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"Ah, Justin Clemens son of Edgar!" the King said. Clemens bowed. "How goes your work?"
"Faster than I thought it could, King of the Four Quarters," Clemens said.
He walked to the edge of the model; it was twenty feet on a side, resting on thick planks and those on trestles. The city of dreams it showed was definitely Babylonian-marked with the terraced pyramids of ziggurats, the blocky shapes of palace and temple. The layout wasn't, though; a gridwork of avenue and street, with broad radial ways driving through from the center. Along the water side was a great brick wall and highway to contain floods, and three long-arch bridges crossed the broad Euphrates. There was no city wall; instead a quartet of low-slung forts bristling with ca
Clemens pointed to his own project near the northeastern corner.
"The waterworks are going up quickly," he said. "The big pumps just arrived from Irondale in Alba, and a couple of Leaton's people. We should have enough clean water for the labor force within a week."
Kashtiliash nodded. His wife Kathryn looked up from the other end of the table, making a quick note and handing it to a messenger.
"I want to get the sewer works functional as soon as possible too," she said. "If we can get the farmers using processed sludge rather than raw night soil, it'll cut dysentery in the villages around here by three-quarters."
"We need to put in village wells as well," Clemens noted quickly. "Sealed-tube wells with hand pumps."
"All in good time," Kashtiliash said. "There is work for my lifetime, and my sons'." He looked at his queen and gri
A shake of the leonine head. "But that is not what I wish to speak of, best of healers," he said. "Here, come."
He drew a cloth from a smaller table. The model there was of a complex of buildings, two-story blocks around courtyards; there were even models of tiny palm trees there.
"You wished to remain in the land of Kar-Duniash, did you not, Justin son of Edgar?"
Clemens nodded, a little wary. There was more good he could do here, and he thought it would be easier for him to adapt to this than Azzu-ena to Nantucket.
"Well, here you shall. It shall be called the Clemens Teaching Hospital."
He stopped, gri
"King of the Four Quarters-I and my wife ca
Kashtiliash rumbled laughter under Kathryn's contralto chuckle.
"You won't have to," the queen said. "There's all those orderlies that the Coast Guard trained-remember, those slaves Kash's father gave us, and we freed? You did a fair bit of that yourself."
"And there will be other Nantukhtar doctors who will come," Kashtiliash said. "Even if they come only for a brace of years each, they will not find me niggardly. You yourself, Justin son of Edgar, I will double the wage you receive-and you will have this fine house, and I will add thereunto a thousand iku of well-watered land near the city by kudurru-grant."
Clemens felt a sharp pain in his ankle, where Azzu-ena had kicked him; outwardly she was the picture of demure modesty, with her shawl drawn over her head and held across her lower face with one hand.
"Ah," he said, bowing again, "The Bull of Marduk is generous!"
"And in this hospital you will not only cure the sick, but teach," Kashtiliash said, warming to his thoughts. "I have sent to your Island for copies of the books of healing-soon my own printing press will be at work, with men trained at Ur Base. You will take the sons-
"And daughters," Azzu-ena and Kathryn said simultaneously.
"And daughters." Kashtiliash smiled fondly. "Of physicians and scribes and priests-thus their families will object less- as apprentices."
"And commoners, my Lord King," Clemens said, quietly but firmly.
"As you wish. And this is only the begi
He looked at the queen. "Remember that night on the terrace, beloved of the King's heart?"
"Yes," she said, smiling.
"I promised then that I would not leave my people in the dirt. And I will not!"
The great scarred hand closed unconsciously into a fist, and the dark hawk eyes flashed. Clemens cleared his throat.
"Ah, King of the Universe, I… my wife and I did plan to visit Nantucket before settling."
"Excellent," Kashtiliash said, all business once more. "You may arrange much of what we will need there. I will be visiting myself, and the Seg Kallui."
He laughed at Azzu-ena's start. "Yes, a conference of the Great Kings is to be called, wise lady, in Nantucket Town. Much thought has gone into the arrangements." A snort. "Not least, to ensure that the Great Kings are still Great Kings when they return-we have all agreed to move against any usurper, so there will be none such."
A boy's eagerness lit the King's face. "And I, I shall see the homeland of wonders myself!"
"Jesus, that's not going to fly again," Vicki Cofflin said.
She completed her limping walk around the staked-down dirigible. Or what was left of it. The hull had a perceptible kink in it, where broken frames and stringers creaked. Bits of the doped fabric that covered it fluttered tattered in the cold desert wind; large patches were bare, and she could see inside to the gasbags.
"Well, no," Alex Stoddard replied.
He didn't look as beaten-up as she-his right arm wasn't in a cast, for starters-but the bruises on his face had only begun to fade.
"None of the engines are functional, to start with," he went on, blinking at the sun and the alkaline dust blowing from the bare earth around them. "And going on from there. Still, she kept us alive, the Emancipator."
"Which is a miracle," she said, looking at the riven rock that speared the sky not far to the north.
Wherever we are, it's a desert basin with some bloody enormous mountains around it.
"I thought we were all going to die when we headed for the moon after we dropped the emergency ballast," Stoddard said. "We must have hit twenty-five thousand feet, at least, the way the emergency valves spilled hydrogen. I passed out around twenty, I think."
Vicki grunted-it was more comfortable than talking, with a mouth bruised and cut inside on the edges of her own teeth- and looked over at the row of five graves not far away. They already looked timeworn, even though they'd only been there a few days. This eternal wind…
Which is why we stayed aloft so long. With no control, landing was extremely tricky. By the time they'd all become fully conscious again, it hadn't mattered how much further they drifted looking for a good spot.
"Heads up, ma'am! Delegation coming out from the oasis!"
The call came from the lookout in the observation post atop the hull. Vicki gave a quick glance around; nothing could hide the scrapes and broken bones, but everyone was as neat as possible… and more to the point, everyone had a rifle or pistol, and there were two functional Gatlings.
Plus the Shipwreck Kit, she thought-every Islander craft carried that, a set of how-to books and basic tools.
The locals came closer, a crowd of footmen with bronze-headed spears led by a brace of chariots and followed by a crowd of women and children. Vicki narrowed her eyes as she took them in.