### 219

Your light illuminates the tunnel ahead, and within a few minutes you have found your way through to a hillside exit that overlooks a tiny village called Varta, perched on the edge of the Tahou flats. (If your source of light is a Torch, remember to erase it from your Action Chart.)

The flats comprise fields of cultivated crops that form a fertile market garden two miles wide. They are farmed right up to the banks of the great moat that encircles the capital. Varta is deserted; its male inhabitants now shelter within the city walls whilst the women and children have long since travelled south to the safety of Navasari. As you ride through the empty village and descend onto the flats, you catch your first awe-inspiring view of the ancient city itself.

Turn to 100.