Gaslit Revolution

by Jason Gilbert

  “How?” Kane managed, struggling against Gentry’s grip.

  “You are much larger than I when it comes to stature,” Gentry said. “In quite good shape! But I’m much older than you, Mr. Shepherd. In fact, I’m over one hundred years old. Remember: we age slower.” He threw Kane against the side of the turbine housing, was on him again, lifting him by the throat. He put his face close to Kane’s. “I’m older than you. I’m more powerful than you. And I will end you!” Gentry hefted Kane and threw him off the fin. Kane went sailing into the air, felt the pull of the turbine, saw the spinning blades coming at him.

  He felt something in his hand. The tether spell. It was still active.

  It all happened within a breath, though it seemed like hours. Kane thrust his hand out, sent the tether at Gentry. Kane yanked, and Gentry came flying at him. They collided, both of them heading into the turbine. Kane felt the air forced out of him, his back pressed against the steel girders that guarded the propeller. Kane wrapped his arms and legs around Gentry. Gentry fought against him, tried to break free. The noise from the turbine made Kane’s ears feel as if they would rupture, the force of the air it was pulling in pressing him hard against the beams. Kane reached into Gentry’s coat pocket, his hand closing around something small. Warm.

  Gentry looked in Kane’s eyes.

  “You’ll kill me,” he said. “You’ll be a murderer.”

  Kane stared back at him.

  “I’ll sing at your funeral.”

  Gentry laughed.

  “We’re alike, Mr. Shepherd. We both do what it takes to get the job done.”

  Kane nodded.

  “Glad we agree on something.”

  Kane pulled the amulet out of Gentry’s pocket and threw it into the turbine. Gentry hefted to the side, rolled. Kane found himself underneath Gentry. He grunted, his breathing rapid as the commissioner pushed his head towards the spinning blades. Kane drove his elbow into Gentry’s face over and over, kicked out from behind. His foot connected with Gentry’s knee. Kane felt Gentry’s grip loosen, the man screaming as the wind from the turbines pulled him in. He held fast to the beam, his feet lopped off by the blur of steel behind him. He pulled himself closer to the beam, wrapped his arms around it, his eyes wide with pain and panic.

  Kane moved as Gentry reached for him. The turbines roared louder, and Kane heard Tabitha screaming his name. He felt Gentry’s hand close on his pants leg, felt him try to pull himself forward.

  Never free, Kane thought. No peace.

  Kane jerked his leg out of Gentry’s grip. He reared up, and kicked at the commissioner’s arms and hands.

  “Let…go…you son of a bitch!”

  Gentry shouted, his grip loosening with each blow. Kane couldn’t make himself stop. He couldn’t stop. He kicked. Over and over. Gentry held fast. He looked up at Kane and smiled.

  “Murderer,” he mouthed.

  Kane rammed his boot in Gentry’s face. Again. Again. He heard himself shouting with each kick. “Die! Die! Die!” The last kick was met with Gentry’s head whipping back at a sickening angle. He finally let go of the beam and was sucked into the turbine. Kane watched his body disintegrate, blood spraying the inside of the engine as Gentry was torn to gory shreds in front of him.

  The turbine began to slow, the wind growing weaker. Kane pulled himself away from the beam and climbed out of the turbine as the ship lowered. He saw a hand reach for him, saw wisps of blonde hair. He grabbed the hand and held tight as Tabitha shouted her travel spell.

  The hull came at him and he hit the deck hard at a roll. He heard two men give a shout, another three coming to his and Tabitha’s aid. Kane was on his feet, pushing them aside as he pulled Tabitha to him, checking her for injuries. She was weak, but the bleeding had stopped for the most part. Her head lolled as she went limp in his arms.

  She’d been casting without her amulet. The spell had cost her.

  He looked at the crewmen.

  “Medical,” he said. “Where’s medical?”

  “We’ll get her there, sir,” one of the kids said. “You need it, too.”

  Kane’s aches and pains returned as he began to relax. He looked up at the captain, his mind reeling at what he was seeing.

  “Welcome aboard, Mr. Shepherd,” Farnsworth said, his deep baritone carrying all over the bridge as he gripped the large helm. “I believe you’ve seen better days!”

  “She’ll be out for a while,” Kane said, his eyes fixed on Tabitha as she slept on the cot in the medical cabin.

  Farnsworth sighed.

  “I’m just glad that you both are safe.”

  Kane sighed, still watching Tabitha sleep. They’d flown to the hospital in the city in one of the few districts that hadn’t been ravaged in battle. The doctors and nurses had acted quickly, taking Tabitha in and getting her cleaned up and her wounds dressed. Her hand was wrapped where her small finger had been severed, and the stab wound in her shoulder required staples. Kane sent word to Chris to get a Magician there to heal her, but the city was war torn. There was no telling how long it would take for them to get to Chris, let alone get the Magicians who were able back to the hospital. There were still skirmishes going on. Farnsworth and Bill set up guards around the hospital. They weren’t in the warzone, but there was no telling if a fight would break out outside or not.

  Farnsworth placed a hand on Kane’s shoulder.

  “It’s good to see you again, my friend.”

  Kane turned to Farnsworth, suddenly angry.

  “How’d you do it?”

  Farnsworth looked confused.

  “Do what?”

  “I thought you were dead.” He motioned to Tabitha. “We thought you were dead. You, Wilson, Benson, all three of you. We could’ve used you here. You could’ve said something.”

  Farnsworth nodded.

  “I was prepared to die,” he said. “We aimed to draw the Special Forces away from Jimmy Catch’s plantation. Give you and Miss Drake a chance to escape aboard Bill’s ship. Wilson wasn’t having it. We drew their fire. Cannonballs ripped through the bridge. Wilson pushed me loose from the helm. Out the window as the ship started to explode.” A tear ran down the large black man’s face. He looked down, pulling his hat off his head and holding it to his chest. “I landed in a tree. Wilson and Benson went down with the ship.”

  Kane looked away. Wilson. He’d been a good kid. Loyal. Dedicated. And Benson. Kane had only ever had a few interactions with the engineer, but he’d been a good crewman.

  “Jimmy Catch took me in,” Farnsworth said, putting his hat back on. “Nursed me back to health. Bill came along on the next transport. We devised a plan to come help the Revolution.” He motioned to Kane, then to Tabitha. “Help you two. It was always a war worth fighting. And I do not leave people behind.”

  Tabitha moaned in her sleep, shifting slightly under the blankets. Kane went to her, took her uninjured hand in his as he sat down on the stool next to her bed. He pressed the back of her hand to his cheek.

  “And what did it cost?” he asked, looking across her body at her injured hand, then at her stomach, knowing that his child was growing inside. “It almost cost me my family.” He looked up at the captain. “Would it have been worth that?”

  Farnsworth cleared his throat.

  “Commander on deck, Mr. Shepherd.”

  Kane raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder to see Cybil standing in the doorway.

  “How is she?” she asked.

  Kane nodded.

  “She’ll be okay. She’s weak, but it’ll pass. Mostly magical fatigue.”

  Cybil breathed out loudly.

  “Oh, my, that is a relief.” She looked at Farnsworth. “You can relax, captain. We’re pretty casual where I come from.”

  Farnsworth loosened up as Cybil walked into the room. She stood at the foot of Tabitha’s bed and smiled.

  “I should wait until she wakes up,” she said. “But I figure she’d rather hear it from you, Kane.”

&nb
sp; “What’s that?” Kane asked.

  Cybil’s smile broadened.

  “It’s over. The war is over. And we’ve won.”

  Epilogue

  The saline in the air and the faint smell of mildew was soothing to Kane’s lungs as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The weather had finally begun to cool in the marshlands, the humidity showing mercy on the people who lived there. A Blue Heron honked from its perch in a nearby tree, and the sounds of tools on soil, scythes on crops. Men and women chatting or humming hymns filled the air in a melodic tone of serenity.

  It’d been nine months since the war. Since Tabitha had woken up in the hospital.

  “The fight is over,” Cybil had said to Kane while Tabitha was still asleep. “You homes were destroyed. And I’m sorry. I wish I had better news for you, but Hidden Valley on the whole will have to be rebuilt. Do you have somewhere to go? Somewhere where she can have her baby?”

  Kane looked at her.

  “Not here,” he said. “This isn’t my home. Not anymore.”

  Cybil sighed.

  “People look to you, Kane. They see you as a leader. That’s not something you can just walk away from and be able to look at yourself in the mirror.”

  “What do you suggest, then?” Kane asked.

  “I’m to understand that the past few days have had a major impact in the South. Farnsworth tells me that a man named Jimmy Catch has his own band of rebels down there who could use some help getting things back in order.”

  Kane looked back at Tabitha and shook his head.

  “I can’t fight anymore. I can’t risk her anymore.” He looked back at Cybil. “Or my daughter.”

  Cybil nodded.

  “I understand,” she said. “But you should know that the fighting down there is done. Mr. Catch doesn’t need a warrior. He needs a helping hand.”

  Tabitha woke the next day, and Kane sat down and told her what he and Cybil had spoken about.

  “I liked it down there,” she said, clapping her hands. “Do you think I might be able to try something called ‘biscuits and gravy?’ Ralphie said it’s the one thing he could never get right!”

  Farnsworth took them on a small airship along with supplies for Jimmy Catch’s new plantation in the South Carolina lowlands. The Southern Oligarchs, having been tied so tightly to the North, also fell. Their wealth was destroyed as the money flowing in for resources was depleted immediately with the decimation of the Northern Oligarchy. The economy wasted away, and the old Southern money wasn’t able to hold out. The free people took control again and began to build a new government. The first order was to end the practice of slavery completely. Any plantation caught using slaves would be confiscated and the owners arrested and stripped of their wealth. Jimmy Catch formed a group of volunteers that had the goal of rebuilding the South, starting with a ruined plantation that had great potential to supply people who’d lost their homes with food and other resources.

  A place once called “Harbor.”

  Kane stepped out of the shack that had been his prison almost a year ago. He’d made a few changes, cut in a window and hung curtains, set up a bed. He’d been able to find a potbellied stove so they could cook, have a heat source once the winter came since they wouldn’t have a proper home for several months. Still, he’d made it livable, and worked daily to make it more comfortable.

  For his wife. For his child.

  “I’m captain of this ship,” Farnsworth said to Kane one night during their voyage. Tabitha had long gone to bed. Kane stayed up to have a whiskey with Farnsworth on the bridge. “I won’t accept no for an answer, lad.”

  Kane looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he took a sip of his whiskey.

  “Are you ordering me, Farnsworth?”

  “Damned right I am, ground hound,” Farnsworth said as he poured himself another glass, his other hand on the helm. “You’ll marry that girl before we land at Jimmy Catch’s, or I’ll leave you to fend for yourself while I whisk her away with my devilish charm and dashing good looks.” He smiled at Kane and winked as he took a drink of his whiskey.

  Kane laughed.

  “Right,” he said. “And who would officiate?”

  Farnsworth tipped his hat.

  “As captain, I have certain privileges and power. And it would be my privilege to marry you and your bonny lass.”

  Tabitha wept through the entire ceremony. Farnsworth asked his engineer to witness while the rest of the crew made do for thirty minutes. They didn’t have anything formal to wear, but it didn’t matter. Kane couldn’t help but smile while she’d stamped her feet rapidly, tears streaming down her cheeks as he made his vows to her. Farnsworth made the final announcement with great relish and grandeur, waving his arms about as he proclaimed them man and wife.

  He made to inform Kane that he could kiss the bride, but Tabitha beat him to it and wrapped her arms around Kane as she kissed him passionately.

  The sun was almost full in the sky, the orange giving way to light blue, the morning air soothing and clean.

  Peace. Kane didn’t know what to do with peace. Even after all this time.

  He looked at the construction going on at what had once been Thaddeus Douglas’s house. Atlanta was in ruin, too far gone to be worth rebuilding. But the wasteland that had once been Charleston held great promise.

  “The ocean,” Catch had said. “Fishing, crabbing, the resources are limitless. Besides, we’ll need a capitol city for the Confederacy.”

  Catch reached out to the newly elected President of the Northern Union for support in the effort to rebuild. Chris responded quickly and amended the arrangement with a proposal to the new Confederate government to reunite the country under its original name: The United States of America.

  Kane went to the chicken coop, gathered four eggs, then made his way to the smokehouse to get bacon to go with his breakfast.

  Antonia nodded as he walked in.

  “You up early again, Kane,” she said as she waved her hand at one of the girls. “Get that man’s bacon, girl. That girl’s gonna be hungry she wakes up. Gotta feed that baby.”

  “Morning, Antonia,” Kane said as Antonia’s girls bustled about the place.

  “I been up all night smokin’ this meat,” Antoina said, wagging her finger at him as she shook her head and smiled. “You better eat every bite.”

  “I’m sure Tabitha will get to it before I do,” Kane said with a chuckle.

  “I don’ know where that girl puts it,” Antonia said, shaking her head. “Then again, the baby probably takin’ all of it anyway.”

  “Probably,” Kane said as one of Antonia’s girls handed him a small package. He thanked her, then waved to Antonia. “Better get this back so I can get it cooking.” He started towards the door.

  “I’m sorry about Sandra, Kane.”

  Kane stopped in the doorway. Things had been different between him and Antonia since New Chicago. Sandra’s betrayal had rocked them both. Neither of them blamed the other, but conversation had been brief between them, formal and polite. There was so much to talk about, and so little that wasn’t about Sandra.

  “It’s not your fault,” Kane said over his shoulder. He turned to her. “Sandra made her choice.”

  Antonia wiped her hands on her apron.

  “She fancied you,” she said. “Told me one night a year ago at least. Seein’ you with Miss Tabitha just hurt too much. And she wanted to protect us, too. All of it made her make a choice she shouldn’t have made.”

  “She wanted to protect her family,” Kane said. “That’s what matters. That’s what’s important.”

  Antonia nodded, wiping away a tear.

  “She was my girl,” she said. “She was a good girl.”

  “And that’s how we’ll remember her,” Kane said. He held up the package. “Thanks for the bacon.”

  He left the smokehouse and made his way back towards the shack, tipping his Stetson to people as he wished them a good morning. The plantation was
alive, and work on the new house would start soon. The refugees from Charleston would be flying in from Jimmy Catch’s place in Loganville today. Once they were settled in, volunteers would be tasked to help rebuild. Kane could see the recon group already meeting at the main road as he approached the front of the small building he’d called home for the better part of a year.

  Kane saw Farnsworth step away from the group and walk towards a small patch of land that was surrounded by a fence made of cut tree branches. He stopped at the front of the shack and watched the captain kneel down in front of a group of crosses that had been put in the ground. He saw Farnsworth hunch over, his shoulders moving as he wept. Things had all happened so quickly after they’d fled Charleston. Farnsworth hadn’t had time to grieve for Anderson before losing the rest of his crew. Wilson. Benson.

  Derricks.

  Farnsworth had been put under the influence of Voodoo zombie powder by Thaddeus Douglas’s Hunters and ordered to kill anyone associated with the Revolution. Derricks tried to reason with his cursed captain, and it’d cost him his life before the spell was broken.

  Farnsworth had changed. He’d become more distant since they’d landed, more withdrawn. He put forward his jovial demeanor, but Kane could see the pain behind it.

  Kane picked his pace back up, made his way back to his shack. He opened the door and saw Tabitha up and putting wood in the stove.

  “Hey,” he said, setting the bacon and eggs down on the table as he went to her. He pulled a chair out. “Stop. Let me do that. I didn’t know you’d be up so soon.”

  She smiled at him and stood, putting her hand on her enlarged belly.

  “She heard you,” she said. She winced. “Ow! She kicks when she’s happy, you know.”

  Kane raised an eyebrow.

  “Want me to stop talking?”

  Tabitha grinned. “Could you? It would make the day go by easier!”

  Kane laughed as he helped her to the chair. She winced again.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “She kick you again?”

  “No, that was something else,” Tabitha said. “I’ve had cramps for a few days.” She looked at her amulet on the table. She’d been rebuilding it ever since they’d arrived at Harbor. Casting had become more difficult for her, and she didn’t want to risk harming the baby by casting spells without the trinket.