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"The Enforcers are so called because they enforce the empire’s laws"
"But what do they do?"
"Well, as you can see here, they patrol with Inspectors, keep order, that sort of thing They watch and report everything and anything deeitators and the like"
"I do not like them"
"As you should not, et, that they are armed and do not hesitate to use their weapons They have no capacity for compassion or mercy and will shed blood based on suspicion alone, without regard to possible innocence They are made to protect the eanda says"
Karigan liked this future she found herself in less and less
As the carriagethe business district behind, and entered a section walled byin front of theh them? There were arches in the foundations, of which she could only see the tops, the rest subed in the canal The water reflected in ripples in the tall s of the aze "Ah, yes We’ve entered the heart of industry This is Canal Street"
"Canals--" Karigan began
"They power the industry They deliver water to turbines, which set the machines in motion Water power, my dear Certainly you had mills in your" He hesitated, then whispered, "in your tih she didn’t knohat a turbine was She kneater wheels, knew the streas
"The Amber River feeds the canal," the professor continued "You, er, would not know the river The final battle that raphy around the Old City It was the force ofthe force of those unknoeapons I mentioned before Anyway, the Amber River runs down from the north and splits north and west of the city So the canal you see right here flows beneath the mills and empties out behind into the north branch of the Aan didn’t care about the engineering The professor had gripped her with the idea of the river and how the force of battle had changed the landscape, had caused a river to flohere there had not been one before A streaic to her, of vast power She shuddered These weapons of Mornhavon’s had been ical No wonder the Sacoridians had been overcome
"Closer to the Capital," the professor continued, oblivious to her disquiet, "they’ve other hted backwater such as this, we rely on old technology Water, I think, is elegant in its simplicity Perfectly suitable Men like Silk do not appreciate that line of thinking For them, it is alhat and who they can twist and destroy for their own benefit"
The professor seean as the identical brick facades rolled past the carriage’sLost in soer Karigan felt just plain lost, not liking the future her land and its people had found themselves in Inside those impersonal brick walls, slaves labored over machines She could not see them, but she knew they were in there And, while she did not knohat their labor was like or what the conditions inside the ine any of it was pleasant As for the transformation of the countryside into this city? It was not an improvement From all that she could tell, the empire was not about its people, but about thehomesick and alien
A pall settled over the interior of the carriage, Karigan with her own gri out his , chin resting on his hand Karigan followed his gaze and saw that the scene had changed fro of them with a central courtyard scattered with debris and choked eeds Reed teeth Only one building in the grouping stood unburned, yet forlorn, its s boarded up
"Do you know that cotton is very flaan nodded She was the daughter of a textilethe air inside the mills The dryness, a spark Who kno the fire truly started, but that’s all it would have taken"
A rusted wrought iron gate guarded the bridge that crossed the canal to the ruins Arching above the gate in scrolling ironere the words, "Josston Mills Coh the letters had once been painted in gilt
"Coan said with a start "This is where--"
"Yes," he replied, cutting her off "This is where the one building you visited stands Miraculously The fire was terrible, ferocious, and consumed the others in the complex without mercy I could see the flames from the house"
The professor had hidden his secret cache of historical artifacts in plain sight, in this one reround She gazed at the floor of the carriage as if she could see into the passages of lost Sacor City
The professor guessed her thoughts "Yes, the house is about two blocks that way" He pointed at the opposite ay frohborhood The whole city is set up on a grid pattern"