz correct.”

The sound of deep breathing filled the cavern.

At the next stairway, Dimo stopped. “Dis iz as far az ve goes,” he said to Gil. “Hyu iz on hyu own now.”

Zeetha looked disappointed. “You’re not coming? Why not? We could use you.”

Dimo shrugged. “Ve iz not supposed to be in de town until de Heterodyne iz back officially. Den dey rings de Doom Bell. Until dot happens, ve gots to stay underground, vere ve’s technically not in de town.”

Zeetha looked skeptical. “But didn’t you go through the town to get here with him?” She pointed at Gil.

Dimo winced but it was too late. Ognian and Maxim’s eyes had widened and they looked at each other in obvious distress.

“She iz right!” Ognian said with a troubled voice. “Ve broke de solemn oath ven ve brought Meester Gil in through de Sneaky Gate!”