242

Leaving your horses and the South Gate tower behind, you enter a wide avenue flanked by workshops and houses, all built of red stone or rock sheathed in red plaster. The buildings themselves are small and densely packed, yet each one, no matter how humble, has a spire or tower that soars into the sky.

The large sleepy-eyed heads of stone dragons gaze down from the balconies of minarets, crowned either with bulbous, onion-shaped domes of copper, or with platforms housing engines of war recently installed.

Banedon points to an eating house and suggests that you stop there for some refreshment. Chiban’s house is more than an hour’s walk from here, and you are ravenous after your long ride.

If you wish to enter the eating house, turn to 80.

If you decide to ignore your rumbling stomach and continue your walk to Chiban’s house, turn to 146.