Does it Matter Where We Go?

She looks at Checkers' map, and sees that the northernmost portion seems to be blacked out. [21037] (So is the southernmost portion, but that is of less immediate interest.) Astra had of course had her own map of the caves when she had come on her quest to find and slay the Dragon. She had found him, of course, and her belongings had been taken from her, but she can remember enough of her map to recall that the cavern system has two northern entrances. (Unlike Fred's map, [2] hers had shown both.) So it seems fairly likely that the two northwards-leading passages that disappear into the black region go to those two entrances.

I don't want to go back to the cave where I was captured and chained up; the memory is too unpleasant. Though I was teleported from that location to here, I can locate it since I know where that cave is in relation to the left-hand entrance I came into the caverns by. So that is probably it over there, north-east of here. There are a number of other tunnels out of Belboz's chamber that are shown on this map. Which one to take? Could I get myself a weapon at the arsenal, if there should prove to be any left there? It seems unlikely that Belboz would allow it, but I suppose that even so it's as good a destination as any.

She writes on the diptypch: Suggest head for arsenal. Can see it on map, to the south-east. From here, enter keystone-shaped room, with arsenal just beyond, assuming your map is accurate. (The message is too long to fit all at once, so she has to write it in two portions, wiping the diptypch clean in between.)

"So do you expect that we shall encounter the Dragon in the arsenal?" Checkers asks. "Or maybe at some point beyond it?"

More than likely, Astra writes.

Ever since she first encountered Astra, Checkers has been trying not to stare at her too obviously. She has never seen anyone vaguely like her. I wonder if many anglideri women look like that? she muses. Six foot tall, muscular, and yet incredibly voluptuous by my people's standards. She must weigh all but twice what I do. I wonder if her hair colour is very common?

As they wait for Fred to awaken, Checkers asks Belboz: "How do you manage to survive down here, in what is presumably part of the Dragon's domain?"

"There are areas of the caverns where he never comes, and this is one of them. I also have a magical jewel that will glow in the vicinity of the Dragon, to make sure that I do not inadvertantly stray too near him when I am out and about."

He pulls a large crystal attached to a fine chain from a pocket of his robe. To Astra it appears a deep violet in colour, but to Checkers it looks black. "You see that it's not glowing," he says. "That means that the Dragon is nowhere near here."

1. He puts it back in his pocket.
2. Casually, he starts it swinging on the end of its chain. Is he trying to hypnotise the girl? Astra wonders.

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