Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

ored. With a few words exchanged with the sleepy youngguard, her donkey was lead thru the gate and into the mainstructure. The walls were stone and stucco, the gates wereheavy carved wood, asymmetrical in design, and it lookedlike they could not be shut if they had to. Inside was a rabbit'swarren of small passages and alleys. Colors were heavy andthere was ornamentation everywhere. Cut stone was polished,ceramic oil lamps lit the inner reaches, but many rooms werelit with light wells.She was led down an alley just wide enough for thedonkeys where she had to pull in her feet. She hadn’t beentied since the first day, but there were men in front andbehind. Still, she was in much better hands than theconstables in Reston or any of the gangs. She was glad thatearly in her afterlife she had given herself horses and learnedto ride, she would have been in quite a lot of pain otherwise.This alley sloped steeply down and turned, so that soon theywere in a basement stables. Other donkeys started brayingand the racket was deafening in these close quarters. She wasglad there was plenty of straw around to absorb the sound.They had seven donkey's in their caravan, two were ladenwith their baggage. After dismounting, she was taken up anarrow spiral stair for about five floors, then pulled into ahallway. It was quite narrow also and there were a lot ofpeople going the other way, the girls often in those open frontblouses. She was still the flattest young woman she had seen.They had to turn sideways against the wall to let them pass.403