The Traitor's Heir

Chapter Eleven

They walked along the waterfront, past more shops than Quara had ever imagined still existed in their devastated world, and as her wide eyes gazed at the well-stocked shelves that had been frozen in time, her sister held tightly to her hand and half dragged her along the path with her own insistent pace, reminding Quara any time her steps became too slow that they had much to see and little time to see it before they needed to begin the long climb back up through the tunnels.

"What are all these places?" Quara asked when they passed the fifth enormous, finely ornamented room filled with dozens of tables. "They look like the cafeteria attached to the garrison, or the space where the Craftsman eat their lunches, but they're far grander than any of those."

"From what I've read in some of the descriptions of the city that I've found, they're called restaurants and people would come to these places, by themselves or in groups, to be served and eat food that others had made. And it seems that different restaurants had different themes and served dishes from all across the known world. There's even a Za'Reekan restaurant if you head the opposite direction, where the pillars that hold up the room are made to look like the branches of great trees." Quara marveled yet again at her sister's new found knowledge and confidence. It seemed that the task of tour guide suited her enormously.

If you go far enough this way you'll even hit carts surrounded by tables where the workers could buy their lunches, or even just rest at the noon hour and eat what they'd brought with them. This is the nicer part of the city where the aristocracy and richer merchants and craftsmen, and even people from other countries who had come to see the splendor of the City, would shop and dine. The workers and laborers, live quite a distance that way," she gestured up, in the direction of the palace, "past the palace and even past where you can see if you stand in the palace gardens. And those workers were even lucky in a way, for like the Caverns this isn't the only level that the City holds. There is another level, below this one, that's dark and dreary and not a place even I would like to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary in." Lina had a far off look in her eye and Quara could tell that she was remembering the things she had seen even further below ground.

"You went down there?" Quara asked the question while knowing the answer, and knowing that nothing that her sister did or said should really shock her any longer. She found she couldn't help herself though, and she sometimes felt that if she asked her sister enough questions she might gain a tiny bit of insight into the way Lina's mind viewed the world.

"Of course. What kind of an adventurer would I be if I didn't? And I figured it couldn't be any worse than the mines. And father has taken me down into those twice, probably in an attempt to make sure I never ventured down there myself."

"Was it worse?" The girls were walking side by side as they spoke, and as Quara asked the question Lina gestured to turn off to their left and begin climbing a steep staircase.

"Not worse. Not really, I mean. I guess really it was much the same. But the thing is, in the Caverns, people don't live in the mines. Here they did. In a world without any light other than oil burning lamps, with walls as black as soot. It's a good way down from here. I can't even imagine," her voice trailed off and both girls were silent as they passed several levels of shops before the upscale businesses gave way to grand villas and spacious manors.

"It's hard to gauge the size of these from the other side of the lake." Quara's eyes registered the shock of seeing homes that could easily be described as enormous. "Are these supposed to be for ten or twenty families? They're nearly the size of an entire level in the Caverns. I mean, I know there are families in the Dome that have ten or twelve rooms, but these, they must have at least a hundred."