The patrols dispersed into the city but Joab's troop kept on westward, downone of the broad avenues of the Astan, across Goat Creek, a hundred fiftyyards along the foot of the tumbled and brushy remnants of the Old Wall. Oneof the older men behind Yoseh began reminiscing about how the damned stubbornveydeen had tried to make a stand along here and the damned fool ferrenghi hadwanted Fa'tad to make a mounted charge across the boggy ground and creek andup the rubble to dislodge them.
"Al-Akla told them what to do with their charge. So they sent in their ownmen. And they got murdered just like Fa'tad said they would."
The column passed through a gap in the rubble flanked by broken columns, aonetime gateway. It entered the narrow streets of the Hahr, climbed the hillto the wide-open plazas around the citadel. Yoseh could not look at that placewithout shuddering, though he knew Ala-eh-din Beyh had rendered it powerlessStill ...
Still, the Herodians persisted in trying to figure out how to break in. Maybejust to recover the body of their hero, but maybe for something more. Maybefor the fabled treasure.
Yoseh half suspected that Fa'tad had his eyes on the treasure, too.
The column passed through the spaciousness of the acropolis and entered theShu, nudging the head of Char Street tentatively at first, like a snakechecking the mouth of a gopher hole. Then it surged forward.
Char Street was aboil with humanity already. Like a flyblown carcass, Yosehthought, feeling the weight of their numbers pressing in on him. They partedbefore the pressure of the column, then stood at the street sides gawking. Howlong since they had seen such a force of Dartars in the Shu? Since the days ofQushmarrah's fall? Maybe not even then. There wasn't much in the Shu worthfighting for.
Men began dropping off the column's tail in sixes and eights each time anentryway to the labyrinth appeared. Yoseh soon realized that a hundredeighteen men were not enough to cover just the rat holes on Char Street, letalone all the others around the periphery.
Nogah told Mo'atabar, "This is the place."
"Go ahead. Peel off."
Nogah beckoned the rest of them to the side of the street, jostlingQushmarrahans who took that in silence. Yoseh looked into the mouth of that alley and shivered. Superstitious dread, he told himself. That dangerous, widelittle man was long gone.
The column moved on. They watched, waiting to dismount. Yoseh glanced downtoward the heavenstone blue of the bay. His eyes met those of the same oldwoman he had seen yesterday afternoon. This morning the iron was missing fromher expression. She looked a little puzzled, a little lost.
A girl came to the door behind her. Yoseh's gaze was drawn to her unveiledface. His eyes bugged. Their gazes met.
The old woman snarled something at the girl.
She retreated, but only a step or two. Just far enough not to be seen from thecorner of the crone's eye. She continued to stare. And so did Yoseh, whichgave her away.
Mahdah struck him in the thigh. "Yoseh, you want to come down from there?" Andhe realized it was the third time he had been told to dismount. Cheeks hot, hemade the camel kneel, ' slid off.
Nogah said, "You and Medjhah stay with the animals, kid." Yoseh had thefeeling his brother was laughing behind his veil. Nogah punched Mahdah'sshoulder as they got their stuff together to go into the alley. "Justyesterday he was asking me why we stay in Qushmarrah."
Bel-Sidek watched the Dartar column come down the hill, the groups droppingoff at each alley, and had to struggle to keep from gaping. "What the hell isgoing on?" he muttered. He'd never seen anything like it. He counted bodies.
Over a hundred of the bastards. What the hell was Fa'tad up to now?
The man was like that wild hare they had out along the marges of the Takes, always zigging just when the wild dogs expected it to zag. It showed a littlewiggle of the tail like it was going to go right and when the dogs were setfor the move it bounded to the left and gained thirty yards while they weregetting their legs untangled.
The Dartars just kept coming. The teams that dropped off began preparing ropesand shields and weapons and torches.
They were serious about invading the labyrinth.
Why? It was an exercise in futility.
Another of Fa'tad's efforts to please the mob? Another symbolic gesture?
Bel-Sidek was anxious to get across and check on the old man, but there was nopushing through the Dartars. Not without attracting unwanted attention.
"What are they doing, sir?"
Bel-Sidek glanced sideways at the man who had spoken. He was one of theassistants to one of the old man's lieutenants here in the Shu. Naszif something, a slimy little man bel-Sidek did not like. Almost by chance the manknew he was involved with the movement and more important than he. He had asubtly ingratiating manner that repelled bel-Sidek more than did King's openass-kissing.
"I was just wondering that myself. I don't think I missed anything about what happened here yesterday. It certainly doesn't deserve this kind of response."
The man's face went through amazing contortions.
"Are you all right?"
"Excuse me, sir. It was my son that was taken. That was what started it all." "Oh. I'm sorry. Have you had any news?"
"None, sir. Though a man I knew in the army told me about a couple of missing children turning up again. I've been checking around this morning and I've heard about several others that turned up, too, so I'm hopeful." "You have my prayers," bel-Sidek said. He wished he could get away. But there was no walking off.
"Thank you, sir. Did you hear about the murder, sir?" Bel-Sidek groaned inwardly. "No. I didn't."
"Over in the Hahr. A very rich man. There're rumors that he was the head of the Living in the Hahr." Bel-Sidek became alert and interested. He tried to feign mild curiosity. "What happened?"
"Thieves, the way I heard it. His house was stripped clean. He'd been strangled." Bel-Sidek thought he covered well. The end of the Dartar column was past.
"Interesting. Excuse me. I have to check on my father. He's been alone forseveral hours." He pushed across the street.
Sagdet strangled and his house cleaned out by thieves? That sounded remarkablylike the doom that had befallen half a dozen prominent men in recent years, among them three civil governors and his own wife's second husband. It hadn'toccurred to him to see a pattern before. He'd believed that the passing of thegovernors had been engineered in Government House, with Cado's connivance, though the Living had not refused to take the blame. The instances notinvolving governors, though, definitely bore the smell of punitivedeathstrokes by the Living.
Bel-Sidek was in a contemplative mood when he entered the house.
"That you, Khadifa?"
"Yes sir."
"I had begun to fear I was going to have to live off my own fat."
The old man's chiding was more teasing than carping. Still, bel-Sidek was vexed. He was feeling touchy.
"I was delayed."
"So I see. What is that uproar out there?"
Bel-Sidek listened. The street noise was a little louder than usual, but notenough for him to have noticed. "That's one half of the Shu asking the otherhalf what the hell the Dartars are up to." He stared down at the frail figurein the bed. The bed was the old man's only concession to the privilege ofrank. "Joab and better than a hundred men are out there. Looks like they'regoing to invade the labyrinth. They brought the necessary weapons and tools."
The General's husk of a face wrinkled in perplexity. "Why would they do that?"
What sort of viper's nest seethed behind those cataracted eyes? "I don't havethe foggiest idea. Because Fa'tad told him to. You're the expert on the mindof Fa'tad al-Akla."
"Do I detect a note of something sour, Khadifa? Do you have a grievance?"
"Last night you told us the khadifa of the Hahr would be with us for a generalpolicy meeting tonight."
"So I did. You object?"