With a sense of deepening gloom he approached Palace Gate, which he assumed would be the most tightly controlled of all. But as he traveled up along the King’s Bazaar he encountered a growing climate of confusion and anarchy. There was an unusual percentage of soldiers, even for this quarter of the city; men, horses, camels, and asses were moving here and there with no sense of order. Hakem Rafi could barely fight his way through the mob to draw near the gate which, he saw, was being as closely guarded as the others.
The confusion, though, intrigued him. Wherever there is chaos, there the skillful thief finds his opportunity. Something important was going to happen here, and Hakem Rafi was curious to find out what it was.
A young man in the livery of a royal servant dashed past, and Hake
