The two girls went out on foot. A very few minutes brought them to the palace gates. Here there were of coursesoldiers on guard but the officer knew Lasaraleen quite well and called his men to attention and saluted. They passed at once into the Hall of Black Marble. A fair number of courtiers， slaves and others were still moving about here but this only made the two girls less conspicuous. They passed on into the Hall of Pillars and then into the Hall of Statues and down the colonnade， passing the great beaten.copper doors of the throne room. It was all magnificent beyond description； what they could see of it in the dim light of the lamps.
Presently they came out into the garden.court which sloped downhill in a number of terraces. On the far side of that they came to the Old Palace. It had already grown almost quite dark and they now found themselves in a maze of corridors lit only by occasional torches fixed in brackets to the walls. Lasaraleen halted at a place where you had to go either left or right.
“Go on， do go on，” whispered Aravis， whose heart was beating terribly and who still felt that her father might run into them at any corner.
