The Gate of the Ghost
This is the busiest gate in the city. From here caravans set out for Halwa and parts west, and pilgrims arrive from Wasat, Halwa, or the Cities of the Ancients. The complement of mamluks is doubled here, both for protection and to assist with all of the traffic. It is not unusual to find five or six caravans waiting to get through in the morning, trying to get an early start. Later in the day it may take several hours for a caravan to make its way through the gates.
The Gate of the Ghost gets its name from popular lore. With so much traffic coming from the Haunted Lands nowadays, many people feel that ghosts are common visitors to Golden Huzuz, ghosts of long-dead ancients who want to catch a glimpse of the Shining City. Though most enlightened people realize this is simple superstition, a number of them tend to avoid the gate for no good reason. The Gate of the Ghost is under the watchful eye of Amsha al-Lanim, who runs the busiest gate to Huzuz. More people enter through this gate than through the entire harbor. Amsha takes this responsibility very seriously. She is a harsh taskmistress, driving her troops as hard as she does herself. Amsha has never missed a day at the gate since she was assigned there over eight years ago. The most remarkable part of this feat is that she has given birth to two sons in that time. Both of the births were at night, but by morning, Amsha was back at her post. Amsha wanted both her career in the Grand Caliph's army and the joys of motherhood. While the men of Huzuz are enlightened and tolerant, she had trouble finding one who was that enlightened and tolerant. She finally married a barbarian, an ajami mage from a land with the strange name of Shadowdale. Her husband El runs a small school for mages called The School of the Mage of Shadowdale
Taxes are collected by Waleed ibn-Keram , who is just the right size to test wagons for false bottoms. She spots smugglers better than anyone else in town. Waleed was a smuggler herself for almost a decade, before she was caught and given the opportunity to work off her sentence by helping to catch other smugglers. She found that she liked it, and in the last 20 years has become one of the Keeper of the Treasury's most valued employees.
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