Agatha H. And the Clockwork Princess (26 page)

When the lights faded from her eyes, Agatha could see that the bridge was gone. There was nothing left but some stone rubble growing out of the ancient chasm walls.

Around her, everyone else began to climb to his or her feet. The creatures were up first, but instead of attacking, they stared at the remnants of the bridge and shrieked in despair. The nearest one to Agatha unfroze and swiveled towards her just as Master Payne stepped up behind it and ran it through with a cutlass. The creature coughed wetly as the sword pushed out through its chest, and it bonelessly collapsed when it was withdrawn. Looking around Agatha saw that the remaining creatures were going down with similar ease.

On the opposite side of the chasm, a growing crowd of monsters could be seen. They screamed and shook their fists at the circus, a few of them getting so excited that they fell, shrieking, into the depths.

Once the monsters around them were dispatched, some of the performers began to turn their weapons on these observers. After the first few fell, the rest retreated and loped back up the road.

The circus milled around. Lars began to shake. “We… we did it! We got out!” His voice began to rise.

Abner swore and pushed towards him. “Oh no, not now…”

The Jäger nearest Agatha, the wielder of the great pole-axe, raised his eyebrows questioningly and jerked a large clawed thumb towards Lars. “Vot’s hiz problem?”

“Lars gets hysterical after a fight,” Agatha explained. “It’s hard to calm him down.”

The Jäger walked over to Lars and rabbit punched the back of his head. With a sigh, Lars collapsed onto the roadway. The Jäger turned back to Agatha and smiled proudly. “No it ain’t.”

Agatha looked at Lars. “Oh dear. I’m sure that’s wrong,” she looked over at Zeetha. “Although I can’t think why.”

Abner turned to Augie, who was staring at the nearest Jäger in horrified fascination. “How are
you
feeling?”

“Wonderful!” Augie proclaimed loudly, “Never better! Calm and collected!”

The green Jäger nodded. “Hokay.”

Master Payne had been examining one of the dead monsters. With a grunt, he climbed to his feet. “All right, Augie. What’s the story?”

The older man sighed and leaned against the nearest wagon. “We didn’t get much past the bridge when Lars began to get twitchy. It took us awhile to figure out why. There weren’t any other riders. There wasn’t any sign that there had been any riders from the town for quite awhile. Lars insisted we leave the road and he looked around. That’s when we noticed that there weren’t any animals. Not even birds. This is spring, they should be all over the place. But we couldn’t find any active burrows. No fresh nests. No fresh tracks. No droppings. No bodies. No bones. Nothing.”

Agatha looked troubled. “But you kept going.”

Taki handed Augie a bottle of brandy. He gratefully took a pull from the bottle and wiped his mouth. “Passholdt isn’t just any old town we can swing around, Miss Clay. There’re only a few passes open this early in the year. It was a hard winter.”

Abner spoke up. “We’ve seen dead towns before. They’re creepy, but we can pass through them if we must. Plus, it’s always possible that while the surrounding area might be affected, the town itself might have held out and is still secure.” He looked at Augie questioningly.

The advance man wearily shook his head. “No such luck. We stayed off the road and in the woods as long as we could. The farms around the town were deserted. A few were burned out, but the rest were just abandoned. All the livestock is gone. So was the stored grain and seed stock. The silage lofts were mostly full. Whatever happened, happened last fall or over the winter.

“We finally got within sight of the town. The fields were empty. Haven’t even been turned. The city walls are still intact. We didn’t see any smoke, or sentries, but Lars still took over an hour sneaking up to a tree tall enough that he could look over the wall.”

Augie took another deep drink. “Inside the walls, he said that most of the buildings looked intact, but there were smashed carts and wagons and bones. Bones
everywhere
. Apparently people kept coming to Passholdt for quite awhile.” Another drink.

“And crawling over everything were those… things. There weren’t any people or animals. Just them. They were sprawled on the roofs, shambling through the buildings, picking through the bones. Hundreds of them. Thousands, probably. Lars said that as he was climbing down, he snapped a dry branch. Just one as big around as your finger,” Augie held up an index finger to demonstrate. It was shaking slightly.

“He said that the ones nearest to him whipped their heads around towards him and started shrieking. That spread through the whole town and they all started running towards us. Well, he dropped five meters straight down to the ground and we grabbed the horses and started running.” He looked at the remnants of the bridge and a shudder went through him. “And they still beat us here,” he whispered. “We were damned lucky they started from inside the town.”

Master Payne turned away and looked at the bridge. “Well, no one will get caught by them from this direction. Unfortunately, this leaves us in a bit of a predicament.”

“Us?” Agatha gestured over the chasm. “What about the townspeople?”

Augie looked at her. “For all we know those
were
the townspeople.”

“You don’t know?”

“How the devil would I know?”

Agatha nodded. “Losing the bridge will certainly make it more challenging, but it does mean that they won’t be expecting anyone to come from this direction. That’s good.”

Master Payne looked at her blankly. “Good for what?”

“Our attack on Passholdt.”

Abner blinked. “Our
what?
”

Agatha shrugged. “Attack might be the wrong word,” she conceded. “But we have to do something to try to save the people of Passholdt. I guess the first step will be to analyze one of these corpses and see if these creatures were once human. Perhaps we can—”

The concentrated glares from her assembled listeners finally registered, and Agatha’s monologue stumbled to a halt. “No?” she asked.

Master Payne sighed and removed his spectacles. “Many newcomer Sparks make the same mistake, Miss Clay. But I confess that I’d thought you more… grounded
³¹
.”

Agatha was confused. “I don’t understand.”

Payne nodded. “We are
actors
, Miss Clay. We only
pretend
to be heroes.” He spread his hands and his spectacles hovered in midair. “We are fakes. These are tricks. Our lives, the lives I am responsible for, are dangerous enough without questing for adventure. We are Sparks, yes, but pitifully weak ones, and we
know
this. It is this knowledge, the knowledge of just how weak we
are
, that keeps us alive.”

Agatha interrupted, “But the town—”

Payne snatched the floating spectacles from the air and slammed his great fist down upon a wagon yoke. “At our next stop we will inform the Baron’s people. These are his lands?
He
can keep them clean!”

Agatha tried one last time. “But—”

“BUT
NOTHING
!” Payne roared. “For all we know, those things are… are some new form of
revenant
, and the only thing that can be done for them is to
kill
them!” He wheeled about and looked Agatha in the eye. “Could you burn down people? Women and children? Even if you knew—you
knew
, that they had irrevocably become monsters?”

Agatha tried to step back, and found her way blocked by the side of a wagon. She swallowed. “I… no…” She looked down. “I don’t know,” she whispered.

Payne stepped closer. “The
Baron
can. The Baron
has
. I
respect
him for that, but I do not want to
be
him. No sane man would.” He grasped Agatha’s chin in his hand and dragged her eyes back up to face his own. “Now you drop any ideas you have about being another Othar Tryggvassen, unless you want to leave my show and manage your heroics on our own. Do you understand?”

“Yes!” Agatha wrenched her head from his hand. “Yes, I understand!” Tears filled her eyes, “But I don’t have to like it.” She turned to go and found Zeetha blocking her way.

Zeetha reached out and grasped Agatha’s shoulders. “Remember this,” she hissed. “Remember this union of understanding and rage. This is the balance that will keep you fighting. And to make sure you remember this occasion—” Agatha’s eyes widened in fear—until Zeetha slung a comforting arm across her shoulder. “A drink.”

As a relieved Agatha was led away, Payne turned back to the rest of the circus, who were busy not meeting his eyes, until he clapped his great hands together. “I don’t like it either,” he announced quietly. “But I like dying even less. Move out.”

At this, a collective sigh went up from the group. They dispersed and soon the wagons began rumbling down the hill. Payne stood apart looking out at the ruined bridge until Abner came up and coughed discreetly.

Payne nodded without turning. “Is the warning sign posted
³²
?”

“Yessir. Of course, we’ll want to post another at the turn off.”

Payne nodded again. Now that the bridge was out, there was no reason for anyone to climb the two-kilometer slope. He hoped the Baron would take care of this soon, but it was quite possible that he would abandon the road, and simply increase the amount of air traffic to the area. Payne had seen it happen before. He gave a final pat to the ancient stonework before he turned away. It had been a very good bridge.

Abner continued. “I told Dr. Kleeporg to preserve one of the monsters. I thought the Baron might want it
³³
.”

Payne again nodded. “Good. Now let’s get moving. I want us as far as we can get by morning. Anything else?”

A voice rumbled from above his head. “Vell, now dot hyu mentions it…”

The two men spun in surprise. The green Jäger was squatting on the roof of the cart, a huge grin smeared over his face. “Hello dere.”

Payne visibly pulled himself together. He had found himself facing far worse while traveling in the Wastelands. “My humble thanks,” he said sincerely. “You really helped us here.”

The monster soldier looked pleased, and graciously inclined his head. “Eet vas only fair. Vun of hyuor pipples help us, so ve tink ve shood help hyu beck, jah?”

The Jäger with the triple bladed pole arm unfolded himself from under the wagon. Both Payne and Abner would have sworn there was nothing there.

He looked smug. “
End
ve did eet mitowt killink ennybody hyu know! Pretty sveet, hey?” The grin he gave the two men was so alarming that they involuntarily took a step back, directly into the arms of the purple Jäger who had materialized behind them. He slapped an affable hand upon each of their shoulders. This elicited a small scream from Abner.

Payne rallied and grinned back. The Jägers mentally gave him an “A” for effort. “Pretty sweet indeed. As a token of our esteem, if you need any supplies—”

The purple Jäger interrupted. “Dere iz sumting dot ve vant.”

Payne nodded. “Excellent! We can certainly—”

The green Jäger spread his hands. “Ve vants to join de circus.”

“
WHAT?
”

The Jäger with the pole-axe nodded in agreement. “Jah. Ve vant to be circus guyz.”

Payne and Abner looked at each other in amazement. Payne scratched his shaggy head. “But…but what can you
do?
What could we do
with
you?”

Abner shook his head. “The audience—”

The green Jäger waved his hands dismissively. “Jah, jah, dey hate us. But dots joost ven vees valkin’ around being us. Pipple
expect
to see strange tings in a show like dis.”

The purple Jäger puffed his chest up proudly. “End dey dun get much stranger den us,” he declared.

An odd look came into Master Payne’s eyes. “But what
could
we do with them,” he murmured.

The younger man looked at him askance. “You can’t
seriously
be considering this. Them? Onstage?”

The purple Jäger swept a hand through his long luxurious hair. “Ve vould be perfect. Hy em Maxim,” so saying he gave a sketchy, but serviceable, cavalier’s salute. “Hy tink Hy iz de leadink man type.”

Payne and Abner stared at him blankly.

The pole axe wielding Jäger leaned in. “Vot’s ‘leadink man’ mean?” he asked sotto voce.

Maxim waggled his eyebrows. “Hit mean hyu gets to kees de gurl,” he explained.

“Hoy!” The horned Jäger turned to Abner and grinned engagingly. “Hy vants to be a leadink man too!” Abner’s eyes were staring to glaze. The Jäger stuck out a clawed hand. “I’m Ognian.” Reflexively, Abner gingerly took Ognian’s hand and was given a quick, seismic rattle.

Maxim smacked the back of Ognian’s head. “Eediot! Hyu kent be a leadink man.”

Ognian pouted. An alarming sight on a person with a mouthful of sharp teeth. “Vy not?”

Maxim shrugged. “Dere’s only vun leadink man.”

“Sez who?”

“Iz hobvious! Eef hyu gots two, deys gunna lead in different directions.”

Ognian thought about this. “So vy hyu?”

“I tink ov hit first.”

“But dere vas two Heterodyne Boyz.”

Maxim’s eyebrows shot up. “Say—hyu iz right!”

Ognian grinned. “But dot’s hokay! Dis vay ve
both
gets a gurl!”

A flicker of worry passed over Maxim’s face. “Hy dunno. Some uf the gurls de Heterodynes keesed vos pretty scary.”

“Bot dot’s de best part,” exclaimed Ognian gleefully, “Ve’d be keesink
actresses!
” He smirked, “End hyu
know
vot dey say about
actresses!
”

Maxim looked at him expectantly. “Um… No Hy dun’t.”

Ognian shrugged. “Hy dun neither.” He grinned again. “Bot Hy bet ve’s gunna find out!!”

The third Jägermonster smacked Ognian on the back of the head. “Qviet, hyu eediots! Eef deys find out how irresistible ve iz to de vemmins, dey neffer gunna let us join.” The other two realized the sensibility of this advice and arranged their faces into a semblance of innocence before facing the two men again.

“Zo,” the green Jäger said. “I’m Dimo. Vat doz hyu tink?”