"And here's the temple of Yat-Zar, about
half a mile away." He touched a large building, occupying an entire
block; between it and the palace was a block-wide park, with lawns and
trees on either side of a wide roadway connecting the two.
"Now, here's a detailed view of the palace." He punched another
combination; the view of the City was replaced by one, taken from
directly overhead, of the walled palace area. "Here's the main gate,
in front, at the end of the road from the temple," he pointed out.
"Over here, on the left, are the slaves' quarters and the stables and
workshops and store houses and so on. Over here, on the other side,
are the nobles' quarters. And this,"--he indicated a towering
structure at the rear of the walled enclosure--"is the citadel and the
royal dwelling. Audience hall on this side; harem over here on this
side. A wide stone platform, about fifteen feet high, runs completely
across the front of the citadel, from the audience hall to the harem.
Since this picture was taken, the new temple of Muz-Azin was built
right about here." He indicated that it extended out from the audience
hall into the central courtyard. "And out here on the platform,
they've put up about a dozen of these triangles, about twelve feet
high, on which the sacrificial victims are whipped to death."
"Yes. About the only way we could get down to the dungeons would be to
make an airdrop onto the citadel roof and fight our way down with
needlers and blasters, and I'm not willing to do that as long as
there's any other way," Verkan Vall said.
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