Then, side by side, they entered a great hall, long as Stangate Abbey church, and passed through a number of people, all crouched upon the ground.

Beyond these the hall narrowed as a chancel does.
Here sat and stood more people, fierce-eyed, turbaned men, who wore great knives in their girdles.

These, as they learned afterwards, were called the fedai, the sworn assassins, who lived but to do the command of their lord the great Assassin.

At the end of this chancel were more curtains, beyond which was a guarded door.

It opened, and on its further side they found themselves in full sunlight on an unwalled terrace, surrounded by the mighty gulf into which it was built out.