And for a moment they stood there in the sunlight before the long colonnade that occupied the lower story of the citadel; while from beneath that colonnade issued a dozen or fifteen of the black, muscular Maghrabi men, two of whom--in the role of official stranglers--they had already seen.

These powerful half-savages took the horses away, the hoofs clacking hollowly on the golden pavement.
Bara Miyan led the way in under the colonnade, which, though of gold like all else in this, wonder city, still offered grateful shade.
The perpetual glare of the golden roadways, houses, towers, balconies--even covered as many were with floating curtains of muslin or silk--had been trying to eyes and nerves.

Infinitely preferable would stone or wood have been, for dwellings; but as Jannati Shahr was, so the Legion had to take it.

And doubtless long generations of familiarity with it had made it wholly normal, pleasant, and innocuous to these super-Arabs.
The Jannati Shahr men began kicking off their _babooshes_ and sliding their naked feet into light slippers, rows upon rows of which stood under the portico.

The Master and Leclair quickly put off their shoes and took slippers; the others followed suit.