didn’t appreciate what mills could do.
As they came over the hill, Salkay came into view. It was larger than Salmont, but not by much. There was a big wall surrounding the town and a road leading to the river, which was wide here. The road split in two, each path leading to the river where it then became a fortified mill bridge. The bridge closest to them had five large wheels underneath. On the left on the bridge and closest to the town were two buildings, both with tall roofs and no smoke. Downriver a bit were a larger bridge with seven wheels and two more buildings, both producing huge amounts of smoke.
“Are those mills with fortified bridges?” asked Kovos.
“Yes they are,” responded Arkin.
“What’s with the one with the dome thing by it?” asked Sasha.
The dome thing; Keither hadn’t noticed that. He looked harder. “No way.”
“‘No way’ what, Keither?” Sasha asked.
“Arkin, is that a sanitizer?” he asked excitedly.
“Very good, Keither. Why don’t you tell the others about the mills and the bridges?”
Why had he spoken? Now he was going to have to try to explain this and they were going to think he was a moron. “Come on,” prompted Arkin.
“Well ok, bear with me. I will explain each in turn.” He paused, gathering his thoughts.
“You see that first bridge, the one with five wheels?” They all nodded. “The bridge is fortified because those wheels are the most valuable part of the town. Without them the town will bust, so they need to be protected.” He held up his hand, forestalling questions.
“Let me finish and then you can ask away. Ok, here’s how it works: those wheels are turned by the river’s current and in turn they lead to a gear building. From there the building turns shafts that lead to the structures on either side for various works. Ok?” They nodded, and a proud look crossed Arkin’s face. So far this was going well.
He pointed to the mills closest to them. “Neither of those buildings have smoke stacks, so that probably means that one is a grain mill and the other a saw mill. Like Arkin’s shop, an open flame is an issue in both those buildings, more so for the grain mill. There is enough dust in there to actually make the building explode if ignited.” This time there were a few “Wows!” from the others.
“There’s probably a loom on the lower level of the bridge too. It looks tall enough. Now, the big one downstream that has a lot of smoke is a foundry. The wheels drive billows and hammers, helping them to make a lot of stuff faster.”
Kovos broke in. “Yeah, I’ve heard of those. They’re used to make large-scale stuff and to refine ore into ingots that other smiths can use, but what is the dome for?”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know much about them, but I do know they are made by the Iumenta, and that most large cities have them. Arkin, can you help me out?”
Arkin smiled warmly at him. “Well done, Keither, and yes, I can help you out. Legon, can you tell me what happens to towns with dirty water?”
“People get sick, and I mean really sick, with diphtheria and other disease; that’s why towns put their dung heaps a good distance away from town or in a river to sweep it away.”
“There. You hit it right on the head: put in the river and swept down for another town to deal with. This is one of the only times you will hear me say that the Iumenta did something good, even though they only did it to keep their workforce in better condition.” Arkin really did hate the Iumenta, but Keither wasn’t sure why. They had done some good things, hadn’t they?
“If you look closely at that bridge you’ll see intakes where water is going into the far building. In that building are augers that are powered by the river. They carry water up to a main well in town. As soon as the well reaches a certain level, it encounters another pipe that diverts water to another well, and so on and so forth.” He paused, waiting for questions.
“Ok, so it’s easier to get water,” Legon said.
“Yes, and when the well reaches another level, the water is diverted to a pit where people dump waste, be it food, dung, or otherwise.”
“So then the waste is flushed to the river, I got it.”
“Not yet. The waste is flushed to that