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The solid lump of oak is an executioner’s block. Its surface is cut and scarred by blows from a heavy axe, and its sides are stained dark with the blood of a hundred Lencian prisoners who have lost their lives upon it.

Suddenly your thoughts are disturbed by the rhythmic stamp of marching feet and your eyes are drawn to the avenue which runs alongside Magnaarn’s headquarters. Down this thoroughfare come a regiment of Drakkarim. They file into the square and form up in three lines facing the platform. Then an open wagon, drawn by a brace of half-starved oxen, emerges from the alleyway beside the gaol. Captain Prarg is standing in the rear of the wagon with his hands tied behind his back. Despite the bumpy ride he stands rigidly at attention, proudly defiant in the face of imminent death. The wagon halts and the captain is dragged up onto the platform by three brutish gaolers. He is made to kneel down before the block as a Drakkarim officer hurriedly reads the contents of a scroll to the assembled troops. He is condemning the captain to death for spying. When he finishes the reading, he takes a two-handed axe from one of the gaolers and walks slowly across the platform towards the block. Clearly he intends to carry out the execution personally.

Illustration VII—The captain is dragged up onto the platform and is made to kneel before the solid oak executioner’s block.

If you have a Bow and wish to use it, turn to 270.

If you do not possess a Bow, or if you do not wish to use it, turn instead to 85.