midnight
They were looting the richer streets first . Their upraised voices were thick with wine , and mingled with the cries of women . The reflection of many fires tinged the sky . By midnight the sounds began to slacken , and by the second hour after the city slept , drugged with wine and blood and the weariness of battle . Stark went silently out into the streets , toward the King City . According to the immemorial pattern of Martian city-states , the castles of the king and the noble families were clustered together in solitary grandeur . Many of the towers were fallen now , the great halls open to the sky .