The Revolution Machine

1. Tower

Melrid looked out the wavy lead glass of her compartment as she did every morning, longing for the sunny skies of home. Here in Bade, the stinking, sulfuric rain never seemed enough to clean the sooty towers or the streets between the shanties clustered below. She thought about her dead parents, her missing brother, and the house and apple orchards they had left behind when they had come to the city.

As the bell tolled, a sudden flash of orange erupted from the gray and black outside the window. It forced her eyes shut, and the sound of the blast swallowed her scream. She fell to the wood-planked floor, then made herself get up and return to the window. The wavy glass had held again.

Smoke billowed out of Colliery Number 8. The great head wheels and gantry had fallen over, smashing the coal borers' homes below. Some of the treadwheel cranes were still upright and laborers were scurrying out. Fire danced along walkways, shanties, and shops around the colliery. Melrid glanced over at Colliery Number 3, still dark and silent from last month's attack.

The sound of people wailing and shouting in her tower snapped Melrid away from the window. She wasn't worried about a bomb at the tower. The Anthrakes were willing to kill wardens and innocent coal borers near the collieries but had never threatened the residential towers.

Melrid strapped on her belt and loaded the chamber of her springshot with a tungfram alloy dart before holstering it. Then she retrieved her sword from the corner and sheathed it. Next she put on her tinplate. It annoyed her that junior wardens got inferior armor, but another three years, and she'd make full rank. She grabbed her pack and pocketed the last few market tokens from her bedside table.

Melrid glanced around the sparse room, then turned toward the door just as its hinges burst. She instinctively crouched and covered her head. The smell of spent coal dust and sweet amber filled the room as strong hands snatched her up and whisked her out into the hallway.

She was thrown over a big man's shoulder and raced through the halls and down stairwells, pushing past other residents. A second man was running behind them, watching Melrid through his cracked red-glass goggles. Bulky packs on his chest and back shifted from side to side as he ran.

Melrid reached for her springshot, but her holster was empty. The big man's hand held her sword arm down, and he squeezed tighter when she struggled. Her scream was drowned out by the general commotion.

They soon reached the bottom chambers of the tower. People were everywhere, and she realized they were trying to get out. She saw two wardens run out a side door, shoving a mother and child aside.

Her captors exited the main doors and did not stop, heading straight for an alley across the street. They kept running until a blast from behind cast them to the ground and black clouds swept over them. Melrid knew the tower had collapsed. Then she heard a familiar laugh emanating from one of her captors. The goggles were hanging across her brother's face, red lenses popped out.

She stared at her brother until the other man picked himself up with a grunt. A gash in the side of the big man's head was dribbling blood into his eyes and down his neck.

"Are you...all right?" asked her brother between chuckles. "That one was...too close. Too...damn...close."

He stood up, flinging the goggles off. Amber stones spilled out of a torn pouch on his front pack, scattering on the dirty ground like fiery hail.

"Amber is forbidden, Danroy," she said, glaring at his grimy face. It had been a long time. He stared back at her, searching for something to say.

"How could you?" she asked. "All those people..."

Danroy turned to the big man. "Stedlow, we have to go."

Stedlow pulled Melrid up.

"Let go of me!" He shook her to silence her.

"Easy with her. I will explain on the way, dear sister," Danroy said.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"Listen to me!" Danroy jerked her face toward him. "Your warden friends will be swarming here. You think they'll see us together and believe..." He trailed off as she stared into his eyes. Then his face hardened. "If you only knew."

Melrid jabbed Stedlow's head wound with stiffened fingers and pulled away from him. Danroy unbuckled one of his holsters and yanked out a battered springshot. He checked the chamber as Melrid bounded over the trash and into the billowing smoke. She didn't look back and tried to dodge side to side. She heard the distinct tick-ick, then felt a sharp pain at the back of her head. The bitter purple powder that sparkled around her face was the last thing she saw.

Copyright 2019 Christopher C. Fuchs. All Rights Reserved.