further and gave both interior and exterior walls a dingy white appearance. The few times the sun did shine, the walls sparkled, and that sparkle gave the shambletown a glitter totally unwarranted by its interior occupants, human and otherwise.
All the houses in the upper shamble, the newer section, had porches, not for people, but for the continual plant flats, designed to allow in light but not the continual rain or ice rain. The precipitation was collected off the inclined roofs and funneled to either the clay collecting barrels or the main settling ponds.
Outside of the stink of unwashed bodies, the people appeared relatively healthy, though uniformly thin. The men all had beards, usually straggly. An occasional limp or twisted arm showed a broken bone that had not set properly.
From the open space inside the gate, Gerswin strolled down the narrow street toward the square, watching to see if Conslor Weddin continued to keep an eye upon him.
The square, an oblong paved with rough stone fragments and measuring no more than forty by sixty meters, contained only a single platform, used for a variety of purposes, surmised Gerswin. It was vacant except for a few passersby, and for Gerswin and Fynian, who had apparently been instructed to follow the Imperial officer.
The muted sounds of children drew Gerswin to a freestanding porch off the southwest corner of the square, where close to a dozen toddlers were gathered. Gerswin stood by the brick wall enclosing the space under the roof and watched.
Two children, dressed solely in rough stained leather tunics, used miniature clay bricks to build a wall. Behind them, an even smaller child sat on the smooth brick flooring and sucked on the end of a wooden rattle. None of the childrenâs hair appeared more than roughly cut, nor did any wear more than a loin cloth and sleeveless, patched-together leather over-tunics, despite the brisk breeze. The chill from the morningâs frost had yet to leave the air.
A somewhat older child sat on the bricks at the feet of a shriveled and gray-haired woman and used a battered wooden pipe to produce a series of shrill squeaks, some of which resembled musical notes.
A toddler barely able to walk caught sight of the gray Imperial tunic and the touches of silver-embroidered insignia on his collars and pointed at the clean-shaven pilot.
âUmmm! Ummm!â
Gerswin looked at the wide gray eyes, and finally grinned.
She frowned and closed her mouth. Finally, she repeated the phrase again. âUmmmm!â
The wind shifted, and a new stench wrenched at Gerswinâs gut, an acidic odor burning into his nostrils from the lower section of the shambletown.
He took a last look at the toddler, waved, and turned toward the half dozen steps that stretched the three meter width of the street that led southward to the older part of the shambles.
âUmmmm! Ummmm!â Was there a plaintive ring to those words?
Gerswin nearly stumbled on the first step, but caught himself and continued downward.
The street remained level for another fifty meters, flanked on both sides by the relatively newer and larger dwellings of the upper section, before narrowing at the top of another set of steps.
The officer could hear the uneven sound of Fynianâs dragging limp as they continued downward.
Beyond the second set of steps, the narrow grid pattern of the upper shambletown dissolved into the twisting lanes of the lower town. The houses were no longer uniformly sand-painted, since in places the old facade had crumbled or been washed away.
More plant flats appeared in sheltered and glassless windows or on rooftops under patched old leather tenting, rather than in the relatively ordered porticos of the upper town. But the relative silence prevailedâa few whispers, a word here and there among the handful of people passing in the lanes, and few shambletowners at all.
Gerswin nodded. The old patterns had not changed, not yet, and perhaps
All the houses in the upper shamble, the newer section, had porches, not for people, but for the continual plant flats, designed to allow in light but not the continual rain or ice rain. The precipitation was collected off the inclined roofs and funneled to either the clay collecting barrels or the main settling ponds.
Outside of the stink of unwashed bodies, the people appeared relatively healthy, though uniformly thin. The men all had beards, usually straggly. An occasional limp or twisted arm showed a broken bone that had not set properly.
From the open space inside the gate, Gerswin strolled down the narrow street toward the square, watching to see if Conslor Weddin continued to keep an eye upon him.
The square, an oblong paved with rough stone fragments and measuring no more than forty by sixty meters, contained only a single platform, used for a variety of purposes, surmised Gerswin. It was vacant except for a few passersby, and for Gerswin and Fynian, who had apparently been instructed to follow the Imperial officer.
The muted sounds of children drew Gerswin to a freestanding porch off the southwest corner of the square, where close to a dozen toddlers were gathered. Gerswin stood by the brick wall enclosing the space under the roof and watched.
Two children, dressed solely in rough stained leather tunics, used miniature clay bricks to build a wall. Behind them, an even smaller child sat on the smooth brick flooring and sucked on the end of a wooden rattle. None of the childrenâs hair appeared more than roughly cut, nor did any wear more than a loin cloth and sleeveless, patched-together leather over-tunics, despite the brisk breeze. The chill from the morningâs frost had yet to leave the air.
A somewhat older child sat on the bricks at the feet of a shriveled and gray-haired woman and used a battered wooden pipe to produce a series of shrill squeaks, some of which resembled musical notes.
A toddler barely able to walk caught sight of the gray Imperial tunic and the touches of silver-embroidered insignia on his collars and pointed at the clean-shaven pilot.
âUmmm! Ummm!â
Gerswin looked at the wide gray eyes, and finally grinned.
She frowned and closed her mouth. Finally, she repeated the phrase again. âUmmmm!â
The wind shifted, and a new stench wrenched at Gerswinâs gut, an acidic odor burning into his nostrils from the lower section of the shambletown.
He took a last look at the toddler, waved, and turned toward the half dozen steps that stretched the three meter width of the street that led southward to the older part of the shambles.
âUmmmm! Ummmm!â Was there a plaintive ring to those words?
Gerswin nearly stumbled on the first step, but caught himself and continued downward.
The street remained level for another fifty meters, flanked on both sides by the relatively newer and larger dwellings of the upper section, before narrowing at the top of another set of steps.
The officer could hear the uneven sound of Fynianâs dragging limp as they continued downward.
Beyond the second set of steps, the narrow grid pattern of the upper shambletown dissolved into the twisting lanes of the lower town. The houses were no longer uniformly sand-painted, since in places the old facade had crumbled or been washed away.
More plant flats appeared in sheltered and glassless windows or on rooftops under patched old leather tenting, rather than in the relatively ordered porticos of the upper town. But the relative silence prevailedâa few whispers, a word here and there among the handful of people passing in the lanes, and few shambletowners at all.
Gerswin nodded. The old patterns had not changed, not yet, and perhaps
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