232

Your journey south is favoured by a cooling breeze which sweeps down across the plain from the Hyunsei Mountains. Shortly before noon, you see a tented encampment in the far distance. Small crimson pennants flutter from its striped awnings, and groups of women and children can be seen walking along the banks of a nearby stream.

‘Plains-herder families,’ says Gildas. ‘Their menfolk are out on the grasslands rounding up groups of wild stallion. They train the horses and sell them at auction in Yua Tzhan.’

If you wish to visit the herder encampment, turn to 156.

If you choose to avoid the encampment and continue your ride south, turn instead to 2.