Fifth session, "Mystery of the Dying Clockwork"

Between death and impulse

Excerpts from the journal of George Moriarty, footman in the household of Sir Cosmo Cowperthwaite

Thursday, 9 September, 1875

Wilhelmina certainly enjoyed herself at the King's Reception last night. After all the excitement of the hunt, it was pleasant to have a quiet evening.

Before we were taken into the main hall at Dreifachesherzogschloﬂ, the household was taken aside so that one of the Queen's retainers could review the ladies' costumes. She was a very odd woman. Miss Pinker said that she is a rather famous clothing designer throughout the German-speaking countries. She made Wooster get rid of the ridiculous cape, but otherwise made sure the ladies knew what to do with their hats when they were called before the King.

Which was a bit of a surprise, though Miss Pinker says that it's traditional for the King to hand out prizes after the hunt. The ladies, I ought to mention, were wearing their honorary military officer uniforms, which all have hats that, while not normally worn indoors, are supposed to be nearby for ceremonial occasions.

For a moment we thought we lost Lt Wooster. He wandered out of the drawing room by one of the back doors. A governess was there with two princesses--Miss Pinker says the girls are the granddaughters of Archduchess Ediline, which makes them grandneices of the King.

Eventually we were allowed into the reception hall, where I and Mr Salmalin took up our posts with the other footmen.

The hall is huge. There were several long tables arranged around three sides of the room in a couple rows, leaving most of the middle of the floor open for dancing. There was a dais near the head table with a pair of thrones. The King and Queen arrived, and soon several people were called to the front.

From our household those called forward were: Wilhelmina, Mrs Wooster, Lt Wooster, Lady Cowperthwaite, and Sir Spencer. Among the others called forward were Prince Stefan, the Duke of Florin, and Prince Heinrich. The awards given out were medals on chains. A bunch of people were made "Companion in the Order of the Hunt" and received a medal on a silver chain.

Mrs Wooster was named a "Companion Commander of the Order of the Hunt" because she had killed the largest number of game (since she shot a lot of grouse, capercaille, and other birds). Her medal looked mostly the same as the others, but on its chain every third link was gold, rather than silver. When Lt Wooster as awarded merely "Companion," the King made a joke about Mrs Wooster's higher rank.

Lady Cowperthwaite was awarded "Champion of the Order of the Hunt" because she shot a hole through a stag, through which the Duke of Florin shot his bullet. This was a reference to the fact that both the Duke and Lady Cowperthwaite shot at the same stag, but the hunt master ruled that the only wound found in the carcass could have only been made my Her Ladyship's gun. Her medal's chain was alternating gold and silver links.

Sir Spencer was named a "Grand Champion of the Order of the Hunt" because he saved the King from having to explain to the Queen how he'd gotten gored by a boar. (The King had been inspecting a stag he had shot, and a boar was flushed from the underbrush near him. Sir Spencer shot the boar at about the same time the boar ran into the King's lance.)

Eventually everyone had been given an award except Wilhelmina. There was a bit more of a ceremony, and it was explained that Wilhelmina had killed the largerst stag, which by tradition entitles the hunter to be named "Jagdgraf," which is simply German for Count of the Hunt. She got a medal (with a couple extra flourishes) on an all-gold chain, and a gold coronet with stag horns on it. She blushed, just a little.

Normally the Jagdgraf then makes the first dance with the Princess Royal, or one of the princesses, anyway. But since this Jagdgraf was a lady, the Crown Prince took the first dance, instead. Wilhelmina definitely blushed as they walked out on the floor, but she got over that quickly. A lot of young men lined up to dance with her, including Prince Stefan.

The Compte de la Roche, an attache from the Fench Embassy who has asked Wilhelmina to dance at the previous balls, took her for a walk in the gardens. Miss Pinker was walking a short distance behind, and I was right behind her. A lot of people were walking around the garden, including the Woosters. Mrs Wooster seemed upset about something.

I'm beginning to wonder about la Roche. He asks odd questions. Miss Pinker suspects he may be of more impoverished means than it appears, and has "made inquiries." I wonder if he's up to something more nefarious. I doubt he's a French spy, because Admiral Lecoq doesn't employ idiots. But he might be mixed up in some other nonsense.

We missed some of the excitement. Sir Cosmo and Her Ladyship also went for a walk during the evening. According to Mr Salmalin they witnessed a governess pushing some sort of faerie creature into a stream, after lecturing the creature about frightening children. It was the same governess we met earlier in the evening, who is taking care of the two granddaughters of Archduchess Edeline.

Her Ladyship has also found a new beverage. It is called a Nanny Chigwidgeon Special, and includes at least two types of alcohol, cream, chopped mangoldwurzel, and other odd ingredients. Wooster drank one and nearly passed out. I understand Her Ladyship had several.

When we returned to the hunting lodge, Wilhelmina wanted to see how the coronet went with several of her dresses. Tattvick says she fell asleep before getting to the first dress.

~later~

Octavia has gotten far too good at being unnoticed.

This morning we were visited by Chief Inspector Kempf, who said he needed to speak with Inspector MacGregor. While Our Graves went to announce his arrival, I offered him refreshment. He seemed ill at ease around me, so I left him in the parlour as soon as was polite to do so. Soon I was summoned back to the parlour, where both Inspectors asked me questions about my whereabouts during the night.

It seems that sometime between three and four a.m. that the anarchist that the Woosters captured at the University Ball was murdered. In his jail cell. All evidence points to an etheric pulse gun as the murder weapon--fired through the stone wall of the jail from an alleyway behind the building. Since a great many people saw both myself and Sir Cosmo use our etheric pulse weapons yesterday against the young Ebersbach werewolf, the Inspector has to ask about our whereabouts.

I told him I never left the grounds of the hunting lodge, though I was up most of the night patrolling. Sir Cosmo slept through the night. While Mr Salmalin can vouch for us both, I understand why Kempf is suspicious. Just as MacGregor was suggesting they ask the royal guards who have been keeping watch over the household, Octavia appeared from behind a tapestry, to swear that she had been following me around the house all night.

Which was a little embarassing. How good a watch am I keeping if a two-year-old can follow me without my knowing it?

It turns out Kempf had already spoken with the guards before coming in to talk to us. However, I believe Kempf has already guessed that I could leave the grounds without the guards seeing me. My and Mr Salmalin's involvement in Jerrold Moriarty's old organization isn't a very well-kept secret, since there are Royal Pardon papers on record. Kempf is more than just a policeman, he also advises the King on security matters, and presumably has had access to whatever information the Carpanian Foreign ministry has on all of us.

If I were him, I would keep on eye on us, too.

We were supposed to go into the city to see the Science and Industry Exposition at the University. Now everyone wanted to accompany MacGregor and Frazer to the jail to speak with the werewolf. Because, of course, he is one of the witnesses to the murder.

There wasn't much to learn at the jail that Kempf and his men had not already found out. There were scorchmarks on the floor and ceiling near the steel bars of the cell, exactly as you would get from firing and etheric pulse gun. The direction of the scorch marks, as well as which bars had the most pronounced markings are consistent with someone standing in the alley and firing at the stone wall at a spot three feet to the right and two feet below the tiny window into the cell where the anarchist was sleeping. Almost exactly where the prisoner's head would be if you knew we was sleeping on the cot in the cell. Which could be determined by someone looking through the window from the correct angle.

There were a number of footprints and wheel marks in the alley. One of the sets of tracks that Frazer found seem to be someone coming into the alley from the darker of the two streets, stopping under the window of the cell, then stopping at the spot one would have fired the weapon from. The tracks appear to belong to someone who walks with a severe limp in his left leg, and requires a cane. That seemed significant to both Frazer and MacGregor because they have noticed a beggar matching that description hanging in the vicinity of several places they have interviewed witnesses connected to the murder of Lord Paul Sackville.

Unfortunately, men who require the assistance of a cane to walk are not exactly rare in a city the size of Carpania. Frazer is not certain it is the same man they have seen. Frazer also pointed out that the beggar in quested has a prounced stoop which seems to be caused by a several hunched spine. If he was the person, in the alley, he would have had a very hard time peering into that window unassisted. Of course, since there are other footprints in the alley, he may very well have had several assistants.

Wilhelmina found that awful sausage salesman, again. She bought the greasiest, most oddly-smelling sausage he had, and took it with her into the jail to tease the werewolf with it. Listening to the way he tried to be all witty and clever while answering questions from the Inspector and Sir Cosmo and the others, I've decided that I was wrong when I said that the young Ebersbach werewolf was an idiot and a bully. He's a bleeding great muck-brained pratt. And I find it very hard to believe he's any relation to that nice Coporal von Ebersbach we met the last time we were in Prussia.

Sir Cosmo and several others also examined the body of the anarchist. Wilhelmina wanted to assist with a medical examination, but Sir Cosmo talked her out of it.

After the interrogation, Sir Cosmo suggested stopping for tea at a chocolate shop around the corner. MacGregor and Frazer went to question some known associates of the dead man. After finishing the tea and chocolate, we went to the Exposition.

It was very crowded. Wilhelmina was running about, trying to see everything. She and Sir Cosmo met Herr Gustaffson, who left his calling card at the lodge two days ago. Gustaffson is the engineer who designed the cranes at the Kosel trainyard that Sir Cosmo and Wilhelmina are anxious to see. We were invited to visit the trainyard tomorrow.

At one point we found Wooster consulting with a Prussian inventor named Johansson about a marine propulsion system. Later we found him at his Uncle's exhibit. Admiral Whipple had models of his proposed Vulture Messenger Service. Fortunately he didn't have one of the Bearded Griffin Vultures in the display, or I think the Duchess Wulfenbuttel would have drawn and quartered him on the spot.

We spent a goodly amount of time at Master Schultz's exhibit. He had a set of clockwork soldiers and horses that acted out the Battle of Mohacs. We had just met up with Prince Stefan when the clock in the tower began to ring.

The bell should not have been ringing, as it was more than four minutes before two pm. And the bell should have only rung two times, for the hour. But it just kept ringing and ringing. And the more in rang, the louder the buzz of badly tuned Rambaldi crystals got in that spot just behind the middle of my forehead.

The constand ringing got everyone's attention. The crowd had not been easy to move through before everyone started milling about in curiosity. Then, several people in the crowd were seized with fits of convulsions, which caused a panic. Later we were able to confirm that each person in question had been equipped with a Zacharias artificial limb to assist with some crippling or maiming injury, but that wasn't completely clear at the time.

Fortunately, Stefan's aerocorvette was tethered nearby, as part of the Austrain Exposition, and while the crowd around the tower was mostly impassible, we sailed over it with ease, and dropped down unto the clock tower from above. Master Schultz had come with us, which was very lucky, as he had more appropriate tools for the job that were to be found in the aerocorvette.

Inside the tower we found the body of a man burned to a crisp. He had in the middle of trying to repair the clock when an incredible amount of etheric energy discharged through him.

We could see nearly a dozen crystals in the clock work, several of them quite large, and all of the gleaming brightly with power, occasionally throwing off sparks. I started chanting the Mantra of the Downstream Flow to myself, just in case. Wilhelmina and Master Schultz had on rubberized gloves and were trying various things on the clockwork. Meanwhile the energy level of the crystals seemed to be increasing -- or perhaps they were just becoming more unstable.

Finally, Wilhelmina hooked one side of the pallet with a spanner while the escapement wheel was against the deadplate, and Master Schultz pushed the handle of his spanner into the gap on the other side of the wheel, so when the pendulum changed direction, the impule and deadplate each moved only half the distance they ought, and the escapement wheel started spinning.

The weights fell, letting all the energy out. I'm told some people in the crowded started screaming when they saw the hands of the clock start spinning madly. We couldn't hear anything over all the rattling of the chains and the wild flailing of the bellclapper. When the weights hit the ground floor, the bell finally stopped.

Unfortunately, the crystals were still glowing, humming, and sparking. Wilhelmina and Master Schultz were talking really rapidly--and at the same time--about chains and grounding connection. Prince Stefan and I were moving to obey, when from down below were heard Her Ladyship call out something about the chain.

The one of the chains jerked very taut, the iron links making that horrid pinging/cracking sound like a rivet about the pop. Before I could pull Wilhelmina back, the wooden beams holding the clockwork snapped like twigs, and the clockwork was plunging to the ground.

The wooden platform we were all standing on splintered into thousands of pieces and we all followed.

Fortunately, we are all still wearing the flight harnesses from the aerocorvette. I got hold of Wilhelmina's harness with one hand, Stefan had grabbed Master Schultz, and both of us were holding onto one of the guy wires we had used to descend to originally. We were just starting to discuss how we were going to pull everyone up when Captain Hartt dropped down. His harness had a winching system on it. He had two other wires and latching hooks.

While we were getting everyone connected to start hoisting them up, Master Schultz commented that it appeared all the crystals had discharged when they crashed into the ground.

Her Ladyship and Mr Salmalin were unharmed below, and were having a discussion about the dead birds and the engine with Baron Zemo's "cousin." When Wilhelmina called out something about her skirt, Peter Zemo turned around and managed, somehow, to completely block the door into the tower bottom with his body.

While we had been busy with the clock, other members of the household had been equally engaged dealing with medical issues. Chief Inspector Kempf, having a clockwork arm and leg, had experienced particularly intense seizures. Every device in the vicinity of the tower which was equipped with Zacharias' crystals had glowed and thrown off debilitating sparks. Herr Kempf had been shocked so badly, it took Mrs Cuthbert and her sister working together to save him. Sir Cosmo had been assisting several other injured persons.

Among the wreckage at the bottom of the tower we found a large number of rats and birds that had been etherized to death just as the poor repairman. Some of them died weeks ago. Wilhelmina, Master Schultz, and Sir Cosmo believe that the crystals in the clock have been randomly draining the energy of living creatures that got too close for weeks -- perhaps months.

The crystals in the mechanical limbs and other devices nearby seemed to be effected by resonance with the faulty crystals in the clock. They began randomly absorbing and discharging energy when the clock went out of the control. Everything seems to have settled down for the moment, but until we can figure out exactly why the crystals are failing now, we can't know when something like this will happen again.

Wooster began acting very strangely while we were cleaning up. Much more strangely than usual, I mean. He was talking to someone we couldn't see. Mrs Cuthbert examined him, and said that he had another person inside his head. Not possession, exactly, and not quite like the recording of Sekhmet that gave us trouble from that old Atlantean crown. After a lot of peering and meditating, she decided that it was a splinter of an ordinary person's soul. She believes that it came from one of the crystals in Kempf's artificial limbs.

The person says his name is Hugo. When Wooster closes his eyes, he says he can see the man. So he described him. After hearing his description, Wilhelmina pointed out that Master Zacharias's first name is Hugo, and that Wooster's description sounds like Zacharias as a younger man. This seems consistent with Mrs Cuthbert and Mrs Salmalin's theory that Master Zacharias has been unwittingly putting fractions of his life force into the crystals as he makes his devices.

Mrs Wooster is very upset that this strange man is inside Wooster. The rest of us are a bit concerned, as well, though so far Hugo simply seems to be curious and confused.

For various reasons, Her Ladyship wanted to go visit a Fraulein Ubermantle. She's the granddaughter of a witch that Nanny Chigwidgeon knew when she was in Carpania fifty years ago. Mrs Cuthbert, it turned out, has had some correspondence with Miss Ubermantle, as well, and was certain that she would be able to assist us with the Hugo problem.

Miss Ubermantle lives in a cottage on the outskirts of Potsdorff. She seemed very pleased to finally meet Mrs Cuthbert in person, and to meet the great-granddaughter of Nanny Chigwidgeon. While we and the honour guard occupied ourselves outside (Mrs Wooster deciding now would be a good time to practice her bow and arrow), they performed a ritual to extract Hugo and put him in a silver flask. Wooster was more cheerful about this than he has been previously, as Mr Caine has gotten in the habit of packing spare flasks for such occasions.

Though several of the ladies were tired after all the activity, at least some of the party had to make an appearance at the British Embassy Ball. Wilhelmina perks up whenever another dance is mentioned. Mrs Wooster seemed to be mollified by the fact that Wooster no longer had a Hugo in his head, and that the British Embassy Ball is one of the occasions where it is appropriate to wear her honourary colonel's uniform.

Her Ladyship dozed off while talking with Lady Hamilton, the ambassador's wife. Wilhelmina expressed disappointment at how early we left the Ball (it wasn't yet midnight), but she fell asleep before the first milepost out of the city.

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