Revenant Slaves Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Zain

Read chapter 17 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chapter 16: Zain Strong winds swept across the black, glass-like, igneous rocky plains of Mortrum. The rain had completely stopped, and the planet’s distant star rose above the horizon. Its gigantic moon was visible. The gleaming lights of its metropolis lit the moon's planet-facing side. The home cities of the wonderful sovereigns of Mortrum. Huge dark circles marred the surface of the shining moon, an entire rebellion happening in the stars. Zain took comfort in the fact that it was proof they weren’t alone. They had allies, brothers and sisters struggling for the same cause alongside them. Losing friends, inspiring new ones. This fight had been a long time coming. The only sad mark on it was that it had taken a princess of the enemy to rile them into this cohesive action. But that too was all part of their leader’s plan. Ibrahim, the empire’s plague, and the silent hope of its people. When he was old enough to understand, his mother had told him his full name, Zain Ibrahim, and then forbade him from ever speaking it. She had told him some tales of his father, not the legend, the man, the truth of him. He had never seen a picture of Ibrahim. In that regard, he was in the same category as the rest of the universe. After his mother had died, he had kept that secret, even from his adoptive sister, Maya, who had taken care of him ever since. “The settlement is coming into view. There aren’t any patrols out. I believe it is because of the blackouts. But we should still be careful,” Ash shouted from up ahead, coming to a halt. He was carrying the white containers in his hands and on his back just like Zain had been. Miru ran up beside him. The little girl had insisted upon not being carried ever since the city had disappeared behind them. Zain stopped as well, turning back to look at Maya, who was bringing up the rear, the only person among them with their weapon unholstered. Zain studied Maya’s face. It had gotten paler, and her lips were extremely dry. ‘ How much blood did she lose before she reached the safehouse? ’ Zain knew his sister's stubbornness all too well, so he walked over to Ash instead. Ash was at the edge of the ridge, overlooking the area ahead. Zain walked over to him and looked out at the settlement that clung to the borders of the volcanic caldera. A giant crater in the ground, created by a very violent explosion somewhere in the planet’s history. There were still lava streams dotting the vast crater of the caldera . At its center lay the glowing extraction basin, where slaves harvested cindersteel from cooling slag fields under ash-choked skies and distant eruptions. One of the unique resources found on Mortrum, it was also what made taming this hellhole worth it. There was an observation plateau elevated above the top of the border ridges overlooking the whole caldera plain and the settlement. There were refining and storage facilities followed by a network of rails and what seemed to be a fully loaded supply train. On the edge of the industrialized zone, shabby huts and scrap-built shelters clustered beyond the formal barracks, patched together from discarded metal sheets and polymer fabric. Smoke from cooking fires mixed with volcanic steam, and dim lamps flickered against the sulfur-stained haze. Ironically, the factory and the imperial observation plateau lay dark and silent. The only sign of human life came from the disheveled slave encampments on the outskirts. It was all too orderly, too peaceful. There were hundreds of such industrialized zones with their shares of slave populations spread out in all directions around the city that Zain and the others had just left behind. They would have had to comb through all of them to find Rain, so it was incredibly lucky that they had run into Ash. Which didn’t make his task any easier. He still had to visit each similar settlement in this part of the planet. Riling people up, making them stand against the empire. ‘ Creating chaos ,’ Zain didn’t like how those t