it was nearly midnight when garion and the others quietly left the grounds of the imperial compound , and the few bands of holiday revelers they encountered in the streets were much the worse for drink.velvet , riding a chestnut mare and wrapped and cowled in a heavy gray cloak , led them down past the marble-fronted houses of the merchant barons of tol honeth , through the empty central marketplace and into the poorer quarters of the city lying to the south .