Otilia made good on her promise to let Tarvek study her, taking him back to her own room after class one day. Somehow it was surprising she had her own room, even though it wasn't as if she would be shut down when she wasn't teaching them like an off duty clank. There wasn't a bed or a bathroom, but there were chairs with books by them and a sink in the corner with both soap and polish resting on its rim.

Otilia sat down in an armchair and lifted him gently onto her lap. "For now you can look at what is visible without removing anything," she told him. "I wouldn't trust far older Sparks than you to open my casing carefully enough."

Tarvek nodded and spent some time inspecting the intricate joints of her hands with a magnifying glass, and trying not to wish he could open her up just a little. He'd be very very careful, he wouldn't even touch. "I don't think any of the students could hurt you doing this," he said.

"I am their teacher, not an object of study," she said quietly. "Would you wish to be regarded as a biology specimen by people whose respect you needed? I would sooner be listened to than marvelled at."

Tarvek looked away from her, still holding his magnifying glass. "I'm not.…"

She surprised him by putting the arm he hadn't been studying around his shoulders. "You are a little. You are a Spark, after all. But you were dreaming of reuniting us, not copying us."

Tarvek risked a glance up at her and found that she was smiling at him. It was not entirely a happy smile, wistful and bitter, but it looked genuine and he didn't think she was sad because of him. "I can stop if you don't like it," he said, anyway, leaning into her. She was slightly cold, the way she always was, and very lightly vibrating, and somehow comforting anyway.

"The fact that you say things like that is why I let you do this in the first place. And why I don't mind continuing," she answered.

"I do know you're a person," Tarvek murmured, not entirely sure whether he wanted to resume studying just yet or stay where he was a bit longer. He wouldn't have expected a Muse to hug people, but it was nice.

"Then you're smarter than a great many Sparks have been."

It had been right about... here.

In the eerie blue light of the Great Movement Chamber, Barry tapped a toe thoughtfully on the bank of the Dyne. It ran clear and dark now, beyond the glowing foam at the water wheel. But this was where the energy had faded out even without the Castle's equipment.

Of course, Castle Heterodyne had not been quite in its right mind at that point. Such as it was. "I suppose I should at least try the easy way," Barry said aloud. "Castle, are you aware of any equipment to drain energy off the Dyne downstream from your main collectors?"

"No," said the Castle. "As far as I am aware my collectors being disabled should have had a most interesting effect on the town."

"Probably immediate enough that I should have noticed even by the time we got back," Barry said wryly. Bill, he wasn't so sure about. At that point Bill might very well have missed the river boiling blue and fish climbing onto the banks to bite people. But Barry was pretty sure nothing of the sort had been going on. "Well. So much for the easy way." He clamped a cable firmly to the floor, shrugged into the harness, and eased himself feet-first into the Dyne.

The current tugged strongly enough to make him glad of the harness. The water was disconcertingly warm and tingled when it soaked through to his skin. Barry paused for a moment, getting used to the feeling, and then fixed his goggles firmly in place and dived.

The first thing he noticed from underwater was that the river channel had been carved. Most of the signs were worn away by centuries of flowing water, of course, but the stone was hard enough that he could tell the original shape was not quite natural. That must have been exciting. Less so if old Egregious had arranged this as part of the preparations.

Barry worked his way gradually upstream through turbulent water until his headlamp's beam glinted back at him, brass-bright. He surfaced, inhaled, and plunged back under to explore properly.

An intricate band of flat circuits - waterproofed, naturally - spanned nearly half a meter and appeared to have sunk into the surface of the stone. A curious glitter hung in the water over the same band. The whole thing was clearly inspired by Faustus's work, but not a direct development of it. It was intricate, fascinating, and did not notably answer most of Barry's questions.

He hauled himself out of the water and let his feet dangle in it, leaning back on his hands. "Found it," he said. "Now the question is where the energy goes."

"Do let me know when you find that out," the Castle said.

"It can't be anything that doesn't get along without it," Barry mused. There hadn't been any obvious problems from not having the collector active. But where it could go that the Castle couldn't trace it….

Barry jumped up and barely dried his feet before reaching for his socks. He knew it didn't lead to the hospital. But there was one other place in Mechanicsburg that the Castle couldn't see.

On the way to the Cathedral, Barry noticed he'd acquired a Jäger shadow. "Maxim."

Maxim stopped trailing him and loped a few steps to catch up, flashing a smile at Barry as he did. "Hyu iz in a hurry?" he asked, apparently unabashed.

"I suppose there isn't really that much of a rush," Barry admitted, but didn't exactly slow down. "You remember I was wondering what happened to the Dyne energy when the Castle wasn't using it?"

"Hyu found it?"

"Sort of. It must go to the Cathedral," this was not strictly true, but Barry didn't feel like qualifying it, "but it's certainly not the main power source."

"Huh." Maxim looked at the tower of the Cathedral, frowning. "Schneaky, den, if der Kestle didn't know."

"Yes. And it wouldn't get any energy flow at all unless the Castle's ability to collect it was compromised. An odd set-up all around."

"Ve go und look?" Maxim asked. Apparently Barry acknowledging he was being followed had counted as an invitation.

"Yes." A swift grin. "I can use somebody to think aloud at. I can't physically follow the whole course without digging it all up, which seems like a shame if it turns out to be something useful for more than keeping the Dyne halfway tamed, but either Dr. Yglyn or the Crypt Keepers may know something."

The air in the shade of the Cathedral was cool, uncomfortable when Barry's clothing was still wet but he was too interested in the question to really care. Inside, Yglyn - somewhat to Barry's surprise - brightened upon being asked about high-energy installations and took him immediately downstairs to a large room with one ornately carved wall.

"Well, I must be going now!" the curate chirped. "Enjoy!"

Maxim was definitely frowning now, he looked at the door they'd come through, and then suspiciously back at the wall, before moving closer to Barry.

Barry ran a hand across the carved wall, humming quietly. "Is something the matter?"

"Hy dunno." Maxim shook his head. "It voz a long time ago, und Hy thott ve voz jest mistaken, but dere voz a time der Goot Heterodyne kem in here vit Prince Vadim. Ven der Cathedral voz new." He paced over to the carved wall himself, running a claw over it. "Ve voz locked out und ve couldn't hear him. Vit only him und still looking for Euphrosynia ve voz on edge, ve thott something voz wrong but he voz fine..."

"Hmm." Barry cut off the thinking-noise before it turned into a real hum again, his attention split between the technical question and Maxim's two-century-old worry. "That's... odd. The walls aren't that thick." Gradok had still been rather young when the Red Cathedral was completed. It had gone up fast; the Castle couldn't have been interfering, even if Barry couldn't imagine it had been happy about an area it couldn't reach. "Gradok, what were you up to?" he murmured, then slid his hand across stone again and felt his way into a nook almost hidden in the design. The wall opened, part of it folding out and downward, and Barry stepped aside, grinning as brilliant green light poured from the cracks.

Maxim stepped back quickly, blinking. "Vot?"

"I don't know what it is yet," Barry said cheerfully, "but I think we found it."

"If dere voz someting..." Maxim came over to Barry's side sharply. "Don't hyu vanish."

"I'll try to avoid that." The light was concentrated in something that looked like a rectangular slab, but there was something eye-twisting about the shape that played tricks with the perspective. Barry tore his gaze away from it to look at Maxim. "Whatever it is, Gradok was fine," he added, as a reminder. There was no way this was just built to dampen sound, though.

Maxim nodded, still looking a little dubious. "Vot iz hyu goink to do vit it?" he asked.

"Identify it, first..." Several more controls were revealed in the green light, and the mechanisms were not exactly obvious in their function but looked like they were meant for efficient use. At least it wasn't a panel of screws; Gradok had clearly put some thought into this control system. "It can't have been completely unpowered the rest of the time, but what would Gradok have wanted to boost if the Castle was down?" Or not down - the Castle had considerable stored energy, under normal circumstances, and Gradok had installed the lightning collectors. Did it ever stop drawing off the Dyne?

"Hy dunno. Vhen he made it der Kestle voz der problem." Maxim followed, watching Barry more than the controls. Whatever it was he didn't expect to be able to learn anything from it. "It voz," he waved a hand, "krezy overprotective, hyu know?"

"I'm a little surprised Bill and I made it to Beetleburg," Barry muttered. A refuge from the Castle. An... escape from the Castle? Or an escape from Mechanicsburg if it was damaged? He took a step back, studying the slab of light, squinting through it at the controls, putting the principles together. "It's a portal," he said suddenly. "It's-" Designed to be worked on by a skinny teenager, apparently. He walked carefully around the light in a semicircle to avoid both where it appeared to be and where it might be and pried off a panel that had looked almost like part of the solid stone.

"He really voz gone." Maxim followed, not quite as careful but not entirely careless around this either. "To Sturmhalten?"

Barry turned to look at him. It could take hours to confirm that by studying the unlabelled mechanisms, but there was no point overlooking the obvious. "With Prince Vadim. Right." He frowned. "That... about halfway makes sense. Everything connects to Vadim and Sturmhalten, but a portal from Mechanicsburg into one of the fortresses meant to contain it? That seems like a fairly bizarre risk on both sides."

"Dey vere keeds, und both scared," said Maxim with a shrug. "Dot family voz alvays preedy mean und schneaky to dere own."

Barry's mind went involuntarily to Aaronev Wilhelm's very courteous offer of his son as a hostage, as if this were the natural way to propose an alliance with someone running a school. And the previous Prince Aaronev's expression on catching his son and a pair of Heterodynes where they apparently hadn't been meant to be. Heterodynes were historically horrible to everyone else, but the worst Barry's own father had done to his sons was try to raise them to be like himself and he'd started that too late.

Kids, and both scared, more of their own towns than the boy who'd been on the other side of the war. As a military and political strategy, an undefended portal between Mechanicsburg and Sturmhalten was madness, and not the usual kind. As a secret way out of a situation that might at any moment become impossible... "They were closer friends than I realised."

"Dey vere. Dey met five - mebbe six - years before der Cathedral voz built. Gradok voz twelve, Vadim a few years older. Dere fathers died in der same battle, chust before." Maxim broke off for a moment, lavender eyes wide with painful memories of his own, and then shook his head. "Ven Vadim offered him food Gradok ate, ve had all tried..." A lopsided smile, one fang poking over a lip. "Dey voz goot keeds."

Barry closed his own eyes for a moment. Yes. It hadn't been quite the same after their parents - they'd had each other, and they'd flung themselves into everything their father hadn't allowed. But there were times during those last few years that he'd have done a great deal for someone who could get Bill to look after himself. Let alone smile. "Sounds like it," he said, a little hoarsely, then cleared his throat.

Maxim looked sympathetic. "Voz a long time ago," he said. He looked up again at the shining panel. "Hy dun tink dey ever used dis."

"Just tested it." Barry looked at the controls again. Those were adjustable. Curious. "But I can see where it would have been reassuring, to them if not particularly to anybody else. I wonder if Aaronev still knows about this?"

Maxim snorted. "Hy hope not."

"Hah. So do I." Barry took out his waterproof notepad, flipped past the diagrams from the river, and began sketching the portal workings. "I think I'll put up a few traps in here."

Maxim grinned, happy and vicious. "Dot sounds goot."

"If I catch anybody, I'm going to have a lot of questions. Come to think of it, I have a lot of questions for the Cathedral personnel already." Barry looked at the slab of light a little wistfully, then stepped back and closed it up. He would not go through just to see what it was like and whether Aaronev had any interesting traps on the other side. That would just be silly.

There was a Heterodyne show in town. This was unremarkable; it hadn't been rare before, and they'd been coming through even more frequently since Barry got back. He was mostly working around them and not paying too much attention. It had been fun for everybody once in a while if he and Bill paid a surprise visit to one - sometimes with Lucrezia, because the shows had really taken off once Lucrezia started travelling with them - but that had been when Bill was alive and Lucrezia wasn't the Other, not that Barry was about to tell them that. Anyway, the shows had always done better by restricting their engagement with reality to a metaphorical peck on the lips.

So Barry was surprised for more than one reason to receive a note that Master Payne of the Circus of Adventure 'requested an audience with the Lord Heterodyne, at his earliest convenience.'

Somewhat bemused, he waited until the shows were over for the night and everyone was cleaning up, then strolled quietly into the camp and headed for the starry-coated magician calling out directions. "Master Payne, I gather?" He grinned as the magician started and turned. "Barry Heterodyne. I got your message. Was that an attack of excessive formality or a pun?"

"That depends." Payne recovered and bowed with a flourish. "How do you feel about puns, my lord?"

"This one I don't know about. I'm not used to being a solo act." Barry almost managed to say it lightly, then shook his head. "Why did you want to see me?"

Payne inhaled slowly. "We heard that you and Baron Wulfenbach had found and repaired the Muse Otilia."

That wasn't surprising. Beetle's enthusiasm had likely propelled the news well into Asia by this point, in spite of the rulers who'd interdicted all travel and transport from wasp-infested regions. "Yes." Barry regarded him quizzically. "Did you want to meet her? You must have heard as well that she's still in his employ aboard Castle Wulfenbach."

Payne grimaced a bit sheepishly. "You are a little more accessible. And on our route. Two of my company very specifically asked to see you. They are, well - perhaps you'd better see for yourself."

Barry raised his eyebrows. Anything that could tongue-tie a showman like this... "Lead on, then."

Payne brought him to a wagon and opened it up. Nothing moved, but in the shadows there were two fleur-de-lis marked clanks. Barry studied them for a moment: one unequipped, one permanently seated, with a game board. Unusually accurate, if they were fakes. But Payne wouldn't have made such a fuss over fake Muses. There was nobody hiding in here. Barry bowed shallowly to them. "Tinka and Moxana?"

They turned towards him. Tinka, standing, was considerably shorter than Otilia and somehow projected a doll-like delicacy despite her steel casing, and was smiling at him, wide glass eyes hopeful. Moxana, beside her, was more inscrutable, fixing expressionless eyes on him as she drew out a card and held it up. The Aegis.

Barry couldn't help feeling this was a bit like having Punch - Adam, rather - act as spokesman for the group. Which had happened occasionally. The obvious interpretation was either the Muse of Protection or that they were asking for his protection, and as far as he could read either of them they didn't seem fearful. "Your sister Otilia is on Castle Wulfenbach," he said. "If you can stay for a few days-" He glanced at Master Payne. "Then I have no doubt she'd be glad to see you."

Tinka looked at Master Payne as well. "We will stay," she said. "Will you wait for us?"

"Of course," Payne said, sounding startled and rather touched. Then he glanced at Barry. "If we're permitted, of course."

"Are you planning to do something to get yourselves thrown out of town?" asked Barry. "Otherwise I don't think it will be a problem." A swift grin. "I should mention, unless I tell him you're in a tearing hurry Klaus will probably just bring the whole Castle."

"We can wait," said Tinka, but she looked concerned, smooth metal face somehow drawing into a frown.

Barry glanced between them. "Is there a problem?"

Moxana held up two cards, more to Tinka than him, the Aegis again, this time half covering the Page of Wands.

"He will not want to let her go," said Tinka.

"He's not holding her prisoner," Barry said.

The Muses looked at one another, this time without either cards or words. "Then it will be for us to solve," said Tinka.

By the time the gossip that they were on their way to meet another two Muses reached the classroom, Tarvek, Agatha and Gil had already known about it for almost a week. Agatha and Gil considered that if adults didn't want them to eavesdrop they should tell them more things. Neither of them knew about the notes Tarvek carefully took and then encoded in his letters home; the Baron was working with Agatha's uncle and he wasn't sure how she'd react. He'd been watching Otilia avidly ever since they'd heard, wondering whether she was excited or happy and unable to tell. He was excited. Would the reunion happen somewhere they would be allowed to watch? Somewhere they could watch even if it wasn't allowed? Gil had laughed at him for being the one to suggest breaking the rules for once, but would find a way to do it if there was one.

Otilia herself informed them the morning they reached Mechanicsburg, although clearly without any illusions that she was telling them something new. "Two of my sisters, Tinka and Moxana, have been found and will be visiting today. I intend to bring them here to meet you, and I expect you to treat them with respect." Tarvek sat up straighter, practically quivering. They were going to be brought here, where he could see them without any sneaking around at all. Agatha and Gil both shot him quick grins. "In the meantime we will continue with our normal lessons."

The Muses arrived in the late morning, Tinka pushing Moxana's chair. Tinka took a moment to park Moxana where she could see both the room and Otilia and then ran across the room, the light fluttering run Tarvek had seen ballerinas use on stage, and threw her arms around Otilia's neck. Otilia gently folded one silken wing around her and the two of them stayed like that for a moment. It was a beautiful image, the two Muses perfectly, inhumanly, still like a posed statue of sisterly affection.

They fitted together, but in another way they didn't, and as they drew back to regard each other Tarvek found himself looking between the two Muses. Otilia was wearing plain dove grey muslin, Tinka a peasant blouse and full skirt, dyed with cheap, bright colours. They both looked a world away from the rich silk court gowns he'd seen in illustrations; they looked a world away from each other, and that seemed wrong. They had been made as a matched set, they should be a matched set. Right now they were looking at each other, gazes considering but soft. Tinka looked... at home, in these clothes, with the life they implied among the circus folk who had found her, as Otilia was at home with Tarvek and the other children. It was so strange.

"It is good to see you both again," Otilia said, fanning her wings behind her again. "I had not thought to. I had feared..." She trailed off. It didn't really need saying to be understood.

"We never expected to see you again, either," said Tinka. Moxana looked up and reached out a hand towards Otilia, beckoning her over since she was unable to go to her. Unable even to smile at her rather than simply widening her eyes a little.

Otilia went, taking Moxana's hands, her own eyes shining green. "How did you come to be with a - a travelling show? Have you spoken with the Baron about teaching here? I have no doubt he'd arrange it."

"A lot of circuses have fake Muses," said Tinka, following her. "We were hiding with them. Master Payne found us after the last one we travelled with ran into trouble. He understands." She put a hand gently on Otilia's shoulder. "We have been happy there. We travel, we perform and inspire. I thought you would come with us."

"With a circus," Otilia said, sounding rather incredulous. "Tinka, I guard and teach the heirs of Europa here. I have the Heterodyne Girl here. I-" She looked at Moxana. "I had not thought to leave."

Moxana let go of her hands and held up three cards together, the Device, Movement and the Aegis, then laid them face down, still together, and spread her hands.

"I wanted us to be together too," said Tinka. "But the Baron." She stopped and turned her head to scan the children, as if realising they were present and listening, her gaze pausing briefly on Agatha. Moxana did the same, looking at Agatha with dark eyes before moving on to the rest of the students. But for a moment Tarvek thought her eyes had paused on Gil. Neither of them noticed Tarvek - which was only to be expected, the Muses could predict things with remarkable accuracy but they needed something to work with. All the same he wished they had, that he could tell them somehow. Surely if they had a Storm King it would be enough to keep them together?

"What of the Baron?" Otilia demanded, sounding a little defensive. "He is trying to bring stability after the chaos the Other created."

"Europa was not his to inherit," said Tinka. "If we find the one it should belong to, you know we would have to work against him. Why work with him now?"

Tarvek caught himself holding his breath and tried to let it out and inhale without drawing attention. He probably needn't have worried. The arguing Muses had everybody's attention riveted.

Otilia's eyes flared green again. "If there is a Storm King, let him claim us. I am following his last command to me."

Tinka's eyes found Agatha again and she nodded slowly, as if accepting that. "What would I do here, though? Teach them to dance? I can fulfil my purpose better travelling. And even if you must serve the Baron for now, I don't wish to."

Otilia bowed her head, which somehow only emphasised the way she towered over Tinka - let alone the seated Moxana. "I do not wish to be parted from you again," she said. The pain in her voice made Tarvek want to run out and tell them, or failing that, curl up somewhere and hide. "But I have work here. I - I would not wish to leave my charges, even were there no Heterodyne Girl."

Tarvek couldn't look at her and he couldn't look away from them and he knew he absolutely must not do anything as strange as run away. He found himself looking at Moxana, silent and strangely serene, and she looked up and met his eyes, flicked through her cards and held up XVII, and turned it to face him. Peace: a woman with a star on her forehead gazed over her shoulder at one that gleamed in the distant sky, and rivers and the bounty of the earth flowed from her hands.

"But must you serve the Baron? And the Lord Heterodyne, even if he is very different from the previous ones?" said Tinka.

Tarvek heard a quiet indignant huff from Agatha, but she didn't interrupt. He was sort of relieved. Mostly.

Otilia closed her eyes and tipped her head back. "Lucrezia Mongfish moved my mind into an organic body of her own making, subject to her commands," she said, the words as bare and cold as long-shadowed steel. "After I failed the charge she gave me, I could not think, I could only rage and weep and tear. I think you will not understand this. I would not, until I felt it. It was like breaking. The Baron spoke to me as if I could still function. He gave me - these children to guard. And when he and the Lord Heterodyne learned what Lucrezia had done, they restored me, and asked me what I wanted to do."

Tinka went still, eyes wide and for a moment there was a sheen of blue behind them like the green glow that sometimes showed in Otilia's. "I'm sorry." She bowed her head. "We have been running and hiding for a long time, but we were never caught to be broken or experimented on. And Master Payne has protected us."

Moxana caught Otilia's hand and squeezed it, metal on unyielding metal.

Otilia's arm quivered, but her hand closed around Moxana's and she smiled faintly. "Then I can only be grateful to your Master Payne," she said to Tinka. "I am glad beyond measure that you are safe and unharmed. And perhaps I should understand better why you would want to stay with a common circus."

Tinka tilted her head to one side in a way that made her look oddly young. "I should be grateful to your Baron too. I am, that he helped you. Perhaps, even if we don't stay together all the time now, we can still see each other? We travel through Mechanicsburg regularly and the Lord Heterodyne is there, the Baron must visit."

"He does!" Agatha called, having apparently reached the limit of her ability to stay out of things.

Otilia glanced toward her, tolerantly amused. "That is true." She turned back and took Tinka's hand as well. "It seems very strange to choose to be parted. But I believe they would make it as easy as possible for us to meet."

"And what of you?" Tinka asked Moxana, sounding nervous about the answer.

Moxana drew one of Tinka's hands and one of Otilia's down to lie palm up on top of her own, then gently closed their hands, opening them to reveal the Device card in Tinka's hand. Before they could respond she closed their hands again and this time when they opened the card was in Otilia's.

Tarvek caught his breath. Otilia stilled for a moment and then smiled. "That, too, they will gladly help arrange." And then she almost sounded like she wanted to laugh. "But you must not play games with my students when they have other lessons."

Moxana put away the cards, rather abruptly, and her mechanisms shifted with startling speed to display more games than Tarvek could follow, all in a row, ending with a simple board of alternating squares and the pieces for a dozen different games patterned on it. Then just as swiftly they vanished, leaving the plain green mat and the fanned Tarot, all face down.

The Muses teased each other. Tarvek thought, maybe, finding that out was a treasure all its own.

Gil had a wonderful afternoon. They did all get to play games with Moxana - he was actually good at most of them - and dance with Tinka, who didn't really seem to mind them even if she wasn't staying at all, and showed them everything from ballet poses to lively dances that whirled fast enough Gil finally found out what it was like to be so dizzy the room seemed to be turning around you while you held still. And his secret fear that Otilia would leave to be with her sisters didn't happen.

So he was a little surprised that after the other Muses left them for now and he and Agatha and Tarvek clustered together for free time, Tarvek threw himself full-length on the floor and clutched at his hair. "That was awful," Tarvek moaned.

"I thought it was fun," Gil said, confused.

"Not that part. The first part."

"Why?" Agatha flopped down so she could peer into Tarvek's face and propped herself up on her elbows. "They decided something good."

Tarvek looked at her doubtfully. "They were arguing," he explained.

Agatha, looking a little confused herself, patted his arm. "But they stopped."

"But - they're Muses," said Tarvek. "They were... they were made to be together."

"But you wouldn't have wanted Otilia to go off with them," said Gil, sitting down next to Agatha.

"Well - no, of course not." Tarvek buried his head in his arms for a moment. "It still just feels wrong."

"At least they're all happy?" suggested Gil.

Tarvek sighed and lifted his head, then un-flopped and sat up. "I guess so. I hope so? It's just so weird."

Gil shrugged. He'd read the accounts of the Muses in the history books and after phrases such as "at times the mimicry of emotion was so fine it seemed almost real" had decided that no one had known much about Otilia then and she'd probably changed since anyway. "It's not like the history books are that good," he said. "They're adults, so they can figure out what they want for themselves."

Tarvek looked a little startled by what Gil had thought was a fairly obvious point. "I'm not sure a lot of adults are very good at that..."

"Aren't the Muses supposed to be good at deciding things?" Agatha asked.

Tarvek blinked. "I don't know. They were supposed to give advice, but not too directly."

Agatha frowned. "Madame Otilia is pretty direct."

"Moxana can't give advice directly," said Gil. "Unless she writes it down. Why did she get made without a mouth?"

"I don't know," Tarvek said, successfully distracted. "I should certainly think she could write, though."

"I asked why she doesn't write!" Agatha said. "She showed me the Chaos card and Tinka said she's even more cryptic in words."

"So even if she could talk she'd probably say really weird things?" said Gil, intrigued.

"Maybe," said Agatha.

"That's interesting," Tarvek said. "Her thoughts must be really complicated." He leaned closer to them, looking uncertain, and then said in a rush, "I think she tried to make me feel better," and immediately blushed so hard Gil could practically see individual capillaries.

"When?" Gil asked, leaning in a bit as well.

Tarvek ducked his head. "The Peace card. They call it the Star in regular decks?" He glanced up and met the gazes of two children who were not as familiar with Tarot decks as he apparently was. "It's - it means rest and guidance and hope for sometime in the future when everything's going to be okay."

"Oh." Gil thought about that for a moment. "You think she was telling you they'd stop arguing soon?"

"Maybe. Or... or just that it would come out all right and not to worry about it so much." Tarvek put his chin in his hands again. "I guess it did, like you said. If they're all happy."

"It was nice of her to tell you," said Gil. Moxana was nice, even if she was a lot harder to understand than Otilia. Literally. "You should teach us about the cards so she can talk to us if she's going to be staying."

"Okay." Tarvek looked happy about that. "I think she's using the Queen's Tarot. Albia's supposed to have designed it herself and it's kind of dangerous, but she seems fine. We should probably only study one card at a time just in case."

"Cards can be dangerous?" said Agatha, looking more curious than concerned about it.

"Well, yes. Albia's a very strong Spark, you know."

Gil tried to imagine Agatha - who was definitely going to be a strong Spark one day - designing dangerous cards. It was surprisingly easy.

Klaus came down to see the circus off, along with Otilia who was, to his surprise and delight, staying, and Moxana, who was, to his even greater surprise, planning on spending time with each and was starting with Otilia whom she hadn't seen for two centuries.

Off to one side Otilia was telling Tinka to be careful and he caught Tinka's response of, "I have been doing this for two hundred years," while Barry was arranging the next time Master Payne would visit Mechanicsburg with him.

"Now, we realise," Barry said to Payne, "that while most people probably wouldn't believe this situation if you told them - come to think of it they might be less likely to believe it if you do tell them -" The two of them shared a grin at this. "-There's still some increased risk to both you and the Muses introduced by Moxana's going back and forth and being publicly known when she's on Castle Wulfenbach."

Payne rubbed the back of his neck. "It does help considerably that she'll be making the transfers in a place we regularly stop, and you're being surprisingly subtle, but... yes, you make a fair point. I take it you're about to offer a recommendation?"

"I've developed an emergency beacon," said Klaus, resisting the urge to say something indignant about surprisingly subtle. What was Payne expecting, an outbreak of pageantry? He offered the circus master a fist-sized black globe with recessed controls and an extendable antenna. "The red button will activate a radio signal. If you encounter a situation you can't handle, use this, and my forces will come to assist you as soon as possible." Drily, he added, "I do not expect you to abuse it. I doubt you're that eager to see me."

Payne blinked. "Ah... thank you, Herr Baron." He gave the device an uncertain look. "Is it likely to do anything else?"

"It's not going to explode," Barry said patiently. "He's very good about that."

"It won't do anything unless you switch it on," said Klaus.

"Reassuring," Payne said politely. He accepted the beacon, although he did look a bit as if Klaus were handing him a snake or perhaps a poisonous frog. "We appreciate your offer of assistance."

"Otilia just got her sisters back," said Barry. "We would hate for her to lose them again, or for them to lose friends. Be well."

Tinka hugged Otilia and Moxana tightly, and then those who were staying got out of the way and watched as the circus finished packing up and set off for the next town. Something about the circus's equipment and a few of the performers itched at Klaus's mind, and he half wished he'd made time to attend a show and see whether he could spot a minor Spark in the group. Perhaps some other time.

As the circus left Mechanicsburg for points north, Barry joined Klaus and the Muses on a small airship heading back to Castle Wulfenbach, which would probably thrill all the students and certainly would delight Agatha.

"Not that we want anybody else losing friends or siblings either, of course," Barry said ruefully, gazing out the airship window, "but we can't be everywhere."

"No," said Klaus, considering possibilities. "Although handing out beacons to trustworthy travellers would be one way of being alerted to problem areas. Getting there is another matter, of course."

"Yes." Barry grimaced. "Too bad Lucrezia didn't leave any of the one-way portals she'd been working on lying around. Although maybe I can reverse-engineer something. It turns out Gradok had one, although it seems to require equipment on each end."

"Gradok had a portal? Specifically him and not any of the Heterodynes following him?" said Klaus.

Barry smiled wryly. "We do misplace secrets now and then, and this one seems to have been rather closely guarded, which is probably just as well. It serves as a secondary power sink if anything happens to the Castle - that's where the Dyne energy was going - and it opens in Sturmhalten."

Klaus's eyebrows went up. "And it's two-sided? Does Aaronev know?"

"I have no idea and I'm hardly going to ask him! If he does, he's been keeping it pretty firmly under his hat. I've trapped the room it's in just in case."

"Good plan," said Klaus. "But why is it there? Isn't that a huge liability for both sides?"

"Yes," said Barry. "But apparently Gradok and Prince Vadim trusted each other with it as a potential escape route from, respectively, a rather overwrought Castle Heterodyne or Vadim's assorted relatives. Which might account for neither of them spreading the information around much."

So, in the midst of political chaos, they'd trusted each other enough for that. "It's in the Cathedral?" he said. It was barely a question, given the bet it had been built on that would have to have been their cover.

"Yes. Not one of the Castle's secrets, this one." Barry shook his head. "Really not something I'd have expected. Even more on Vadim's side - I mean, my father used to open the gates for armies that were actually there; it's almost worse for invaders to make it inside the walls than not. But it makes more sense if they were thinking of each other as friends who might need help."

"Yes. Very much a personal alliance and not a political one." Klaus thought of the school, where Aaronev's son was currently inseparable from Agatha and Gil. Goodness knew what would come of that once they were old enough for it to make a difference - Klaus had to admit he was a bit uneasy, given how callous that family could be even towards its own. He'd been friends with Aaronev, once, but he'd never trusted him the way he did Bill or Barry. Vadim and Gradok, children of the politically backstabbing Sturmvorauses and one of the most terrifying families of Sparks in Europe, had not only trusted each other but apparently come through without either betraying that trust. "Aaronev's son is with Agatha and Gil nearly all the time," he added, out loud, not quite sure whether it followed from the conversation or not.

"Agatha talks about the boys practically as a unit sometimes," Barry said. "I would guess Aaronev gave Tarvek instructions to be on good terms with Agatha - he already suggested a betrothal, I'm not joking - but I think it's gone rather beyond that."

Klaus sighed. Historically betrothals could take place almost as soon as a child was born, but he felt it was hard on the children. Castle Heterodyne suggesting it was less disconcerting simply because no one expected anything else from it. "First a hostage, now a fiancé," he said. Not that it was unusual for nobles to eagerly offer their children up for political gain. "And I think it has."

"I told him Tarvek would surely be a fine consort but our alliance didn't require him to commit to anything like that so early," said Barry. "Which may discourage Aaronev from arranging anything else before they're all old enough to do their own courting."

Klaus wondered whether Aaronev had intended it to be that way around - normally the wife would be the consort, but with Heterodynes of course the Heterodyne was the ruler - but suspected Aaronev would want to keep the option open either way. "Or at least until they're old enough to have some say in it."

"Somehow I don't think Agatha would appreciate my making any promises about that on her behalf," Barry said, sounding amused. "Do you have plans for Gil?"

"Certainly not yet," said Klaus. He tried to imagine Agatha's reaction if someone told her she was betrothed. "Has anyone ever successfully arranged a marriage for a Heterodyne? Outside of Opera?"

"Uh..." Barry shook his head after a moment. "You might have to ask the Castle about that one. There have been enough Heterodynes in alliance marriages that some of them might have been going along with their fathers' pick over shared practical concerns, but I'd be surprised by anything like Reichenbach's version."

Klaus snorted. "I'm fairly sure you are the most accommodating Heterodyne who has ever existed, and I can't imagine you acting like the wilting flower Reichenbach created."

Barry started laughing. "Oh, I don't know about wilting. Reichenbach's Euphrosynia falls in love with somebody else at her own wedding, and you notice once he kidnaps her, Ogglespoon is never seen again either."