Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess

He checked the map again, and gave a small grunt of satisfaction.

“Okay, there should be something around here.”

Krosp stuck his head over his shoulder. “What? How do you figure?”

Lars indicated the map. “Not too close to the castle. Not too far. Close to the city gates for escape. Close to the armory and the main barracks to rally the troops. This place is rife with dramatic possibilities. It makes sense to put it here.”

Krosp stared at him and then waved his paws about in an impotent, but adorable, fury. “I can’t believe I’m listening to this! You expect to find a secret passage because of some idiotic stories?”

He no doubt would have said more, but there was a dry scraping sound, and a section of the far wall shivered, sending a cascade of dried material to the floor.

Krosp felt a hand grab the back of his collar and he was jerked back behind a buttress where the others already waited. He felt lips tickling his ear, and Lars breathed, “The thing you have to remember, is that everyone has heard the same stories.”

Zeetha sidled closer. “So what can we expect, story boy?”

Lars shrugged. “It depends. Could be a princess—”

The wall swung open and a clank, startlingly reminiscent of the long-lost Tinka stumbled out. Her eyes glowed with a blue fire. Immediately behind her came four worried looking retainers, carrying a bizarre container. “Hurry!” the clank whispered. “We haven’t got much time!”

The carriers were obviously hard used, and were puffing and sweating. One of the rear men glanced back and shrieked, “Highness!”

From the open wall, five pale figures leapt to the ground. They caught sight of the princess and the lead Geisterdamen pointed. “Tikka zok!” she screamed.

“—Could be a monster,” Lars finished.

The clank girl whirled and yelled back, “Voda za! Shibbak!”

Everyone looked at Lars. He shrugged. “Could be both.” Then he shook his head. “But those are Geisterdamen. In a town. I’ve never even heard of that happening.”

Dimo gnawed his lower lip. “I iz more interested in der doll gurl. She iz speakink like a Geisterlady, bot she hez miz Agatha’s voice.”

Krosp hissed. “They might know something about her. But which side—”

Oggie patted him on the head. “Ho! Dot’s easy, poozy cot!” With that he straightened up and stepped out into the open between the two groups, who froze. He gave each a big smile and waved genially. “Hey dere!” he called out cheerfully, “Who vants to be my friend?”

Several seconds passed, and then all of Anevka’s retainers shot a hand into the air and waved frantically. At this, all of the Geisterdamen raised their swords and with a yell, leapt forward.

Ognian nodded in satisfaction. “See? Now ve know who to fight!” Two of the pale women darted straight for the Jager, who brought his halberd up horizontally and braced himself.

From the shadows behind him, Maxim and Dimo surged forward, leapt onto the halberd, and used it to boost themselves up and over the two attacking women, who were so distracted by this, that Ognian was able to take out one with a vicious kick that broke the Geisterdamen’s neck. The other quickly recovered and stabbed at Oggie in a blind rage, which was probably why she didn’t see Zeetha slide from behind the Jager and punch her sword through her.

The third Geisterdamen was closing in on Anevka when Maxim sailed in from above and cleanly decapitated her. Dimo landed between the last two and while managing to stab one, was unable to stop the last from driving her sword into his chest. The shock of the thrust threw him back and he dropped to his knees. The pale woman followed up swiftly, sword ready for the final stroke, when another Geister sword erupted from her chest. She froze and then dropped, while Anevka pulled the sword from her body.

She calmly examined her rescuers with evident interest. “Jagermonsters,” she declared. “Of course. You must be looking for the Heterodyne girl.”

For a horrible moment the Jagers and Krosp thought that the secret was out, until Lars nodded and said, “Yes! That’s right! The girl from the Heterodyne show! Do you know where she is? Is she all right?”

Anevka’s eyes narrowed and she nodded slowly. “I do. She is a prisoner in the castle. She was fine the last time I saw her...” Her head jerked. “But now you must all come with me! Quickly!”

Lars pointed towards the entrance through which she’d emerged. “Through here?”

Anevka shook her head. “That would be extremely foolish.” She pointed at the dead women on the ground. “This was merely an advance party. Those tunnels will be swarming with Geisterdamen.”

Dimo had been listening at the entrance, and he hurried up. “She gots dot right,” he informed them. “Dere’s lots of pipple and odder tings comink.”

Lars looked stricken. “But—”

Anevka pulled him and the others began to move at her insistence. “I can get you into the castle. But not this way!”

Quickly they dashed down a short corridor until they found a rusty ladder. Behind them, they heard someone discover the dead Geisterdamen. Thanks to the efforts of the Jagers, they were able to boost up Anevka’s container, and the rest climbed quickly. At the top, they pushed aside a large iron door and found themselves in a municipal storage vault that held spare paving stones. The only way out was an ornate iron gate, which was securely locked. As Maxim swung the heavy door closed behind them, Anevka fished a set of keys out from a pocket, and after some fumbling, found the one that snapped the ancient lock open. They darted through, slammed the gate shut and relocked it, just as the grate in the floor began to rattle alarmingly.

It was only when they had managed to dash around a corner out of sight did they pause. Zeetha stepped over to Dimo, who was letting Maxim examine his chest wound. The Jager was obviously annoyed that he had been hit. “You going to be okay?”

Dimo waved his hand impatiently. “Iz honly a scratch.”

Maxim smacked the wound with the back of his hand, causing the green Jager to flinch and then curse. Maxim grinned. “She heet a bone. Iz mebbe cracked. Bot heez a tuff guy.” He continued. “Iz gunna be a bit rough for a day or two, so dun go round tryin’ to impress der ladies.”

Dimo snarled. Zeetha smiled and headed back to the others, to find they were already talking.

“Okay, your brother killed your father. So that makes him the new Prince?” Lars summarized.

Krosp interrupted, “And you really think he’s planning to take on Baron Wulfenbach?”

Anevka nodded sadly. “I’m sure of it. The Geisterdamen and their creatures were tools of my poor father. Tarvek controls them now.”

Ognian shrugged. “Makes sense. Dere ain’t been a decent rebellion against der Empire in vhat—two years?”

Maxim joined them. “Three. Dot magnetic prince guy. He kept der Baron busy for two whole months.”

“Dot vas only becawz all der compasses got messed op and dey kept gettink lost,” Oggie pointed out.

Both of the Jagers shook their heads. In their professional opinion, no one had come out of that conflict looking particularly good.

“But, jah, der Empire’s due.” He smiled ruefully. “A pity ve’s gunna miss dot, dem Geisterladies might be fun in a schtand-up fight.”

Zeetha scratched her head. “But, why did he kidnap Agatha?”

Lars looked at her askance. “Is that a trick question?”

Krosp nodded slowly. “Maybe it is a trick question.” Lars looked surprised. Krosp continued, “But not for the reason the meathead thinks it is. If this Prince Tarvek is about to launch a rebellion against the Empire—well that’s not something you do at the drop of a hat. It’s complicated. You need a plan. The last thing you’d want to do is throw in a... a random kidnapping the night you set things in motion.”

Zeetha frowned. “By that logic, the reason he started his rebellion today was because he had Agatha. That doesn’t make any sense.” She looked at Krosp and the Dimo, who were looking at each other worriedly. “Does it?”

Anevka broke in. “There is always a use for a Spark. My father collected girls with the Spark whenever he found them. I imagine my brother is continuing this repellent practice. It does not help that your friend is rather