202

You pass under an arch where two brass-gilded, conical towers gleam like gold and enter a marketplace crowded with squabbling merchants. Exotic carpets, brightly coloured material, and all manner of foods are being bought, sold, and haggled over. The north side of the marketplace is devoted to the auction of douggas. The sleek but noisy desert beasts are being paraded, for the benefit of the bidders, around a paddock adjoining their stables. Just past the stables, a street vanishes into the Carpet-weavers’ Quarter of Ikaresh.

If you wish to investigate the stables, turn to 309.

If you wish to ask one of the merchants if they know where Tipasa lives, turn to 248.

If you wish to leave the marketplace, continue along the adjoining street and turn to 386.