Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (23 page)

“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 too 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 aback 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.

* * * * *

Legon wasn’t nervous about the guards. They probably
wouldn’t bother them.

“Hey there, can I help you find something here?” said
the guard.

These men were paid by the town to keep order and
deter robbers, but also to act as guides. They were nothing like
the guards from children’s stories that always harassed people who
came by and were always ready for a fight. If there was no threat
there was no need. It didn’t make sense for the empire to place
soldiers in every town; if you did that then your fighting force
was too spread out, so each town paid people to do the job. These
people would fight, but they also helped the town thrive. They knew
every shop and resident, so if you needed something when you came
to a town you weren’t familiar with, the guards could guide you.
This was also a great way to protect a town; happy and cheery
guards got people talking, and people that might be trouble often
gave themselves away.