Gaslight Trials | The Wattys2023 Shortlister ✔️

10 | A Word of the Duke

Every day, someone lives amid destruction and chaos because of the enforcers. Every day, someone's street fills with gunpowder's haze, a child's laughter turns to tears.

There had been a time when people of Fumedge could stroll in the evening's peaceful quiet. A time when the children caught fireflies in mason jars. But such time is no more.

We are no longer safe, not even in our own home — a place supposed to be the safest in the world.

"Veda, listen to me," Pa speaks so fast now I can barely follow. "Government is familiar with electricity but has secretly banned it. Lucius Sextus wants to destroy any progress towards a better, cleaner source of energy. If the word of it gets out... His steam empire crumbles. I called it a spark, because your Ma liked the pleasant warm orange sparks from our firepla..."

The smack of the leather boot interrupts him mid-sentence. It's so strong that our decrepit, worm-riddled front door gives way and sways forth on its rusty hinges.

An enforcer in a simple white dress shirt and a dark gray buttoned coat with a tall collar stands at our doorstep. His formal pants are tucked into high black boots, and on his back rests a crimson ankle-length cape. Five copies of the man stand behind, but the others wear no wide-brimmed crimson hat.

His face is straighter than a poker player. For a fraction of a second, a corner of the enforcer's mouth twitches upwards, and he says, "The Duke of Lighthaven has ordered an arrest for Otto Igglesden."

"How dare you break into our house?" I yell.

"You call... this... a house?" The enforcer wrinkles his sensitive nose, then shields it with a gray sleeve.

"My father ain't going nowhere." I spit at him through my missing incisor, and the blob lands on his formal black pants.

The man swears. "Careful there, girl. Do you even know who I am?"

"Ye are the chief law enforcer of Fumedge, aren't ye? Ooh, I'm quaking in my boots from your mere presence."

"I am indeed. A chief law enforcer of Fumedge, and an assistant to the Grand Duke. Now, step aside.

"No!" I scream, and push him with all my might. "Get out of our home!"

The man staggers backwards, but then recovers his balance. He pulls out a gun with a murderous glint in his eye, and presses it onto my chest.

"Whatcha gonna do with that?" Foam pools in my mouth. "Gonna shoot me?"

"If you stand in the way of me executing my direct order, I will. I am here as a soldier of his Highness, the Grand Duke, sworn to serve and uphold the law of the Lighthaven."

"A soldier of his Highness, me arse. Ye ain't no soldier. Soldiers serve and protect people, not a stupid law someone wrote onna old piece of paper long ago. You're nothing but a bully. An armed felon."

"Veda," Langdon says in a soft tone. "Let me try." He pushes past me and stares the chief enforcer right in the eye.

The man recognizes him, and bows so low his head is almost reaching the tips of his boots. "Milord Langdon Septimus, I... I had no idea."

"Good morning, gentlemen." The lad salutes every single soldier.

A murmur of "Good morning, Milord," is heard back.

"What is your name, good sire?"

"Tiberius, Milord, but that is hardly the point," the chief enforcer stammers.

"Tiberius." Langdon places his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Must we resort to violence? What seems to be the problem here?"

"The Grand Duke of Lighthaven sent a wire telegraph to the Fumedge enforcers' office at dawn. He claims the inventor Otto Igglesden is a dangerous man, who sorely violated the law. He ordered me and my men here to retrieve him and take him to the Castle of Lighthaven."