This story came out of a little challenge I set my self as a warm up to nanowrimo in 2007.
A friend suggested a title or possibly a theme of ‘drawing the short sword’. I played around with this idea for a while and since I’d just finished my story ‘The Merlin Artifice’ I was still thinking in a fantasy type of way. So I came up with a few (very bad) ideas around the sort of Arthur and Excabiliber theme. None of them really worked and for sure wouldn’t have worked in the sort of length of story I needed for this warm up.
So I switched track to a sort of half idea I’d had a while back about a world where the people are kept in check by huge machines, that they have no control over and no virtually nothing about. The short sword suddenly had a new meaning in context of this idea. It was going to be some kind of weapon to use against these machines. I started work on the idea and the story its self. However as often happens with my ideas, it grew and suddenly I had a whole world and lots of epic scale stories to tell. None of which really fitted in to the short story length I needed for the warm up.
So the idea got left in my ideas file and I gave up the idea of warming up for nanowrimo that year.
The next year (2008) I tired the same thing and recycled the title of ‘drawing the short sword’ but again I couldn’t really fit the idea in to the length of a short story.
I finally deiced it was time to give the story the room it needed to expand in to in 2009 and this is the result.
As I mentioned I do have the back ground of the whole world, sort of worked out, although many details are still very vague, so this story is very much an introduction to one maybe two of the main characters in what could become an epic saga (one day, maybe!)
The still, silence of the night was suddenly broken by a call from one of the machines. The sound shook the ground. No one could sleep through that sound.
The sound always filled me with fear, but it wasn’t unusual. The sounds that followed where.
A few seconds after the machines call, the ground shook and the air was filled with the sounds of things breaking, wood, stone and metal. Then the machine called again, but this was not the normal call of the machines. It sounded like it was in pain. The call was long and forlorn. The call faded and then broke up in to strange, grating harmonies.
What ever was happening out in the darkness it was not normal. The machines had not been anywhere near the village the previous day, one must have approached quickly in the night and then…something had happened.
We dare not venture out in the darkness. If there was a large machine close then there where sure to be small machines. They could still easily lift a man and take him…to where ever the machines took people.
Marta, me and mother all huddled together in the darkness of the room. Only the dimly glowing embers of the fire cast any light. Father checked at the windows. If there was a machine heading for the village we would have to flee.
But this didn’t sound like a machine doing it’s processing. This was an entirely different sound.
In the seconds after the long broken call of the machines our ears rang, but there was no sound coming from the machine. It must have been very close, but we heard none of the sounds which could spell doom for the village.
We sat together in the darkness, not daring to sleep again, until the first light of the dawn signalled the start of a new day.
As soon as it was light everybody went outside. The whole village needed to know just what had happened the night before. In the fields to the north we saw the source of sounds last night.
There was a machine sitting on the edge of the forest. Part of one corner lay over the ford and was now resting in the fields. The machine was on the ground!
I had never seen a machine on the ground, even when they where processing they never touched the ground, some hidden force lifted the things beneath the machine in to the huge scopes and funnels. They never needed to touch the land.
But this one had buried one of its corners in to fields.
It was not one of the big machines, but it was still bigger than anything man could build. It was a pyramid of intricate metal piping and machinery, maybe 200 yards along each side.
And it was sitting on the edge of our fields, still and silent. The machines never stayed still and there was always some sound coming from them.
Was it dead? Could a machine die?
It looked dead. Some small fires burnt around the edges of it. And from here, on the slight rise that the village was built on I could see that it had cut a path through the forest. This was not the clean clear path normally left by a machine when it was processing. Broken trees littered the path.
The machine had crashed in to the ground and had died. I was sure of it.
“Father, is it dead?” I asked.
He looked unsure and then with a nervous smile said, “No machines don’t die. They go on forever”.
It looked dead to me.
Some of the men had started to walk slowly down the hill to get a closer look at the machine. It was dangerous even to be this close to one, but I was now sure it was dead or at least dying. There where none of the little machines flying around it, there was no sound. The machine had died.
What did this mean? A dead machine? I looked around for Michael, if any one was going to know if a machine had died before, it would be him. He was the village techonmancer. He didn’t like me much, he didn’t think it was good for a girl to do much thinking, but he would know if this had happened before.
The men where now getting very close to the machine, just a few yards away. They where moving very slowly, unsure, getting ready to run if any of the small machines should appear. But the machine was still and silent.
Michael was standing by the village wall of reeds, looking at the machine through his viewing glass. This tube made images of distant objects look much closer than they where. That was Michael’s way. He was not a brave man, but he was very clever. Maybe being brave was just being stupid? I didn’t have time for such things now, I had to ask about the machine. I ran over to him.
“Michael, Michael” I called to him. He looked my way briefly and then returned to looking through the viewing glass.
“Has you ever heard of this happening before, a machine dying? You must know if this has happened”.
“Dying! Machines don’t die, my dear. Now please leave me alone. I have far to much work to do, with out having to talk to you today”. He didn’t even look at me.
“What’s happened then? I mean if it’s not dead, then what is it doing?”
Michael shook his head. “I don’t know. But we don’t know what the machines do or why they don’t process all of the time, or even why they are here. So I don’t have any answers or any more time to talk too silly little girls. Leave me alone!”
He was annoyingly right. Pretty much all we knew about the machines was that they where very dangerous.
“Artemis, come on leave Michael to his work”, Mother called.
I headed back to her.
Father was walking forward to the machine as well now. Most of the men of the village where. It seemed to be safe. I started to head towards it as well.
“Artemis, no! Come here” Mother called. She knew me too well. I walked back to her side. I had to be content with looking at the dead machine from afar.
It was surely dead. The men where now touching it, if the machine where alive and working it would have never let them do that.
How had it died? Did machines grow old like we did? What would happen to it now?
I wanted to know, but there was no way I was going to find out anything just standing here watching like Michael was. He might pretend he was learning something from this but I was sure he was just staying back in case this was just some sort of trap.
“Nothing is going to happen”, I told mother as I turned and headed back for our hut.
“What are you going to do Artemis?” She asked.
“Oh I’m just going to get my chores for the day. Nothing is going to happen with the machine now”.
“Your so sure are you. Very well go on with the chores, I’ll be there in a while”. Mother said with a knowing smile. It wasn’t fair! She always knew when I was going to try and do something different or something that a girl shouldn’t be doing.
I headed towards our hut, but I had no intension of going there just yet. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but our hut was not part of it just yet.
As I walked something caught my eye. Movement. Something moved in the fields. I just caught it in the corner of my eye.
There was a man laying in the field, he had started to stand up but fell back down again. He couldn’t be from the village, I was sure. Every one in the village was watching the machine, apart from me. He was not a villager, I could see that now, he was wearing metal armour, no one in the village had armour like that.
Again he tried to stand up, but again he couldn’t make it. He must have been hurt. Maybe he had been here last night when the machine crashed and had been hurt then! I had to find out. This was going to be my discovery, the rest of the village wouldn’t be able to see him, so I would get to him first. Maybe he saw what happened>
I ran quickly over to him.
He looked up at me as I arrived breathlessly. He was a very big man and his armour made him look even larger. I’d only ever seen men in armour like this at the fair. The Dukes men at arms wore armour like this, but I didn’t think he looked like one of the dukes men.
“Ah hello” He said with a board smile that quickly turned in to a wince. He tried to stand up again, I offered him my hand. He smiled again. ”I don’t think you’ll be much help somehow” he told me, but I still offered my hand. He winced again then took my hand and I pulled as he stood. He was very heavy.
I’m not sure I was any help to him, but this time he got to his feet. He groaned loudly. “Ah..aaah. Thank you little lady”. He looked around. “So can you tell me where I have found my self?”
I frowned. ”This is the village of Grendor, sir”.
“Grendor…grendor”. He scratched his long unkempt black hair. ”No I don’t know it I’m afraid and I’m not a sir. My name is Ivan and yours is?”
“Artemis. So how did you come to be in this field and not know where you are? Did you get lost in the dark?”
The man, Ivan grinned again. ”Lost in the night, you could say that”. Suddenly he looked around again. As he did he stumbled but still managed to stay standing. ”You haven’t found any one else like me laying in the fields have you?”
The man must have seen the machine laying in the woods, but he didn’t seem to take any notice of it.
“Err..”
“Hey you” A call came from the distance. It was one of the villagers, they had spotted me and Ivan now. Seeing that nothing else was happening they must have started back to there daily tasks. The three men started to run towards us.
“Friends of yours?” Ivan asked. I shrugged, I didn’t know, I couldn’t see there faces from here.
One of them might have been my father.
It was! ”Artemis” He called. I waved to him.
The two other men slowed when they saw Ivan’s armour and the sword which I had just noticed hanging from his belt.
Father grabbed me and held me close. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly.
“Yes I’m fine. This is Ivan he got lost last night…”.
I pulled away from Father and turned back to face Ivan. “If you got lost in the night you must have seen the machine fall from the sky”.
Ivan grinned. “Oh your a sharp one aren’t you? Don’t miss a thing hey. Yes we saw the machine fall. We had a great view of the thing fall. We where on it!”
The other two men where now approaching slowly and cautiously.
“What!”
“Thats impossible. No one has ever survived being picked up by a machine” I looked at father. I was sure this was true, but Father would know.
“Well that might be true, but we didn’t get picked up, we boarded the thing our selves”
The other men had now arrived. Others where following them as well now. The machine was not the only thing of interest this morning.
“But why would you get on a machine?” Father asked.
Ivan sighed. “A very good question, one I should have asked before we did it. It wasn’t my idea, some friends suggested it and well I went along with it”. Ivan looked around again. “Maybe they didn’t make it off the machine” He said almost to him self.
“Your friends?” I asked.
He nodded and then kneeled down in front of me. “Well not really my friends. I knew them, but they where paying me to come along. If they got them selves killed…well it was their choice. It was a silly idea. And I’m paying for it now”. He grimaced as he stood up again. “Still if they are out there, I really should look for them. Could you help?” Ivan looked at Father.
Father was about to say something, when one of the other men cut in. “Why would you want to get on a machine?”
“Ah, one of my…er friends is a technomancer and well you know what they are like. He just had to see one of them up close. Real close”.
“Well if you know technomancers you should talk to the technomancer in the village. He will know what to do”.
“Well I know what to do, see if any of the other silly buggers survived and drag them back home so they can pay me. But if this will help, I’ll speak to your technomancer, but I know nothing of the machines”.
The others led Ivan towards the village. I followed too, but I was sure I would not be allowed to hear what he had to say to Michael. I made my way up to the front of the little group.
“So what was it like on the machine?” I asked. It seemed a very sensible and obvious question to me but the others seemed to be worried about me asking it.
“Now come on Arteims you can’t ask such things. Let the poor man get his bearings back”.
“But it’s what Michael will ask. Why can’t I ask the same thing?”
Ivan smiled a toothy grin at me and then father. “Ah your daughter? You should be proud of such a young lady. She asks canny questions. We need such people”.
Ivan looked back to me. “Well what can I tell you? It looks much the same from the inside as the out. Lots of pipes, glass, iron and strange flickering lights. Our technomancer was so excited by everything he saw. He was constantly babbling about this and that. Truth be told I only understood 1 word in 10 he said”.
Ivan sighed. “It was an amazing and terrible place. We should have never boarded the thing”.
“What happened?” I asked, there had to be more he wasn’t telling me. Ivan stopped and slowly knelled down in front of me. It looked like this hurt him quite a bit.
“Never, ever be afraid to ask questions. But please don’t be offended if I decide not to answer that one”. He stood up and we walked on. We where in the village now
“It was very silly of us to get on the thing. I must have been very drunk when I agreed to help them. Of course the gold they offered me helped as well. But it seems they didn’t plan a way to get off once they where on. So we had to…er improvise a bit. Stopping the machine was so stupid. I…”
“You talk total nonsense”. It was Michael’s voice. He stood before out little group, his arms folded on his chest. One of the other men had run on ahead and must have told him Ivan’s story. “No man has ever survived being picked up by a machine and the idea that you could do anything to a machine just shows how little you understand them”.
Ivan shrugged. “Oh I know I don’t understand them. There I think is the difference between us. You think you do, I know I do not”.
Michael turned away from us. “I have no time for this nonsense. I have a machine to observe closer than has ever been seen before”.
“Well observe then. Climb all over it. It is safe now. It’s dead”.
I knew it! The machine was dead.
Michael shook his head and turned back to face us. “It is not dead. Machines don’t die. It is not safe to get to close to it”
This time Ivan turned away. “Well you had better tell your people that. They where getting pretty close to it”.
“I touched it” A voice came from the crowd that was gathering around us. “So did I” Another voice shouted out. Ivan stopped and looked back at Michael. He seemed confused for a moment, torn between two things. Ivan seemed to be enjoying this, I thought. He and Michael exchanged glances. What was going on between these two?
“No one is to go near the machine. We must learn what we can from a distance. It is still not safe. We must summon other techonmancers to study this machine”.
Ivan smiled, it seemed that he thought he had won, and then turned and started to walk off.
“And you” Michael called after him. “The man that stopped the machine, must be held and punished!”. Ivan stopped and turned to face Michael once more.
“Well seize him then!” Michael shouted to the crowd. Father grabbed my hand.
Ivan looked around. No one seemed to be moving towards him. He took a step forward, most of the crowd took a step back. Ivan, I was sure winked at me.
“Grab him!” Michael shouted. Two men stepped towards Ivan. Father started to pull me away, but I slipped my hand out of his and moved back to Ivan’s side.
This man had been on a machine, he had killed it. How many people had been killed by these things? We had lived in terror under them for so many generations now and this man had at last done something about it.
Ivan looked at me and then the two men slowly approaching him. He shook his head and stepped away from me. Father grabbed my hand again.
“Come on, it’s not safe”. He said. This time he held my hand tight. I could not get free. He pulled me from Ivan and the crowd.
“So you want to hold me then” Ivan shouted. “What for? What have I done wrong?”
“You by your own admission killed a machine”.
“Ha! You said I couldn’t even have got on to the machine. Now you say I could have killed it”.
Father stopped. Every one was looking at Michael now. It seemed Michael had nothing to say. Ivan took another step forward, Michael took a tiny step back.
Ivan turned to face the crowd. “So what if I did kill the machine. If I hadn’t you would have probably all been dead by now. The machine was coming this way. Would your village have survived such a close shave with a machine?”
“It only came our way because of your interference” Michael snarled. “You are the one that has put us in harms way. There will be other machines coming now. They will destroy us all. And it’s all your fault!” Michael stepped foward and jabbed his finger at Ivan. “Kill him!”
A man stepped forward, Ivan put his hand on his sword. “I don’t want to fight anyone here. So I’m going to walk out of here” Ivan looked at the man who had stepped forward. “Please don’t do anything stupid like try to attack me”.
The crowd parted in front of Ivan as he walked towards them.
“Don’t just stand there…” Michael spluttered. Father released my hand and walked over to him. He spoke to him for a few moments.
I headed over to Ivan. “Sorry” I told him.
“No it’s okay. I should really be saying sorry to you. Your Technomancer could be right, other machines might come to investigate what’s happened here. Sorry but it might be wise for your village to move”.
I thought about this for a moment. “But if you have killed one machine, couldn’t you do it again?” I asked.
“Not with out our Technomancer. He knew where to hit the machine…” Ivan looked at the mountain of metal that now cast a shadow over the village. “Just one little sword was all it took. Sorry. It was a stupid thing to do and now that mistake could cost you your village. I had better leave”.
He walked on. A few of the others watched him leave, but my Father and Michael seemed to be centre of attention now. I walked on beside Ivan. He was limping quite heavily now.
I walked along side him. For a a few moments he looked lost in his thoughts, then he stumbled and fell.
“Ah, dammit”. He tried to get to his feet again. Clearly he was in pain. I offered my hand to help but he refused it.
“See this is what happens to you when you let greed get the better of your brain. You wind up, sitting in the mud in some backwater village that no one has ever heard of”. He shouted as he hit the ground angry, I took a step back. He looked at me. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you”. His voice was back to it’s normal deep soft tone. “It’s just I’m a city boy. Your village is very nice, I’m sure”. He started to get to his feet again. He struggled and winced as he did.
“Uh oh”. He whispered. “This isn’t good”. I turned around to look behind me.
Some of the men where heading towards us, they didn’t look happy.
“You’d better go now”. Ivan told me. There was a hard edge to his voice now that I’d not heard before.
Father ran on ahead of the men. “I can…”
“Go. Now!” Ivan shouted. He tried to stand again.
“Artemis!” Father called. He was gesturing for me to get away from Ivan. I tried to pull Ivan up by his arm.
“Go little girl! Get away from me”. Ivan shouted. He pushed me away.
“Come on Artemis. We have to go, now”. Father had reached us. “Sorry I did all I could” he told Ivan. Ivan nodded grimly. Father grabbed my hand. I knew what was going to happen here, I couldn’t let it happen. It was not Ivan’s fault, it was Michael, he had made these men in to the monsters that where coming to get Ivan. I wasn’t going to let it happen.
“Father! We can’t leave Ivan here. He can’t stand properly. They will kill him”.
“They can try” Ivan said standing, shakily at last.
The men where almost on us now. “It’s not fair”. I shouted at Father as he pulled me away. I tried to pull free of his grip but he wasn’t letting me go now. “Stop. You idiots” I shouted at the men. “He’s not hurt us”. But it made no difference they had reached him now and they hit him with staffs and jabbed him with pitch forks. Ivan used his sword to block the blows, but there where to many of them. The blows started falling on him and he staggered under them.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!” I screamed at the crowd.
Ivan fell and the crowd cheered. More men gathered around now. One was with in reach of me. I lashed out at him with one hand. “Stupid, stupid man”. The man caught by surprise stumbled and fell. I went to kick him, suddenly filled with a strange savage glee at the pain I was about to inflict. Father pulled me away.
“We are leaving now”. There was a iron in that voice. This brought me back to my senses.
Then the sound hit us.
It was the call of a machine. Every one stopped.
The call was not loud so it can’t have been close. But the call of a machine was never ignored.
Every one scanned the horizon and there in the distance was a hill that had not been there before. It was a machine. It was still along way off but for us to see it now, the machine must have been huge.
Some of the men around Ivan ran, others just stood there with there mouths open. I gazed at the machine for a few seconds before realising that Father had released his grip on my hand. I took my chance and slid through the crowd of men to Ivan.
He was laying there blood stained and splattered in mud but still trying to get up. His armour looked very battered now, but he was still alive. More of the men where running now. They would be heading for Michael, asking what to do.
“Aarrghh” He grunted as he turned to face me. “Ah lassie, you shouldn’t be here. What’s going on?”
“A machine is coming” I told him as I tried to pull him up.
“Artemis” Father called. “Over here” I shouted back.
There where only two men standing by me and Ivan now. One looked down at me and gave Ivan a kick, then ran off. The other saw Father approaching and ran too.
“Sorry las, I’ve bought this down on all you now”.
“We have to help Father”. He nodded and helped me get Ivan on his feet again. “Lets get you inside before the mob decides to return”.
“Och, no, You can’t no that, I don’t want put you and your family in any more danger than I already have”.
Father just smiled at him and we headed for our hut.
