The King's Knights

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Underground

The main consolation of these sewers was that they had been built for elves.

Raka was much shorter than most humans, so she didn't have to worry about hitting her head like everyone else. As Nagos fitted another pipe segment into place, she watched the drained canal be worked on. You could see a dozen men scraping at it with tools. They were looking to get centuries of waste off the walls and floor of the stone.

It was bitterly slow work, and the stench was horrible. She much preferred the slowly dying patients or the fury of battle. But this was where she could best serve for the moment, and she was learning a great deal that could be useful. Thus far, she had taken notes on how all this functioned and planned to send experts back.

When the Iron City was rebuilt, which it would be, all this would be very useful.

How much had been wasted and destroyed in that stupid God War that happened ages ago?

"And switch out the pipe..." said Nagos, fitting it in personally. Why was he so insistent on getting his hands dirty? "Good work."

"I can't believe how many lead pipes they have down here. Are these people insane?" murmured Raka. "They have serious health issues."

"It's fine, Raka," said Nagos. He had that sunny disposition you usually didn't see from humans underground. "See, these pipes and tunnels are all slanted from the mountain springs they come from. It took me a while, but I realized they have a specific incline. Just enough to keep it moving quickly, but not enough so it erodes the stone.

"The water moves so quickly, it sheds the lead dust. It isn't as much of a problem."

"It will still be a problem," said Raka. "Lead can affect the mind and cause all kinds of problems."

"It's a good building material, okay," said Narcissa, leaning against a wall. Her leather-gloved arms were crossed and still shiny. How did she avoid getting dirty at all and keep looking stunning here? "You can get it cheap, hammer it out, and change it quickly, and it works perfectly. And they didn't have the copper mines we have access to.

"Normally, it would be far too expensive to set up.

"If House Gabriel hadn't given the High King such a good price on their mine, it'd all have to come from the Borderlands. That or Sorn, and they'd hold us up for a lot."

"They should never have used such shoddy materials," said Raka firmly.

Lead piping.

Unacceptable.

"Do you have any idea how much it costs to replace these? And it's a lot harder to change the shape of and work with," said Nagos. "We have a lot of ground to cover and little time to do it in.

"It was better for people to have water this way than not have it at all. And we're cleaning it all by swapping it out. Besides, I don't think this was designed for drinking anyway. These pipes go out to bathhouses and such."

"Because bathing in the lead is preferable to drinking it," said Raka.

"Why are they giving all this away?" asked Narcissa. "They're hardly being paid enough to cover costs."

"I think Vanion is trying to be helpful," said Nagos. "And nobody wants to bathe in lead water anyway, so he benefits too. If you do a full-scale renovation of the sewers, you could do it properly.

"Besides, this should buy him points with the High King and the people of Antion."

"I don't think it will," said Narcissa, putting two long nails to her chin. "Nobody is going to see any of this. Does anyone care if Lord Arthur provides the copper for some sewer piping?"