'We're clearing a blocked pipe,' Lenardo explained.
'By hand? When you have a Lady Adept available?'
'Lady Aradia, you are my guest,' said Lenardo. 'I did not invite you to clean the sewers.'
She burst into rich laughter and said, 'Come out of there, all of you. Why should you put such hard labor into something I can do in a moment?'
The workers were quick enough to scramble out of the hole, with a grateful 'Yes, my lady.' Lenardo climbed out more slowly and explained the situation, trying very hard not to be embarrassed.
As Aradia did it, the job was easy. The pipe did not have to be dug up and its contents scraped out; rather, when fire did not work, she concentrated, and the impacted mass crumbled into dust that would wash away as soon as water was turned into the pipe.
'Now,' she said, 'is there anything more like that? As long as I'm here, Lenardo, let me help you. I will certainly never hesitate to call on your services.'
It occurred to him that she might be testing her powers, and so he said, 'If you really don't mind, you can save us several days of work,' and led her into the next street on his agenda, telling the workmen to quit for the day once they had filled in their last dig.
Aradia made no reference to yesterday's debacle; nor did she seem the least bit embarrassed. She wants to forget it, Lenardo thought. So do I, if I only could. But he was surprised at her ease with him.
They worked their way up the street toward the forum, with Lenardo Reading and Aradia clearing the pipes. Where there were broken spots, Lenardo chalked instructions for the workmen to follow tomorrow, but with Aradia's help he completed as much in an hour as he could do with the workmen in two days.
Perhaps it was the incredible mundaneness of the task that made it so natural for them to work together. Healing a sorcerer of a brain tumor, fighting in a battle won by Adept power-those were rare occurrences that by now seemed almost dreams, or stories the bards sang. Their repair of pipes was real, the sort of unromantic but extremely important work that Readers and Adepts would one day routinely do together.
'Why are you so intent on the pipes?' Aradia asked.
'It's easy to repair them now,' Lenardo explained. 'Once there's heavy traffic in these streets, such repairs become a nuisance. This quadrant of the city will house everyone for the winter. These are old Aventine buildings. The houses.have hot-water heating systems that I hope to restore. But maybe I won't have to restore them.'
'What do you mean?'
'Drakonius rewarded his officers with property like this, letting them take whatever rent they could force from the tenants. I also plan to give out some of these buildings as rewards, but I hope the new owners will put them in repair and rent out the apartments reasonably.'
'Apartments,' said Aradia. 'Rents.' She shook her head. 'I chose the right person to give a city. I've never lived in one, so I had no idea how a city is run. It doesn't have to be ugly and duty, overcrowded, and infested with rats, does it?'
'I take it you were in Zendi when it was under Drakonius' rule?'
'Only when I had to be. I don't think it would have occurred to me to begin improvements with the underground pipes. In fact, I wouldn't have known they were there.'
'But you would never have allowed garbage in the streets,' said Lenardo. 'Before we cleared the first sewer line, our biggest problem was persuading people not to throw everything into the streets but to take it to the waste stations to be burned. Now we're trying to teach people what cannot go into the drains. I didn't realize they didn't know, and our newly cleared sewer line was clogged the very day it was opened.'
Aradia laughed. 'The glamorous occupation of ruling a land. No, I'm not laughing at you. I'm remembering two years ago, when in the worst heat of the summer, Wulfston and I had to go out among the swine to stop an epidemic of running sores. It was bad enough going into the mud wallows, enduring the stink, but there were also clouds of stinging flies. I could keep them off me until I would focus on healing an animal. Then, while I was concentrating, the flies would settle all over me.' She shook herself as if shaking off the insects. 'I prefer a nice comfortable job like cleaning out sewers.'
They reached another clog in the pipe. Lenardo Read it carefully and said, 'There's a pocket of explosive gas here.'
'Explosive gas?'
'Yes, the matter in the pipes creates it. Occasionally, we find a spot like this, so airtight that the gas has not leaked away over the years. There's a huge pocket of it under Southgate, where the culvert out of the city collapsed years ago. It's very deep underground.'
'Isn't that dangerous?'
'Not so long as no spark of fire can get at it. One day, when we begin work in that area, we'll have to put a shaft down and release the gas. But doing that before we're ready to work there would create a dangerous constant gas leak. It's better left alone.'
'How do we get rid of the pocket of gas here?'
'I've been marking such places to be dug up with caution, for one spark-'
'I understand. But I can make a crack in the earth to release the gas. Show me where.'
Under Aradia's concentration, the paving stones separated, forming an uneven line not wide enough to insert a finger.
'Now the pipe,' said Lenardo. 'A small crack won't harm its function.' A snap rose from the fissure, followed by a soft whoosh of released gas. Aradia, who had been holding her breath, sniffed cautiously. 'I don't smell anything.'
'Marsh gas,' said Lenardo. 'It forms in mines sometimes, too. The fact that it's odorless makes it very dangerous. It takes a Reader to detect it.'
His heart gave a heave of guilt as he suddenly realized how careless he had been today. It had not occurred to him to test whether he still had the sensitivity to distinguish gases-and if he had not, he could have blown up himself, his work crew, AradiaHe swallowed hard and made a mental note to test himself before taking on any more 'routine' tasks. Aradia, meanwhile, cleared the pipe and let the earth settle back over it. They continued on, talking as they worked, as much in harmony as if yesterday had never happened.
Lenardo was so busy Reading the pipes under the street that he was not Reading Aradia, nor was he paying attention to the time. The afternoon dwindled into shadow as the sun dropped behind the buildings, although there was still sunlight in the open forum they approached. An entire street done in one afternoon; if, that is, they cleared one more blockage.
'This is the last one,' Lenardo said as he chalked the marks to guide Aradia.
For the first time, instead of Reading on ahead, he watched her. She was wearing a pale wheat-colored silk dress, the same color as her hair, no robe over it, as she had come out in the warmth of the afternoon. Now Lenardo saw her shiver slightly. Yet he was not cold, even barelegged and bare-chested. Aradia's body was exhausted.
It had not occurred to him to keep watch on Aradia the way he did on Vona. This work should have been nothing to her strength. Her powers were diminished just as his were. Why hadn't she said something?
'Aradia, that's enough,' he said. 'You're worn out.'
'Oh, no,' she replied. 'Why, this much I can-' She staggered, half fainting.
Lenardo caught her, held her against him to support her, panic rising and then subsiding as her heart recovered its strong, steady beat. She clung to him for a moment and then stood on her own. He saw that the grime on his body from the dusty, sweaty work he'd been doing had transferred itself to her cheek, her hands, and all down the front of her dress.
When she realized what had happened, Aradia laughed. 'I'm sorry,' Lenardo began.
'It's nothing,' she replied. 'I can clean the dress, but tomorrow, I think. For myself, I'll make use again of your luxurious bathhouse.'
'It's just closed,' he said. 'I'll have water brought-' 'Lenardo,' said Aradia, 'that is your bathhouse. You can use it any time you want, and I doubt that ever in your life have you needed it more.'
He was far dirtier than she was, although it was certainly not the first time. Ordinarily, he stopped early enough to use the last half hour of the men's time in the baths.
'These are no attendants now, but you're right, of course. There's no reason I can't go in and scrub off this grime.' 'Good,' she said. 'I'll get a clean dress and meet you there.' She set off toward her pavilion.
