He smiled despite himself. No room for quaint talk with this one.
“For now, I suppose.”
The applause died down, and Alex stepped forward to make his own additions to Malverston’s speech. James’s lips twitched into a helpless grin when he started talking, and he began wielding the crowd with practised ease. It was a skill he had had plenty of time to hone over the years, before audiences ranging from agoraphobic hermits to the backward backstreet scavenger communities in the ruins of the northern cities. The crowd’s noises took on an attentive note, and the grumbling shifted to enthused muttering.
He didn’t have to say much. “My friends, today is an historic point in our time. I hope in future years we can all look back on this as a turning point from the descent toward darkness which the End set in motion. Together, I believe we can reverse the fall of the Old World. Humanity has been struck down, but it is not defeated. There is hope in the myriad resources all around us—the time capsules left behind in the form of technology, and the knowledge hidden away in our rotting libraries.
“Things may seem desperate. As a civilisation, we are on the brink of ruin, fractured and alone. We have forgotten much of what once made us who we were. Make no mistake when I say, no matter what we do, all paths that lay before us will be difficult to travel. But we have a choice: we can choose to fight the creeping darkness, to take back what made us powerful and wise, to fight ignorance and cruelty and greed.”
Malverston’s piggy eyes twitched, but Alex continued. “All it takes is friendship. United, we can halt the decay of the bounty left behind.”
James inhaled despite himself. Beth was pushing up against his jacket. For a moment he almost pushed her away on instinct, but then took note of the crowd, rapturously focused on Alex’s every word. He glanced down at her, and risked stroking her face. A shiver ran from his finger all the way to the top of his head, tickling his heart as it passed through his chest.
“When will I see you again?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.” Lucian’s note popped into his head once more. “Maybe a while. But I’ll be back.”
He jerked, holding in a yelp. A chill had jolted through his midriff. His nerves were raw, overloaded for a moment. Then he felt her hand tracing a path across his thigh. “If you’re not, I’ll kill you.”
He swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”
Alex was still working his magic. “This unity will take time to set in order, and so for a time, we must part ways once more. But in the meantime, you can still make a difference, every one of you. You all have the power to change your own destinies.”
“Indeed, indeed!” Malverston’s boomed, smearing the nervousness that had crept into his voice by adding a sprinkle of jovial laughter. “With the help of a few key individuals, we can all move towards a brighter future.”
Alex’s face was neutral, but his eyes flashed with something akin to the humouring patience a parent would show a hyperactive child. “Yes, we can. But it’s important to remember that we each have a path set out before us, and where that path leads is up to us. If we’re content to wallow and shirk opportunity, to merely survive, then our last chance will slip through our fingers. But if we each act towards a common goal, then together, we can reap all that we sow. The power to save the world is in your hands.”
Moments later, the crowd erupted into raucous applause of its own accord, no urging or bullying required. It was the same everywhere they went. People had been told by the neo-feudal lords who had first seized power that they lived under the dominion of a few, that only through servitude and fealty could they bear the brunt of the great fall to come, when the leftovers of the Old World were utterly spent. All it took was for someone to lift the wool from their eyes.
One day, James would stand where Alex stood. His fate had been decided from the moment they met, days after the End. Alex had been a spotty teenager, James a newborn infant. The first people either of them had seen since the End in a new, hostile, lonely world. They had been together since.