He reared back and swatted at a black flying thing. “Whoa that was close,” he thought. His ribs hurt and he wondered how long it would take them to feel better. His face hurt too, but that was already starting to do better. He was still going to look horrible in Salkay, but not that it mattered. He looked bad anyway. He was fat and pale. People were always asking him if he was sick. When he said no they asked if he was hurt, and if that’s why he was so large. “Jerks,” he thought. “Just because I don’t spend my day pounding on metal or wood…” He liked to think of himself as the first scholar in Salmont, but now that Arkin was revealing this other side, he thought he might be number two. What was up with Arkin anyway? He sure played his part well, but it didn’t make sense to not take Legon back to the Elves where he belonged. No, there was more to this story, and the others should be asking questions but they weren’t. They trusted the man to the hilt.
They were riding again. Well the rest of them were, but Pixie was still eating. “Come on, let’s go!” He clucked his tongue. This worked for Sasha, why not for him? He tried to kick Pixie’s side. She snorted.
Sasha was calling back to him. “Come on, Keither. You’re in charge, not her. Kick her sides and she’ll go.”
No, she wouldn’t go. They had been going through this exercise all day-he kicked, Pixie ate. And that name! What were people going to think of him when they found out his horse’s name was Pixie? Sasha was heading over now. She looked calm and he knew she was patient, but he still knew this must be driving her nuts.
She got off Murray. “Here Keither, ride Murray the rest of the day. Pixie just needs to be trained, that’s all.”
He got off and remounted Murray, who seemed to be much larger. Once again, the horse didn’t seem to want to respond to him. Sasha got on Pixie and to his amazement, she turned Pixie and started toward the others, clucking just like he had done but this time the horse responded. He grabbed on hard to the saddle as Murray started after Sasha. Clearly, Pixie was not the one in need of training.
Chapter Eleven
Salkay
“It always amazes me that people believe only that which they want to, no matter how absurd. Of course, that being said, people tend to be easy to lead for the same reason, and provided their leader is just, even the truly wicked amongst us can be made into good people.”
— Memoirs of the Ruler of the First Dynasty
They made camp right outside of the town of Salkay. Kovos couldn’t see it, but it was there just over the hill. He could hear the sound of the Kayloose River, one of the largest rivers in the area and the basis for Salkay’s rapid growth. Most towns and villages were built near a body of water, be it a river, stream, or lake. This was the case for Salkay. From what he understood, there were mills in Salkay, and mills meant money.
It was cool this morning and he could see his breath when he got out of the tent. He appeared to be the only one up except for Arkin at the edge of camp, looking not toward the town but back up the road where they’d come, sitting on his heels and not moving a muscle. This must have been the Jeesie or Jezeer or whatever it was called. Kovos didn’t know and frankly he didn’t care. All that stuff was fine for Arkin but not for him.
He began to build a fire. He loved the mornings when he was camping, or at least he loved them when he was sitting at a fire eating. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was small and soft. His heart skipped a beat. Emma? No, not Emma. Sasha.
“Good morning. How are you today?” she said, yawning.
He spoke more to the ground than to her. “I’m fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Yeah I’m fine, really, I am.” She was giving him a knowing look.
“You thought I was Emma, didn’t you?” she asked softly.
“I’m sorry Sasha. How did you sleep?” And moreover, how did she know what he was thinking?
She smiled at him. “Why are you sorry? I’m sure she misses you too.”
“Do you think so? I mean, she said that she loved me, but I don’t know. Now I’m gone and I bet she has her eye on others. I don’t know.” He chuckled a bit. “Listen to me, I sound like a moron. You don’t want to hear my sob story.”
She laughed, and this caught him off guard. “You don’t know anything about women, do you?”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Well no, I guess not.”
“I don’t think you’re a moron, I’m happy for you. It’s cute the…”
“Oh no, don’t start that ‘cute’ stuff. Emma says that crap all the time when I get all soft,” he said pointing a finger at her in a playful way.
“It is cute, and I’m sure she misses you a lot. She even talked to me about you, so there’s a sign.”
That was definitely a sign. Emma didn’t talk to Sasha; none of the girls in town did. They talked about her for sure, but it wasn’t kind.
“She did? What did she say? What did you tell her?” She had his attention now; he didn’t want Sasha to think he was soft, but this was too good. She sat down opposite him and held her hands out over the growing fire. They didn’t even notice Arkin looking at them.
“Well, she came up to me in town and offered to buy me tea. I knew something was up because her parents don’t want her to talk to me. We went to the tavern and she started asking all these questions about you. She thought that you and Legon talked about your relationships all the time.”
“I want to make one thing clear: We never…” Kovos started.
“Yes, I know you’re men. Gods forbid you show emotion. Anyway, after a bit she was trying to get me to tell Legon to tell you to propose to her, so I would say she likes you, even loves you. When you go back home she’ll say yes. And then her dad will probably kill you,” she finished with a smile.
She wanted to marry him. This was great! But something didn’t make sense.
“Sasha, I’m confused.”
“I’m sure, you’re a man.”
“Ha ha. If she loves me, why didn’t she say it or have you tell me to marry her? Why Legon?”
There was a sympathetic look on her face, the same his mother gave him whenever he did or said something stupid but tried to do the right thing.
“She dropped lots of hints.”
“Like what? She never dropped a hint. I’d have noticed.”
“She asked you to pick out linens and table cloths,” Sasha said with a hint of exasperation.
“Yeah, so what?”
“For your new home together.” She was spoon feeding him something but still it didn’t click.
“No, it was for her aunt, not our house.”
“Oh my goodness Kovos, are you really that thick?”
It clicked.
“What!? That’s stupid! Why did she do that? If that’s what she wanted why didn’t she just say it?”
Sasha rolled her eyes at him. “We don’t say it, we hint, and apparently you guys don’t get it.”
“If you guys want something and don’t tell us, then it’s not our fault, it’s yours.”
Sasha chuckled in a bit of a menacing way. “Ha! It’s our fault you aren’t bright enough to figure it out?” Kovos was about to talk but was cut off by Arkin.
“Kovos, she likes you and that’s what matters. Sasha, men are dumb.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“And so are women,” Arkin finished, walking to his tent before Sasha could retort.
Keither thought he heard a debate heating up outside-no doubt Sasha and Kovos talking about relationships. That never ended well. It was a good time to keep quiet. Not that he talked much anyway. The conversation cooled down after breakfast, and Kovos seemed to be in a good mood about Emma liking him.
Keither was happy for him in a way. Except for once, Keither hadn’t ever really liked anybody. That one didn’t matter though; he hadn’t had the balls to talk to her, and the queen’s men had taken her earlier in the year. She had been nice, though. She was one of Sasha’s friends. Come to think of it, her only friend. It’s to
o bad people were terrified of what they didn’t understand.
Keither left his tent and tried to help break camp, but his side was killing him and Legon told him not to do anything.
“I can help,” he insisted.
“I know you can, Keither, but your ribs need to heal, and the fastest way for that to happen is for you not to do much for the next few days. Don’t worry. Once you can help, you will,” he said with a smile.
“Trust him on this one. He knows what he’s talking about,” Kovos added.
Odd. His brother was being nicer to him than before. Maybe he felt bad about what had happened. It didn’t matter; the change was welcome. He knew that Kovos cared about him and only wanted him to be safe and happy, so he didn’t really hold it against him when he was mean. Still, this new way was easier to take. When they were ready to leave Sasha walked Murray over to him.
“I want you to ride Murray for a few days while I work with Pixie, and then it will be your turn to be trained, ok?”
“Ok. Sorry I’m not good at this stuff. Thank you for your help.”
“Don’t be sorry. We all have to learn, and you’ve never had a reason to.”
She was so nice to people. Why on earth was she like that? It didn’t make any sense. These thoughts left him as they rode. They were coming over the hill now and that meant Salkay would be in view. He was excited; one of the traveling merchants that came to town said that Salkay was growing due to the new mills they had built over the last few years. Mills. Now that was where it was at. He had never seen one, so this was going to be good. Most people didn’t appreciate what mills could do.
As they came over the hill, Salkay came into view. It was larger than Salmont, but not by much. There was a big wall surrounding the town and a road leading to the river, which was wide here. The road split in two, each path leading to the river where it then became a fortified mill bridge. The bridge closest to them had five large wheels underneath. On the left on the bridge and closest to the town were two buildings, both with tall roofs and no smoke. Downriver a bit were a larger bridge with seven wheels and two more buildings, both producing huge amounts of smoke.
“Are those mills with fortified bridges?” asked Kovos.
“Yes they are,” responded Arkin.
“What’s with the one with the dome thing by it?” asked Sasha.
The dome thing; Keither hadn’t noticed that. He looked harder. “No way.”
“‘No way’ what, Keither?” Sasha asked.
“Arkin, is that a sanitizer?” he asked excitedly.
“Very good, Keither. Why don’t you tell the others about the mills and the bridges?”
Why had he spoken? Now he was going to have to try to explain this and they were going to think he was a moron. “Come on,” prompted Arkin.
“Well ok, bear with me. I will explain each in turn.” He paused, gathering his thoughts.
“You see that first bridge, the one with five wheels?” They all nodded. “The bridge is fortified because those wheels are the most valuable part of the town. Without them the town will bust, so they need to be protected.” He held up his hand, forestalling questions.
“Let me finish and then you can ask away. Ok, here’s how it works: those wheels are turned by the river’s current and in turn they lead to a gear building. From there the building turns shafts that lead to the structures on either side for various works. Ok?” They nodded, and a proud look crossed Arkin’s face. So far this was going well.
He pointed to the mills closest to them. “Neither of those buildings have smoke stacks, so that probably means that one is a grain mill and the other a saw mill. Like Arkin’s shop, an open flame is an issue in both those buildings, more so for the grain mill. There is enough dust in there to actually make the building explode if ignited.” This time there were a few “Wows!” from the others.
“There’s probably a loom on the lower level of the bridge too. It looks tall enough. Now, the big one downstream that has a lot of smoke is a foundry. The wheels drive billows and hammers, helping them to make a lot of stuff faster.”
Kovos broke in. “Yeah, I’ve heard of those. They’re used to make large-scale stuff and to refine ore into ingots that other smiths can use, but what is the dome for?”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know much about them, but I do know they are made by the Iumenta, and that most large cities have them. Arkin, can you help me out?”
Arkin smiled warmly at him. “Well done, Keither, and yes, I can help you out. Legon, can you tell me what happens to towns with dirty water?”
“People get sick, and I mean really sick, with diphtheria and other disease; that’s why towns put their dung heaps a good distance away from town or in a river to sweep it away.”
“There. You hit it right on the head: put in the river and swept down for another town to deal with. This is one of the only times you will hear me say that the Iumenta did something good, even though they only did it to keep their workforce in better condition.” Arkin really did hate the Iumenta, but Keither wasn’t sure why. They had done some good things, hadn’t they?
“If you look closely at that bridge you’ll see intakes where water is going into the far building. In that building are augers that are powered by the river. They carry water up to a main well in town. As soon as the well reaches a certain level, it encounters another pipe that diverts water to another well, and so on and so forth.” He paused, waiting for questions.
“Ok, so it’s easier to get water,” Legon said.
“Yes, and when the well reaches another level, the water is diverted to a pit where people dump waste, be it food, dung, or otherwise.”
“So then the waste is flushed to the river, I got it.”
“Not yet. The waste is flushed to that dome, which is called a condenser. Under it is a pit that’s around thirty feet deep and at the bottom a huge steel plate. Inside the main building and under the steel plate is a furnace. Bellows are run from the mill, keeping the furnace hot. All of the waste wood and grain from the other mills go there and to the foundry, too. The leftovers from the other mills are small and burn hot and fast. Also, the belongings of sick people can be burned here as well, and in some cases the corpses of the sick.”
“So whatever it is doesn’t spread, right?” asked Sasha. With her background, Keither figured she would show an interest in anything that kept illness from spreading.
“Right. The furnace makes the steel plate hot and boils off the water in the pit. There is another auger that is pumping water inside that dome, which is made of ceramics. Iumenta use a lot of ceramics; it’s one of their specialties. That water keeps the dome cold, so as steam hits is it, the steam condenses into water and is caught in a little ridge with holes that circles the rim of the dome, and then it goes into the river clean.”
“So the waste doesn’t infect another town,” said Legon.
“Correct. At the end of the day there is a stop in the pipe leading to the pit and people go in there and collect all of the remaining waste to be burnt in the furnace the next day. There are some other details from there, but you get how it works now,” he finished.
“Seems like a lot of time and money just to keep a workforce alive,” Keither added. He wasn’t sure just how bad the empire could be. After all, most people lived in relative comfort, and wasn’t it the good of the many that mattered? Moreover, he was feeling confident. None of the others could figure out the stuff he had, so why would Arkin be any different?
“It keeps your workforce healthy, yes. From my understanding this was a big fight with the Elves. Humans resisted placing measures like this in towns and cities because of the cost,” Arkin responded.
“So where the Elves failed the Iumenta have succeeded. Isn’t it possible that the Iumenta are not as bad as some people think, and that they think of the good of the many versus the cost?”
“You’d better not say the Iumenta are misunderstood, Keither,” Sasha said. He was taken ab
ack by the tone in her voice. “Do you think the Royal Guard that killed a woman in front of your eyes was misunderstood? Or was that for the good of the many as well?” There was a defiant bite to her tone now. She did have a point, but the actions of an isolated group of human soldiers didn’t tarnish the entire Iumenta race. He began to open his mouth to retort but was cut off by Arkin.
“We are near town now. This talk can wait for later, and yes, Keither, it is a talk we will have. You don’t have to take my word. The Iumenta are not our friends. I’m sure you will be given more evidence than you have already.”
“But why not now? The…”
“Because we are fugitives and I don’t want attention, that’s why.” Arkin sounded irritated, like Keither had said something ignorant or childish. Was it wrong to want to continue the conversation?
Sasha felt anger seething in her. She couldn’t believe what Keither was saying. Didn’t he understand, didn’t he see how the queen was? This was all “academic” for him; he wasn’t in any near danger of being made a slave. He wasn’t there when they took Sara. She gripped the horn on her saddle harder, hearing the leather creak. It was rare for her to feel anger this strong, but when she did it was usually justified. It wasn’t that Keither didn’t have good points, the good of the many and such, but he was justifying the end result. There was a lot more to justice and good than most of the people having a comfortable lifestyle.
Or was there? She wasn’t sure. She knew the queen was evil, but why? That’s what mattered. Keither’s logic was sound but still she knew it was wrong. She thought hard, not noticing Salkay come closer and closer. Arkin had taught them one of the principles of the Mahann: “Black and white is all there is. Grey is just misunderstanding.” What did that mean?
Her eye caught a glimmer of something silver. They were at the gate of Salkay, and the glimmer was the end of guard’s spear. The owner was leaning against the wall of the town talking to another guard on the other side of the entrance. The man was tall and wearing leather armor with a wooden chest plate. There was about a week’s worth of black stubble on his face that matched his hair. The man looked very friendly, like the guy everyone knew and liked-ideal for a guard.
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