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ARTAKHSHAYARSHA slipped from his mount as the sun rose on their right. Carefully, he tested his weight on the flat piece of ground before them and the whole area moved slightly. 'It's no good, we'll never find a way across.'
'We have to,' said Astur. 'We can't just keep going around the edge for evermore. Artaynte's map says that there is a track near here.' He stood with his hands on his hips and surveyed the scene of desolation before them. 'Well, I can't see it. Are you sure this is the place?' 'Look for yourself. The track is just after the place where the river from the east drains into it.' She pointed. 'There is the river. The track must be here somewhere.' Artakhshayarsha stared back at the plume of dust which relentlessly followed them. 'Then we had better find it soon. We don't have much time.' Astur, from the back of Mercury, looked across the salt-wastes. At the edge, it was flat and looked solid. However, she knew that, under the thin surface crust of hardened salt, was a slimy, treacherous mud that would suck them under and either drown them slowly or trap them until the soldiers caught them and did as they wished with them. In the distance were islands of salt-encrusted rock which oozed yellow sulphur and gave off smoke and an acrid smell. Artaynte had been very accurate in her description of this god-forsaken place. By legend, it was identical to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah after those cities had been destroyed by the fire and sulphur which had erupted from rift fissures and had fallen, as if from heaven, killing so many people. Astur shivered at the thought and nudged her horse along the edge of the stark, white desert. A small stream trickled from the hillside on her left and cleft the terrain with its erosive action before, somewhere out there, soaking into the desert floor and leaving a mineral deposit which would add to that already present. Without thinking, she turned Mercury and rode into the deepening arroyo, the hooves splashing through the warm water. The stream bed was level and firm though the liquid was murky, stained by the mountain sands and clay. After a short distance, she turned and found that the entrance was no longer visible. Faintly, she could hear the voice of her step-son, calling to her. 'I'm here,' she shouted and her voice echoed around the walls of her unnatural-looking canyon. Trotting back, she met Artakhshayarsha who was almost frantic with searching for her. The cloud of dust seemed almost upon them as she caught his attention and beckoned. 'Follow me.' Artakhshayarsha gripped her arm. 'We will be trapped.' 'There are many arroyos. They will not know which we have entered.' 'But if they see our tracks, they will follow us. We will not be able to escape.' Astur looked him in the face. 'We have no choice.' She rode off and, with a last look at the approaching riders who could now be seen clearly, less than a mile away, Artakhshayarsha rode after her.
THE Captain reigned to a halt at the edge of the Kavir. 'They must have gone in.'
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 CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
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