“I know! I know,” Violetta mumbled.
Agatha studied a bank of readouts next to her chair. “Hurry! Tarvek’s readings are almost terminal!” She raised her voice. “Professor! We’re getting power fluctuations!”
Mezzasalma swore. He scuttled over to a smoking cable, ripped it apart, and slammed a new connector into place. “We’re burning through fuses faster than expected,” he shouted back. “But I can deal with it!”
“Sturmvarous is flattening on all meters,” Snaug sang out.
“Good!” Agatha hunkered down in place. “Keep the power running as smoothly as you can!” She glanced towards Violetta—
“This is the last strap,” Violetta said.
“Then start the countdown—Now!”
Numbers started flicking down on the board. “Professor!” Snaug shouted, “My controls just went dark!”
“Sorry,” Mezzasalma returned, “this thrice-cursed fuse has melted! I’m shunting to number four array!”
Agatha ignored them. “Violetta?” she asked nervously, “did you remember to strip all the metal off them?”
“Yes. Of course.” Violetta assured her, settling a heavily-wired crown of lights onto her head and strapping it on.
“Even Gil’s…ring?” Agatha whispered.
“Sheesh! Yes! You only told me three times!” said Violetta, connecting wires in the crown to the rest of the array.
“You’re nervous,” Violetta said. “If you don’t relax, this is really going to hurt like crazy.”
Agatha gave her a grim smile. “Oh, I certainly hope so.”
“Prince Sturmvarous is prepped for revivification!” Snaug announced.
Agatha closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “All right—Do it! And then get back!”
Violetta nodded. She took hold of Agatha’s locket and held it in place while she undid the clasp. Then, all at once, she leapt backward, taking the locket with her.
Agatha’s head slammed back against the headrest of the chair and she screamed, initially in agony, but midway through it changed into a scream of triumph. The blue lights on the crown device went red, and Lucrezia opened her eyes.
“Why, I’m back!” A wicked smile crossed her face. “What a lovely surprise!”
Then her eyes widened in panic and she tugged at her restraints. “Wait—What is this?” She looked up and saw Violetta watching her intently. “Release me at once!”
Violetta licked her lips. “Wow. That really is weird.”
Instantly Lucrezia looked scared and vulnerable. “Yes! There’s something very wrong! There’s been a terrible mistake! Quickly now, untie me!”
Violetta shook her head in admiration, never removing her eyes from Lucrezia. “So, you’re the…evil twin thing, eh? Tarvek said you could be really convincing.”
Instantly Lucrezia snapped out of her helpless routine. “Oh, did he? Did he also say that he’s neck-deep in a plot to steal my work? Release me now, and I’ll show him—!”
Violetta backed away with a small laugh. “Tempting, but you already had your shot at him.” She glanced at the nearby panel, where a green light flashed. “No way.” She grasped a large handle and threw it triumphantly. “Second switch!”
Nothing happened. Frantically Violetta jiggled the switch back and forth a few times. Still nothing. She glanced back and saw Agatha’s body, strained almost to the breaking point, as Lucrezia tried to tear free of the straps, regardless of the physical consequences. “Professor,” she screamed.
Mezzasalma jammed a screwdriver into a partially melted panel and brutally wrenched it open, exposing the cracked unit behind it. “Useless, inferior, coprolithic components!” he snarled, as he yanked the unit free and slammed a new one into place. Orange lights blossomed around him. “I wouldn’t electrocute my mother with these!”
Lucrezia screamed and collapsed back, panting. While she marshaled her strength, she examined Violetta. “You,” she hissed. “You’re one of the Order’s Smoke Knights! You fool, you people have sworn yourselves to me! Do your duty! Release me! I demand it in the name of the Holy Child!”
Violetta paled. “Whoa!” she said, nodding. “I’d heard the Order was in thrall to some secret cabal…so that’s you, eh?”
Lucrezia stared at her. “You refuse to honor the First Command?”
Violetta shook her head. “Noooo…I think you’ll cause a lot less trouble by staying right where you are.”
Lucrezia screamed with all the power of the Spark. “Release me!”
Violetta folded her arms. “Nope.”
Lucrezia stared. “You’re…you’re a Smoke Knight…” Her voice rose to a shriek of frustration. “But you’re not wasped?”
Violetta shuddered. “I’m supposed to be?” She was so shocked at the idea that she almost didn’t catch Snaug as she attacked from behind.
“I’ll release you, Mistress!” Snaug seemed mesmerized. Her eyes were glassy.
Violetta slammed her fist across the woman’s jaw with no small satisfaction. “Oh great,” she muttered as Snaug collapsed. “PROFESSOR?”
A bank of lights went from orange to green. “Soon,” the Professor called back.
Lucrezia seemed to swell as she screamed at the top of her lungs. “RELEASE ME OR I WILL GRIND YOU TO DUST! CAN ANYONE LOYAL HEAR ME? HELP!”
A voice shrieked back from deep inside the shaft in the floor. “I HEAR YOU, LUCREZIA! AND I AM FREE!” The unearthly voice echoed throughout the huge chamber.
Lucrezia froze, and then rolled her eyes toward Violetta. “Um… Perhaps I should have asked, but…where are we, exactly?”
Violetta had finally taken her eyes off Lucrezia, and was staring at the shaft. “Hm? Oh. A big power chamber under Castle Heterodyne. Your ‘friend’ is in a…well, I guess it’s a secret room or something we opened underneath.”
Lucrezia screamed again, this time her eyes wide with terror. “Get me loose!” she cried frantically. “Get me loose NOW!”
There was a terrible laugh from the shaft, and the thing spoke again: “I’ll get you loose! Oooh, yessss…” intensely bright light flared at the bottom of the shaft. Von Zinzer shut his eyes in pain. When he opened them again, there was something silhouetted against the glare, laboriously making its way up the side of the shaft.
Von Zinzer stared at his broom and gripped it tighter. “You guys really need to hurry up with the zapping, ’cause whatever is down there, it’s coming up here!” he yelled.
Lucrezia’s voice was a frantic whisper. “Release me!”
Violetta idly clicked the switch again. “Are you still going on about that?”
“Fool!” Violetta caught something different in Lucrezia’s voice and turned to listen. “If that thing reaches me, this girl will die! And I know that will spoil your Master’s precious plans!”
“Violetta,” Mezzasalma called out. “The power should be restored! Hit it!”
Violetta nodded. She shrugged apologetically to Lucrezia. “Sorry, you’ll have to come up with a better threat than that.”
Lucrezia looked wary. “Oh, really? But—”
Violetta narrowed her eyes. “Tarvek’s not my master, and the Lady Heterodyne was planning on dying today anyway. Second switch!”
This time Lucrezia’s scream was one of agony as the current roared through her. Violetta resolutely spun about and examined the console. “All right!” she shouted. “Her Si Vales Valeo connection is now fully engaged! Tarvek’s revivification sequence should start any second!” Silence answered her. “Hey! She’s really gonna be mad if I blow him up after all this trouble, so I need his readings, now! Professor? Answer me!”