"`And this day, Sire, I have discovered a thing: that if evil may be beaten on the battleground of our hearts, then it may indeed be beaten!'"
As the men of Astargoth rode forth from Alin and into the northern wilderness, they did so thoughtfully, their habitual hautiness replaced by the sort of emptiness that is left when a festering boil is lanced and bled dry of its poison, leaving an empty cavity of quivering raw flesh, covered over by a layer of dead skin; once lanced, it is only a matter of time before skin grows over the raw flesh, and the dead skin is shed.
Meanwhile, Niles' thoughts turned to Amrhost, his cousin, and he wondered why Amrhost had left his home town of Celandhar. Niles reflected now, too, on the manner in which he himself had wronged Palindor, by taking something to which he had no right.
But this moment of time passed like any other, and they rode north across the Narrow Plain.
They had ridden for three days, north by northwest, intending to take the faster and less conspicuous passage afforded by the Fortress on the White River, when they came to an ancient structure standing alone in the middle of nowhere.
Almost perfectly intact, it was a circle of pillars capped with an ornate dome. The place was ascended to by a circular stair, and within was a raised dais with a circular seat at its centre.