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 walls supported many a balcony and in the soft light of Cluros, the farther moon, now low in the west, he saw, to his surprise and consternation, the figures of people upon the balconies.Directly opposite him were two women and a man.They sat leaning upon the rail of the balcony looking, apparently, directly at him; but if they saw him they gave no sign.
Turan hesitated a moment in the face of almost certain discovery and then, assured that they must take him for one of their own people, he moved boldly into the avenue.Having no idea of the direction in which he might best hope to find what he sought, and not wishing to arouse suspicion by further hesitation, he turned to the left and stepped briskly along the pavement with the intention of placing himself as quickly as possible beyond the observation of those nocturnal watchers.He knew that the night must be far spent; and so he could not but wonder why people should sit upon their balconies when they should have been asleep among their silks and furs.At first he had thought them the late guests of some convivial host; but the windows behind them were shrouded in darkness and utter quiet prevailed, quite upsetting such a theory.And as he proceeded he passed many another group sitting silently upon other balconies.They paid no attention to him, seeming not even to note his passing.Some leaned with a single elbow upon the rail, their chins resting in their palms;others leaned upon both arms across the balcony, looking down into the street, while several that he saw held musical instruments in their hands, but their fingers moved not upon the strings.
And then Turan came to a point where the avenue turned to the right, to skirt a building that jutted from the inside of the city wall, and as he rounded the corner he came full upon two warriors standing upon either side of the entrance to a building upon his right.It was impossible for them not to be aware of his presence, yet neither moved, nor gave other evidence that they had seen him.He stood there waiting, his hand upon the hilt of his long-sword, but they neither challenged nor halted him.Could it be that these also thought him one of their own kind? Indeed upon no other grounds could he explain their inaction.
As Turan had passed through the gateway into the city and taken his unhindered way along the avenue, twenty warriors had entered the city and closed the gate behind them, and then one had taken to the wall and followed along its summit in the rear of Turan, and another had followed him along the avenue, while a third had crossed the street and entered one of the buildings upon the opposite side.
