CHAPTER SIX
They rose the next day, ate a small breakfast that Elf (as he had nicknamed the tomboyish Lady of Hort) prepared, mounted Richard of Millhouse and headed north toward Elf's city. By midday, Ponkert saw the towers of the battlement-surrounded city rise from the flat meadowland that they had moved into. Another hour's ride brought them before a massive oak portal, protecting the city of Hort from invasion. A brief exchange of pleasantries between Elf and a guard and they rode within.
The teeming bustle of an Earth city was missing in Ponkert's first encounter with a Keller city. The populace was in evidence in great numbers, but the headlong rush of Earth city-dwellers was definitely missing.
Following the girl's directions, he reined to the centre of the city. Rising several
