The door closed behind him. This wasn’t that little alley any more. There were no people busying themselves for the occasion. This was a vast open square covered with sand. It was flanked on each of its sides by large stepped pyramids, one of which had just thrown him and Monkey out into this space. He looked behind him at the doorway that should have been there but it was now stone.
The aurora was dancing with more fever and the breeze was swirling light sand into the air around him. In the distance, in the middle of the square, he saw a collection of people surrounding a fire. Apart from that fire, there seemed to be nothing. Nriza’s moons were becoming imprisoned by haunting storm clouds and thunder was erupting over the mountains behind one of the pyramids.
A flash of lightning lit u
