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CHAPTER X - ENTRAPPED
Turan the panthan approached the strange city under cover of the darkness. He
entertained little hope of finding either food or water outside the wall, but he
would try and then, if he failed, he would attempt to make his way into the city,
for Tara of Helium must have sustenance and have it soon. He saw that the walls
were poorly sentineled, but they were sufficiently high to render an attempt to
scale them foredoomed to failure. Taking advantage of underbrush and trees,
Turan managed to reach the base of the wall without detection. Silently he moved
north past the gateway which was closed by a massive gate which effectively
barred even the slightest glimpse within the city beyond. It was Turan's hope to
find upon the north side of the city away from the hills a level plain where grew
the crops of the inhabitants, and here too water from their irrigating system, but
though he traveled far along that seemingly interminable wall he found no fields
nor any water. He searched also for some means of ingress to the city, yet here,
too, failure was his only reward, and now as he went keen eyes watched him from
above and a silent stalker kept pace with him for a time upon the summit of the
wall; but presently the shadower descended to the pavement within and hurrying
swiftly raced ahead of the stranger without.
He came presently to a small gate beside which was a low building and before the
doorway of the building a warrior standing guard. He spoke a few quick words to
the warrior and then entered the building only to return almost immediately to
the street, followed by fully forty warriors. Cautiously opening the gate the fellow
peered carefully along the wall upon the outside in the direction from which he
had come. Evidently satisfied, he issued a few words of instruction to those
behind him, whereupon half the warriors returned to the interior of the building,
while the other half followed the man stealthily through the gateway where they
crouched low among the shrubbery in a half circle just north of the gateway
which they had left open. Here they waited in utter silence, nor had they long to
wait before Turan the panthan came cautiously along the base of the wall. To the
very gate he came and when he found it and that it was open he paused for a
moment, listening; then he approached and looked within. Assured that there
was none within sight to apprehend him he stepped through the gateway into the
city.
He found himself in a narrow street that paralleled the wall. Upon the opposite
side rose buildings of an architecture unknown to him, yet strangely beautiful.
While the buildings were packed closely together there seemed to be no two alike
and their fronts were of all shapes and heights and of many hues. The skyline
was broken by spire and dome and minaret and tall, slender towers, while the
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