Page 31 (1/2)

At the far end of the avenue rose a second reat pyramid by the roadway Platforms rose at intervals on either side It was hard to fathoic, had built this city The eine ancient asseathered to watch spectacles staged on the platforms or to pray as their holy caretakers offered praise to their gods froreat pyrae, not even ghosts

It was a long walk and an increasingly hot one as the stor Not one drop of rain fell She had to stop twice to drink, although the old sorcerer refused a portion both times

The other temple was also a four-sided pyramid, sloped in stair steps and chopped off short At the top looaped where the serpent’s ular stacks of pale stone

Flutes and whistles pierced the silence Had the ghosts of the city come to haunt her? Color flashed in the distance and resolved into a procession of people dressed in feathered cloaks and beaded garht that they would have been gaudy against any background, although the vast backdrop of the city and the fierce blue of the sky almost sed them At the head of the procession bobbed a round standard on a pole, a circular sheet of gold trireen plumes as broad across as awheel Its brilliance staggered her

The procession wound its way in through the serpent’sinto the temple

They caht her breath and checked each of her weapons: her knife, her good friend Lucian’s sword, and Seeker of Hearts, her boash of voices issued out through the serpent’sup from the underworld

"They will not be friendly," he said "Be warned: speak cal one, I took you on because I fear that only you and I can spare both our peoples a greater destruction than that which we are already doomed to suffer"

His words--delivered in the saht have used if he were co architectural feature--chilled her The long avenue behind her lay wreathed in a heat haze Wind raised dust The great pyramid shone in uncanny and h," she said at last "I can face down anyone"

They cli up before it, Liath found herself face-to-face with those two flanking little pyramids of stone, except they weren’t stone at all

They were stacks of grinning skulls

"What are those?" she de in shock as vacant eyes stared back at her