Chapter 30

The silence that followed the arrival of the Malik Al-Gharb was absolute. The air outside Al-Dhaq Al-Rafie grew heavy, thick with the crushing aura of the man who now commanded the five armies of Shams. The crowd, once a cacophony of jeers and whispers, was paralyzed. Every eye was fixed on the figure whose presence alone seemed to bend the light around him. They recognized the uniform, the rank, and the lethal authority of the new commander-in-chief. On the pavement, Kamal Darwish and his...