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Oh. He hadn’t figured any of those out yet? Luka, despite spending more time here than anyone, excluding Sam, looked equally puzzled.
Amaru didn’t bother subduing his evil chuckle. This was going to be fun.
“Come with me, young one, and learn my mysterious ways.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Cameron muttered, but he followed immediately.
It was fine, Amaru was only going to break his brain a little bit. He was young; he’d recover without issue.
The nearest control was for the lights, in fact, which was why Amaru had thought of it. To the untrained eye, it might have looked like a decorative stone. The stone was palm width, a perfect square, set into the lampposts that lined all the streets. He went to the one that stood in the center of the plaza, drew the power symbol in the air above the stone, then smacked it lightly with his palm three times.
Knowing it would work, Amaru turned to see the other two’s reactions. They did not disappoint. When the stone lit up in a warm glow, then spread to the nearest columns in quick succession, neither of them had words. Luka looked about with childlike wonder, eyes round, lips parted with delight, as if Amaru had performed stunning magic for his enjoyment. Amaru loved that look and regretted he hadn’t thought to take a picture of this, just so he could treasure it.
Cameron spun in place, watching as the whole village lit up, spluttering. “How. Seriously, I’m not kidding, HOW?!”
If this blew his mind, Amaru couldn’t wait to show him the rest. “A little captured lightning from the Tupã, some mountain stone, with captured sunlight. It’s the sunlight that keeps it powered.”
The consort of the Fire Dragons whimpered. “Do you know how much money we spend on lights throughout the year? When instead we could be doing this?”
“I’ll teach you later,” Amaru promised. “Now, I’m going to go turn on the other two.”
He had two devoted followers as he walked farther into the city. Amaru passed many a person who exclaimed over the lights that had suddenly appeared everywhere. Luka ended up throwing quick explanations over his shoulder. Cameron was too doggedly focused in following Amaru to care whether anyone else was confused.
Finally, he hit the right section. There was one particular building that housed all of their utility spells and machines. This one, too, had been repaired recently. The roof, walls, and doors all looked new. Hopefully everything inside still worked fine, otherwise Amaru would need to do some quick repairs.
He stepped in through the door, looking about. Ah, good, the preservation spells had done their job. When not in use, they had retreated either into their columns set into the floor, or into the floor itself.
“We had no idea what this place was for.” Luka followed him in, looking around. “But this was where the controls for the sewage system was?”
“Sewage and water, really.” Amaru paused in explaining to find the right column. He honestly hadn’t been in there since the last repair, which had been two—no, five hundred plus years ago. Ah, there was the lever.
Cameron sounded indignant. “I tried pulling that.”
“It’s not a pull.”
“I tried pushing, too.”
“Not a push, either.” Amaru used both hands, power activating in his core and traveling through his fingers, into the metal rod, unlocking it. Then he lifted it, pulling hand over hand as he raised it from the floor. The wall panel lifted up with barely a grating sound, coming to a slow stop, covering the entire back wall from floor to ceiling.
“Secret panel,” Cameron moaned. “What’s next, a secret door?”
“Those are only for the dragon hoards,” Amaru teased. “I won’t show you those.”
“Of course there’s secret doors,” Cameron muttered. “Of course there are.”
Much like he had the lights, Amaru drew the right power symbols over the right squares, activating each of them with some of his magic and a slap against the stone. He explained as he went, “Water is the easiest, it’s just moonlit water and power of running water. We tapped into an underground lake nearby to keep it going. Sewage system is running water, moonlit water, and limestone. We have dragon ash filters at the grates.”
“See, you rattle it off like that, and it seems so fucking obvious.” Cameron groaned some more. “I’m so doing this at home. Just watch.”
The fact he could actually envision how it was all put together in a snap proved how brilliant he must be. Nikki had said Cameron was smart, and the mage had not exaggerated. Amaru could only imagine how much fun it would be to match wits with Cameron and invent something fun. Hopefully they’d have enough time to do that while rebuilding the Sousa Clan.
“All right, next. Repair golems.”
When Amaru turned, he found Luka with smartphone in hand, pointed in his direction. He blinked at his mate, not sure what Luka was up to.
