~5.2~

Most of the people who walk the streets of Jericho every day… and even many of those who remain on them through the nights… paid no attention to the arched passages behind the iron gratings. They were a background detail, part of the minutiae of the city. Aside from very small children, it was mostly visitors to the city who happened to stumble across them and peer down the enclosed alleyways to see a slice of a scene that didn’t just belong to another time and another place but often another world entirely.

One might find a dark tunnel lit by the flickering flame of three gas-powered lamps… the magical ever-burning torches of a latter-day enchanter. The light of the last one could fall on an unseen pool just past the passageway’s end, casting rippling silver reflections on the far wall of the courtyard. The light playing over the wrought iron railing balcony might reveal clinging vines.

Down another, one could see a trio of grotesque stone heads spit endless streams of water, an abstract representation of some fine old Greek ladies, the Erinyes or the Moirae… avengers or apportioners, furies or fates… or possibly the Charites, or the older forebears of the Muses. Behind the statues, a hedge formed a backdrop for the gurgling goddesses, blocking all view of the space beyond them and presenting the limited perspective from the street with the suggestion of a maze.

Another featured a spreading tree above a birdbath, a great stone saucer of water held aloft by a weathered winged figure that might have been an angel or a fairy. Viewed at night, it was hard to tell… just a shadow under stone.

Water, statues, greenery. Each courtyard was different, but most have that much in common, at least. With winter come to Jericho, the reflecting pools would soon be drained and the fountains shut off… some of them would be, anyway. Even where the buildings were occupied, the courtyards tended to be forgotten spaces.