The thought of Laurr brought him up sharply. It brought back a cold awareness of his purpose ... of his will to escape and rejoin the Maldia in its attack on the invading Tellurians. The attack that should at this moment be under way!
Whatever happened to him in this fairy city, Telis swore by the Goddess herself that he would not allow himself to forget his duty. Surely, such wonders as these were not meant to be shared with the barbarians from across the void!
The thought remained with him as he was escorted into the city, and along wide thoroughfares heavily travelled with sith-drawn traffic. Above, an occasional air-sled passed, but in the main the city's travelling was done on foot or by means of the ubiquitous sith ... a six-legged, docile, great-hearted beast that was the sole remaining animal of its size left on Laurr.
Telis was taken first to the anterooms of the Central Temple, where a kindly-faced Third-Cycle Priest assigned him quarters. From there, he was taken to the tall spire apparently reserved for sudden guests of the Temple.
In respectful silence, he was freed of his bonds and left alone in a room such as he had never dreamed of occupying in his own border fortress ... or even in the palace of the Laurr of Laurr himself.
One curving wall was made entirely of glass, and it faced the city to the west and the desert to the north, so that the whole magnificent panorama stretched out before him like a framed picture. And the furnishings! By the Goddess! He had not dreamed that the sombre scientist-priests of the Temple did themselves so well! Suspecting the presence of listening devices or peep-holes, he snooped. He found nothing. A soft canopied bed waited invitingly, reminding him that the only rest he had had had been the stupor induced by the stun-gun; and a table laden with refreshments and wines stood in the center of the deep-pile carpet. What a difference from the stone floors and the draughty keeps to which he was accustomed!
Recalling that he had not eaten for some time, he fell to on the laden table. And then, as weariness stole over him, he laid himself fully dressed on the wide bed to rest and await whatever came next. Telis was a soldier and, like all soldiers everywhere, he ate first, rested next, and was content to await developments in all the comfort that his surroundings could afford him.
For a prisoner, he thought with a wry smile, I am certainly being treated royally. By the Goddess! How would I be treated if I were a friend?
At last the strain of the night's events took its toll on him, and the young Lord of Lars slept as the Temple City of Dorliss awoke to its many and varied tasks....