surroundings more beautiful.
It almost seemed—though it was an odd word to use to describe a place where people obviously went about their daily lives, for Kellen saw a number of Elves as they passed, if only at a distance—holy. Holiness was a concept that Kellen only understood vaguely, and that in connection with the Priests of the Eternal Light. In Kellen's limited experience, holiness seemed to involve long incomprehensible prayers, discomfort, and a great deal of incense. If that was holiness, then it could have nothing to do with Sentarshadeen. But the word still seemed right to him. The Elven city was a far holier place than the cold and forbidding Great Temple of the Light.
They followed a path—though to call it a path was unfair, as it was as wide as a street back in Armethalieh —that led up the cliff and stopped in front of one of the doors. Canderil set his stave into a bracket that seemed to be made for it, and went up the step to open the door. Idalia dismounted.
'We're here,' she said.
Kellen slid off Shalkan's back. The unicorn shook himself and took a few steps, sniffing the air.
'I'll be back later. If you need me, just ask anyone. They'll know where I am.' He trotted off quickly, leaving Kellen staring after him.
'There's a unicorn herd here,' Idalia said, noting Kellen's puzzled and slightly dismayed expression. 'He's gone to join them. Don't worry about him; he probably hasn't seen another unicorn aside from that family I healed a while back for moonturns, maybe years, and he'll have a lot of socializing to do. Come on, help me get our things inside. We're home, for now.'
Canderil helped them unload Prettyfoot and Coalwind, assisting them to get all of their belongings inside, then retrieved his stave and led the two animals away, leaving Kellen and Idalia standing among their bundles in the main room of the guesthouse.
'Home, sweet home,' Idalia said in an unreadable tone as she looked around the room.
'Idalia,' Kellen said hesitantly, 'is this place yours? Have you been here before?'
Idalia took a deep breath, rousing herself from whatever she'd been thinking, and smiled. 'No. Not here. And until a few minutes ago, this was a guesthouse. But it's our home now. From the moment we took occupancy it ceased to be a guesthouse and will be regarded as ours. That's why Canderil left so fast—Elves have very strict customs about who gets to go into private homes and who doesn't. Now that it's our home, no Elf will ever come in here uninvited—except children, of course: Elven children are so rare that they pretty much do as they please and are exempt from all custom and law. And there are all sorts of customs about who can invite who into whose house, and all that, of course, but being human, we won't be expected to know them, much less be bound by them.'
'Good thing,' Kellen muttered darkly. He'd had his fill of rules of that sort back in Armethalieh!
'Why don't you take a look around?' Idalia suggested. 'There are two bedrooms; you can pick one, and then we can get our gear sorted out.'
Kellen decided to take her advice. He hadn't gotten much chance to inspect the place before, since they'd been getting their things inside as quickly as possible, but now the need to hurry seemed to be over.
The Elven dwelling wasn't large, but like everything else Kellen had seen here so far, it was perfect. The main room—where all of their gear was now—was large enough to be comfortable, but not big enough to seem grand. Its gently curved walls were painted a rich, warm, vibrant cream. Some of the furniture was built-in—long padded benches of carved and polished wood that ran along the walls, following the curve, a tall armoire that opened to reveal bookshelves and a desk—and other pieces stood arranged against the walls awaiting their need: a pair of comfortable-looking chairs, a stool. In one corner, a tall tile stove was set into the wall, ready to provide both warmth and a place to cook. Opening the doors and drawers of its intricate cabinet, Kellen discovered a teapot and cups; bowls and flatware. All but the eating utensils were of the luminous translucent Elvenware that commanded such astronomical prices in Armethalieh. Kellen held a piece up to the light. It glowed, taking fire from the sun, and its color took his breath away. Reluctantly, he set it back in its place and investigated further, turning up some large, flat, black disks, elaborately embossed with an intricate geometric pattern. He had to lift one and examine it closely before he figured out what it was. Charcoal. Even the fuel here was beautiful.
Kellen brushed his hands clean and turned away from the stove to pick up one of the pillows from the sitting benches. Each was covered in a different hand-loomed fabric and pattern, each somehow perfectly right for the room. The longer he looked, the more there was to see. He set the cushion down gently.
'It's a little stunning when you see it all for the first time,' Idalia said quietly.
'Yeah,' Kellen said weakly. This wasn't getting him any closer to picking out a bedroom, either.
There were three doors leading off the main room. He chose one at random and opened it.
He'd found the bathroom.
The fixtures were similar to what he might have found back in Armethalieh, save for the fact that they were made of colored ceramic instead of wood, metal, or stone, and seemed to be built into the walls and floor. Kellen inspected the washbasin curiously. There was no ewer, and no place to set one, either. Where did the washing- water come from? And why was there a stopper in the bottom of the bowl?
