180

Word of the shrine’s destruction spreads quickly. Within minutes of your escape, the sleeping city is rudely awakened by a cacophony of alarm bells and discordant horns. Search parties are mustered and soon the major avenues of the city echo to a new sound—the tramp of vengeful patrols dispatched to track you down. By using your advanced Kai tracking skills and taking care to avoid the main thoroughfares, at length you are able to reach the stables that you saw from the top of the temple bell-tower. From the cover of a cart parked across a square from its double-gated entrance, you observe the building and the passing patrols and wait patiently for the commotion to die down.

The stables are surrounded by a high brick wall topped by a row of foot-long spikes embedded in mortar. A sign hangs above the main entrance that reads ‘Tehda Stables’. The tolling bells have roused the stable guards and this entrance is now heavily guarded, as are three smaller entrances set at intervals along its perimeter wall. Only one door has no armed guard posted before it, but when you magnify your vision you quickly see why this is so. It is secured by three steel bolts and a heavy iron lock.

If you possess a Tehda Key, turn to 136.

If you do not possess this Special Item, turn to 274.