Luck in the Shadows

Wolde if he himself had not sensed something deeper in Alec's character and been taken with it.
    Apprentice indeed!
    Alec shifted nervously. "Is something wrong?"
    "Certainly not!" Nysander smiled. "I was lost in my own thoughts for a moment, a habit we wizards often drop into. Seregil and Micum were both working for me when you met them. At a more opportune time I will explain what that entailed."
    Distracted as he was by Seregil's condition, Alec couldn't help looking out at the passing city now and then. Carts, horses, litters, and pedestrians of all descriptions thronged the streets. The road leading up to
    the citadel was enclosed in curtain walls on both sides and the stonework seemed to trap the noise and amplify it.
    This road ended at the broad outer gate of the city.
    Half a dozen blue-clad guards flanked the entrance, armed with swords and pikes, but traffic passed freely. Once through the gate they slowed, moving through an inner barbican, and then passed under the archway of a second gate, its ancient pediment decorated with carvings of fish. Beyond lay the largest marketplace Alec had ever seen.
    The stone-flagged square stretched away on all sides, jammed with hundreds of wooden booths.
    Their colorful awnings rippled in the brisk wind.
    A broad avenue had been left open through the center of the square to allow for traffic, and narrow side lanes branched out from it into the wilderness of shops.
    From all sides came the clamor of the city: voices shouting, animals braying, the pounding of artisans at work, and the rumble of the carts that flowed in a steady line in both directions along the street.
    Tall, white-plastered buildings, some as much as five stories high, ringed the market square.
    Everywhere he looked there were people.
    Continuing on, they plunged into the maze of streets and neighborhoods that spread over the hills.
    Structures of all sorts lined the streets, in some cases even overhanging it with walkways and elaborate solariums. Wagons and riders filled the streets; children, dogs, and pigs darted about underfoot.
    As the dizzying spectacle flowed by, Alec recalled with horror his original plan to bring Seregil through Rhнminee alone.
    The broad avenue they followed opened periodically into broad, stone-paved circles from which other streets radiated like the spokes from the hub of a wheel. Under other circumstances Alec might have asked Nysander about them, but the wizard had grown silent again, watching Seregil's shallow breathing with apparent concern.
    Holding his tongue, Alec saw that they were entering an area of larger, more elaborate buildings.
    Presently they came to another of the open circles, this one centered around a circular colonnade some forty feet in diameter and bordered on one side by a wooded park.
    "The Fountain of Astellus, a spring which has never gone dry since the founding of the city," Nysander remarked, indicating the colonnade. "The original city was centered around it. We are nearly to the Orлska."
    Halfway around the circle, their driver veered to the left onto another broad, tree-lined avenue.
    High walls lined the street on either side, presenting blank faces of smooth stone or plaster except for the broad bands of decoration bordering the tops and gateways. Some patterns were painted, others done in mosaics of colored stone or tile.
    He would later learn that these decorated walls, screening the elegant villas beyond, were not merely decorative; in the Noble Quarter one might be directed to "the house in Golden Helm Street with the red serpent gate" or "the house with the black and gold circles in a blue border."
    Small marble pillars stood at intervals along the streets here, each one carved with a figure representing the name of that street. Small gilded helmets marked the way that Alec and Nysander followed.
    "Are those all palaces?" Alec asked, catching glimpses of carved and painted facades beyond the walls.
    "Oh, no, just villas. Many are owned by members of the Queen's Kin," Nysander replied. "Aunts, brothers, cousins so far removed one must consult the Archives to ascertain from which obscure third brother of what queen or consort they are descended."
    "Seregil said it was a complicated place, but that I'd have to learn all about it," replied Alec, looking rather glum at the prospect.
    "Quite true, but I am certain he will not expect you to learn overnight," the wizzard assured him. "You could have no better teacher than Seregil for such