The steppe rider found him two streets north of the mosque, moving without direction through the outer market lanes, taking in the pace and texture of the city the way he took in terrain.
"His name is Ahmad ibn Farrukh," the rider said when he pulled up. "Persian. He's in the northern residential quarter, working a channel restoration on the third lane east of the main road. The locals say he's been there most of his three months. He comes every day."
"What kind of work."
"The channel feeds the northern cisterns. He's relaying the base stones and regrading the slope. The locals say he does the measuring himself."
Batu turned north.
The residential quarter showed more of the reconstruction's unevenness than the market district did.
