The inside of the tent was even bigger than it looked from outside.
Rows of wooden stands rose up on every side, curving around a huge round floor of packed sand in the middle. Thousands of people were already sitting in them, and thousands more were still pouring in through the open flaps, climbing the steps, squeezing into every gap they could find. Kids sat on their parents' laps. People stood in the aisles. Masked crew members walked up and down the stairs with lanterns, guiding people to seats, waving them toward spaces nobody else had noticed.
Jin and the others found a spot about halfway up, near one of the big wooden poles that held up the roof. From there, they could see the whole floor below them, and the high peak of the tent above, lost in shadow.
The drums outside had stopped. Inside, it was quiet except for the sound of thousands of people talking in low, excited voices.
Then the lanterns went out.
