270

For three hours you relax in the back of the empty wagon, watching the farms and vineyards of the Demera Quilt rolling past as you trundle along the highway to Duadon. But when you finally reach the city itself, you sit up and pay close attention to its traffic of enemy troops and supplies. Your wagon joins a queue of other horse-drawn vehicles that are waiting to enter the city by its South Gate. To your left, you note a distant column of supply wagons that is approaching the city’s West Gate laden with ore and timber: raw materials for Duadon’s armouries. To the right, a seemingly endless file of Vorka are marching out from the East Gate towards the River Storn. Your Sixth Sense tells you that they are on their way to bolster the Eldenoran army that is besieging Varetta.

As your wagon inches closer to the gate, you cast your eye across the city’s bleak perimeter walls and fortified watchtowers. Through the portcullised arch of the gatehouse, you catch fleeting glimpses of buildings swathed in clouds of soot-laden smoke. It is not a welcoming sight. Inside the perimeter defences, the city echoes to the perpetual clang of hammers and the roar of mighty furnaces. Under Vandyan’s command, Duadon has now become little more than a vast machine, a grand and terrible factory of war dedicated to the efficient manufacture of his conquering Vorka army.

At length your turn comes to enter the South Gate. Two armoured guardsmen step forward and speak briefly with the driver, and then they come around to the rear of the wagon and ask to see your regimental orders. When you say that you have lost them, they become suspicious and order you to climb down from the wagon.

‘Losing your horse and your orders is very careless of you, trooper,’ says the taller of the two guards, his rasping voice full of sarcasm.

‘Now, if you were to make it worth our while,’ says the other, slyly, ‘well, we might jus’ overlook your slipshod ways. What do you say?’

Clearly these two guardsmen are inviting you to bribe them. You stare into their greedy faces and sense that they are expecting something of high value from you in exchange for turning a blind eye to your missing horse and papers.

If you possess the Tekaro Chalice, turn to 296.

If you do not possess this Backpack Item, turn to 159.