Professor Mittlemind regretfully pulled forth a small calendar. “Today is the Feast of Saint Bunge: My religion forbids excessive vertical travel today, and I really should polish the spikes in the pit trap!”
Mezzasalma watched their antics, his lip curling. “The two of you disgust me.” With a clatter of mechanical legs, he stepped aboard.
Agatha regarded him with respect as von Zinzer threw some levers and swung the platform out over the shaft. “Professor Mezzasalma, you actually want to come?”
Mezzasalma snorted. “Of course not, but they took all of the good excuses, and crying is undignified.”
Von Zinzer rolled his eyes. “Brace yourselves! Here we go!”
With a shudder, the platform began sinking down the shaft. To von Zinzer’s satisfaction, the platform descended slowly but smoothly, and the bright disk of light above them shrank and faded. Agatha flipped a switch and a jury-rigged set of lamps crackled into brightness, allowing them to examine the interiors of the rooms they were lowered through.
“So, I hate to spoil the party,” von Zinzer began, “but have any of you Sparks actually thought about what we’re going to find down there?
“I mean, what kind of power source runs a place like this?”
Tarvek spoke up. “Tiktoffen said he never discovered it.” He peeked over the edge, down into the darkness. “I’m now tempted to believe that it was something he didn’t actually know.”
“I asked my father about it once,” said Gil. “He told me that even Barry Heterodyne didn’t know. I found that a bit hard to believe—”
“Master Barry did not lie.” The Castle’s voice was subdued. “By order of my creator, Faustus Heterodyne, my power source is one of the most closely guarded of family secrets.”
“But,” Agatha frowned, “Uncle Barry was family.”
“Technically, that is correct. However while he was a Heterodyne, he was never the Heterodyne. That was your father, the eldest brother. As it happened, he did not know either. Both Master William and Master Barry spent very little time within my halls. They were poisoned against me by their mother.84 As a result, we had…philosophical differences.
“It never became necessary for the last Heterodyne—your father—to know all of my secrets and thus he never bothered to learn them.”
The Castle paused. “It was a shame that he never fully embraced the family legacy. There was a refreshing simplicity to him. If he had been born two hundred years ago, I do not think that even the Storm King would have been able to stop him.”
“Philosophical differences…yes, I can see that…Well, it’s necessary now,” Agatha sighed.
“Under the circumstances, I must concur. I’ll of course have to kill most of your companions, to limit the knowledge of my workings and their location.”
Everyone on the platform shot Agatha a worried look.
“Don’t you dare,” she said sternly.
“Well, of course, we must preserve your consorts. For the good of the line, you know. And for spare parts…” The Castle gave another chilling laugh.
Mezzasalma glanced at Gil and Tarvek and turned to Agatha. “I…I think the two eyes you have are…are beautifully spider-like?” he said weakly.
Agatha patted him gently on the arm. “Stop talking now.”
She addressed the Castle. “I realize that you’re just amusing yourself at our expense, but even so, I want to make this very clear. These people are under my protection and you will honor that. Do you understand?”
The Castle grumbled with a sound like gears grinding together. “Oh, very well, then,” it said sullenly.
“Very well then—what?”
“Very well then. Mistress.”
Agatha nodded in satisfaction. “Don’t forget that.”
“Hey!” Von Zinzer was peering over the edge of the platform. “We’re coming up on something big! What is that stuff?”
“Indeed,” the Castle informed them. “You are approaching the Great Movement Chamber, wherein is hidden the source of the river Dyne. This is where your ancestors learned how to harness its power.”
The platform cleared the ceiling and descended into a vast cavern. Everyone gasped in astonishment.
Higher than a cathedral, the cavern was filled with massive gears and ancient machinery. The nearest wall was a towering relief of worked stone. Its design was only dimly visible near the bottom, which was lit by a flickering pool of clear blue light. It was a semi-enclosed spring, from which a glowing river of water burst forth. It flowed through an elaborate series of ancient iron gates and rushed down a central channel and off into the vastness of the cave. It flowed past the paddles of a titanic waterwheel that lay off-kilter and motionless, its axle splintered. The great pillar of rock that had caused the break still lay amongst the wreckage.
“That’s not a new break,” Gil muttered as they all stepped off of the platform. “I’ll bet that big piece broke off the ceiling and smashed it when the Other attacked.”
When everyone else had left the platform, von Zinzer threw a switch. He leapt off the platform as it slowly began to rise back to the top of the shaft. “Hope that was a good idea,” he muttered.
The others were still mesmerized by the scene before them. “You—All of this is powered by water?” Agatha asked the Castle.
“The Dyne is more than just water.” Deep as they were, the Castle’s voice was still with them. It echoed through the deep chambers and sent shivers through the listeners. “A bit of family history, my lady. When your ancestor first came to this place, there was only a small spring, sacred to the local Battle Goddess.”
Tarvek interrupted. “When was this?”
“How should I know?” the Castle replied. “It was long before I was built, and I measure time differently than you.”85
It continued. “The spring’s guardians claimed that immersion in its waters brought insanity and death—except on those rare occasions when it pleased the Goddess to grant miraculous healing instead. To actually drink from it was unthinkable.
“But your ancestor never had much use for other people’s rules. He drank from the spring. He should have died screaming. Instead, it granted him unearthly strength and stamina. He became greatly feared as the chosen consort of the Goddess and built his fortress upon this spot.
“When Vlad the Blasphemous first brewed the Jägerdraught, he used water from the spring as a key ingredient.
“Egregious Heterodyne decided that the spring was too small and set out to increase its flow. That was when the river Dyne came to be. It was also when the first Castle was destroyed.”
“The years when the Dyne flowed unchecked placed the family’s mark on this area for all time.” The Castle paused for a private chuckle, then continued. “It was Faustus Heterodyne who learned to spin a powerful energy from the waters. He was able to use this energy to create marvels undreamed of by earlier Heterodynes. His crowning achievement was, of course, myself.
“I am afraid I require everything that can be wrung from the spring. Beyond this chamber, the waters of the Dyne no longer produce any interesting effects at all. Now the water can be drunk and safely harnessed by practically anybody. Ah, well, but that is outside. Here at the source, I would advise you to stay clear.”
Von Zinzer leaned on an ornate, trilobite-decked rail and watched the water as it flowed through the channel. “So—drink the water here and you become a Jäger?”
“Oh, dear me, no,” the Castle laughed. “Drink the water here and you die!” It laughed again. “Of course, drink the Jägerdraught and you’ll most likely die as well. But, even if you don’t, the water is only the start of the process. You should ask my lady to try it on you, once she’s got the time.”