The drumbeat startled Finn, a sudden interruption to his concentrated study of the valley below.
Workers in the fields stopped pruning the plants and stood up to rub their backs and ease aches and pains. The guards gestured down the hill, giving permission to stop working. Groups of laborers set off toward the plaza, laughing together with a sudden sense of celebration.
Finn followed the lines of the paths as they walked down the slopes to the barracks at the bottom, neatly organized in ranks with dirt tracks between.
In the center of the camp, an open plaza lay in front of a lake with a sunken church at its heart. Finn could just make out black shadows undulating within the depths and he shuddered to think what monsters lay below the surface.
A sizeable building — a temple of some kin
