They rode beyond the inner walls. Immediately there was a sense of age and beauty. Lampposts lit by incandescent magic kept the night at bay. Long streets wound up tree-clad hills. Many flights of stairs ran up the steeper slopes. There were palaces with towers and spiked minarets. There were fountains everywhere. It seemed like a legion of sculptors had been kept busy for many ages of the world beautifying the city. There were statues of mages and warriors and kings, as well as people he did not recognise but guessed were lawmakers and orators and poets. He pointed out these wonders to his brother; stone worked to look life-like, auras of glamour and ancient warding sorceries protecting the work from the ravages of time and weather.
‘It’s amazing,’ he told Teclis, as they passed a row of towering warriors garbed like Korhien. ‘Just think of the work that went into this.’
‘Think of the ego and the pride,’ said his twin.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You don’t think these were put up just to beautify the streets, do you?’
‘What other purpose could they have?’
‘Your brother is right, doorkeeper,’ said Korhien riding up beside them. ‘These statues and fountains were all put up for political reasons. They represent the power and the wealth of the people who paid to have them created. They praise the ancestors of those people, or in many cases the living elves themselves.’
Tyrion laughed.
‘I am serious, doorkeeper. Politics is a serious business in Lothern, although you are right to laugh at it. Every one of the statues on the pedestals on the roof of that palace represents a glorious ancestor of the occupants. It reminds the mass of the citizens of the power and greatness of the family, just in case its members have not performed any worthy deeds lately.’
Teclis squinted at Korhien with something like respect. He obviously had never expected to hear such words coming from the White Lion’s mouth.
‘Not everyone who wields a blade is brainless, Prince Teclis,’ said Korhien with the elaborate courtesy with which he always treated Teclis and which Tyrion suspected concealed a genial contempt. ‘You will soon find that out in this place. You will need to, if you are to live and prosper here.’
‘I would settle just for living at the moment,’ said Teclis. ‘This odious beast has half-killed me on the ride.’
‘Not much further, prince,’ said Korhien. ‘Soon you will have a bed for the night. In the bosom of your loving family.’
There was a subtle irony in his tone that Tyrion could see Teclis appreciated.
‘Where do you come from, Lord Korhien?’ Teclis asked. There was an edge to his voice but he was curious too.
‘I was born in a barn in the mountains. My father was a freeholder. My mother was the local archery champion. No ancient high blood there, I am afraid. Well, no more than any other elf.’
‘You are allied to Emeraldsea though, aren’t you?’
‘I am allied to Lady Malene,’ said Korhien with a wink. ‘She is my only entanglement with House Emeraldsea. My loyalty is to the Phoenix King. As is only right for an elf of my position.’
Why was there tension between the two of them, Tyrion wondered? Perhaps his twin sensed a rival for his loyalty. Tyrion had never looked at the matter in that light before. Perhaps Teclis feared being abandoned in this vast city with its palm trees and roof gardens and endless streets full of echoing, half-empty palaces.
Now they were away from the gates, the crowd had thinned out and the streets seemed much emptier. Some of the houses, not too far from the main thoroughfare, had patched and crumbling roofs. Some of the people who gazed at them out of half-shuttered windows had a lean and hungry look to them, although as far as Tyrion knew there was no hunger or famine in Ulthuan.
What then could they be? Were they diseased? Was it true that some of the human plagues could jump to elves? He had heard some of the mountain villagers claim such things, that humans should never have been allowed into Lothern, and should be sent packing back to their homelands.
For himself, Tyrion was curious to see one of the semi-legendary savages. He knew he would find the opportunity soon. They were mostly associated with the dark elves who kept them as slaves and occasionally allied with their daemon-worshipping medicine men. As he had seen, many of them lurked down by the harbour, living in