More than two weeks after leaving Tannakesh, several hours past sunup, the travelers topped a hill and looked down into the peaceful green valley that held the capital city of Khmeria. They’d all heard of it before, and they stopped in awe to look at this historic site.
Khmeria, the hub of Indi, had been ancient long before King Shahriyan decided to build Ravan. Its origins ran well back into mythic times, and Jafar al-Sharif was quite familiar with the tale of how the first Khmeri king, Kushtan, cheated the river Jinn into ceding him the land on which the ancient city was built. Five different dynasties thrived on this site over the millennia, and Khmeria’s fortunes rose and fell like a predictable tide. Wars had scarred the land and peace had healed it, repeating in endless cycles. Fero
