160

Your desire to leave this treacherous city is overcome by your fear of losing your arm. You must get the Oede herb, even though it means you will have to enter the very place you are most anxious to avoid—the Grand Palace.

The alley follows a tortuous route through the Mikarum, finally leading you to the ‘Horm-tas-Lallaim’: the Tomb of the Princesses. Beyond the tomb, the Grand Palace rises like a massive white pantheon.

You suddenly recall a legend told to you by your Kai masters long ago: ‘The Nemesis of the Black Zakhan’. The Black Zakhan was a brutal tyrant, the cruellest of an evil lineage that ruled over the desert empire long ago. The barbaric excesses of his reign have never been forgotten in the Lastlands. The Grand Palace was built by his army of slaves, prisoners from countries he had conquered in war. The palace became his obsession; he personally oversaw its entire construction and punished the workers personally if there was the slightest delay. He butchered his subjects indiscriminately and in the most terrible fashion. His favourite form of execution was for the victim to be sawn in half from head to foot until the body fell in two pieces. However, it was the mass execution of the slaves who built the Grand Palace that made him infamous. He slaughtered every slave worker so that his enemies could never learn of the secret treasure chambers he had had constructed. Among the slaves were his only daughters, Kebilla and Sousse, who openly opposed their father’s cruelty and tried to prevent the executions. In a blind rage, he ordered that they should be the first to die.

It would have been better for the Zakhan, and for Vassagonia, if he himself had died that day. He lived for another two years, but his mind was unhinged by guilt, and he was tortured by self-loathing and despair. In the Grand Palace, the silence of the night was frequently broken by the Zakhan’s moans and cries, as he wandered from room to room looking for his daughters. When he died, he was laid beside them, here, in the Tomb of the Princesses.

From where you stand, you can see two entrances to the Grand Palace; a spike-topped gate in the north wall, and an arch in the west wall, blocked by an iron portcullis. The palace is usually heavily guarded, but there are very few guards today; most are searching for you in the city.

If you wish to approach the north gate, turn to 126.

If you wish to approach the west arch, turn to 79.

If you wish to search for some other way of entering the Grand Palace, turn to 49.