Everywhere there were crowds of merchants, traders, porters, soldiers, scholars, guards, slaves, mamluks, holy men, faqirs, sheiks, ladies, thieves, Moslems, Jews, Christians, and Indoos. Chione and Lien lay on either side of him, cradling their naked figures against his and kissing his ears and neck while all three of them watched Zoreh. “When you’re finished trying to swallow the mpire, perhaps you would do your caliph the honor of telling him who you are, and how you came to be in his private harem, in the middle of the night, during the holy month of Ramadan?”
Arram swallowed. “What would you know about his comings and goings?”
“I know that if I were the caliph, I would certainly never leave the palace,” said the doctor, and the others muttered their assent. “Come, walk with me, see my city, and tell me what brings you here all the way from Sicily.”
They walked and talked, and the streets were bustling, for although it was the middle of the night Baghdad was known as the Night City, and it being Ramadan the
