Chapter 26
‘Two days to go,’ the Sultanic Secretary said, ‘and everything is ready . . . Or so you say.’ He stepped out from behind the screen surrounding the centrepiece of the new court. A workman with a sack entered the gap in the canvas.
Zayd, the auburn-bearded Clerk of Works, emerged. ‘Yes, sir. The tests have been carried out. All is in order. We’re just adding a few finishing touches.’
Ibn Zamrak looked about him. He hated to admit it, but the Grand Vizier’s new court was the most splendid building he had ever seen. Indeed, it was hard to imagine that art or nature could produce a more exquisite prospect this side of Paradise. Light and shade played hide and seek among the colonnades and seemed to set the whole space in motion, an earthly mirror to the slow and ceaseless spin of
