The canyon carried them deeper for several hours. Its walls rose so high that the sky had been reduced to a narrow gray wound overhead, allowing little light to reach the bottom. What little survived the descent reflected strangely from the white cubes embedded throughout the passage, casting a pale, colorless glow across the surrounding stone.
The cubes became more numerous the farther they traveled. Some protruded halfway from the canyon walls, their smooth surfaces fused with the natural rock despite showing no cracks or signs of pressure. Others stood alone along the path, forcing the procession to weave around them, while a few had been stacked into crude arches beneath which the unconscious tribesmen passed without hesitation.
