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Upon a raised platform, carpeted with scarlet fur, sits the Vassagonian Emperor, Zakhan Kimah. He is robed in gold but devoid of all ornamentation. In his hand is an orb of black metal, and in his eye an ice-cold cruelty that chills your spine. The Zakhan is a man of awesome countenance, but he pales in the shadow of his companion.
Before him stands the cause of your terror. A helm as black as death itself hides the face, but the stench of decay and a hideous sepulchral voice betray the identity.
‘Give me Lone Wolf!’
It is the fell voice of a mortal enemy—a Darklord of Helgedad. As the Zakhan rises to his feet, you notice a flicker of doubt, or perhaps of fear, dim his cruel gaze, but he is quick to mask it. ‘He will be brought to you at sunset in exchange for the Orb of Death. It is agreed.’
‘You have the Orb,’ echoes the chilling voice. ‘Give me Lone Wolf!’
The Zakhan hides his fear well, but time is not on his side. The game of bluff he is playing is deadly. However, the fact that he has not yet been discovered is evidence of his powerful will, for you sense the Darklord is persistently clawing and probing at his mind.
‘You will get your Northlander, Lord Haakon,’ says the Zakhan, his voice curt with anger, ‘when you tell me why your servants defile the Tomb of the Majhan. You claim to have no need for gold and jewels—why then do you plunder the graves of our ancestors?’
A deathly quiet fills the hall; only the unnatural hiss of the Darklord’s breath disturbs the silence. ‘This land, this insignificant speck of sand, harbours two small thorns that prick our skin. We seek to remove them both—forever. The fledgling Kai, Lone Wolf, is the thorn that denies us Sommerlund. The Tomb of the Majhan hides the other thorn that threatens us—the accursed Book of the Magnakai.’
Your heart pounds as the words echo in your head. The Book of the Magnakai! Suddenly, the reason why you have been enticed into a deadly trap becomes clear, and the sinister truth is revealed.
The Book of the Magnakai is one of the oldest legends of Sommerlund. With the wisdom of the Magnakai, Sun Eagle, the first Kai Grand Master, instilled the disciplines into the warriors of the House of Ulnar, the bloodline of your king, that were to save your land from devastation at the hands of the Darklords. The Book of the Magnakai was lost hundreds of years ago, but its wisdom was kept alive, handed down through generations of Sommlending warriors so that they could share the strength to resist their eternal enemies, the Darklords of Helgedad.
If the Darklords discover and destroy the Book of the Magnakai, the secrets will be lost forever, and when you die, the Kai will become extinct. However, if you discover the Book of the Magnakai first and deny the Darklords their prize, all the wisdom of the Magnakai will be revealed to you. Through its wisdom you will become strong, strong enough to reach the ultimate achievement for a Sommlending warrior—to become a Kai Grand Master.
However, the peril and the glory of the quest that lies ahead are distracting you from more immediate danger. To discover this danger and to begin the quest for the Book of the Magnakai, turn to Part Two of Shadow on the Sand.
