Port

They drifted over the upper city and the lower city, past the Bridge of Virgins, following the river down to the harbor. War galleys slept there, and merchantmen with lateen sails, feluccas and fishing boats and dragon ships from distant lands. They flew over a proud ship lit with lanterns, where slave girls danced on the decks to the music of pipes and tambourines. They turned south, skimmed over the dunes of the shore and on across the marshes, flying high enough to see a swath of white sand on their left and the Bay of the Moon dark beyond. They flew, and the sky began to lighten and the stars faded, and still they flew. The marshes stretched out ahead of them to the horizon. Her body ached, and her eyes were sore from the constant wind. They began to pass over clusters of stilted huts. There were men in long narrow canoes, casting nets, who paused to look up as they flew.