The anniversary of Euphrosynia's disappearance saw them back in Mechanicsburg, waiting for the next location they'd be sent to. A lot of them were hanging around in the Castle, partly to get their instructions more quickly, partly to pick up the gossip from the Jägers that were actually on duty. Maxim had been doing the latter — catching up with Ognian — when the shaking started.
Ognian yelled, 'Kestle, vot is hyu doing? Iz hyu under attack?' And all around them similar queries could be heard. The Castle shook harder, a deep grinding noise could be heard from far underground, and dust began to fall from the walls. They ran for the source of the disturbance, since if it was an attack they needed to be there, dodging falling bricks. Either it was an attack or the Castle was being careless. Or, Maxim thought sourly as a brick fell at a strange angle, it was aiming at them.
By the time they reached the centre of the disturbance the floor was jolting hard enough to almost throw them, but they'd fallen into a rhythm with it. The centre was Euphrosynia's room, or it had been, the door was half way below floor level now. Her lab, too, was sinking, and all around they could hear the grinding and shaking of tons of masonry rearranging itself.
Maxim slammed a hand into the wall and dug his claws in, as if that might do something beyond pulling his hand down as the wall continued to sink. 'Giff dot beck! It haff only been a year, hyu is giving up already? Kestle! Hyu listen to me!'
Ognian tugged at his arm nervously. 'Um, Maxim?'
The wall fell about a foot, forcing Maxim to let go or have his arm wrenched out of its socket. 'She is going to vant her rooms.'
'Den let her yell at der Kestle.' Maxim glanced around, Vali was looking at him with inkdrop eyes, face strangely expressionless.
Maxim snarled at him. 'Ve iz still her -'
'Ve iz not,' Vali interrupted. The ground jerked again, sending the top of the door underneath floor level, forcing Maxim to sway with it to stay upright. 'Ve cannot serve a Heterodyne dot is not here.'
The other Jägers spread out slightly, forming a loose circle around them, interested but not involved. They had never served Euphrosynia, even in looking for her they were serving Gradok. Fane, the other exception to that rule, watched morosely but said nothing.
'So, dot is it?' said Maxim. 'Hyu is giffing up too?'
'If ve find her I vill serve her again,' said Vali. 'But trying to serve her vhile she is gone?'
'So hyu vill serve her only vhen it is eazy.'
'Vhen it is possible. Vhat hyu iz doing iz not serving her, it iz refusing to serve de Heterodynes at all becauze de vun hyu vant is not here. Dot is not -' Maxim's claw swiped across Vali's face, leaving trails of blood. There were soft growls from the audience, whether anger, approval or anticipation Maxim couldn't tell.
'I haz not broken de Jägertroth,' he said. 'Hyu vant to accuse me of dot again?'
For the first time Vali was showing emotion, eyes widening in shock and dismay. 'Dot is not vot I meant.'
'Iz vot hyu said.' The air felt heavy, like a storm coming, and in a moment something was going to have to break. It would be a fight, because neither would back down, but Fane might get involved. Or Ognian. Or anyone, if they decided which side to come down on. He could feel the alertness, knew they all felt it too, and this was far more the feel of a pack on the battlefield than about to have the sort of semi-friendly fight that usually broke out.
'Stop.' The voice was small, young, and every Jäger present turned automatically towards it. Gradok was twelve now, thin and pinched with eyes that looked too big for his face. Maxim and Vali both knelt, the others simply shuffled away, as if they still considered themselves an audience to this drama. Gradok closed his eyes for a moment. 'The Castle is rearranging itself. You should all leave until it is done.' He wiped a sleeve across his face and continued in a smaller voice. 'And don't fight one another. I need you all to look for her.'
'Yez, Master,' Maxim and Vali chorused, getting to their feet.
'Master?' Ognian said from behind them. 'Hyu should kom too.'
Gradok sighed. 'It won't hurt me, even by accident. It's being more careful than it looks.'
Ognian looked up at the ceiling. 'Yah, but it's been kind ov…off lately.' A brick smacked into his head, knocking him into the still shaking and grinding wall, and a nearby Jäger grabbed him and pulled him upright.
'Go,' said Gradok.
They filed out uncertainly, glancing back at their Heterodyne as he stared at the descending walls of his sister's lab with blank eyes.
Outside a shadow fell over them almost at once and a dragon landed in front of them. Maxim tensed, not sure whether to go for his sword or not. Gradok's penchant for dragon constructs didn't mean he was the only one who might build one. The dragon peered down at him and said, 'Oh, hey, I remember you.'
'Hy tink Hy vould remember hyu if ve'd met,' Maxim answered.
The dragon sat down and yawned. 'I grew a lot in the last year,' he said with satisfaction. 'Lots of treasure to contain. I'm Franz.'
Gradok's dragonbank? Maxim looked at one of the talons as long as his sword. 'Hyu deed grow.'
'What's the Castle done now?' Franz asked.
Maxim growled. 'It iz burying Euphrosynia's lab.' Then, pulling himself away from his anger over that. 'Master Gradok stayed in dere. Vill it hurt him?'
'It hasn't yet,' said Franz. 'But it —'
'Of course I won't hurt him,' said the Castle. 'He is my only Heterodyne.'
'Yeah,' said Franz, sprawling down on the flagstones. 'That's the problem. You're getting a bit obsessive.'
'It is my purpose and duty to preserve the Heterodyne line,' said the Castle, snippily. 'Yours is to preserve its treasure.'
'I'm doing that,' said Franz. 'It would just be nice to get some peace around here.'
'So go and sleep in the tunnels like the lizard you are,' said the Castle. 'There, I'm done now.'
That hadn't taken long. Presumably they could go back in now and check Gradok really was all right? He took a step towards the Castle as the other Jägers did the same, then realised he was about to fall in beside Vali and dropped back sharply. He no longer wanted to fight him but he didn't want to talk to him either.
Inside they found Gradok running one had over the blank wall where the door to Euphrosynia's room had been. 'It's okay,' he said, dully. 'It can put it back later.'
When Maxim returned several months later it was to find the area of town above the crypts flattened and people walking all over it with string and bits of paper. While the leaders of the search parties went to report to Gradok, Maxim went to Mamma Gkika's.
'Vot's goink on?' he asked as he ordered a beer at the bar.
Mamma grinned at him. 'Dey iz building a cathedral.'
'Ve need a cathedral?' Religion in Mechanicsburg was somewhat vague. There were people who still worshipped the Dyne goddess, there were others who seemed to think that their afterlife would consist of going wherever their Heterodynes went. Christianity hadn't caught on.
'Iz a bet. Prince Vadim said he vould eat his hat if Gradok built a cathedral in Mechanicsburg.'
Maxim nodded. 'Iz a nize hat?'
'Verra nize. Hyu vill see, he iz stayink here for a vhile.' She looked pensive. 'Gradok haff been stayink vit him a lot, but now he iz supervising dis.'
'Zo dot's vy der Kestle is hokey vit it,' Maxim said.
She raised a clawed finger to her lips. 'Iz a leedle touchy lately. Dun't get its attention.'
Maxim nodded and took his drink.
The next day he stopped by the site that would, presumably, become a cathedral. The Castle wasn't helping, he realised, although it wasn't hindering either. The ground was just behaving like ground and no bricks were shifting on their own at all.
Vadim and Gradok were sitting to one side of the site, a chess board between them, although for the moment there was a break in the game while Gradok checked some papers. Once they were done he turned back to the board, but they seemed to be talking more than playing. Vadim did, indeed, have a very nice hat; a deep blue tricorn with white feathers. Maxim wandered over, still looking at the people on the site — you could tell which ones had been brought in rather than being native by how nervous it made them when he walked past. Once he got within earshot he realised the boys were arguing, in a not very serious way.
'That is not how you play chess,' Vadim said.
'I told you, this is Heterodyne chess,' said Gradok. 'You agreed to play.'
'It's not any kind of chess. You're making up the rules as you go along!'
'Well, yes, that's the point. You can do it too. If you don't like a rule just use your turn to declare it undone.'
Vadim threw up his hands in frustration. 'You just declared all your pawns and only your pawns to be able to move like queens. They're now the most powerful pieces on the board. What kind of strategy is that?'
It was too good an opening for Maxim to ignore, and he paused by them, posing, with his claws held up. 'Vun Heterodynes use in real life,' he said.
Vadim looked at him and started laughing, hiding his mouth behind his hand. Gradok was smiling too and Maxim grinned back, glad of it.
'Fair enough,' said Vadim. 'Maybe Heterodyne chess isn't so bad.' He sighed. 'I'd probably have Jägers if I could.'
'Hyu haff Smoke Knights,' said Maxim, reassuringly. 'Hy alvays thought dey vas preedy amazing.'
Vadim sighed. 'They're loyal to the family, not to me.'
'So are the Jägers,' said Gradok at the same time as Maxim said, 'Zo iz ve,' both sounding rather shocked.
'I didn't mean…' Vadim waved a hand vaguely. 'It's different for you. The Storm King isn't keeping a lid on things anymore and it's all…starting to boil over.' He bit his lip, for a moment looking both very young and much older than fourteen. 'When I say they're loyal to the family I mean they can be used against me.'
Gradok looked at him, mouth forming an "o" for a moment, and then squeezed his hand. 'It will work both ways, if you need it to,' he said quietly.
Maxim looked at him. 'Vot?'
Gradok raised a finger to his lips and Maxim's gaze flickered to the Castle building up above them. Something was going on. But it was something Gradok had well in hand and all Maxim needed to do was leave it alone. He nodded, and walked on.
The cathedral was bigger every time Maxim saw it. If he'd been there continuously it probably would have seemed slower, but returning after months he'd find it had acquired new layers of deep red stone, new walls and arches. When, after five years, the gargoyles started appearing he wasn't quite sure what to think — the cathdral was done already if it was being decorated now. Not that the Heterodynes didn't tend to decorate everything, and Gradok had always had a sense of style, but…it seemed like Gradok was reluctant to let go of building it and let it be done already. It was a distraction. But he needed one, didn't he? They hadn't found anything yet.
There was another reason, beyond lack of gargoyles, that the cathedral wasn't done yet. 'Hyu haff to haff a bishop,' someone told him.
'Huh. Does he haff to be villing?' Maxim asked.
There was laughter from the other Jägers around him in the bar. 'Ve got bets on dot.'
It was hard to imagine what a bishop would do in Mechanicsburg — not that Maxim was terribly sure what they did anywhere — but he didn't think anyone was very interested in worship and still less in repenting. Maybe they'd be okay with having a nice building even if the town mostly ignored them?
In the end the bishop was willing. He was a stooped little old man inclined towards human sacrifice, which was regarded as an interesting quirk by those used to seeing prisoners become science experiments, and quite mad, which just meant he'd probably fit in. When he preached it tended to be about tentacled horrors from beyond the realms of sanity, which Maxim was quite sure wasn't normally part of Christian liturgy, but it did make the sermons rather popular.
'He is ordained,' Gradok insisted to Vadim, the two of them watching as their bishop waved his hands around wildly, trying to illustrate the outline of something that lived in eight dimensions and ate shadows.
'I know, although I don't know how he hasn't been defrocked. But human sacrifice?' Vadim protested.
'We can spare a few prisoners,' Gradok said, with a shrug.
Vadim looked away, face pale and shocked. 'Sometimes I forget you're a Heterodyne,' he mumbled.
'You shouldn't,' said Gradok. 'My family…they meant everything to me.'
His voice was cracking slightly and Maxim moved away, not wanting to eavesdrop any further.
A few days later Vadim, apparently recovered from his shock, was ready to go through with his part of the bargain and Mechanicsburg, always ready to appreciate a show, had turned out to watch. A platform was set up in front of the cathedral with a small table on it covered in the fanciest cloth Gradok could find (it had little lace skulls around the hem) and with condiments set out in glass and gleaming silver. A white platter was placed in front of Vadim along with a very sharp knife and fork. He sat down and removed his hat with a flourish, placing it on the centre of the plate. Gradok, playing waiter with a grin twitching at his lips, stepped forward to offer him a cheese sauce, which was accepted and drizzled daintily over the hat. This was repeated with salt and pepper and then Gradok stepped back with a bow that involved flourishing his own hat.
Then Vadim cut off a chunk of hat and put it in his mouth. He didn't try to chew before swallowing, and pulled a face as it went down. Bit by bit the hat vanished, with people betting on whether or not he'd finish it even as they watched. When he swallowed the last mouthful even those who had just lost their money cheered on principle.
Vadim stood up and bowed and then Gradok put a hand on his shoulder and murmured something before turning to the crowd. 'Vadim and I are going to have a look at the cathedral now it's officially complete. You can all carry on.'
The two boys disappeared through the cathedral doors and the crowd started to disperse. Some of the Jägers hung around, Maxim among them, as they didn't really have anywhere they needed to go until they were sent back out on the search.
'Get in there,' the Castle said suddenly. 'Find him.'
Obedience to the Castle was so ingrained that the Jägers had charged through the gate before thinking that Gradok probably hadn't wanted them to. Even then it wasn't enough to stop them, not only could the Castle get nasty if disobeyed but if it was ordering them in then Gradok might be in danger. His scent trail was clear and obvious, leading down into the crypts and through a passage and then to a door that was, most decidedly, locked.
They paused there, leaning over each other to get close to the door, listening. There was no sound from inside, it was possible someone was in there staying absolutely quiet and not moving, but why would Gradok be doing that?
'Vun. Two,' someone said and everyone joined in for, 'Three.' The threw themselves at the door shoulders first in a crowd, landing tumbled, bewildered and slightly indignant on the floor when the door failed to give. There was a panicky feeling growing. The room they were trying to get into was empty, and Gradok couldn't have disappeared, but Euphrosynia had…
'Vait!' someone snapped. Dimo, Maxim recognised his voice. 'Listen.'
There were sounds from inside the room now, two pairs of footsteps across the floor, and then Gradok pulled the door open and stopped in bewilderment at the group of Jägers all over the floor. 'What are you doing in here?' he asked.
'Der Kestle said to get to hyu,' someone answered.
Gradok closed his eyes, mouth pinching closed. 'Of course it did.'
'Hyu ver gone.' That in half a dozen voices and variations, Jägers trying to push closer to smell Gradok.
He let them. 'I'm here, I'm fine,' he said.
Vadim was watching them with some puzzlement. 'Were they worried?'
'Of course. If I'd known the Castle was going to send them in I wouldn't have —' he cut himself off and shook his head. 'Come on, let's go and find somewhere to sit. Somewhere visible.'
They did, playing chess in the square again, and if the Jägers spent rather a lot of the afternoon watching them then Gradok, at least, had expected it.
Gradok was an old man when the searching stopped, and Euphrosynia would have been over a hundred. Finally he had to admit that even if his sister had been taken alive she was almost certainly dead now, and he called them home. The Doom Bell was ringing for her when they returned and Maxim flinched at it as if he was still the human he hadn't been in a long time, now.
That night at Mamma Gkika's the mood was — not solemn, a large number of Jägers in one place and solemnity didn't quite work, but perhaps wistful. Fane and Vali were sitting together, but Maxim didn't try to join them and they didn't seem to notice him. He found a table in a corner and listened to the muted buzz of conversation, not sure whether he wanted to be alone or not, but not feeling like looking for company anyway.
It came as a surprise when Mamma Gkika stopped by his table, more so when she tipped his chin up with a rouged claw and sighed. 'Look at hyu. A century old and hyu spent most of it mourning already.'
'I vas searchink.' The words were sharp, bitten off.
'Und how long since hyu last expected to find her?'
A long time. At some point the seesawing between hope and disappointment had just become resignation, a need to fulfil his duty while he waited for permission to stop hoping altogether. He pulled away. 'Leaf me alone.'
'Ve all lose de Heterodyne dot made us, Sveethot. Dot's vot beink immortal means.'
'Hy know dot.' The memory of Ognian crying for Clemethius. 'Hy know.'
'It's not as if anyvun gave op on her.'
'Dis iz a funeral. Hy'm allowed to grieve.'
'Und tomorrow?' He glared at her and she huffed out a soft breath. 'Yah, dot's vot I thought.'
'It's not as if Hy ken keep looking. There's novhere left.' He blinked, the bar gone hazy and watery. 'Valois iz dead. Gradok vill die.' Those who had loved her and searched most persistently. 'Novun but us vill remember her. I've heard der stories.' Stories that cast her as the sweet ingenue who accidentally brought down the Empire with her tragic love for the Storm King. She should have been remembered as more than that.
'Remember then,' said Gkika. 'Ve remember better den anyvun. But hyu don't haff to keep searching to remember.'
If he closed his eyes he could see her in her pretty dress, canvas apron with bulging pockets over the top of it. Pretty, sly, fearless, merciless. As wonderful and monstrous as any Heterodyne. 'Yah.' There were new Heterodynes now, Gradok's grandchildren, and he would serve them and accept the end of this search. He had no choice in that. But she would always be the one he thought of as his. 'Hy vill remember.'
