### 223

Your keen Kai senses detect the warm scent of horse flesh on the air, mingling with the sharp tang of the surrounding pine trees. Hopeful that it is Bracer, escaped from the brigands and come to find you, you push through the densely-packed trees until you stumble upon a clearing. Here you discover that it is not Bracer after all; you have found the brigands’ horses.

They are unguarded and you cannot sense their owners close by, but even so you take every care not to startle them. Silently you untether one of the stallions and lead him away from the rest of the horses, along a trail which is covered with fresh tracks, and soon you come to a wider trail which winds away to the north. Here you mount the horse and set off along this rocky trail, but you have gone little more than half a mile when you smell something that makes you rein your new horse to a halt. From a wooded gully away to your right you detect the scent of death being carried on the afternoon breeze.

If you wish to investigate the wooded gully, turn to 342.

If you choose to avoid it and ride on, turn to 156.