The People March

Graham has escaped one set of captors only to find himself at the centre of a crowd too large to understand.

The fall leaves him shaking and barely able to stand. The theatre around him is filled from floor to galleries with people shouting, clapping and reaching toward him.

A dark young man in yellow offers a restorative drink. A tall man in black tries to speak over the noise.

Behind them stands a young woman in a luminous grey robe. Her dark eyes remain fixed on Graham with a mixture of wonder and concern.

This is Helen Wotton, though Graham will learn her name later.

For the moment, every face around him appears to know more about his life than he does.

Graham seizes the man in black and asks the simplest question available: who am I?

The answer is not his name.

He is told that he is Master of the Earth—the owner of the world.

Graham assumes he has misunderstood. He repeats what little he knows: he has been awake three days, imprisoned by the white-robed Council and rescued in the middle of a revolt.

Why should any of this make him master?

The men explain the legal structure Howard only hinted at.

During Graham's sleep, his estate grew until its trustees controlled enormous portions of land, industry, credit and government.

The Council rules in Graham's name because it administers property that still belongs, formally, to him.

One of the revolutionaries makes the Hall's symbolism explicit: Graham is the true Atlas. The world rests upon his shoulders.

The title is both absurd and terrifying. Graham owns a civilisation he has never seen.

He asks about the name he heard on the Moving Ways.

Ostrog is the organiser of the revolt, the man who spent years building networks against the Council. He has acted in the Sleeper's name and turned Graham's awakening into the decisive moment of an existing struggle.

The tall man introduces himself as Lincoln, Ostrog's half-brother.

Ostrog is elsewhere directing operations from the wind-vane offices. He wants Graham shown to the people and then brought to him.

The revolution has a leader. What it needs from Graham is legitimacy.

The strategy is larger than the shouting theatre. Labour Companies have been organised and armed. Supporters intend to seize the flying stages so that the Council cannot escape or bring forces against the city.

Graham understands almost none of the institutions, but he understands the immediate contrast.

The Council locked him away and apparently debated how to silence him.

These people risked their lives to free him.

That is enough to determine his sympathies, if not yet his politics.

The noise outside the small room changes. Thousands of voices gather into a marching song. Feet begin striking the floor in unison until the architecture itself seems to pulse.

The people demand to see the Sleeper.

A black mantle is placed over Graham's shoulders. Lincoln guides him toward the open hall.

Men and women of every age and condition fill the space: rich clothing, grey rags and the dominant blue canvas of common labourers. Black banners move above the crowd.

The future is no longer a collection of strange machines. It is a population in motion.

Graham is shown to them.

The response carries him beyond exhaustion. People call him Master, Owner and Sleeper. They shout Ostrog's name beside his.

Lincoln urges him to acknowledge them. Graham raises his arm.

The hall erupts.

He points toward the archway through which the crowd is already flowing, and they take the gesture as a command to advance.

The people march on the Council.

For the first time since waking, Graham does something and the future answers. The sensation is intoxicating—and far more dangerous than he understands.