the far door, beside a huge lever set into the floor. Grasping it tightly, he pulled it back, settling it into place. Then he waited as the minutes passed, becoming an hour, as the counterweights all refilled with sand, resetting the dangerous room. When all the sliding and scraping ended, Pagonel returned the lever to its resting position, and, with a deep breath, walked through the door, entering onto a tiny landing in a wide but low natural cavern, full of orange light and intense heat. For the chamber was split before Pagonel by the life flow of the mountain, a river of running lava.
The mystic reached quickly into himself, gathering his Chi, willing a de-fense against the killing heat. Human skin and blood could not suffer the intensity, but the Chi certainly could. Pagonel reached within and brought forth a shield of energy, a determination that blocked out the pain.
Settled again, Pagonel looked at the walkway before him: a narrow metal beam, stretching out across the cavern to a waterfall of orange lava. The walkway, too, glowed with heat.
Pagonel focused his inner strength into a cluster of energy, then brought it down to his feet. Slowly, without fear, the mystic stepped out onto the metal walkway, which was no more than a few inches wide. He placed one bare foot in front of the other, denying the heat and the pain so completely that it did not burn his skin.
Out he went, to the very end of the walkway, standing just a few feet from the lava fall, almost close enough to reach out and touch it. Pagonel regarded all the area around him, for there seemed no other path, and yet he knew that he could not go back.
He nodded as he came to understand, and he backed up several steps, then fell even deeper within himself, to the power of life, and he brought it forth as a shield.
Pagonel exploded into a short run, then leaped, head back, arms out-stretched, fists clenched.
He burst through the wall of falling lava, and somehow held his balance as he landed on a narrow walkway on the other side. Suppressing his ela-tion, for this walkway, too, was glowing hot and any distraction that re-leased Pagonel's grasp of his inner force would almost instantly take the skin from his feet, the mystic walked along, finally entering a second tunnel, again sloping down.
He walked for several hours, soon in almost absolute darkness, before he saw the tiniest glow of daylight up ahead. Pagonel held his determined stride and did not break into a run, reminding himself that this day was a blessing upon him, good fortune, and should not be tainted by foolish pride.
He came out of the tunnel, into the daylight, in a deep, deep pit, a circu-lar area barely ten feet across.
There, hanging on a jag in the stone, the mys-tic saw the symbol of his achievement, the Sash of All Colors.
Reverently, he took it in his hands. It was made of fine strands of treated silk, so narrow and finely woven that in all but direct light, the sash appeared black. When the sun hit it, though, the sash shone of every color in the rainbow, and Pagonel tilted it up then to catch the dim rays, to see some hint of its true splendor.
He would spend the next few months weaving the sash for the next one to pass the test of Chi, he understood, and when finished, he would walk to spot far above him, the lip of this deep, deep pit, and toss it in, to wait here for years and years, decades, even centuries, perhaps.
That was the way of Jhesta Tu.
Pagonel belted on his sash, a reminder of who he was, then looked about him for a wav UP- The hole was several hundred feet deep, at least, and the walls were sheer.
No obstacle to a Master of Chi.
Pagonel found again the line of energy, head to groin, and brought it forth about him like a shroud, using it to counter his own body weight.
He began to float, near to the wall, and hand-walked his way up, up, un-til he stood among the boulders.
A short walk through a narrow pass brought him below the Bridge of Winds, at the base of the long, ascending stairway. He resisted the urge to float up to the bridge, to amaze those students who witnessed it, and walked instead, humbly, one foot in front of the other.