On the stone-paved road encircling the square, dozens of tarpaulin-covered wagons were neatly lined up, with fully armed cavalrymen standing beside them.
The Duke and the Earl sat side by side in an open ceremonial carriage, slowly rolling out of the city gate at the rear of the procession.
Lloyd rode his warhorse, shadowing the carriage at arm's length.
The believers at the front of the column were still murmuring their prayers, yet the Duke noticed that the silver pendants around each of their necks emitted a faint glow in the mist, the light pulsing slowly in time with the rhythm of the prayer, like hundreds of synchronized breathing lamps.
Meanwhile, in the eye sockets of that giant statue on the square, the glow of the two blue Gemstones had, at some unknown moment, brightened by a few degrees.
The procession set out at dawn; the Duke and the Earl sat side by side in the open ceremonial carriage, heading all the way into the depths of the mountain range.
