The abandoned warehouse was packed with people who had come to hear Princess Ardria’s words. The Brigadier kept a careful watch over them as she spoke, alert for any of the King's men who might have tried to sneak in in disguise; assassins intent on killing her or wizards intent on cursing her. He'd tried to persuade her many times, over the seven days they’d been in Charnox, to keep a safe distance from all these strangers, but she was insistent that her message would be better received if she actually moved among them, as a gesture of trust, and he had to admit that it seemed to be working. She had gained a massive following in the city, to the extent that anyone trying to do her harm would probably have been torn apart by the crowd before he could do anything about it himself.
Darniss also spoke, confirming everything that Ardria said and freely confessing that she had once been her mortal enemy. Her conversion to reluctant ally gave her words greater weight, and both Ardria and the Brigadier could see the effect they were having on the crowds, the way they gathered around to hear her speak almost as much as they did around the Princess herself. Darniss seemed to relish it, to the discomfiture of the two Helberions. She was clearly enjoying her new status as the ‘disciple of the messiah’. The sinner who had repented and who thereby embodied the message with more strength and purity than those who’d been with the Princess all along. The Brigadier frowned unhappily, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The gate guards who'd escaped from the palace with her also helped spread the message, telling the crowds what they’d seen during their escape. Radiants using their control of the winds to pursue their enemies, proof that the old tales of how they could control the weather were true and that, therefore, the drought that had stricken the country was either their doing, or they had done nothing to prevent it. They wanted the Carrowmen so desperate that they saw the invasion of Helberion, to which the Radiants had given years of bountiful harvests, as the only way to escape starvation.
The Brigadier saw heads nodding as they spoke, heard shouts of anger and agreement and voices raised against the King, the collaborator in the war against humanity. Many people called out for an uprising against King Nilon, crying out that they should storm the palace immediately, drag him out and hang him. The majority of the citizens were still afraid of the army, though. What if they seized the palace, they said, killed the King and then the army returned from the conquest of Helberion to exact terrible vengeance against the rebellious citizens? The people of the city outnumbered them many times over, it was true, but the army had guns and cannons, while it was the rare citizen who could arm himself with anything more deadly than a pitchfork or a kitchen knife.
“So what are we trying to achieve here?” the Brigadier had asked one evening as they ate their evening meal alongside the family that was giving them shelter that night. “There are ways for a rebellious population to overthrow an army, but they require years of preparation. Do you think we'll be able to remain at liberty that long?”
“You yourself told me about the plan you and father drew up to destroy Carrow’s army,” the Princess had replied. “Have you lost faith in your own defence strategy?”
“I told you that it was a long shot, that it depended upon the Carrowmen doing what we wanted them to do every step of the way. Only a fool puts his faith in something like that. If the plan worked, all well and good, but we have to proceed on the assumption that it didn’t.”
“So you counsel despair? You think we should spend the rest of our lives hiding in some remote part of the world, forever fearing discovery?”
“Not at all. If victory is no longer possible, then I would seek revenge, but these things require careful planning. It would be the project of a lifetime, not achieved in just a few days.”
He’d waved a hand to take in all the people of the city around them. “The King may not have taken any open action against us yet, but that's because he's taking note of the ringleaders. Those who support you the most vocally, the most enthusiastically. We cannot delude ourselves. There are spies for the King at every meeting, watching, taking notes, and one day people will start disappearing. Before long, the only people left will be those only capable of grumbling, without being brave enough to take any open action. That is how Nilon will take back control of the city. Not with some great roundup carried out by soldiers, but by secret agents kidnapping your greatest supporters and taking them away to be tortured until they name their co-conspirators.”
“I agree that it will take years,” the Princess had said while the family at whose table they were sitting watched and listened nervously, wondering whether it had been wise, after all, to shelter these people. “But the King cannot arrest everyone, not even if it’s his secret intention to destroy this country. Even the quietest, most timid man will rebel if the consequences of inaction become too obviously intolerable. Plus, people tend to become swept up in events. If we can generate enough momentum, events will spiral out of the King's control, no matter how many people he arrests and tortures.”
The Brigadier thought back on that conversation as he watched the Princess walking amongst the throngs of grimy, working class city people, most of whom had legitimate reasons to be resentful of the nobility. Carrow nobility, he reminded himself, but in a way that made it even worse. They currently saw Princess Ardria as their great hope, their saviour from the oppression of King Nilon's regime, but how long would it be before that hope began to wear thin if nothing concrete came of it? If the starvation and the fear of the King's men went on for too long? And what would replace the hope and expectation when it finally went? The Brigadier could all too easily imagine a wave of resentment sweeping towards her. Resentment for having raised their hopes and then dashing them.
The King entrusted her safety to me, he mused unhappily, but how can I protect her when she takes it into her head to do something like this? It was his duty to keep her safe, but it was also his duty to obey her, as a member of the family to which he had pledged his lifelong loyalty and devotion. He sighed. Royals should stay in palaces, where they're safe, he thought. They should delegate tasks like this to people who were more... Expendable. Like him.
He edged his way through the crowd until he was close enough to hear what she was saying to the group of factory workers clustered around her. “...and it’s people like you that the Radiants are particularly afraid of. Operators of machinery. We know that there's one machine that they're especially afraid of, the development of which they are desperate to prevent. We have people in Helberion working on it, but even if we fail, someone somewhere will invent it sooner or later if technology is allowed to develop unchecked. The only way they can be sure of preventing it is to eliminate all technology, and all people with technical knowledge. They want to eliminate you!”
“Then why didn't they take action a hundred years ago when our technology was so much more primitive?” one of them asked. “Why didn’t they kill Edward Hill when he made the first steam engine?”
“I know the answer to that question. As you probably know, I was blessed by... By agents of King Nilon...” She glanced across at Darniss, who was holding court at the centre of another large crowd some distance away. “And left to turn into a demon. I was cured, but before that happened I developed telepathic abilities and was able to overhear the Radiants as they spoke amongst themselves. There were two factions among them. One faction wanted to do as you suggest. Crush all technological advance before it could take hold, but the other faction was stronger. This faction believed that humans made better Radiants if we were left to our own devices, to live as we chose. I suspect that the followers of this faction realised their mistake when Maxine Hester created a working prototype of what we’ve come to call the Electric Messiah. One thing is certain, though, and that is that if we lose this war, they will not make the same mistake again. Mankind will never be allowed to develop any kind of technology ever again. Nothing more sophisticated than the wheel and bows and arrows...”
She was interrupted as a man came crashing through the door, his face flushed with excitement. “The army is destroyed!” he cried, making everyone in the room stare at him in astonishment. “The army of Carrow has been destroyed!”
“What was that?” someone asked. “What's that you say?”
“The army of Carrow has been destroyed!” the man repeated. He had a naturally loud voice that carried easily above the noise of the crowd. “I keep pigeons, we use them to send messages to each other. My friend in Outrell told me that his friend in Denton had heard that the entire Carrow army's been destroyed while besieging Marboll. They planted explosives under their trenches somehow and blew them all to hell!”
The crowd was sceptical, though. The idea that Carrow was sure to win had become so ingrained that it would take more than a third hand rumour to shake it. People continued to quiz him for more details and he was happy to oblige, but the majority of the crowd went back to what they were doing before. The Brigadier made his way closer to the Princess, though, who turned to him. “Was that your plan?” she asked. “The plan you worked out with my father?”
He nodded. “The plan was to dig our trenches above hetin tunnels, which we filled with explosives, then fall back and allow the Carrowmen to occupy the trenches. If what that man's saying is just a wild fantasy, then it bears a remarkable resemblance to what we were actually planning to do.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide with delight and hope. “You believe it then?” she asked.
“It's possible,” he replied. “We can't be sure, of course. We have to wait for independent verification...”
People standing alongside him had overheard, though. “The Brigadier says it’s true!” one of them said. “He says it’s true! The Carrow army really has been destroyed!”
That's not what I said...” began the Brigadier, but the crowd was in uproar now and his voice was drowned out. People began milling about in agitation and excitement and the Brigadier urged the Princess to make her way to the corner of the room where he could protect her from being crushed. There was a table standing nearby and he dragged it over so that he could put her up on it if necessary. “That's not what I said!” he repeated, and was ignored again. People began calling out that they should storm the palace immediately and great cheers of agreement went up. People began leaving the warehouse to take the news to other people.
“They're not listening,” said the Princess, shouting to be heard above the clamour. “They want it to be true.”
“But what if it isn't? They have to wait until we know for sure.”
“They're not going to wait. It's going to happen, right now, and there's no way we’re going to stop it, any more than you can keep a keg of gunpowder from exploding once the spark hits it.”
“They're disorganised. A rabble, a lynch mob. They could end up fighting each other as different people try to take charge.”
“There's nothing we can do to stop it. All we can do is keep out of the way.”
Even that turned out to be a forlorn hope, though, as the crowd turned to them. “Lead us!” they shouted to the Princess. “Lead us to the palace!”
“This is an internal Carrow matter,” the Brigadier said. “We cannot get involved.”
“But you started this! You came here to lead us in revolt!”
“We did not. We came to negotiate to King Nilon, to try to end the war with our country.”
“But the war's over now! You heard what he said!”
“We can’t assume that on the basis of...”
The crowd wasn't in the mood to listen, though. The demand that the Princess lead their march on the palace grew ever louder, and the Brigadier feared they might try to seize her, take her with them by force. He began to get seriously worried and searched around the room, looking for a way to get her to safety.
“Perhaps we should comply with their request,” suggested the Princess, and a roar of approval rose from the crowd.
“Out of the question,” said the Brigadier firmly.
Ardria put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You said the crowd was disorganised, leaderless,” she said. “If we led it, we could make sure it doesn't get out of control. We could give it unity, stop it from fragmenting into rival factions. Reduce casualties. Make sure there's just one person in control when it’s all over.”
“Leothan would have my head.”
“No he wouldn’t, not if you were obeying my orders. Brigadier, I command you to help me lead these people. I command you to help us take the palace.”
“I strenuously object, Your Highness.”
“Noted. Now obey my commands.”