Jafar’s escorts led him straight into the palace, and the crowd behind them followed right inside. Apparently Jafar was going to see the king, and the populace was going to see Jafar. Well, he had no secrets from them; it just had never happened this way before.
The walls of the long hallways did not have paintings or tapestries on them, as he might have expected in a palace on land, but they were not barren of decoration. Niches in the walls held statues, and the walls themselves were often covered with mosaic murals inlaid with brightly colored sea pebbles, pearls, and precious stones. The Atlurim had adapted wonderfully to their environment and used their ingenuity to improve their surroundings—as men everywhere did. Most of the statues and murals depicted athletes and games of various
