Shuddering, he turned to a large hole carved into the rock to one side and stepped through into another roughly cut passage. This continued in a straight line for quite a distance, and he realised he must be far from the occupied caves of the city now.
I hope I’m not technically leaving the city, he thought. Then I’ll be breaking a rule. I could argue that I didn’t know the sewers were outside the city, but I don’t think as many Traitors would be so willing to believe in my innocence as last time if I’m found to be sneaking about again.
If only Tyvara was allowed to see him. He could have simply visited her then at her rooms. He would have liked to see what her rooms were like. What would they tell him about her?
Sometimes it feels as if I know too little about her, he thought. I only know what people tell me, and what I learned of her on the journey from Arvice to Sanctuary. People aren’t going to describe her rooms to me. I’m sure it would not make me love her less if she had terrible taste in furnishings or kept her rooms a mess.
The passage began to curve gently. After several hundred more steps he saw a light ahead. He shrank his globe light until it was just bright enough that he wouldn’t trip in the dark, and quietened his footsteps.
As he neared the end of the tunnel a rushing sound reached him. He peered out, but could see nobody close by. Emerging from the tunnel, he found himself on a ledge carved into the site of a huge, natural underground tunnel. The rushing sound abruptly grew louder and gained a rhythmic beat. He leaned forward to look down and saw a narrow but swiftly running river below; the ledge was several times the height of a house above it. A large water wheel pushed water out of a side tunnel to join the larger flow. This water was a darker colour.
That’s the sewer, he realised.
The air was not as fragrant as he’d feared, perhaps because of how far away the dark water and water wheel was. If you can operate such a mechanism from a distance, why wouldn’t you? And I suppose you could create a magical shield to keep the bad air away, too.
“Lorkin.”
He jumped at the voice and looked around, but could not see anybody.
“Up here.”
Looking up, he saw that two women were peering down at him from a ledge above, both sitting on a stone bench carved out of the rock. One was Tyvara and the other …
He blinked in surprise and dismay as he realised the other was the queen.
Recovering, he hastily performed the hand-on-heart genuflection. The queen smiled and beckoned to him. He looked to either side. There were no stairs or ladder.
“You can levitate, can’t you?” Tyvara asked.
He nodded. Creating a disc of force beneath his feet, he lifted himself upwards until he was level with the ledge, then remained floating.
“Am I breaking any rule doing this?” he asked of the queen. “I know Tyvara isn’t supposed to talk to me.”
“Never mind that,” Zarala replied, waving a hand. “Nobody is here to see. Actually, we were just talking about you.”
He looked from her to Tyvara and back, noting the glint of humour in their gaze as he stepped onto the ledge. “All praise and admiration, I hope.”
“Wouldn’t you love to know?” Zarala laughed, the wrinkles deepening around her eyes.
Once again he found himself liking her automatically. He wondered where her helper was. How had she got here all on her own?
“So, why are you here?” the queen asked. She patted the seat beside her.
He looked at Tyvara as he sat down. “To thank Tyvara for a favour she did me.”
“Oh? What favour?”
“Some advice of a personal nature.”
Zarala’s eyebrows rose and she looked at Tyvara. The younger woman stared back at her with a challenge in her eyes. The queen’s smile widened and she turned back to Lorkin.
“It wouldn’t have had something to do with the state your friend Evar was in a few days ago, would it?”
He scowled. “I must say, my opinion of the Traitors was lowered when I learned there would be no punishment for it.”
The queen’s expression became serious. “He was not forced into it.”
“But surely to be left so exhausted is dangerous.”
“Yes, it was careless.”
“And deliberate?”
She gave him a stern look. “Be careful what you accuse others of, Lord Lorkin. If you make such claims you had best be able to prove them.”
“I’m sure Evar was the only witness, and is hardly going to cooperate. He seems to think being humiliated and harmed is the natural cost of bedding a woman.” He looked at Zarala, deliberately meeting her eyes.
She nodded. “Our ways are not without flaws. We may not be fair and equal in all things, but we are much closer to that ideal than any other society.”
“At least we have an ideal of equality,” Tyvara added. “A lot of the resistance to change comes out of the knowledge that we are the only people ruled by women. If we do not isolate ourselves we may end up like everyone else.”
“But we can’t stay this way forever,” Zarala continued, her expression sad. “We have only so much room. Only so much workable land.” She looked down at the sewer. “Even this has limits. Our predecessors carved out tunnels and changed the courses of rivers to carry away our detritus to the other side of the mountains. If we let it flow into Sachakan waterways the Ashaki might notice and follow it back to its source. But if we grow in numbers even the Elyne rivers may not be large enough to hide our waste, and they might start to wonder where it is coming from.”
“Some of us want to restrict the number of children we have,” Tyvara said. She looked at him. “Some even want to stop non-magicians having any children at all.”
The queen sighed. “They don’t see that such measures would still change who we are. Change is inevitable. Rather than let the ill consequences of neglect decide our future, we should choose to change ourselves.” She looked at him and smiled. “As your people have done.”
He stared back at her, wondering what changes she was referring to. The intake of novices from outside the Houses? Or – he felt a stab of alarm – the limited acceptance of black magic?
I didn’t think they knew about that …
“What changes would you choose to make?” he asked, to divert the subject.
She grinned. “Oh, you’ll just have to wait to find out that.” Slapping her knees, she looked from Lorkin to Tyvara. “Well, it is time I got on with my rounds and left you two together.”
As she began to rise, Tyvara slipped her arm under the old woman’s. Lorkin quickly did the same. Once standing, Zarala paused, then took a step forward. At once she began to float away from them. Lorkin looked at the shimmering air under her feet and smiled.
So that’s how she got up here.
“Don’t get too distracted, Tyvara,” she called over her shoulder. Then she disappeared into the tunnel, the faint glow of a globe light flaring into existence illuminating the walls for a moment.
Tyvara sat down. Lorkin followed suit.
“So … did Kalia let you out or did you sneak away?” she asked.