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Ogome, until
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ods%202%20-%20Demons%20of%20the%20Dancing.txt finally, as a great river, it
reached the Dancing Gods itself. A
parallel canal had been built between Zahias and Bragha, but two great falls
prevented full access to the sea. Still, it was a simple transfer of goods
from ship to barge to ship to get materials easily into the interior of
Husaquahr, and this made
Sachalin a rich and important city indeed.
66
JACK L. CHALKER 67
DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS
The volcanic soil from the Firehills covered hundreds of square miles to the
north and west of the city and lake, meaning that a tremendous amount of food,
principally grains, was sent back down from the port all the way to the
City-States and beyond.
Sachalin was set only slightly inland from the port and the white, sandy
beaches, and it seemed to be constructed of uni-
formly blocky buildings, two to six storeys high, built of some white stone
and masonry materials, topped with characteristic red shingle roofs. Unlike
most cities and towns in Husaquahr, it was not walled, being far too large and
sprawling for that, but it did have big, open arches at its entrance that
served a strictly decorative function. The road led along the lakeshore after
that, where Marge and Joe could see countless fishing vessels tied up in neat
rows for the night, as well as occasional yachts and luxury vessels. The
heavy-goods commercial port was north of the city, leaving the center for
public beaches and pleasure use and not spoiling the view.
They arrived in early evening. The city did not die after dark as most towns
did, but took on a whole new character.
Uniformed men of the watch, as they were called, walked every street, lighting
lamps with long lamplighter torches. The glass containers for the streetlamps
were irregular and often multi-
colored, their bright flames inside producing not only more than ample light
but also colorful, dancing patterns against the white stucco buildings. It
was, in a sense, fairyland by engi-
neering rather than by magic, but it was no less effective.
Although neither Joe nor Marge could read the language, the pictograms on the
signs were easy enough to follow. When they reached a broad park with beach on
one side and town on the other, the road formed a circle around a huge
monument to some very odd-looking creature. Leading into the circle from town
was a tremendously wide avenue, paved with tiny little bricks and lined with
trees the entire way. It seemed to have a series of circles through town to
the hills in back, each one with a small park and monument in the middle, but
far back, against and seemingly either carved out of or sitting on a ledge in
the hills, was the great capitol building itself, looking less like any
capitol building they had seen than a huge, columnar, Grecian-style temple to
some ancient gods, bathed in great lights.
They turned toward the capitol and started into the city proper, following
directions on the small map Ruddygore had sketched for them of the city
center. The large buildings behind the trees on either side seemed to be
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mostly banks and offices
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ods%202%20-%20Demons%20of%20the%20Dancing.txt shipping brokers, the grain
exchange, and other such institu-
tions. This was the financial heart of the city, it was clear.
"It's beautiful," Marge said, mostly to herself. "And every-
thing's so clean."
Joe understood what she meant. Even the best of towns they'd seen in Husaquahr
had been straight out of the Middle
Ages, with sanitation to match. Here, though, it looked as if an entire crew
of workmen came out each night and scrubbed the place clean, removing trash,
droppings, and just about everything else, then even polishing the brick and
scrubbing the building^ facades. The air was crisp and clean-smelling, with no
hints of garbage or even horse droppings.
At that moment, Joe's horse relieved herself on the bright roadway, and he
felt suddenly very guilty for her doing so. He hurried on a bit, and they were
a couple of blocks up and at the next circle before he halted at Marge's call.
"Hey, Joe
look back!"
He looked and saw dozens of tiny fairy gnomes emerge from the trees up and
down the whole block where his horse had violated the scenery. They hurried
quickly to the center of the street, swept up the droppings and took them
away, then scrubbed the whole area and vanished once more into the tree-
lined sides of the boulevard. "It figures," he muttered, then turned and
continued on.
Although the hotel and entertainment district was in the dead center of the
city, the fancy hotels for the business clientele who would be visiting those
financial centers were all directly on this main, wide boulevard, and the
grandest of them was the Imperial Grand, a huge, fancy structure that took up
more than a square block. Like all the buildings, it wasn't really very
high though at eight storeys it was one of the tallest buildings in the
city but it was fancy.
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