Kharima, a desert town at the edge of the old caravan road, dying of thirst. Twelve years ago English surveyor Elias Crane pried the Tongue from the Last Sphinx of Ankhara and sold it in London; within a year the wells began to fail. Now he has stolen it back and crossed the sea under a false name to return it quietly, unseen. This morning the Governor's men opened his pack. A sunburnt adventure of riddles, thirst and old debts.