### 280

You ride along a muddy path running the length of a ridge that overlooks a great stone bridge. High stone walls and a fortified gatehouse rise steeply from the river bank, and the only access to the city is across the bridge.

You stare at the battlements of Tekaro with growing despair, for they bristle with archers and cauldrons of molten lead. The burnt-out hulks of siege towers and the bodies of dead soldiers lie strewn in heaps before the battered city gate. From where you are you can see the cathedral spire silhouetted in the glow of innumerable fires in the centre of Tekaro. If it were not for this accursed war you would be in the crypt in less than an hour.

You see that before you the path dips steeply towards a line of tents erected behind a wall of earth and logs. They overflow with the wounded from countless assaults across the bridge.

If you have the Magnakai Discipline of Curing, you may stop and help the wounded men and turn to 42.

If you do not have this skill, or choose not to use it you can continue along the path and turn to 70.

Text copyright © 1985 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1985 Gary Chalk.