South of the cliff Sai had decided to dub Suicide Ledge lay another ruined settlement. What remained of the buildings were of obvious Draconic make, much the same as Somber Tune. But most everything here had been swallowed by Slaughter Canyon, and the rest was little more than scattered stone. Sai couldn't tell if they were part of the same hatchery or not. Nor was he terribly interested in finding out. He would leave the archaeology to Coatl-ome.

  The buildings at the south end of the ruins were of far more interest to him. The first that he and Cuatete passed on their way south was entirely intact. The reflecting pond in front of it was even clean and clear. Sai studied the murals painted along the walls. The few images he understood seemed to be references to the Abriasha, the god of peoples. But that made little sense, since the dragons, not being people, did not revere the Abriasha. He checked his compass. It pointed away from the building. So, with a shrug, Sai continued south.

  The next building was a ruined Draconic ziggurat that appeared like it had been a twin to the one in Somber Tune before they had both collapsed. This one, however, had been on the very edge of Slaughter Canyon when it opened and had lost its entire east wall. Sai peeked inside the main entrance and frowned. The room inside had been cleared out much more than the basement he used as a bedroom in Somber Tune, but it was still in active use. A dozen or more shadow cultists, eyes burning, clad in concealing hooded robes of gray and red and ivory, danced and chanted around another Shadowed Altar at the center of the room.

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  One of the cultists spotted him immediately. It pointed and shouted a warning. The dancing and chanting stopped, and every burning eye turned to glare at Sai. "Ignore me," he commanded in the Shadowed Voice, and every cultist immediately went back to their dancing. Sai shook his head and checked his compass. It pointed within. Sai sighed. The cultists danced around him as he walked through them, following the compass across the floor and out the missing east wall. There, under a large tree on the very lip of the canyon, the compass began to spin.

  "This is definitely where the compass is pointing," Sai muttered to Cuatete. He looked around his feet. "There!" he shouted, pointing at something glittering between the roots of the tree. "What's that?" He knelt and yanked a bronze disc out of the roots. Emblazoned on each side was the infinite loop of the Eldritch One. "Perfect! Now to take this back to the Eldritch One." He checked the compass again, but it just continued to spin. "Guess I don't need this thing anymore either," he said, and he tossed it over the edge of the canyon. He did not hear it land.