Despite the advanced hour when they arrived, the large open courtyard of what Ari introduced as the Rodan’s Palace, was bustling with staff dressed in neat white clothes. The courtyard was a large octangle. They entered through one side with elegant looping arches onto wide pale flagstones that sparkled in the starlight. Too tired to pay the attention it deserved, Sastra slid down from her horse on weak legs, watching as members of the retinue peeled away and vanished through different doors or leading horses between a pair of enormous doors on one side, into the stable block. She was surrounded by the bustle of people who knew what they were doing, precisely.
Those that had been travelling, despite their obvious weariness, were excited to be home. Sastra saw more than a dozen people run
