He hoped.
HE ended up carrying Sandalon home to the Palace on his shoulders— which delighted the boy—since otherwise, as Kellen eventually realized, there would always be 'just one more thing' for Sandalon to show him, and Kellen could tell by the angle of the light that the day was rapidly coming to an end. He wanted to get home himself and talk to Idalia about the things he'd found out—and guessed—today, and ask her a few questions. Well, more than a few, actually.
Lairamo was waiting at the door, looking as worried as Elves ever let themselves look.
'He hasn't been any trouble, really,' Kellen said quickly. 'He was showing me around the woods, and I guess I lost track of the time. I hope I haven't kept him out too late.'
Lairamo smiled, looking relieved. 'No, of course you haven't, Wild-mage. If Sandalon is with you, then we know he is safe indeed.'
'And if he's looking for me tomorrow, I guess I'm going to be at Tengitir's shop,' Kellen added, swinging Sandalon down off his shoulders. 'At least in the morning.'
'I want to watch!' Sandalon announced. 'Kellen is going to get new clothes, proper clothes, so he doesn't look like a—'
'That is for your mother to decide,' Lairamo said firmly, whisking Sandalon behind her skirts before the boy could finish his sentence. 'Perhaps it would please you to take a cup of wine at our hearth, Kellen. I'm certain Prince Sandalon has marched you over more territory today than all the armies of Great Queen Vielissiar Farcarinon.'
He wanted to—he badly wanted to see the Queen again—but Kellen had the feeling that this was simply a polite offer that was made without the expectation that it would be accepted. And he hadn't seen Idalia since last night; she might be getting worried, if no one had known where he and Sandalon had been all afternoon.
So he decided on declining, gracefully. 'Thank you, but my sister will be expecting me, and I believe she will have many things to tell me by now.'
Ah. He was getting better at reading the Elves. That was polite relief on the nurse's face.
'I bid you good evening, then,' he said. He tried a bow, and congratulated himself that it was a little less awkward than yesterday's. Maybe he'd get the hang of this place eventually.
'And we, you,' the nurse replied, and with a friendly nod, turned and chivvied her charge away to his supper and bed.
ON her way back to her lodging after her visit to Songmairie, Idalia stopped several times for supplies. Odd that it would have seemed to anyone who was only familiar with the wondertales about Elves, there was a little market in Sentarshadeen, full of stalls where Elven farmers and crafts-folk brought their wares—though admittedly, most Elves preferred to barter than purchase outright. Time, after all, was a commodity of which they had a significant supply. Even in the midst of drought, the stalls were occupied, and bargaining was going on at the usual leisurely Elven pace.
Each handsome stall was different, though all were shaded with awnings, each awning was different as well. Some stalls were created in stark simplicity, some in an amusing froth of ornament; all delighted the eye.
Idalia made her selections with care. Food and wine and a selection of ciders, of course, for any worker must take care of his tools, and one of the most important tools of a worker in magic was their own body. Another stop at a store that sold toys and games of all sorts, where she bought a set of the small polished counters for the game of gan.
Idalia had no interest in playing gan, today or any other day—the rules were very simple, but the game itself took an Elven lifetime to learn to play well—but there were 144 counters to a gan set, small round cabochons of polished agate no bigger than her thumbnail, and she needed them for what she was about to do. The Elven proprietor sold them to her with barely concealed curiosity, though she was ostensibly engrossed in a game of xaqiue with a friend. By now everyone in Sentarshadeen knew Idalia was here, and that she'd agreed to use the Wild Magic to aid the Queen. Everything Idalia did would be food for gossip before the sound of her footsteps had died away in the street.
And Jermayan would be sure to hear all of it, for she knew that he had not yet left Sentarshadeen, and indeed, had no intention of doing so.
Furious with the sudden direction of her thoughts, Idalia forced the thought of him from her mind once more.
By the time Idalia reached her own doorstep, it was piled with neatly wrapped bundles from the tradesmen whose shops she'd stopped at; she'd carried many of her own purchases, but not all. She set her walking staff outside the door and went inside, then spent a few minutes tidying the things away. Knowing that Sentarshadeen was her destination, she'd taken care to bring a few trade goods that would be of interest in Elven lands, and a Wildmage's credit was always good. If nothing else, charged keystones could serve as currency, for though the Elves had given up their part in the Greater Magic long ago, they still retained a facility with the small magics of hearth and woodland, and charged keystones were better than gold.
Idalia wasn't really sure what the Elves did with the keystones, though they seemed to value them—she'd
