### 281

Your stern commands seem to impress this Giak soldier. Humbly, he bows his head and beckons you to follow him as he climbs back through the trapdoor and down a stair that descends into the heart of the building. There, stacked on countless shelves, are row upon row of coiled steel cables, girders, iron bolts, and myriad other parts destined for the fleet of ironclads at anchor in Argazad harbour.

You follow the bow-legged Giak out of the building and through a maze of garbage-choked streets, past rusting tenements and squalid huts, to an iron tower at the centre of the city. Unlike everywhere else, this tower appears to have escaped the effects of the corrosive atmosphere: its surfaces are dull yet free from any sign of decay. The Giak speaks with another who guards its open entrance and immediately he stands aside, allowing you to enter the tower’s gloomy ground floor.

Turn to 346.