ll show you."

Going around the desk, he sat down and, after looking in the
index-screen, punched a combination on the keyboard. A picture,
projected from the microfilm-bank, appeared on the view-screen. It was
an air-view of the city of Zurb--taken, the high priest explained, by
infrared light from an airboat over the city at night. It showed a
city of an entirely pre-mechanical civilization, with narrow streets,
lined on either side by low one and two story buildings. Although
there would be considerable snow in winter, the roofs were usually
flat, probably massive stone slabs supported by pillars within. Even
in the poorer sections, this was true except for the very meanest
houses and out-buildings, which were thatched. Here and there, some
huge pile of masonry would rear itself above its lower neighbors, and,
where the streets were wider, occasional groups of large buildings
would be surrounded by battlemented walls. Stranor Sleth indicated one
of the larger of these.

"Here's the palace," he said. "And here's the temple of Yat-Zar, about
half a mile away." He touched a large building, occupying an entire
block; between it and the palace was a block-wide park, with lawns and
trees on either side of a wide roadway connecting the two.

"Now, here's a detailed view of the palace." He punched another
combination; the view of the City was replaced by one, taken from
directly overhead, of the walled palace area. "Here's the main gate,
in front, at the end of the road from the temple," he pointed out.
"Over here, on the left, are the slaves' quarters and the stables and
workshops and store houses and so on. Over here, on the other side,
are the nobles' quarters. And this,"--he indicated a towering
structure at the rear of the walled enclosure--"is the citadel and the
royal dwelling. Audience hall on this side; harem over here on this
side. A wide stone platform, about fifteen feet high, runs completely
across the front of the citadel, from the audience hall to the harem.
Since this picture was taken, the new temple of Muz-Azin was built
right about here." He indicated that it extended out from the audience
hall into the central courtyard. "And out here on the platform,
they've put up about a dozen of these triangles, about twelve feet
high, on which the sacrificial victims are whipped to death."

"Yes. About the only way we could get down to the dungeons would be to
make an airdrop onto the citadel roof and fight our w