Free The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

popular and prosperous administrator. He sat on the hillside under the shade of a black canvas and watched the ditch-digging and wall-building going on below, and consulted his maps and blueprints, and gave orders to runners, and appeared busily content. He drank water with lemon in it—“For my health, Doctor. A healthy mind in a healthy body!”—and was apparently delighted to sit and make conversation with an educated lady traveler from the North—but his news was not good.
    “No one goes down the river these days, Doctor. It’s not worth the risk. Boats are expensive things to lose.”
    “Are there no police on the river?”
    He laughed. “No police but what we might raise from these men. And we’re brave men in Burren but not soldiers. And maybe there are Agents or wild Folk in the hills. Who knows?”
    “Agents, Mr. Harrison?”
    “The servants of the Gun, Doctor. We try to stay neutral out here, but the Gun’s Agents get everywhere. Nothing we can do about it, is there? Just have to wait till they move on, that’s all.”
    “I’ve heard stories—the Gun’s Agents are said to be dangerous men, but they are only men, are they not? Is there nothing you can do?”
    Harrison smiled and said, “You didn’t learn much about this country before you set out, did you? First thing a businessman learns is to know the country he’s traveling in.”
    “Enlighten me, then. Please.”
    “There are greater powers than the human out here, Doctor. The earth here is haunted.”
    She frowned. He called himself a businessman but talked like a mystic, or a lunatic. Under happier conditions, she would have found that interesting; now it just annoyed her.
    He pointed out over the maze of ditches and earthworks and foundations. “It’s not so bad out here. Burren Hill was settled two hundred and thirty-some years ago, and our soil’s old and steady. But I still worry when we have to dig what we might dig up. What we might wake up. You just never know. Gun and Line had to be born somewhere, didn’t they, in some town that was only going about its business? It’ll only get worse as you go out west.”
    “How do I go west from here, Mr. Harrison?”
    “That’s the question, isn’t it? That’s the ten-thousand-dollar question. Someone might sell you a horse, but I couldn’t in conscience advise you to ride alone. The river’s closed, and it’s slow and so damn expensive to send caravans, and our cargoes are rotting in our warehouses, and our investors aren’t happy. This, too, will pass, of course—if we keep faith. But how? You tell me, Doctor. We are building fortifications, as you can see, but will it help? Shall I have a boy bring us more water?”
    “I was told to get to a town called Gloriana, and from there I was told I could take the Line west.”
    “Gloriana’s a Station, not a town.”
    “A town of the Line, yes. Is there a difference?”
    “You’ll know the difference when you see it. If you see it. It’s in Line country. We’re neutral here. No one’s going to want to take you near it.”
    “I see.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say. Most of what Harrison said seemed nonsensical to her, and a number of sharp questions rose to her mind, but she didn’t want to risk offending him. The horizon was a red-brown haze in every direction. Irritably she brushed away flies as Harrison sipped his water.
    “Adversity strengthens us, Doctor.”
    “Does it?” she snapped. “I would be interested to see your evidence.”
    “Ten years in business and still by and large prospering is my evidence, Doctor.”
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Harrison. I’m not used to the heat here.”
    “Are you a Smiler, Doctor?”
    “I’m afraid that’s another question I don’t understand,.”
    “The New Thought, Doctor. The practice is a great help in times of adversity. Would you like me to have a boy bring you a pamphlet?”
    “Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Thank you. I’d like that.”
    He stood and