The smell of smoke and hot metal smote Ragnar's nostrils. He wondered whether he was the only person in the whole teeming throng that minded the noise and the stink.
They strode across the square to the largest of the huge structures. "This is the Iron Temple,' Ranek the Wolf Priest said softly. 'And this is where we part our ways for now.'
Ragnar glanced up at the huge building. It was a squat, massive fortress but it dwarfed all the surrounding buildings. Arrow slits glared out from its walls like the eyes of a hungry beast. High atop the building was a great metal flower, as large as a dragonship. Ragnar could not begin to guess at its purpose. Great metal-bound doors barred the way forward at the head of the ramp. Ragnar could tell by the smoothness and the indentations that many feet had passed this way over hundreds of years. Strange runes, most unlike any Ragnar had ever seen, were inscribed over its archway. Two sentries armed with metal tipped harpoons guarded the way. They seemed as if they were made of metal. Iron armour covered them like a second skin. Metal helmets guarded their heads. Shields of steel marked with the same runes as those above the door hung from their left arms. 'Are they your kin?' he asked Ranek. The old man's head swung swiftly to look down at him. The keen eyes bored in Ragnar's own. This close Ragnar realised how big the Wolf Priest was. He was considered tall and well-made among his folk but compared to this old man he was but the size of a child. Ranek was head and shoulders taller than he and would have been far more massive even without the odd armour that encased his body. 'No, laddie, the Iron Masters are kin only to themselves. There are no others like them on all the islands of the Great Ocean. They are a people apart.' T do not understand,' Ragnar said. "With all this metal and all this... magic, why have they not sought dominance over all the world. Surely they could achieve it?' 'The Iron Masters seek dominance over nothing save metal and fire. Conquest is not their way. They fight only to defend themselves.