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eBook Category: Alternate History Sidewise Award Nominee
eBook Description: Suppose the movement for women's rights in the 1800s had adopted the tactics of another minority who felt their rights to be threatened? In desperate circumstances, Susannah and her sisters take the law into their own hands in "The Invisible Empire."

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Conjunctions #39, ed. Peter Straub, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: August 2003

272 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [72 KB], eReader (PDB) [30 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [16 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [16 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [66 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [89 KB], hiebook (KML) [48 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [45 KB], iSilo (PDB) [13 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [18 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [45 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [27 KB]
Words: 5028
Reading time: 14-20 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Anonymous riders wearing hoods, stalking the night to avenge the wrongs that an unfeeling society declares to be received truth. John Kessel's "The Invisible Empire" is the closest to a true genre piece in this volume, possibly because of the touch of melodrama it employs. But it yields a sizeable impact in its short length."--Steve Carper, Tangent Online (Learn more about Tangent Online, the Internet's leading SF&F short fiction review website)

When Henrietta and Hiram Patterson arrived at the church that Sunday, Henrietta's arm was bound to a splint, tied up in a sling made from a blue kerchief. In the quiet chat of the congregation before we entered the church, Henrietta allowed as how she had been kicked by the mule, but I was not the only observer to notice Hiram's sidelong watchfulness, and the fact that their two boys kept their mother between themselves and their father at all times.

The congregation was more subdued than usual in the wake of the news of that week. Robert and I sat in the third pew; Sarah sat with her husband and three children a row ahead of us. Lydia Field, her black hair piled high beneath a modest straw hat, kept watch from the choir loft. Beautiful Iris sat in front with her beau Henry Fletcher. Louellen was not a church-goer, and Sophonsiba attended the colored church.

As the Pattersons took seats in our pew, I nodded toward them. Hiram, shaved clean and his hair parted neatly in the middle, nodded gravely back. Henrietta avoided my gaze. Their older boy took up a hymnal and paged through it.

The service began with the singing of "When Adam Was Created"

When Adam was created,
He dwelt in Eden's shade;
As Moses has related,
Before a bride was made.

I looked up at Lydia in the choir. Her eyes closed, she sang as sweetly as an angel; one would think her the picture of feminine submission. Another angel was Sarah, mother and homemaker. Certainly Henry Fletcher considered Iris an angel sent from heaven to entice him.

I felt for Robert's hand, and held it as I sang.

This woman was not taken
From Adam's head, we know;
And she must not rule o'er him,
It's evidently so.
The husband is commanded
To love his loving bride;
And live as does a Christian,
And for his house provide.
The woman is commanded
Her husband to obey,
In every thing that's lawful,
Until her dying day.

As the song ended the Reverend Hines climbed to the pulpit. He stared down for some time without speaking, the light from the clerestory gleaming off his bald pate. Finally he began.

"I take my text, on this day of retribution, from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 22 through 24. 'Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.'"