Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (36 page)

“That won’t happen,” Jant said, smashing his fist on the table. “King Gilan will be waiting when we dock.”

“If you say so,” Sila replied. She didn’t sound convinced.

20.
      
Slarn

“Have you seen enough,” Jalia asked Hala. The other viewers were making their way down the steps back to their cabins. Only Jalia, Daniel and Hala remained as the Dragon travelled down the final stretch of the Jalon to reach the harbor.

“Can we stay up here a little bit longer?” Hala pleaded. She would have been happy to stay up on the viewing platform until they docked; she was so fascinated by the city.

Slarn was a beautiful city, built on the grid system favored by the Magician Kings. They were almost at the second wall and could see elegant white painted villa’s surrounded by lush grounds within it. Many of the trees within the second circle were taller than their platform on the Steam Dragon, which meant that their view of the central part of the city was largely obscured.

They saw the upper halves of tall towers across the horizon. They too were white, though whether they had been painted or constructed of white stone was impossible to tell.

The second wall circling the city was constructed of conventional stone blocks, cut and laid on top of it each in perfect precision. The wall itself was twenty feet high and had a walkway on top of it. Small round towers were dotted along the wall providing stairways to the ground. These towers were spaced about a half mile apart from each other. There were guards walking the wall, though not enough to carry out any serious defensive work. They had the look of a token force, put there to prove to the world that their Trium owned it. The second wall did not cross the river but was interrupted at its banks, continuing on the other side

Just inside the wall on either side of the river, was a wide tree lined avenue that stopped abruptly at the black granite riverbank. The bank was almost as high as the wall, being only six feet or so lower than the top of the wall.

The guards on the two banks yelled cheerful greetings at the Steam Dragon as it progressed to the center of the city. The river Jalon was six hundred feet wide from bank to bank, though Daniel thought that it might be narrowing.

“Did you notice that the guards on either side wore different uniforms?” Daniel asked, causing Jalia to snort in derision at the idea she wouldn’t have noticed. “Do we know which side of the river belongs to which Trium?”

“The left bank is Jenver and the right is Dalk,” Hala told them absently. Nin had described the journey into the city in some detail. “We were supposed to dock in the harbor at Dalk. Nin didn’t tell me anything about the rest of the city, but I think we will join the River Slarn by turning right when we get to the palace. Tallis will be over to our left.”

Daniel walked around the platform until he was looking up the river. The Jalon gently curved to the right as it entered the city so the Palace was largely hidden by trees and buildings. What he could see was a single black cylindrical shaped spire that rose high into the sky. At the top of the spire was a larger cylinder, also made of polished black stone.

They were approaching the inner wall of the city. It was about the same height as the previous wall and appeared to be identically constructed. The one significant difference was that there was an avenue on both sides of the wall. The avenue on the outside was elegant and tree lined while the one inside the wall was narrower, did not have any trees and looked more functional.

“I wonder if the purpose of this wall is to keep the people inside the city center away from the wealthy people and their estates outside,” Daniel pondered. This wall was more heavily manned than the outer wall had been and the guards looked as though they had a serious job. There was no cheering as the Steam Dragon went passed the wall, though every head of every guard on both sides of the river turned to watch them.

Apart from the fact that all the houses in the city center had steep tiled roofs, there was little to distinguish them from buildings that could be found in Delbon or Bagdor. Of course, the minarets of Bagdor were missing, but then those minarets had been decorative rather than functional in nature.

By now, they could see some of the palace. Daniel had some trouble figuring out where the river ended and the palace began.

“Is the palace on an island or is it somehow suspended over the river?” Daniel asked Jalia whose eyesight was keener than his.

“I think it is a bit of both,” Jalia replied, squinting at the highly unlikely sight in front of them. Daniel remembered that Captain Toren had refused to describe the palace, saying that it had to be seen to be believed.

“Look, that’s Dalk’s harbor,” Hala told them, pointing to the right riverbank. A channel of water three hundred feet across cut into the city at right angles to the river they were on. They saw buildings on the harbor covered in black smoke marks and people working to remove debris from inside them. Despite the intensity of the earlier fire, the buildings seemed largely undamaged. There were several large barges on the side of the dock away from the damaged buildings, loading and unloading goods

The people inside the dock stopped working and waved at the boat. Despite the fact that the palace was looming over the Steam Dragon, it was still a good mile away.

As they got closer to the palace, Daniel’s jaw dropped in surprise, as he finally understood what he was looking at.

“It’s unbelievable,” he whispered in awe. Hala and Jalia moved to either side of him and he found himself wrapping his arms around them. They hugged him back as the Steam Dragon slipped under the palace

The bottom of the palace sat on a cylindrical black stone island, which was at least a thousand feet across. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the lower portion of the palace was a black stone cylinder rising up in the center of a vast moat. The palace was not bound by the confines of the island. The underside of it stretched over and across the river at a height of fifty feet above them. Three massive black stone arches curved out from the palace walls to embed themselves like roots into the ground of the three Triums. The King’s Palace in Slarn literally joined the Triums together with tentacles of solid rock.

The River Jalon flowed from the north under the base of the palace and around the central island before breaking into two rivers, one going south and the other being the river they had traveled. As the Steam Dragon entered the circular channel of water, Jalia noted that the island in the center was not devoid of features. There were vertical slots in its otherwise smooth surface.

“What do you think they are?” she asked Daniel.

I think the outer surface of the island is actually three open gates,” Daniel replied. Each of them can swing outwards and block the flow of water from one of the rivers that go downstream.”

“What would happen if the downstream gates were closed at the same time?”

“I think that Slarn would flood.”

So the palace gate control system is also a method of controlling the city,” Jalia said admiringly. “You have to admire the cleverness of the bastard who designed it.”

The Steam Dragon passed underneath a palace leg into afternoon sunlight as they had traversed the loop. They were now heading down the River Slarn.

“Look at the fire,” Hala shouted. She pointed down the river and to the left where black smoke rose in plumes above the city’s buildings.

“That would be the work of Maximus,” Jalia said grimly. “He has carried out his plan and torched the dock in Tallis.”

Daniel could sense the uncertainty of the man steering the Steam Dragon. The engines slowed and the boat began to drift down river as they approached the harbor entrance.

A set of strangely marked flags were held by men on the riverbank next to the harbor entrance. The engines of the boat quickened again and the Steam Dragon began to turn.

“What are we doing?” Hala asked. She had deduced that Jalia and Daniel knew this was going to happen. She suspected as much when Daniel had told her they were expecting to see a fire raging. It was clear they had been keeping information from her.

“Do you see those massive stone posts in the river, just beyond the harbor,” Jalia asked Hala.

“Yes, there were some of them at the Dalk harbor; they were downstream of its entrance as well.”

“They are tying posts for boats. For when there was so much traffic on the river that boats had to wait before they could get in. The Steam Dragon is going to tie up to one of those.”

“But why don’t we go to the river bank and tie up there?” Hala asked.

“Because the camber of the stone river bed is too shallow and we would hit the bottom of the river long before we reached the wall,” Daniel explained.

“The designers of this city did it deliberately,” Daniel opined. “They wanted the harbors to have all the river trade, so they made it impossible for anyone to dock anything sizable anywhere but in a harbor. The Magician Kings were ruthlessly efficient.”

“Their blood must have thinned considerably through the centuries,” Jalia said with a vicious grin aimed at Daniel. “I am, however, significantly impressed by them.”

“What do we do now?” Hala asked.

“We are going to disappear for a while, Hala. Don’t come looking for us, we will find you when the time is right,” Jalia said. “Go and find Cara and Don and stay close to them.”

“And don’t stick your neck out whatever happens,” Daniel said more urgently. “Promise me that.”

“All right, I promise,” Hala said reluctantly as she saw the look in Daniel’s eyes and saw he was afraid for her. “I thought I was part of your team.”

“You are, Hala,” Jalia said, bending down so she could look Hala in the eyes. “We will explain everything later, including why we didn’t tell you everything.”

The three descended the steps to the deck. Jalia and Daniel gave Hala a quick hug and walked quickly down the corridor and out of her sight. Hala sniffed to hold back tears as she felt more than a little betrayed.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Nin said from behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him. Nin saw the look on her face and wondered what he had done now.

“What do you want?” Hala asked angrily. Her anger served to hide how close to tears she was.

“I have an offer for you.”

“What kind of an offer?”

“I have talked to the officers onboard and they are willing to offer you training as an apprentice officer in the Boat Company.”

“I suppose you thought of that all by yourself?”

“Of course I did, Hala. I really care about you.”

Hala sniffed and put her arm around him. “Well that’s all right then, provided you are certain it was your idea.”

“Seb Halder thinks that you are officer material and they want you to join the Company’s training school. You would have to leave the Dragon for a year or two, but we could meet up whenever the Dragon is in port,” Nin explained.

“I don’t have the money to pay for any schooling,” Hala said.

“You won’t need it, only money for clothes and things and I could help with that,” Nin offered. “It’s considered a great honor to be selected for the school.”

“I’ll think about it,” Hala said, giving Nin a quick hug. “There’s no point in worrying about it until we get into port. Do you know what the Captain is going to do?”

“Those flags were a message from the Board to tie up here for the night. I expect that we will be able to go into one of the harbors tomorrow morning. It is a bit late to make our way up to Jenver because it is far too dangerous for a boat this size to go around the palace at night.”

“I’ve got to go to the dining room and find Cara and Don,” Hala said. “Thank you for finding a way for me to stay with the Boat Company, Nin. I will consider your offer.”

“I can come with you for dinner,” Nin said unexpectedly. “I just saw the Bosun and he told me I could.”

Hala looked at Nin who was covered from head to toe in ash from working in the boiler room.

“You’ll have to wash some of that grime off first.”

“Will you come with me to my cabin while I wash and change?” Nin asked.

“Yes I would love to,” Hala said smiling. “We could spend a few minutes beforehand to do something else, if you wanted?”

Nin grinned in delight and they began running towards his cabin.