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 They didn t need aqueducts in Hieron; but it took as much effort, if not
more, to build the river levees and roads there, Alucius pointed out.
 Not as much as it did to cut the high road all the way through the mountains,
did it? Zerdial asked politely.
 About the same, I d guess. The levee roads are on both sides of the river,
and they run for over a hundred and fifty vingts, and they probably had to dig
fairly deep to put in foundations. Here, they just cut
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away stone.
 Just? asked Longyl, easing his mount up beside Alucius on the left.
 Just, Alucius affirmed with a laugh.  It s always easier to build by
removing. It s like carving. You cut what doesn t belong away. When you build
anything, first you have to dig deep enough&  He stopped and shook his head.
 You may be right. We don t know how they did it. If we were doing it today,
this  he gestured back toward the artificial gorge and then to the aqueduct
  would be easier.
 How far is Dereka, sir? asked Zerdial, clearly wanting to change the
subject.
 About thirty vingts. We won t make it today. Besides, we re supposed to stop
at a border post another few vingts or so to the east. We might have to wait
there, until the Landarch sends for us. The majer wasn t sure.
 Didn t tell him enough, did they? asked Longyl.
 That doesn t change from land to land, Alucius suggested.  They never tell
those doing the fighting enough. As he finished speaking, Alucius concealed a
frown. Even away from the mountains, his Talent registered the continuing
sense of sadness.
49
On Tridi,the combined force left the outpost early, escorted by a half squad
of Deforyan troopers in crimson uniforms, strikingly similar to those worn by
the second raider company that Twenty-first
Company had destroyed in late winter. The sky was clear, the white sun bright,
the silver-green sky clear, and the day was pleasant, perhaps because of the
higher elevation of Deforya, with a light breeze out of the north.
The high road and the aqueduct continued due east. Every so often Alucius
looked to the north, but the aqueduct remained solidly there, having risen
only a few yards over the vingts since the outpost. At intervals of roughly
two vingts, circular eternastone pipes ran down from the aqueduct and into the
ground, the water they carried reappearing in functional square stone
fountains on the north side of the aqueduct and on the south side of the road.
From the fountains, open stone channels ran parallel to the orchards. Rather,
Alucius thought, the orchards had been planted paralleling the watercourses.
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At times, there were hamlets around the fountains, and each dwelling looked
exactly like every other dwelling oblong, with brownish red shutters, walls of
plaster over stone, and old slate roofs. While the houses were well kept,
Alucius saw none that looked new. At other times, there were not even
dwellings, only the orchards.
By midafternoon, what had first appeared as a golden haze where the road met
the horizon had resolved itself into the first view of Dereka. Rising out of
the green golden grasses and above the neat rows of the apple and plumapple
trees that filled the orchards lining both sides of the high road and aqueduct
were golden stone buildings, as well as three glistening green towers that
reminded Alucius of the tower in Iron
Stem. Even from a good five vingts to the west, the sharp and clean edges of
the buildings were clear, as was their size. Many had to have been a hundred
yards or so on a side.
As Alucius and the column of troopers rode closer, smaller
structures dwellings, shops, stables became visible, and while they were also
of stone, the stone was of a yellow shade, and the
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lines were not as sharp and clean.
The aqueduct and high road continued straight, effectively splitting the city
into two sections, northern and southern, with half the ancient structures to
the north, half to the south. The dwellings on the fringe of the city were of
the yellow stone as well, but far more crudely cut, and the roofs were of
split slate, much like those of the Iron Valleys. Some of the side streets
were of stone, but most were packed dirt and dusty, and more crowded than in
any city where Alucius had been but none of the people thronging the side
streets ventured onto the high road. Some of their comments did, although
Alucius had trouble at first with the dialect, an oddly accented form of
Lanachronan.
 & black& the northerners& 
 & Landarch& bought them& 
 & don t need outsiders& just take up water& 
 No& sent by the young Lord-Protector& rather fight here& 
 & no fight at all& rock spirits will finish the grass-eaters& 
Close to the middle of the city, the Deforyan escorts turned south onto a
paved yellow stone road, into which years of wagon wheels had carved grooves
almost a handspan deep. The vanguard and then the rest of the column followed.
Alucius studied the ancient buildings, whose lines were straight and clean.
The windows were oblong, without shutters. The slanted roofs, some of them
fifty yards high, were of the same polished golden stone, without any chinks
between the roof or building blocks. The one structure directly to the east of
the main street on which they rode was vacant, and Alucius wondered why. Was
it gutted on the inside, the way the green tower in Iron Stem had been? Or
were there other reasons?
They continued to ride south, nearing a second ancient and massive building,
at least three hundred yards in length. There, from a staff before a wide
circular drive and entrance, in the light afternoon breeze, flew a red banner,
rimmed in gold, and featuring a golden half-moon and a full and smaller green
moon under an arc of four eight-pointed stars. From the northern end of the
structure rose a tower with the shimmering green stone finish that made it a
duplicate of the one Alucius had passed so often on his way to Iron Stem
growing up.
 Must be the Landarch s palace, Longyl suggested.  Looks like it s been there
a long time.
 Gold eternastone, Alucius said.  It s mentioned in the histories, but they
don t say anything about
Dereka being built of it. There wasn t any that I saw in Madrien.
 Ah&  Longyl offered apologetically.
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 You saw it?
 Yes, sir. There were some buildings made of it on the outskirts of Faitel.
Center of the place was a big circular lake, black water. They say it was
created in the Cataclysm, but they didn t tell us how. Maybe two vingts back
from the black lake, there were buildings, sort of like that one. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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