Chapter 19
Outside the gate of the Grand Vizier’s palace by the Spring of Tears, Sinan felt the beginning of a chill in the air. He and Abu Abdallah had prayed the mid-afternoon prayer before setting off with Lubna, and now the sun was well into its long autumnal slide down the sky. He wondered if he would ever get used to the strangeness of these northern latitudes; or to the feelings, so long buried, that the woman walking in front of him had awoken.
He tried to shake the feelings off. In no time she would be gone.
Lost in reflection, Sinan paid no attention to the Grand Vizier’s guards, or to the row of squatting supplicants across from the gate. He didn’t notice the tiny signal made by one of the waiting petitioners, a man wrapped in a taylasan against the coming cold. Nor was he aw
