He came presently to a small gate beside which was a low building and
before the doorway of the building a warrior standing guard. He spoke a
few quick words to the warrior and then entered the building only to
return almost immediately to the street, followed by fully forty
warriors. Cautiously opening the gate the fellow peered carefully along
the wall upon the outside in the direction from which he had come.
Evidently satisfied, he issued a few words of instruction to those
behind him, whereupon half the warriors returned to the interior of the
building, while the other half followed the man stealthily through the
gateway where they crouched low among the shrubbery in a half circle
just north of the gateway which they had left open. Here they waited in
utter silence, nor had they long to wait before Turan the panthan came
cautiously along the base of the wall. To the very gate he came and
when he found it and that it was open he paused for a moment,
listening; then he approached and looked within. Assured that there was
none within sight to apprehend him he stepped through the gateway into
the city.
He found himself in a narrow street that paralleled the wall. Upon the
opposite side rose buildings of an architecture unknown to him, yet
strangely beautiful. While the buildings were packed closely together
there seemed to be no two alike and their fronts were of all shapes and
heights and of many hues. The skyline was broken by spire and dome and
minaret and tall, slender towers, while the walls supported many a
balcony and in the soft light of Cluros, the farther moon, now low in
the west, he saw, to his surprise and consternation, the figures of
people upon the balconies. Directly opposite him were two women and a
man. They sat leaning upon the rail of the balcony looking, apparently,
directly at him; but if they saw him they gave no sign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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