CHAPTER 7A CITY LIKE A SKULL
They came to the ruins of Ashangabar an hour before sunfall and reined their steeds to a halt, and sat looking it over.
Even as Khun had told, the city was built with its back set against the black cliffs of the mountain, gates and watch-towers facing the Sea of Sand. All of red stone was Ashangabar, minarets and domes and cupolas and long shadowy arcades. From a central plaza, broad boulevards radiated outwards to the walls, like the spokes of a wagonwheel. On the far side of the plaza, rising in tiers built squarely up against the black stone of the cliff, rose the citadel of the Princes.
It was very dead, was Ashangabar. The red stone, once sleek, was worn and pitted, cracked and crumbling, scoured by fierce suns and hot, dry winds. Flake by flake the ver
