Victor

  The princess had been exhausted, and was now asleep with her head lolling to the side. For the first hour of the trip she was fascinated by the car and was messing with the various knobs and buttons. She had gotten lost listening to the music, activated the air conditioning and silently allowed it to blow her hair back for a long time, and kept moving the windows up and down. Of course she was also full of questions about the car and how it operated.

  I obliged her and explained the basic mechanics of the internal combustion engine, the drive shaft, powertrain and all of that mechanical stuff. Actually, the fact that she was eagerly listening to me drone on made me quite happy. How much of it did she fully grasp, I could only guess, but she did seem excited about it. After a while though she actually conked out and I'd laid my coat over her. I couldn't blame her. Heck, even I was feeling a bit worn out - I even chugged that energy drink which had been sitting in the cupholder.

  Even though a certain song about digging ditches and burning witches was playing she still slept peacefully. Damn. I was hungry. I could use a brisket sandwich right about then. Do they even have barbeque in this world?

  But just as another singer was about to declare himself to be a gentleman made of a ferrous material, I noticed something up ahead and lost my crazy train of thought: a large gate made of a silver-like metal - a gate with a number of guards holding impressive spears.

  Of course my headlights had startled them and now they were brandishing their spears in my general direction. Shit. As much as I hated waking a lady up from her slumber, circumstances left me little choice. I shook the princess gently.

  "Your highness, I think we're there."

  The princess yawned, wiped her eyes, and then sat up straight, and cried out, "wha? Wait, how long had I been slumbering? Surely not," she looked outside and said, "but lo! That is one of the gates leading into the city, the south-west one unless I miss my guess!"

  I had estimated that we were going at an average of 40 miles per hour - there were some nice straightaways where I was able to hit 60 but for the most part I had to negotiate around some curves that required me to slow down to 30. It may have been an unpaved road, but it was pretty well flattened out.

  All told, the trip had been 72 miles long, 24 leagues if my mental math skills didn't fail me, which had taken us just shy of two hours. In other words…

  "You were asleep for just under an hour," I said.

  "Ohh," adorable wonderment was written across her face, then she slapped her cheeks, "anyroad, tis plain that the presence of your Ca-dil-lac has alarmed the night guards - wait here anon, for I must needs placate them."

  I might have been more confused by her speech pattern if I hadn't dated that theater girl back in college. It seemed like the more relaxed the princess got, the more eloquent her words became; oh, is that what they call "putting on airs"? Without another word she stepped out of the car and raised her hands.

  "Hear me," she cried, "it is I, Princess Illiana, fourth daughter of his majesty King Illorend, second of his name. I have returned from my journey through great peril and I must needs speak with my father with all haste! By my authority, allow us to pass unimpeded."

  The elves manning the gate seemed to recognize her immediately and took a knee. One shouted an order of some sort and the gate slowly began to creak open. The princess jumped back into the car with me and fastened her seatbelt. I started moving forward through the gates, between the saluting guards - of course they couldn't hide their astonishment. I nodded, smugly. I knew that look. The expression that screamed "nice car".

  "Hey uh," I said, "are you sure It's okay for me to be here?"

  The princess gave me a strange look, "why wouldn't it be."

  "Don't elves distrust humans or something?"

  She shook her head, "while we had been more isolationist in centuries past, that is no longer the case. We actually have a little foreign district where human traders sell things that we can't get very easily in the forest."

  She closed her eyes, placed a hand on her chest, and posed haughtily. "Besides which, you are escorting me, a member of the royal family. By law I am able to allow any persons that I deem trustworthy entry even at night when the gates are shuttered."

  I nodded, "oh, that makes sense. All right, which way to the um, do you guys like use a palace or something?"

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The princess cocked an eyebrow, "use? Such an oddity. Never mind. Indeed, the grand palace is in the center of the city. If we continue down this path we will link up with the royal road."

  "Roger that," I said, and started cruising at a modest 15 miles per hour. I assumed that nobody here was used to high speed vehicles, and I'd already killed enough people with my car for a lifetime so I wasn't about to take any chances. All the same, I was going faster than any horse and carriage, plus I was sticking out like a sore thumb.

  People were pointing, stopping what they were doing to stare at us, and there were murmurs among the crowd. Yeah, the car was painted a bright red and was a classic to boot - even in my world it would be drawing a lot of attention. But here? It must have seemed like something out of a legend or something.

  What did the city look like you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Tor Anaura was a city of white stone, which was unexpected. I had thought elves would live in treehouses or something - but don't get me wrong, there were trees in the city, and some of those trees did have buildings built into their boughs, but the majority of structures were largely made of a highly polished stone that shone like a sea of stars plus some wood trim.

  The city was surrounded by an immensely tall and bulky wall - I estimated it to be about thirty feet thick and more than fifty feet tall. When I asked how they were able to build such a massive structure, the princess explained it so:

  "Those walls are built with a mixture of a special magic quartz, lime, and crushed stone - it is stronger for its size than ordinary stone and more readily receives magical enhancement than any other type of stone."

  "That's amazing," I exclaimed, "that sounds a lot like Roman concrete, but using magic crystals instead of volcanic ash."

  "I don't know what that is, but I think you understand the idea."

  "But how did you make these structures so big without heavy equipment?"

  "If I remember correctly, my ancestors used a combination of," the princess counted on her fingers, "earth magic, creation magic, complex transmutation magic, and the labor of large long-necked primal beasts. A more learned person could tell you more - but I should point out that the formula for whitestone is actually a closely guarded secret so please don't ask."

  "Perish the thought," I said, reassuringly. That was very interesting. "I'm more into metal things myself - machines like this one," I tapped the dashboard.

  "Such a wonderful device," she beamed, "and to think your people did it all without the aid of magic! Human ingenuity never ceases to fascinate me! You're amazing, Sir Victor!"

  I smiled, yeah, I'm a man, you know how we are - once complimented sincerely we never forget it. Hell, I didn't even wanna reply with my standard rebuttal to being called "sir"; besides that wouldn't be the last time the princess would call me Sir Victor.

  Moving on though, the city itself was shaped like an octagon separated into various wards by walls and gates. The further in one went, the closer to the palace, the fancier the houses became. The elves seemed to favor tall, lofty spires in their architecture with stone reliefs depicting images of nature. While the spires and city walls were stark white, the houses were often painted in vibrant colors - mostly green and gold but I did see a fair bit of blues as well.

  Once we entered the central ward surrounded by a circular wall, I saw the palace at the center of a large terrace in the middle. The road took a slight downward grade at that point so from my vantage point I was seeing the palace from a sort of downward angle. It was enormous! The closer I got the more it filled my vision. Once we were within about ten or so yards away from the main gate I put the car into park and turned off the engine. I instinctively locked it but thought that perhaps nobody would be dumb enough to try and take a joyride in such an unfamiliar vehicle. But you never knew.

  I unloaded all of the luggage from the trunk and back seat while the princess went to speak with the guards at the front gate - they seemed surprised to see her, and were shaking their heads. The princess returned after a few moments.

  "A servant will be here to take those things anon," she said, "nothing has happened since I've been gone. Father is safe, and so is everyone else."

  "That's a relief," I said, "so now what?"

  "Now I must speak with the king," she beckoned me with a curled finger, "come, I would have you accompany me."

  I saluted, "you've got it."

  The princess first introduced me to the guards and explained our situation - how I had saved her life and enabled her to shorten her journey. With a nod, they allowed us to pass through into the garden; and what a garden it was! There were trees and flowers of various sorts, and the whole place was lit up by lights that danced about - permanent light spells, the princess explained. It was like walking through an enchanted forest.

  I was walking behind and slightly to the right of the princess, as we stepped up to the front door of the actual palace. I gasped at the sight of the entryway - the high vaulted glass ceiling, the highly detailed paintings on the walls, the glowing braziers, and the bronze sculptures were all a lot to take in. Past another pair of saluting guards with white capes and glistening metal armor, we went through a smaller door into what at first I thought was another courtyard, but it actually had a ceiling and walls lined with elaborate columns.

  The room was completely circular and covered in a carpet of grass; real grass. In the center of the room was a dais supported by a marble retaining wall, at the top of which was a circle of trees and a large chair made of white wood.

  Sitting upon the large chair was a silver-haired man with long pointy ears and dark sapphire-colored eyes that showed deep wisdom and fearsome power. He wore a long blue-gray robe, and atop his head was a circlet made of some sort of silver metal embellished with bird wings and set at the forehead with a single green gemstone.

  There were four armed guards, two on each side of him, with impressive full-plate armor and glaives that glowed with blue energy.A literal halo of light emanated from him, filling me with awe.

  Yeah, if this guy wasn't the elven king then I was the Queen of Sheba.