“If there had not been liveships, would you have been there at all?” Alise dared to interject the question. “Without us cutting them up into planks to build ships, more of them might have survived to hatch during that quake,” Malta retorted. Without our help, most of them would never have cocooned, let alone hatched.” Trader Polsk presented the fact simply. “Without our help, all of them would have died. Slowly we let our standards fall, and the last two years have just been a nightmare. We gave a promise to Tintaglia and we began by doing the best we could for them. She suddenly appeared not only merely human but very tired. She moved to one of the tiers of benches and slowly sank down onto it. “I could ask for a map that would clearly show us where the city once existed in relation to the two Elderling cities that we have already located.” She flicked her fingers as if in annoyance, and the light globes scattered like startled cats. We could not ask for better news, any of us!” You offer us not only the physical evidence of the tapestry, but your scholarly opinion that such a place did, and possibly still does, exist. But up to now, we lacked confirmation of its existence. They have dropped hints to us that it was a major Elderling city. The black dragon has spoken of this Kelsingra as the best possible destination for the dragons. “Excellent!” she exclaimed before anyone else could speak. The brushy-haired Rain Wild woman at the table was nodding her head vigorously. Malta’s face was a mixture of triumph and misery. She turned away from the tapestry and back to her audience. She ran out of breath and words at the same time. So, we can speculate that either the river has changed, a fact that is obviously true given the buried ruins that have been unearthed here, or we can wonder if there existed another, different river, a tributary or one that is perhaps merged now with our Rain Wild River, that originally fronted Kelsingra.” Again, these images do not fit with the Rain Wild River as we know it now. There are trade vessels of considerable size already moored there. The illustrations in the scrolls and here on this tapestry clearly show keeled sailing vessels both approaching the city and tying up at its docks. According to the scrolls, the river that ran past Kelsingra was deep, and during flood times, it was swift running and treacherous. But such open rolling meadows do not fit with the jungled Rain Wilds that we know. The dragons feasted freely on both, and it was considered their right to do so. We do have descriptions of the lush meadowlands that surrounded the city and provided good grazing for both domesticated cattle and wild game. But from the written descriptions we have, I can say with certainty that it was substantially upriver of both Trehaug and Cassarick. As far as I know, no map of the areas that we now call the Rain Wilds has ever been recovered.
“I cannot tell you that with any precision. Slowly the Bingtown woman turned to look at the Elderling. “But where is it? Where is Kelsingra?” Malta’s low anxious voice cut through Alise’s lecture.
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