When the road work was finished in February 1440, the companions were assigned to new work in the palace gardens and carpentry and masonry shops. However, things had taken another twist in the interim; Salah ibn Salah had died over the winter of 1439–40. As his eldest son was still in Portuguese captivity, the government of Asilah-Tangier (and notional control of Ferdinand) was passed to his brother Abu Bakr (known in the chronicles as "Muley Bubuquer"). Álvares reports that Abu Zakariya tried to lay claim on Ibn Salah's lands, provoking a quarrel with Abu Bakr. In turn, Abu Bakr conspired with a certain "Faquy Amar", who as tutor to a Marinid prince had access to the palace of Fez, to break Ferdinand out of prison. But Abu Zakariya got wind of the plot, and Faquy Amar fled the city. Things got more confusing when Gonçalo de Sintra, an agent of Henry the Navigator, arrived in Salé and told the Marinid authorities there that the Portuguese intended only to provide cash, not Ceuta, for Ferdinand. This caused the Marinids to accuse the Portuguese of double-dealing and reneging on their earlier offer. A letter finally arrived from the dowager-queen Eleanor, but it only pertained to some minor matter relating to the transfer of some lands back in Portugal and made no mention of the Ceuta swap. Each of these incidents infuriated the Marinids, who felt the Portuguese were being false and toying with them, and their anger fell harshly on Ferdinand, who was threatened and subjected to tighter conditions of confinement. Even the sympathy of the Marinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II and his wives – who had previously mitigated Abu Zakariya's harshness, and gently treated the prince, occasionally inviting him to eat with them in the palace gardens – was now alienated.