table with chairs, on which food and drink were laid out. "Please, be seated. Help yourselves to refreshment."
When they had seated themselves, he poured each a cup of sweet yellow wine, and watched their reactions with pleasure as they smelled and tasted it.
"This wine is made from the flowers and the nectar of a local variety of wildflower. To taste this wine is to taste Alin. Once Alin is gone, it is doubtful that the world will never know its like again." He watched Dorain as he said this, and added, "There is much that is beautiful within the Four Kingdoms that is in danger of being lost. A Winter comes that will make of the world a cold and bitter place, but for those few who will find refuge together."
Her features unreadable, Dorain deliberately replaced the glass on the table before her, leaving it untasted. "We elves have our own rare wines, and our own sense of what will be lost. Know too that we have our own secrets, just as we have our own secret temptations. But they are other than yours. Do I speak plainly enough for you?"
She got up from the table and crossed the room to stand before the fire. Prince Wilkin, frankly taken aback, was about to rise from the table when Brogan forestalled him with a hand on his arm.