Sitting under the blazing sun, resting from the longest part of their climb, Alexander looked up at the sky and cursed.
"She wasn't kidding about the heat. This is mid-summer blistering sultry heat," he complained, sweat coming from every inch of his skin.
And he wasn't the only one falling prey to the sweltering sun rays as he looked around at his teammates. Everyone was dripping in sweat, hair sticking to their foreheads and cheeks, clothes clinging to their bodies.
Looking back up, though, he already knew what was causing this.
Above them, in the sky, clinging to the mountain like a halo of invisible inscriptions, an enormous circle array, spinning slowly around the mountain's three-quarters point.
The sun's rays passing through the array were magnified, increasing their heat and deadliness, on occasion, when the correct symbols caught the sun at a certain angle.
