The meeting between Clemethius, Bludtharst and Euphrosynia was of enough interest to the Jägers that about a dozen of them, including all three of Euphrosynia's, had gravitated to waiting outside for news of what was decided. Since they were neither on duty nor allowed in they were hanging around outside drinking beer and chatting when little Gradok Heterodyne arrived, holding a bowl in one hand and a clay pipe in the other.
'Watch this,' he said, then dipped the pipe and blew a long stream of soap bubbles. Some of the Jägers clapped and he grinned at them. 'Now bring me one back,' he said. At five years old he wasn't exactly someone the Jägers had to obey, but he was a Heterodyne and they tended to humour him. Besides, the bubbles did look sort of tempting floating around the room.
Which was why Euphrosynia exited the meeting to find both floor and Jägers splattered with soap and Gradok giggling almost too hard to blow. 'What are you doing?' she asked, smiling herself.
'They're going to bring me a bubble,' said Gradok, before blowing another stream.
Euphrosynia looked up at the bubbles, an almost dreamy look in her eyes, and then reached up and lightly caught one between her fingers, lowering to to Gradok's eye level. 'Do I win?' she asked.
Gradok gave her an awed look and nodded. Then the bubble shivered and popped as the door opening again caused a breeze. Clemethius and Bludtharst stepped out, clearly having been in the middle of a conversation. 'I see your troops intend a headstart on the gossip,' said Clemethius.
Bludtharst laughed. 'Some of these are Euphrosynia's,' he said. 'And I think Gradok just co-opted all of them,' he added, ruffling his little brother's hair.
'They'll hardly get that much of a headstart,' said Euphrosynia. 'Bludtharst was on his way to tell the Generals as it was, and I was planning on talking to my three.'
'True,' said Clemethius. 'You two go and inform the troops, then. While I get Gradok back to his nurse.'
'Can I show you my soap bubbles on the way?' asked Gradok.
Clemethius put a hand on his shoulder and started walking them down the corridor. 'Of course.'
'Come on,' Euphrosynia said, and Maxim, Fane and Vali fell into step behind her. She waited until they were back at her rooms to add, 'Things are about to get interesting. Andronicus has managed to convince most of Europe to join with him in order to fight us.'
'Oh, so dot's vhy he vanted everyone to be scared of uz!' said Maxim.
Euphrosynia's lips twitched. 'Yes, that would be it,' she said. 'They're going to build a keep up in Balan's Gap.'
'Ve are going to stop dem?' asked Vali.
Euphrosynia smiled. 'Bludtharst is certainly going to try. We'll see if he succeeds.'
'Und hyu has a plan?' Maxim asked.
'Not yet. For now Bludtharst gets to have his fun, and I get to be the support. One plan at a time.' She grinned. 'And doing it Bludtharst's way means I get to see the battlefield.'
Euphrosynia's tent was made of nyar spider silk and resembled a jellyfish — domed and white with tentacles, in this case metal ones, around the bottom. It took a while for the minions to set up and then they went to armour mammoths while Euphrosynia activated it. The tentacles stiffened as they were turned on, sticking out like spikes from a sea urchin, and then lashed at the three Jägers waiting nearby, making them jump back.
'Hoy!' called Vali. 'It attacks uz?
'I'm working on it!' Euphrosynia called from inside. 'Right now it attacks everyone, but you're fast enough to dodge.'
They looked at each other and then shrugged and jumped forward, ducking and weaving for a bit until they pushed through the doorflap. Inside was half hospital, half laboratory, with the two intermixing at the midway point with tables with straps and some rather disturbing looking instruments. A couple of minions were sorting equipment onto benches.
Euphrosynia looked up from the control panel by the wall. 'Right. We're set up. Wounded Jägers and dead enemies will be brought to us throughout the battle. Your job is to get them in here, and to keep the area around us clear.' She pushed a lock of hair that had escaped from her braid out of her face. 'It shouldn't be hard, we're back behind our own lines by quite a way, but we might be targeted by anything that gets through. Stay close, even if it seems like nothing's happening I need you here when it does. Don't wander off towards the fighting.'
'Yes, mistress,' they chorused, Maxim feeling slightly indignant. Just because they were new Jägers didn't mean they'd never seen a battlefield before. They were still trained soldiers.
'Good,' she said. The sound of a trumpet rang out, sounding the advance. 'Take your positions.'
Their positions were outside the tent, just beyond the reach of the tentacles, and spaced evenly around it. An armoured mammoth walked past, ears flapping nervously.
'I heard dey vas making horse sized mammoths, now,' said Vali, conversationally but loudly enough to carry around the tent.
'Don't know vhy,' Maxim answered. 'De only thing dey's goot for is being big. Could stick spikes on a horse if dey just vant tings with tusks.'
'Mammoths is schmott,' said Fane. 'Can use weapons.'
'Yah, und if someone cuts their trunk, dey run off screaming,' said Maxim. 'Should be breeding braver vuns, not smaller.'
'Goot point,' said Vali.
'Listen,' said Fane.
The battle was joined now, even though things were quiet around them they could hear it from further down the pass. Hoofbeats, the clash of weapons, screams and shouts and every so often, rising joyfully above everything else, the cry of, 'Ve hunt!' All three of them stayed silent now, feeling the battlefield open up around them.
A soft whirring sound overhead made them look up. A group of hippogriffs was flying overhead, steel grey bodies and charcoal feathers. Like most of the creations of Valois' Sparks they were pretty, long elegant tails floating behind them, and huge curled crests of lighter feathers capping their heads.
'Now dot's more useful then leedle mammoths,' Maxim said.
The hippogriffs turned in the air, left wings dipping, a path that would take them right over the hospital tent.
'Bombs!' Vali shouted. 'Fane, throw me.'
Fane and Maxim both ran around the tent, converging on Vali. Fane stooped as soon as they were in sight of one another and cupped his hands as if he was about to boost Vali over a wall. Vali stepped into it and Fane stood up, swinging his hands above his head in a motion that sent Vali flying towards the hippogriffs overhead. One squawked in alarm.
'Und me,' Maxim said, even as Fane stooped again. He stepped into Fane's hands and the next moment he was flying.
It was the sort of thing to make someone delight in being a Jäger just because a human doing this would shortly be a dead one. The hippogriffs were breaking formation, trying to get away, but he had enough momentum to swing around in the air and catch at one's wing. The rider turned, aiming a dagger at Maxim's hands. Unable to reach his sword, he hoisted himself high enough to bite at the rider's wrist and felt his teeth shear through bone.
The rider clutched at his wrist, swearing in French, while Maxim took advantage of the distraction to swing himself up astride the hippogriff's neck and draw his sword. A bag of bombs was indeed tied to the hippogriff's saddle, but no one had managed to arm any while under attack. Something grabbed him from behind and swung him out over empty air again; he looked up to find himself dangling from the hippogriff's beak. It looked very annoyed. He just had time to realise that, Jäger or not, he was going to wind up with broken bones at best before it let go.
Something grabbed him again, this time around the waist, before he'd fallen very far at all, and he found himself being held upside-down by one of the Heterodyne flying clanks, which rather resembled squids with propellers. The co-pilot gave him a rather baffled look. 'What is a Jäger doing up here?'
'Fightink?' It seemed kind of obvious.
'Oh good grief,' muttered the pilot. 'Are there more of you.'
'Chust Vali.' Maxim twisted around to see if he could catch sight of Vali, and noticed him jump from a rapidly falling hippogrif onto another clank. 'Oh, goot. Somevun got him.'
'It didn't occur to you to leave fighting in the air to the aerial troops?' snapped the co-pilot.
'Dey gots bombs, und hyu vas preedy late,' Maxim told him, folding his arms.
'We didn't even know they had hippogriffs! We were expecting those knight clanks, not airborne cavalry,' said the co-pilot, then apparently realised this wasn't doing his argument any good. The tentacle flipped Maxim the right way up and dropped him into a seat. 'Fine. But we're here now soplease stay on the ground.'
Once the hippogriffs were dealt with both Jägers were delivered back to Euphrosynia's tent where Fane greeted them by throwing their hats at them. Maxim pounced on his, realising that it wasn't surprising he'd lost it while being hung upside-down, and quickly checked it for damage. 'Thenk hyu.'
'Not de best plan,' Fane said.
'De Mistress didn't get bombed,' Vali protested, putting his own hat back on. 'Zo, not de vorst plan either.'
'Beck to positions,' said Maxim. The other two nodded and they moved to their stations again, waiting for the next threat to appear.
A sharp whistle from inside the tent was a call for one of them to get in there. As the closest to the entrance Maxim ducked in, dodging tentacles without even thinking about it, and found Euphrosynia in the laboratory half bending over a construct. It was a ragged thing, looking like it had been put together quickly, a few extra arms stitched almost randomly onto the ribcage. All its wrists and ankles were tied together with rope, leaving it looking like a curled up spider on the bench. It was snarling, throwing its head back and forth, eyes wide and rolling.
'Take that and point it at some enemy troops,' Euphrosynia said, already moving on to another bench, pulling out a new spool of thread.
'Ken it think?' Maxim asked, regarding the creature. It looked dead still. It smelled dead. Other constructs didn't.
'Of course not,' said Euphrosynia. 'If it could think it wouldn't attack its own side just because it was pointed at them.' She waved a hand at the exit to the tent.
Maxim lifted it up by the rope binding its wrists and slung it over his shoulder, where it promptly bit him. He adjusted it so it wouldn't be chewing him the whole way and left.
He released it as soon as he found some infantry to shove it towards, rather doubting that it would do that much damage. Shrieks of horror made him glance back for a moment — oh, right, that was probably more the point of it, to freak the enemy out at being attacked by their own dead.
'Hey! A Jäger!'
The cry came from behind him, and Maxim turned to find a small group of cavalry, around a dozen men, between him and his own encampment, swords drawn. Oh, this would be fun. He grinned at them, drawing his own sword. 'Hyu schmell scared.'
They didn't waste time answering, just charged. He jumped, easily landing on top of one of the horses, which predictably freaked out. He put a sword through its rider and jumped for the next one. This one saw it coming and managed to turn slightly, and get his sword up. It sliced into the top of Maxim's leg as he landed, and he yelped before slicing through that one's throat as well. For the next one he landed on the ground and killed the horse first, giving himself more space to get at the rider.
The remaining men turned and fled. He chased. Later he would realise this had been stupid. A lone soldier, even a Jäger, should not run towards the enemy's camp. Besides which he had an actual post he was meant to be getting back to. But right then there was prey, it was running, and he wanted to hunt.
Blood. Fear. Humans. Horses. The same smells all around him, but he had the trail of his prey even so. Loping after them, intent on the chase, he stumbled over something. Blood smell, human, more prey, already down. Wounded, easy. Trilobite sigil on shoulder.
Maxim blinked and pushed his hair back. In front of him was a downed soldier, a young man with dark hair, a wound in his side oozing blood through his hands as he pressed on it. He was gazing at Maxim wide eyed, instinctively sensing the predatory intent and scared by it, but rationally knowing they were on the same side.
Maxim glanced away, looking for the flag that would signify the human hospital tent, feeling vaguely horrified at himself although nowhere near as much as he probably should be. The tents for their side were further away than he expected. 'Hy beg hyu pardon. Vill giff hyu a hand to der tent.' He swung the soldier into his arms without waiting for an answer, no longer surprised by how easy it was to carry someone, and set off back for their own camp. The soldier stiffened in surprise but didn't protest.
The human hospital tent had a lot more patients in it than the Jäger one. It smelled sour with pain and fear. Maxim put the soldier down on an empty cot and a nurse came over at once. To his surprise another one called after him as he turned to go. When he turned back inquiringly, she rather nervously said, 'You're hurt too, your leg, we should look at that.'
Maxim glanced down. The wound was still oozing blood, he must have been moving around too much for it to close up. 'Iz fine,' he said.
'But,' she began.
'Jägers only let Heterodynes work on them,' said another voice. A young man, light brown hair caught back in a scruffy pony tail, was watching them. 'It probably is fine, they heal fast.' He added, to Maxim, 'All the same, sitting down and letting it close up would probably be a good idea.'
'Mebbe.' It actually did hurt, now he was thinking about it. The man turned and walked back to the back of the hospital, to a laboratory set up there. Smaller than Euphrosynia's, but somehow neater. Maxim followed, as much out of curiosity as to get out of the way of the nurses, and sat down on a stool in lab. The man was fussing about with some equipment by an empty bench. 'Hyu know about Jägers?' Maxim asked, by way of making conversation mostly.
'Hearsay,' answered the man. 'You're the first one I've seen up close, actually. I'm rather new to working with the Heterodynes.'
'Vell, hyu got vun of der goot looking vuns. Und hyu got hyu hearsay right too.'
The man smiled, very slightly. 'Good to know,' he said. It made him sound like Euphrosynia for a moment, laughing at Maxim a little on the inside but not unkind about it.
Maxim grinned at him. 'Ve ken alvays use more schmott guys like hyu,' he said.
'We've got one!' called a nurse. A moment later a recently dead soldier in Heterodyne uniform was carried over and dropped on the bench. The Spark started to hook him up at once.
'Hyu is making constructs from hyu own pipple?' Maxim demanded, not at all sure he liked the idea.
'Aren't you a construct?' said the Spark, hastily checking something.
'Hy volunteered! Und dot's different.'
'Yes, it is. I am attempting to bring these people back as they were, something I doubt any of them would object to. An endeavour that will go better if you stay quiet.'
Maxim obediently stayed quiet while the Spark finished connecting the corpse to the wires and flipped a switch. The corpse convulsed but that was all, and successive shocks got no more response. When the air started to smell of burnt flesh the Spark made a sound that managed to be half sigh and half growl and waved to some minions to take the corpse away.
'It don't vork too goot?' Maxim asked.
'Not nearly as well as it should, theoretically,' said the Spark. 'I'm still refining my technique, but I should have more of a success rate than I'm getting. Maybe if I modify the galvanic connectors…'
Maxim stopped listening at that point, on the basis that he wasn't going to understand any of it anyway. He ran a hand over his leg and found the blood there was dry and the wound closed. Since interrupting a Spark in the madness place was usually a bad idea he left without saying goodbye.
It took Maxim longer to clean up after the battle than the others because he had to wash dried blood out of his hair. When he emerged and returned to the hospital tent Euphrosynia was standing outside it between two inactive tentacles, wearing a ruffled blue dress while sipping from a glass of white wine, and looking entirely like someone had painted her onto the wrong background. She smiled at him, before returning to gazing over the battlefield. 'That went well, I think,' she said.
'Vas fon,' Maxim said. 'Deed it though?'
'Our part did.' Which meant the rest of it hadn't, and she didn't really care. Bludtharst would though. 'I think I can make those constructs more durable, tomorrow,' she added.
'Somevun else vas ressurecting our pipple,' Maxim told her, remembering. 'Not vell, though.'
'It's hard to bring minds back consistently,' she answered, absently. 'Death trauma. Doing it on a battlefield at all is rather impressive.' She drained her glass of wine and ducked inside to put it down on something. 'I think I'd like to meet him. Show me the way.'
The camp had an almost drowsy feeling after the battle. Soldiers sitting around with drinks, or mending uniforms in the treacly light of early evening. Euphrosynia got saluted by everyone she passed and took it as her due. Inside the hospital tent, when they reached it, the patients were nearly all asleep. Several of them were drugged, the air was heavy with the scent of poppy syrup. The Spark was still fiddling with the machines, although there were no corpses in evidence.
'Hoy!' Maxim called. 'Schmott guy!'
The Spark looked up, looking annoyed at the interruption until he caught sight of Euphrosynia. He stared for a moment, then blushed and looked away suddenly. Maxim supposed she did have rather a startling effect, walking off the battlefield in her pretty dress.
'Ah,' said the Spark, aware he was blushing and flustered by it. 'Welcome, my lady. Would I be right in thinking you are Euphrosynia Heterodyne?'
Euphrosynia smiled and dipped a curtsey — purely to fluster the Spark further, since she never did that at any other time. 'You have the advantage of me.'
'Haralamb Ogglespoon,' the Spark said, bowing clumsily. 'Forgive me,' he added, sounding less like he was verbally tripping over his feet. 'I was not expecting you. But I assure you you are very welcome.'
'Thank you,' said Euphrosynia. 'I heard you were ressurecting people. Considering the limits of what equipment can be used in a tent I'm quite impressed.'
Ogglespoon sighed. 'I expect your Jäger told you there's little reason to be. Our success rate…' He trailed off and pulled a face, then brightened up. 'But you have some experience of ressurection yourself? Perhaps you wouldn't mind looking at this array?'
Euphrosynia smiled, her face lighting up with it. 'I would love to.'
