XXIX: Farinfoor permitted himself a joyless laugh as the pervasive, throbbing percussive beats slowed, quited, and ceased. All was still. Even the clamor of the battle outside abruptly vanished, its combatants seeming at once to forget their function. He peered down at this sea of bewilderment and felt some strange sentiment take hold. A sensation on unequaled possibility. Farinfoor turned from the window, eager to join friend and foe alike on the plain below when the tower suddenly began to shudder and moan.