"Well, Fuzzy," Magrat looked at me as she set her mare to walking again, "what do you think of our city?"

* It's amazing, * I stated my honest feeling. * I will add one regret. I would like to see it from the inner wall at night. I think it would be wonderful all lit up in the dark."

"It is wonderful to see it at night from the inner wall," she smiled, "but I confess, I might be biased but I believe that Kizdangengar is the greatest thing goblins have ever made."

* How many live in the city? *

"Roughly 200,000. There's room for 50,000 more but we've never needed to use that extra capacity."

* Is the dome at the top of the palace? *

"That's the Temple to the God Weasilli, which is the only thing on the top ring. The palace and the government offices are one ring down from the temple, and two rings down are the support offices, kitchens, laundry, pantries, barracks, stables, and government housing for those who work on the palace ring."

"So, Lady Magrat," Wren rode up level with the cart, "if we were asked to visit by the queen, would we be staying at the palace?"

"Yes, there is one part of the palace that is guest quarters for visitors," Magrat paid attention to her reining on the steepest part of the downhill out of the inner gate.

"Do you know if we might be housed close to the human party from Nordweg?" Wren's voice was still light and conversational. What a clever girl. I should have thought to ask about this. Thank goodness she was more on the ball than I.

"Most likely," Magrat remarked. "If I remember correctly, the queen wanted to send both parties out hunting together. The Nordweg party delayed in leaving so your party could arrive."

"Who would we speak to about this at the palace when we arrive?" Wren sounded worried. "We have some concerns about staying in the proximity of those from Nordweg. Would it be taken as impolite if we found an inn somewhere in the city for the evening?"

Magrat looked up in surprise, "I thought the elves and the humans were getting along much better these days."

Wren's grimace was obvious despite the mask on her face, "maybe on a kingdom level, we are no longer shooting arrows at each other over the escarpment, but the King of the Green Elves has given refuge to those whose lives are in danger from Nordweg."

Magrat's round green head turned to Cat Rider who she now studied with a guarded expression. "So you really are the missing Prince," she nodded and then turned her attention back to her careful reining on the downhill. So far, she had not once needed to use the hand brake, which suggested to me she was quite skilled at driving a cart.

"This is quite the unforeseen problem," Magrat frowned in thought. "You folks aren't packing any court clothes, are you? No, of course not. You're out adventuring for two years. Who would have thought you'd land at a royal court, even if it with us humble goblins who lack high culture, as the humans would put it."

"I would never think such a thing," Wren was appalled. My estimation of her climbed up a couple of notches. Maybe there was a deeper reason her father kept using her as a courier.

"Thank you for that, Princess," Magrat smiled, "but there ever some elves who think we are simple and slow-minded just because we prefer simple things, bright colors, and silly songs."

"No slow-minded people could have built Kizdangengar," Wren pronounced forcefully.

"Regardless," Magrat continued in her calm and methodical voice, "you're not prepared for any grand banquets or receptions since you are dressed for hunting, so you can probably dodge that sort of thing for now. The queen is quite understanding. Receiving you at court can probably be arranged so that no humans are in attendance. As for staying where humans are, I think for tonight you can come home with me and stay at my place. We can sort out the rest of your stay in the morning when I have had some time to connect with my colleagues at the palace. What good is it to be a senior bureaucrat if I can't throw my weight around when it's needed?"

"You can do that?" Cloud Eye was nervous about Magrat's proposal.

"The queen and I go way back," Magrat remarked. "She will appreciate avoiding a potential diplomatic incident. Trust me on this. Now, let's see. Roaming Wren can use my daughter's old room but are you boys fine with sharing a room? My place isn't very big. It's just me and Gragoy. We have two extra rooms now that the children have moved out. We should move to a smaller place, but no one has pressured us to do so because I am rather senior in the government, so they let us be. I don't know what I'd do, to be truthful, if I had to move. Where would I put all our stuff? We've been in our house for almost 30 years now. That's a lot of stuff."

"We three are fine sharing a room, Lady Magrat," Cloud Eye replied. "We've slept in far worse places."

I found Magrat fascinating, the way she seamlessly switched between her roles of confident government official and family matron. She was a character I never envisioned finding among goblins. Then again, I was finding many of my preconceptions of goblins to be utterly wrong, so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised to find a goblin as complex as Magrat.

"I'll need to stop when we get to the souk, to send a message to Gragoy to pick something up for dinner," Magrat said, looking off into space. Then she turned and looked at me, "so what do you like to have for dinner, Lady Fuzzy? I've never entertained a mountain cat before."

* Uncooked fresh meat is what I usually eat, with a preference for deer or elk. *

"I believe we should be able to find something. Are you fine with beef or mutton if deer or elk aren't available?"

I nodded my agreement since I was beginning to come down with the headache indicating I had overdone the magic usage. I had already dropped the mind-talking spell. I felt someone's hand scratch behind my ears.

"Head starting to hurt, Fuzz?" Cat Rider asked. I nodded.

"Just take it easy for the rest of the evening and go to sleep early," he scratched some more, looking down at me from the saddle. "Transformation magic is a lot of work, isn't it?"

I didn't answer. I just leaned into his scratching hand, closed my eyes, and purred. I dozed for most of the ride across the crater and didn't open my eyes until I felt a bump in the wheels of the cart. What greeted my sight was a huge arch that we then passed through. The road ahead of us was spacious, at least ten wagons wide plus wide walking areas for pedestrians.

Magrat pulled over just after we cleared the arch and stopped at an official-looking office. "I'll be just a moment. I need to send a message to my bedmate so he can be prepared for dinner for seven instead of two. I'll be just a moment.

Magrat was just a moment. As she exited the office, a young-looking goblin in a yellow tunic was right behind her. He strapped on a yellow cap and slung a leather letter bag over his shoulder. Picking up a staff with many bells on the end, he took off at an easy run for one of the many flights of stairs going up to higher rings.

Magrat got back into the cart and clicked her mare into walking forward into the light traffic on the wide road leading into what looked like a giant underground bazaar.

"I'm sure the Princess has been here before," Magrat was enjoying showing us around, "but for the rest of you, this is the Great Souk. The entire fifteenth ring of the city is one great shopping area. Anything you think you might want to buy, you can find it here. Before we do a little sightseeing, to give my Gragoy time to get ready for guests, is there anything you folks need to pick up?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I could use leather belt lengths with buckles," Cloud Eye leaned forward in his saddle to catch Magrat's eye.

"Then, off to the leather workers we go," Magrat nodded. "I will warn you now, and don't turn your heads to look, but three humans are watching us from three block columns to our right. Let us hope to leave them behind us.

I decided that not looking applied to the two-footeds and not to me. After all, no one expects a tame mountain lion to be a thinking person rather than a dumb beast. I looked down the lane to our right and spotted the round ears about 100 yards away, with three of the huge columns holding up the ceiling of the souk between us and them.

They were all men. Because round ears don't expect their females to do things like hunt or fight, that didn't surprise me at all. What did surprise me was that one of those three was Prince Willam Nordweg, all grown up from when I saw the 11-year-old version three and a half years ago. He was a tall boy at 11.

Now the prince was at least as tall as Cloud Eye, I guessed. He still looked rather boyish but I could see the outline of the man he would become already on his face. He'd be a real lady-killer in a year or two.

I was glad that both Cat and Owl were in the habit of keeping their hoods up. Wren had hers down and her long thick wheat-yellow braid of hair swung down her back. Even with her mask on, anyone looking at her knew she was a beauty. That usually wasn't a problem, especially traveling in Gorgurak among goblins; however, if I was any judge, it looked to me that Prince Willam was staring at Wren like he had just discovered womankind and was smitten with what he saw.