Telli's knowledge of the Kingdom was vastly improved during the journey down the Great River. This was due not only to his own experiences as he visited towns and villages to buy at markets, or to eat in inns and taverns. He learned the most from his two boat-mates. Rhyll was as widely travelled as Slomen, and their stories combined probably gave him as clear an insight into the ways of the land as could have come from any two of its citizens. Setisia added to this education as she was well read, and knowledgeable in a different way from the others. Telli had read the scrolls she had presented him in Bhuin, which concerned the bitter and protracted civil war that had divided the Kingdom three hundred years before. She had guessed, correctly, that he would be interested in the period when his own ancestors had followed Drakis over the mountains.

After leaving Dzarak, the voyagers were on the river for eight more days before reaching Kellmarsh. They managed their little boat well and without accident. On the only occasion when they might have had difficulties, during a heavy thunderstorm with high winds, captain Setisia played safe and ordered her crew to make for a sheltered spot on the bank, where they waited out the storm. All three thoroughly enjoyed the voyage and one another's company. By the time they were nearing Kellmarsh, they were firm friends as well as an efficient team of sailors.

To the youngsters, everything they passed was new and exciting. They were entering the warm south of the Kingdom, lands where snow was never seen on the ground in winter, and in summer even the nights could be warm enough for a man to walk about without a shirt on his back. There were animals new to both of them, some spectacular, like the playful freshwater dolphins they saw leaping from the water, or the sinister crocodiles Rhyll pointed out once on the bank.

For Telli and Setisia, the best memories of the voyage would always come to the accompanying sound of Rhyll's fiddle. He played in an infinite variety of styles, frequently improvising his own tunes to suit their moods. His music, and the squawked words of the parrot, went with the gurgle of water under the little boat's bows, and the flapping sounds of her sail in the wind. As for Rhyll, he loved the voyage for the constant surprises he found in the characters of his two highly unusual companions. He quickly learned never to treat them like children, and came to regard them as friends in whom he could trust and confide any detail of his thoughts if he so wished.

Kellmarsh first came into the travellers' view on the morning of a sweltering hot day. It was situated on the east bank where the river entered the great lake, Tallian. For some time they had been able to see the distant mountain range which ran along the Kingdom's southern border, blocking the Great River's flow and turning it eastward, creating the lake at the bend. Kellmarsh had been a small fishing settlement on the inside of this bend when first named after a tasty crustacean, the keller, many centuries earlier. During its evolution into the greatest city of the Kingdom, the name had survived many attempts to replace it with something more grandiose. The marshland around the original village had been channelled into numerous canals as the city grew, so that it was as common for its inhabitants to move through it via these as along its many streets. Three rivers flowed into the city, their waters sifting through the canal system before reaching the lake. The canals, therefore, refreshed their water supply constantly, and the refuse of the city was taken away each day, leaving it a clean and reasonably healthy place to live.

Rhyll directed his wide-eyed crewmates into the harbour, taking both oars so they could see well ahead. There were more than one hundred ships and boats anchored or moored in the huge area, protected by two walls built some distance out into the lake.

"You see the reddish tower with a beacon on top, captain mine? Steer into the canal opening to the left of it, and keep by the right hand bank once in it," Rhyll instructed Setisia, who was at the tiller. She followed his directions, and they moved about a hundred yards up the canal between tall warehouses built on either side, until it widened out into a rectangular dock within the city. This was busy with boats loading and unloading cargo. At its far end the canal continued, and Rhyll took them on up it until they reached another smaller and quieter dock where there were a few empty berths.

"We pay the dock tax by day or by week, and we can leave the boat here as long as we wish under the eyes of the dock watchmen. If you live on the boat then you already have a house in the centre of the city, captain! You are a resident immediately." Rhyll was happy to be in Kellmarsh, where he knew many people.

There were several dock-workers, all dressed in white with green headbands to identify them as city officials doing this specific job. One of them directed the new arrivals to a berth exactly the right size for their boat. Each berth was surrounded by wooden fences rising from the water to a height which offered those living on their boats privacy from their neighbours and kept the vessels, tied by the bows to the dockside, from swinging into each other. Such organisation, and the security offered by having guards patrolling the quay at all hours, did not come cheaply, and Setisia raised her eyebrows at the price of five silver crowns per week.

"All prices are high in Kellmarsh," explained Rhyll, "but here all make more money, and it is the richest of the cities when all is told. Half your fee goes directly to the dock-workers, and the rest to the Duke as tax for the upkeep of the city. I shall show you around, and you will see that such taxes are well spent. They keep a great city alive and working."

As they made ready to go out into the city, they encountered their first Kellmarsh trader, who hailed Rhyll from the quay.

"Halloa, good Mendai. What goods do you have to sell quickly and for good silver that you can enjoy the spending of in the many hostelries run by your brethren?"

"My captain carries good laris-root, and Bhuin apple drink of the finest quality, but will she not make a better change in the market place than here, friend?"

"Never, never, it is crowded with thieves these days. And where is your captain, sir?" Rhyll indicated Setisia, and the man hid his surprise, addressing her with a low bow.

"I have never had the pleasure of doing a trade with such a beautiful river captain, or I would surely remember. Let me weigh some of your laris-root, and offer you a fine price worthy of your fine looks, madam captain." He produced a balance from the hand-barrow he had with him. Rhyll nodded to Setisia, and she entered into a short round of bartering with the merchant, whose price proved to be quite reasonable. He admitted that she could improve on it if she took the time and trouble to go to the market and sell the vegetable piece by piece in small quantities. However, he would take all she had in one go to sell in his brother's shop, and thus save her much work. Rhyll said that the man could be right, and set off quickly to check prices with a merchant he knew. Before leaving, he said that he would pay Setisia for a bottle of apple wine, which she could then open to give a taste to her prospective customer while they all waited for him. He let the man choose a bottle at random.

Telli watched all this with great interest, seeing that the random choice of a wine bottle for tasting was logical, and looking forward with relish to the dealing he must do with a buyer of raw gold, knowing this would be easy with Rhyll at his side. The gypsy had already looked at his collection of ore, and confidently guessed the price to the nearest crown. There was little about goods traded up and down the Kingdom that Rhyll did not know, and Telli thought that the merchant dealing with Setisia had not tried to suggest a bad price, guessing that the presence of the tough looking Mendai would make this counter-productive.

Rhyll came back shortly, and confirmed the merchant's view that Setisia would have to work hard herself to improve significantly on the profits available from a quick sale to the man before her.

"Do not worry too much about a little money while you are with Rhyll the rich. Take this good fellow's silver, then you will be free to explore this great city with your faithful crew."

Setisia laughed at Rhyll.

"One of my faithful servants has been a few days without seeing the inside of a Mendai tavern and is impatient with thirst, I fear." She made her deal, and took her silver, generously giving the vegetable merchant a bottle of the apple wine, to his pleasure and surprise. Telli helped him load the laris-root onto his barrow, and he wheeled it off contentedly. They were now free to explore the city.

Rhyll showed them first to the main market, the Kingdoms biggest and busiest. This occupied a huge square with a wide canal running through the centre of it. Broad thoroughfares entered on all four sides with streams of ox-carts arriving with goods to be sold and leaving with goods bought. Boats ran both ways on the canal, which served as a direct connection to the port, Lake Tallian, the Great River, and to the smaller rivers leading to other towns in the east. The square was surrounded by stone buildings several floors high, containing, said Rhyll, about a thousand shops. In the centre were around two thousand market stalls. There were no less than eleven bridges arching across the canal, four of them wide enough to take carts and pedestrians side by side.

"Nowhere will you see more people gathered in one place, unless you happen across two large armies in battle at some time in your life," said Rhyll. He placed an arm on Telli's shoulder, and added thoughtfully, "you may indeed be seeing more people at this moment than you have on all other days of your life put together!" An astonishing thought, this could well have been true.

"You have to be careful with Telli when you show him new things," teased Setisia, "he stares like a baby with new toys and bumps into other people." She ruffled Telli's hair, then asked more seriously if he was feeling all right.

"I was just wishing my friend, Brakis, was here with me to see this."

"We'll make sure he can see all he wants with us this time next year," Setisia said. "Come on crew, I have silver, so let me buy something for you for being such a fine body of men and getting us here."

Setisia led them round the stalls and shops. There were many food booths cooking a great range of delicacies from all over the Kingdom and she made her first purchases from these. They ate an exotic mixture of rare foods, each titbit recommended by Rhyll, whilst sitting on the balustrade of one of the footbridges, watching the heavily laden boats pass beneath them.

"Could you live here, Telli?" Setisia asked.

"Certainly, for a while. But I would need to go out to the forests at times. Here are the greatest works of man, but we need to be close to the works of the Gods at times." He still dreamt at night of his Elneside hunting grounds.

"Well spoken, young man. You think like a Mendai. Continue with your learning of our tongue, and you may join us one day, the only Mendai with black eyes." Rhyll laughed, and then said something the others did not understand in Mendai. He had been teaching Setisia the tongue of her father at her request, and Telli had been learning also. The language was difficult for 'Allenthys' because the Mendai had arrived in the Kingdom from lands some distance away, and there were no common roots in their speech and that of the other peoples of the area. The two youngsters were making good progress, however, and Rhyll was proud of his pupils, although he joked that his parrot was quicker on the uptake.

When they had finished eating, Setisia continued her search for presents for her crew.

"We are in the City of Kings, Tellimakis, and you cannot go dressed in rags all the time. Take off that stinking deerskin vest if it has not become part of you and try this for size." They were in an area of the market where there were many stalls selling garments of all kinds and, with Rhyll's help, she managed to re-clothe Telli in a light blue shirt and dark blue leggings of thin and finely woven cloth. They were comfortable in the warm southern sunshine, but felt strange to one who had worn nothing but animal skins and furs all his life.

"What a pretty goblin you have become," said his benefactress, "we shall have to keep you away from these fine merchant's daughters." Telli, carrying his old skins in a bundle, said that he would only wear the new garments if she promised to let him buy her a set when he had changed his gold. He had seen a stall selling gaudy Mendai clothes and had some ideas. The promise was given.

Later, Setisia saw something for Rhyll in a silversmith's shop on the side of the great square. It was an exquisite little brooch in the shape of a gypsy fiddle, with the bow cleverly and seamlessly attached to the fine strings, as if the little instrument was being played. It seemed so appropriate that she knew she must have it, and she whispered to Telli, asking him to distract their friend for as long as possible. This proved to be easy as an adjacent shop sold real musical instruments, and Rhyll was happily explaining their uses and origins to him when Setisia rejoined them with her present. Rhyll was delighted with it, but recognised the quality of the workmanship and protested that she should spend her laris-root profits more wisely as he attached it to his silk blouse. Setisia gave one of her short lectures in reply.

"Telli and I do not have problems for money. Like you, there are many things we can do to make it flow in our direction, more than you might think. At worst, we both know how to live without it in the forest, so can never go hungry, and need not worry as city people might when they are down to their last penny. Money is just something to enjoy spending when we have it, and I know you, Rhyll, do not worry yourself unduly about it either." Rhyll laughed at this, picked Setisia up, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thank you for your gift, little princess, I shall treasure it to the grave."

"Surely you must have saved some silver?" said Telli. "You bought the boat and your goods at Bhuin."

"I was being mysterious at the time, to amuse myself, and forgot to tell you how I came by the silver. I am a woman of property. The apple trees you saw behind my cottage belonged to my grandmother. Only three produce fruit for eating. The others bear the apples we use to make the drink Bhuin is known for. I keep them well, and they pay a little, giving a quantity of fruit worth perhaps thirty pieces of silver each year to the cider makers. When I needed the money for the boat, I did not sell them, but made a deal with a neighbour who has a good nose for profit, giving him the rights to farm my orchard for the next seven years in return for seventy-five crowns. With very little work, as the trees will be fruitful for that period without much maintenance, he will take upwards of two hundred crowns, but I have not lost my dear grandmother's little legacy, something close to my heart. You see, sweet innocent foreigner from the western wilds, how we in the big wide world do business."

They had reached a point on the square where the canal left it and were about to cross a fine arched bridge when Rhyll made a suggestion.

"You will never tire of the market, but it goes on every day, and we are still weary from our voyage. We all have business to do tomorrow, but need a restful afternoon. Let me treat you to the laziest way you can see much of the city." He led them down some steps beside the bridge to a small wharf, and signed to a man seated in the nearest of several punts tied there.

"You are free for the afternoon, sir? Then how much of your time can I buy for a crown?" The elderly boatman smiled, and took the clay pipe he had been smoking from his mouth.

"'Till sundown if you wish, good gypsy, and to any place in the city where there is water but the Duke's palace gardens. He will not let the likes of me paddle in his fountains!"

"Let us go then. Tell me, papa Keller, where should we take two strangers who are new to the City of Kings, and are today at leisure to view it?" Rhyll climbed into the boat as he spoke, and the others followed.

"The Black Temple must be seen, my son, if they have not seen it, and is only a short way up this river-road. Then the Sky Temple, then the Cave Temple, then where you will."

"Papa Keller, you are clearly a good man of the Gods. Take us, as it is true, these things must be seen, and we must offer thanks for a safe voyage we have today completed."

The old man had untied his river taxi, and pushed them off with his pole. He stood on a platform covering the rear half of the punt, walking up and down as he drove them forward by pushing with the pole on the canal bed, steering cleverly by sending the stern one way or the other with his feet. The front of the boat had two passenger seats with backs to them, one facing the other. Setisia and Telli sat facing forward with Rhyll opposite them. 'Papa Keller' (natives of the city were nicknamed after the shellfish for which Kellmarsh itself had been named) turned out to be an amusing guide as they headed up the broad canal, its banks lined here with the fine houses of merchants.

"Here be the residences you can buy if you choose to spend your lives stealing the shirts off the backs of others, my young friends. Those who are quite good at this live in houses such as these, but not those who are very good at it. They live further out, in the stately homes with high walls around and fancy gardens, which I shall show you later, in case your gypsy friend wishes to buy one today." He poled the boat gently along the right hand side of the canal.

"The water road we are crossing now takes you to the City Gardens if you turn to the right, and we could pass them later if you wish, and watch the fine ladies out strolling with their pretty parasols, and the not so fine ladies dressed to mimic them, who will offer strange services even to an old man like me, bringing back pleasurable memories of youth."

"What services?" Telli asked Rhyll, ever interested in this new world of business, and bringing laughter from his companions.

"I shall explain when you are a little older," said Setisia, to Rhyll's amusement. Papa Keller went on.

"To your right you can now see the Black Temple, built by King Roffis the first, they say, although how he did all that on his own is beyond my understanding."

Setisia was excited, standing up to look at the famous building ahead.

"It was built by seven hundred men, taking seven years, and the stone was all brought by ox-cart and river boat from a quarry in the hills seventy miles away," she said.

"Oooh! What a clever young miss," said the old man. "And didn't you know that the carts had seven wheels and the boats were rowed by seven men with seven oars as well?"

" 'Kellers' always laugh at the foreigners who see the great sights of their city for the first time," said Rhyll. "Papa, will you come ashore with us and show us the temple. I have seen it before, but do not remember well the way round, excepting that it is a labyrinth, and we were often lost."

"With pleasure, sir gypsy, and perhaps the pretty miss can teach me a little of its history, as I am not a man of letters, and am not so old as to remember its building myself." They had reached a quay by the temple, and the old man jumped ashore with surprising agility, tying up his punt as the others stepped after him.

The Black Temple was a huge edifice, square at the base, with each side measuring about two hundred feet. It rose in fifteen stages, each smaller than the one beneath, to reach a point at about one hundred and fifty feet above the ground, thus forming a kind of stepped pyramid. Telli was surprised to see that a large tree growing at the apex crowned it. The structure and the statues decorating its exterior were made entirely of black marble, but as they entered through the small doorway that Papa Keller said was the only way in, they saw that the interior was of white marble, and only the contrasting statues were black. There were no torches lit inside, light coming instead from numerous openings in the roofs and walls. The stages they had seen from outside could not be perceived once through the entrance, and there were no stairs or dividing walls. Instead, there were passages with gently sloping floors of white marble passing between thousands of thin white pillars. These pillars were set too close together for even Setisia to pass between them, excepting when there were clear gaps indicating an opening to another passage. As they walked slowly up and down the narrow walkways, it soon became impossible for the visitors to guess where they were in relation to the walls or the entrance. Not only this, they could not tell at what height from the ground they were. Looking between the pillars as they passed, they could only see more pillars in each direction, the only relief being when the passages widened out to accommodate one of the black statues representing a Deity. The effect was eerie, and they walked in silence, even the garrulous Papa Keller having nothing to say. The only sound was the slap of their bare feet on the cool marble floors, as they had left their footwear at the door.

Telli did not know how long they had walked, and had lost count of how many fine statues he had seen, when a triumphant 'ah yes' came from the old man ahead, and they emerged from a small exit into the bright sunlight of late afternoon. He found himself in a pleasant garden with a large tree in the centre, surrounded by a low stone wall.

"How did you know the way, Papa?" asked Rhyll. The old man chuckled.

"I have no idea of the way. All I know is the secret. You take an upward slope whenever you can. If all ways go down, you must go down, but you go up again at the first chance you have. Keep on like this, and you go up more often than down, and must eventually reach the top. We did well. Sometimes it takes a lot longer."

Telli and Setisia had already made their way to the garden wall, and were looking out over the city, exclaiming at the view.

"Telli, even if we did not have reasons to come here to Kellmarsh, we should have done so anyway." Setisia had heard of this temple since she was too young to remember, and had looked forward to seeing it since she had decided to join Telli on his travels. The others joined them at the parapet.

"I said it was a lazy way to see the city," said Rhyll. "Even Papa can earn his silver without poling his punt, by telling you what you see below." There were a number of towers scattered around the city that reached a greater height, but the temple top still offered an excellent view. This would be useful to the youngsters over the next few days as they found their way around the maze of streets and canals that was Kellmarsh. Their guide pointed out many landmarks, and they began to develop maps of the city in their minds. The most impressive building was the Duke's palace, only a few hundred yards away, a large complex of buildings behind high walls, like a city within a city. The old man also identified the position of the dock where their boat lay, and the offices of the King's officials in the city where they wished to go the next day.

"Ah, so you have come to see the King have you?" said Papa, chuckling. "I think you might have to wait a while. I'd like to have a chat with him about a few things, but I've been here sixty-four years, and he has yet to say hello to me!" The old Keller seemed to find the idea of seeking an audience with the monarch very funny. He took them to the side of the parapet facing the lake and pointed out across it.

"Look! You can see his summer cottage, to which I still await my first invitation."

Telli, as well as Setisia, knew from childhood what they were looking at. Across the lake, at about five miles' distance, the southern mountains rose sheer from the water. In the direction Papa indicated with his pointed finger, they could see what looked like a giant pillar rising from the lake just to the fore of the mountains in such a way that they could not tell whether it was joined to the range behind it or not. More than a thousand feet above the lake's surface, the tip of the pillar had been shaped into the largest castle the Kingdom had ever known. This was Tellui, built for Telli's namesake, the Kingdom's unifier, and still the first home of its rulers.

"The mad dwarf's dream, the work he killed himself with. He was a Keller, you know, a builder's son, and such a clever builder has seldom been seen since. The madman who dreamed up this was his match, maybe." The old man stamped his foot, indicating the Temple. His voice had lost its light laughter, and the love of the buildings he had lived with all his life showed through.

"Who were they?" asked Telli.

"I am not good at remembering times, and cannot put things in my mind as systems. I spoke only half in jest when I said that the young miss might tell us something of history. But surely you have heard of the dwarf? Tell him what you know, young lady, and I shall only correct you if I know better." All four had been strangely effected by their ascent through the Black Temple, something its architect had clearly intended. Setisia told what she had learned from the parchments she loved to read, and knew by heart.

"When Tellimakis had brought the Kingdoms together into one, he made his seat here in Kellmarsh. The city was being re-built at the time, and one of its finest builders sought to demonstrate his prowess to the King. He built a fine tower, nine stages in height, and was pleased when the King came to view it, and admired the work. Asking the good builder about the secrets of his trade, Tellimakis realised that the man did not fully understand all he had done. 'How can you achieve this without full knowledge', he asked. The builder replied that when he was in doubt, he had only to ask his own son. Tellimakis asked to see the boy, but the father replied that his son was sick, and in no state to discourse with a King. Finding this curious, the good King demanded to see the boy, saying that it was no matter if the lad was incapable of polite behaviour, and that he would ask his own doctors to do all they could to help one with such knowledge and talent. The builder reluctantly showed the King to his house, and into the yard behind. His son was at this time twenty years old. He had been deformed by accident at birth, and was a hunched dwarf, unable to walk well, and so shy that the King's men thought him incapable of proper speech. The yard was full of detailed models of buildings, constructed of pebbles and clay. Tellimakis, as you all know, is reputed to have been the wisest of Kings. He sent everyone away, including the poor dwarf's own family, and then sat on a wall in the yard, and started to construct his own small building from pebbles, ignoring the young cripple, who watched him. He did this for some hours, and when his men came to see if all was well, he sent them away, forbidding them to disturb him until he called. When he finally did this, they arrived to find the dwarf happily and fluently explaining to his monarch how buildings could, and should, be constructed. To the surprise of all, Tellimakis announced that the boy's father would be his chief city architect, and that the dwarf himself would design and build the castle intended as his centre of government. The castle was built over three reigns, completed in the time of Tellimakis's granddaughter, Queen Tallia, for whom the lake was renamed. The little architect was obsessed with the perfection of his great work, right down to the smallest detail. He lived to be ninety-seven years old, hobbling round the walls and passages of his creation to supervise the work until it was near to completion. Always eccentric, and showing increasing signs of madness, he saw one day that a mason had placed a block of stone at the wrong angle, and threw himself from the battlements in a fit of pique, plunging a thousand feet to his death in the lake below. The Queen had loved the little dwarf, whose work she had grown up in, and was grief stricken at his death. She commissioned several of his pupil-builders to construct a monument to him in the lake where he had fallen, and I think that must be the white tower we can see rising from the water at the base of the cliff. Am I not right, Papa?"

"Indeed, indeed, and may I say that I have never heard the story so well told." Setisia had found a new admirer in the old boatman, who now addressed her with respect. "What of mad Mankis, then, whose work we stand on. Tell your young friend, who listens to you with such devotion written on his face, about him." Telli laughed at this, and protested.

"She is my ship's captain and I am her loyal slave. Do you not think you would be devoted to her if you knew her better, Papa?"

"Enough! I am embarrassed with compliments," said the object of Telli's devotion. "To Mankis the mad, whose finest work lies beneath our feet. Mankis was a sculptor by trade before he was a builder. He worked up and down the country, mainly on temples, as many of his trade do today. After the great civil war, Roffis was King, and wished to thank all the major Gods for the new peace that he had finally established. Mankis was designing temples by this time, and had gained a reputation for great originality, bringing him both fame and notoriety. Some thought his temples to be the greatest in the land, and others hated them as they broke with all the conventions of temple design in those times. But all agreed that a visit to any one of his works was an experience never to be forgotten. Roffis was courageous, and decided to take a chance with the eccentric designer, already known as the madman. This Temple, now considered one of the greatest works in the land, was the result. You have not heard of it, Telli, because it was built just after your ancestors left the Kingdom, both events happening for connected reasons. To flee the horrors of the war, and to celebrate its ending.

"Mankis would let no one, not even the King, see the interior of the temple before its completion. Those working on it had no understanding of the design, never seeing the full plans, and were sworn to secrecy about what they saw during its building. Twice, the King nearly stopped the construction, but Mankis persuaded him to keep faith until the end. There were rumours that the sculptor had completely lost his head, and that the design was a complete nonsense, and that the whole thing would fall down. When the day came for the opening, Mankis persuaded the King to go in alone, and not to come out until he had found the shrine to Lephelia, the Tree Goddess. This was King Roffis's favourite Deity, and he had ordered Mankis to create it himself, using his own hands, not those of an apprentice. We are in Lephelia's shrine now. The tree you see is three hundred years old, and is probably the most famous in the land. Mankis had used his own hands, but not to sculpture from stone. He had simply planted a tree, a joke surely a sane man would not play on a warrior King like Roffis.

I now understand the ending of the story, having experienced the magic of the Black Temple myself. Roffis was about two hours in the temple, his retinue growing restless and uneasy outside. The King eventually emerged from the little door at the base, walked up to Mankis, and stood for a moment facing him in silence. Then he burst out laughing, and embraced the great designer, congratulating him on his audacity and courage. The madman had been so confident in the power of his creation, that he could place a joke on the top knowing that the King would have been seduced by the power of the temple before he reached it, as indeed, I was this afternoon, weren't you?" They all agreed with Setisia that the temple had a powerful magic, and that the designer must have been a true genius.

The group spent another two hours on 'Papa's' punt after leaving the Black Temple. He took them to the City Gardens, a pleasant, green expanse, surrounded by canals so they could pole all round it. Telli volunteered to pole the boat for a while, leaving Papa Keller to rest on the seat by Setisia, and describe the scenes of the city they were passing in his amusing and cynical way. He took them past his own home, showing with pride a neat little house in a row on the banks of a narrow canal. He explained that these were King's houses, owned and maintained by the monarch, and let out usually to older folk such as himself, who had no great wealth, for a very low rent. He was clearly appreciative of this, saying that the King made sure that the houses were always in excellent repair, and he professed himself to be a loyal King's man because of efforts such as this on behalf of the poor. Telli had noticed how the King was held in respect, rather than fear, by the common people of the Kingdom. Setisia, Rhyll, Slomen and Flankis had all expressed support for the monarch. Tellimakis the first had been known as a defender of the people against injustice and tyranny, and it appeared that his heirs had been true to him.

Rhyll directed the old boatman to a tavern overlooking the harbour, where he wished to meet some friends, and paid him off generously. Papa Keller was clearly pleased with his easy and profitable afternoon, and told them to look for him in the market place whenever they needed a taxi, saying that he would take Setisia where she wished for free, so long as she gave him one of her history lessons during the ride. He set off for his home, leaving the trio standing on the dock.