The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [85]
Before Alicia noticed, Trillhalla, with a flick of her webbed feet, propelled herself from the water into the canoe beside the visitors. The sea elf seemed to have no regard for her nudity as she lay on the seat and let the sun dry the seawater from her skin.
Alicia didn't see the entrance into the forest before them, but suddenly the canoe slipped into a narrow channel. Despite the overhanging canopy of verdure, sunlight reflected from the silvery leaves and the clear water, making the hidden passage a bright, airy place. Here Trillhalla sat up and removed a plain white tunic from beneath her bench. Throwing the garment over her shoulders and pushing her arms through the sleeves, she tossed her silver-curled locks free. She looked, Alicia thought with amazement, as glamorous as any lady of an elegant court.
They glided along the watery passage for perhaps half an hour, and each twist and turn of the channel brought new wonders to their eyes, Synnorian and human alike. Birds of brilliant colors-bright red, emerald green, or deep, flashing blue-fluttered from tree to tree. At one place, a great hawk, pure white except for streaks of black on its folded wings, watched them from a lofty branch, its eyes glittering with intelligence.
In some places, the channel broadened to a wide pool, and occasionally they saw young elves splashing along the shores of these, swimming with carefree glee, pausing to stare in openmouthed wonder at the flowered canoe-or more likely, realized Alicia, at the strange and alien occupants of that graceful craft.
Finally, after a sudden twist in the channel, the forest fell away on either side, and the waterway flowed into a broad, placid lake. Across its mirrored surface, glittering with a beauty and majesty that took their breath away, the Summer Palace of Evermeet rose into the skies, in an obvious attempt to rival the glories of the heavens themselves.
The palace seemed to fly at first, like a gorgeous silver cloud. Turrets and towers of diamond, silver, and glass gleamed with millions of facets, expanding the light of the sun until the palace rivaled even that fiery orb in brightness.
Four massive pyramids, each hundreds of feet high, stood at the corners of the lofty palace, supporting the flat floor of clear crystal that formed the bottom of the structure itself. The whole thing remained poised in the air far above the lake. Wide stairways led up the pyramids, which seemed to sit on the water's surface, the summit of each forming one corner of the square base of the palace.
From these four corners, the palace rose dramatically. The platform was unwalled. Apparently its placement two hundred feet above the middle of a lake was enough to deter armed assault. Who knew, Alicia reminded herself, if war even existed upon Evermeet?
The keep soared upward for hundreds more feet and was surrounded by gleaming towers that climbed even higher. Narrow spires emerged from the center of the huge structure, and bridges of glass or silver-sometimes supported by web-like strands of golden cables, other times apparently freestanding arches-connected the highest towers and descended in graceful sweeps to the keep.
Alicia could not express her astonishment and wonder. Any words occurring to her seemed hopelessly mundane, even insulting, when used to describe a work of such consummate grace and beauty.
The first dose of reality came as they approached the base of the nearest pyramid, where finally the princess could see a wooden landing encircling the base of the stone edifice. Here stood a rank of crimson-coated guards, each armed with a sword and a shield. Above them, arrayed on the steps of the pyramid and seeming