We were soon assigned to new quarters, and the balance of the day
was devoted to settling ourselves to the changed conditions. My
home now was upon an avenue leading into the plaza from the south,
the main artery down which we had marched from the gates of the
city. I was at the far end of the square and had an entire
building to myself. The same grandeur of architecture which was
so noticeable a characteristic of Korad was in evidence here, only,
if that were possible, on a larger and richer scale. My quarters
would have been suitable for housing the greatest of earthly
emperors, but to these queer creatures nothing about a building
appealed to them but its size and the enormity of its chambers; the
larger the building, the more desirable; and so Tal Hajus occupied
what must have been an enormous public building, the largest in the
city, but entirely unfitted for residence purposes; the next largest
was reserved for Lorquas Ptomel, the next for the jed of a lesser
rank, and so on to the bottom of the list of five jeds. The
warriors occupied the buildings with the chieftains to whose
retinues they belonged; or, if they preferred, sought shelter among
any of the thousands of untenanted buildings in their own quarter of
town; each community being assigned a certain section of the city.
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