CHAPTER 27
Wok Tomai, accompanied by their escort of guards, led her unexpected visitors through more than one linked compound without ever setting foot out of doors.
Penrys formed the impression of buildings dedicated to smelting and refining, full of heat and metallic stinks. There was a clamor of hammers striking in uncoordinated individual rhythms.
While they were in the area of the raw ore working, a constant traffic accompanied them, making room for Wok Tomai’s party to slip through as if they were insulated from all friction. Men, and some women, with smuts on their faces and scars on their protective leather aprons looked up in surprise when they saw them, but hurried along to wherever they were going without stopping.
The further they got from the heat, the more the workshops
