### 259

The stairs lead down to a vast network of catacombs that stretch in every direction. It would be easy to lose yourself in this maze of tunnels, but your Kai tracking skills, heightened by the pressing need to escape from the monastery, help you avoid the hazards and dead ends of these sprawling burial vaults. Following the sound of dripping water, you discover a circular stone trapdoor in the ceiling. Paido cups his hands around your foot and lifts you nearer the tunnel roof, enabling you to open the trapdoor. Early morning daylight streams into the passage as you lift the slab of wet stone and slide it aside.

You have emerged at the courtyard on the north side of the monastery. Two monks stand guard at the double doors of a low, timber-framed building on the other side of the paved enclosure. Fortunately a line of bushy fruit trees that encircles the courtyard provide all the cover you need to avoid their watchful eyes. You crouch in the shadows and watch as the monks leave their posts to enter the building. Minutes later the doors swing open and they reappear, both on horseback, and ride off through an archway to the right. The courtyard is now empty but you curse their departure, for the horses they are riding belong to you and Paido.

If you wish to enter the stables, turn to 54.

If you wish to escape on foot through the archway, turn to 72.