### 212

With plodding steps you set off towards the rocky cairn. Your feet sink ankle-deep into the hot red sand and you can only maintain your balance by leaning heavily into the wind. Walking soon becomes an ordeal and by the time you reach shelter you are near to exhaustion.

Breathless and weary you crouch beside the mound and pray that the storm will soon subside. Then it occurs to you that the cairn is not a natural structure: the rocks have been stacked symmetrically, one upon the other, by someone or something who wished to leave their mark upon this wilderness. You examine the slabs more closely and discover one that is quite unlike the others. Its rectangular edges are even and its surface is mirror-smooth. Inscribed upon this slab are curious spidery markings.

If you have the Magnakai Discipline of Pathsmanship, turn to 44.

If you do not possess this Magnakai Discipline, turn to 260.

Text copyright © 1987 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1987 Brian Williams.