The Oathbreaker's Shadow (21 page)

Raim stared up at the man’s forehead, where the flat area was just visible now. It would have been plainer to see if the man had been bald, in Baril tradition. As if in answer to Raim’s questioning gaze, Vlad asked him to bring over a light.

Raim plucked a candelabrum from the wall and brought it over to where Vlad was standing. Vlad then pulled back the tuft of dark brown hair that concealed the mark. It became much more visible. It was bigger than Raim’s palm; it was more like his whole hand. Raim couldn’t help but whistle in awe.

‘My brother joined the Baril this past season,’ Raim said.

‘He will have to control his curiosity,’ said Vlad.

Raim grimaced. ‘He won’t have any trouble doing that. You could never interest Tarik in anything but books.’

Vlad raised an eyebrow. ‘But that is precisely the problem. Or it was our problem at least. We couldn’t stop reading the books. Even the forbidden ones. Which is why we are here now, haunted by the same spirit of our Baril master.’

‘There are forbidden books? Well, that does sound a bit more exciting than anything else I’ve heard about the Baril. What do forbidden books have to say that other books don’t?’

‘Magic. Sages. Spirits. Power. Secrets. All those lost things we’re trying to dis the other apprenticesanvonycover here about spirit power, it has also been written down by Baril historians,’ said Vlad, unable to disguise the excitement in his voice.

Zu was more temperate. ‘Well, it is all written down, except no one can access it. Alas, curiosity almost killed us both. But here, we are closer to solving the mystery than ever before, even if we aren’t in the Baril any more.’

‘But . . . didn’t you know that you would get caught?’

Zu’s expression was pained, but Vlad’s was blank, the excitement gone. It was Vlad who spoke. ‘We made that choice. It wasn’t easy. But the knowledge was worth breaking the vow for.’ Vlad must have grasped a sense of how shocked Raim felt, because his next words were defensive. ‘You’re in Lazar, the city of oathbreakers, Raim! None of us here is perfect.’

And it was perfectly true. Every person here was a traitor.

Old Darhan prejudices pressed hard on Raim’s soul.
If you didn’t have your word, your honour, your knots, then what did you have?
He swallowed down his judgement. Nothing was so black and white any more.

‘Tell me, Raim, which tribe were you witt with you at

They started with meditation, and Raim had never realized it could be so exhausting. Puutra’s sessions were more intense even than Yasmin’s. For the first hour Puutra asked him to move constantly, from the lotus position, to balancing on one foot like a tree and even, for a minute, on his head with his feet resting up against the wall. Harder still was the next hour, when Puutra demanded he sit absolutely still without moving a single muscle. In fact, it was impossible. He managed five minutes before breaking, and then Puutra made him start all over again.

And Raim concentrated harder. He concentrated so hard that he felt it – felt a spark in his mind where he realized he could reach out to the spirit. But it wasn’t Draikh a temporary settlement Ise tunnel0">

‘I see you!’ Raim leaped to his feet and spun round himself. All he caught was the hem of her white dress,
before she swept away from his sight, disappearing to wherever it was she came from. ‘Who are you? Show yourself! I command you.’

But she was gone.

‘Damn!’ Raim stomped his foot in frustration. ‘Argh, I can’t believe her! I know she is there, why doesn’t she just show herself to me?’

Puutra’s face was white, as if he had seen a ghost. He walked over to a desk that was set up in the corner and sat down to write.

‘Why is she always running away from me?’ Raim asked.

It took a while before Puutra replied. ‘You have no idea who she is?’

Raim shook his head.

‘More meditation will help unlock your memory, then,’ Puutra said, with a half-hearted smile.

Somehow, Raim doubted it. He pressed on with a different question that had been bothering him. ‘Puutra, are you a sage?’

Puutra shook his head. ‘No. The five stages of becoming a sage are tolerance, separation, communication, cooperation and partnership. I reached communication and then . . . I have never managed to progress beyond that.’

‘But what I don’t understand is that I’ve seen a sage. Not . . . not a very good sage, I don’t think, but he was arrested on the day of my brother’s wedding.’

‘Ah yes, that must have been Garus, that crazy fool. I wondered whether we would hear news of him. He would have been so intrigued by you if he had been here, that’s certain. So he is performing tricks for the royals, is he?’

‘Batar-Khan arrested him. I assume he has been executed by now.’

Puutra clucked in the back of his throat. ‘His disappearance caused us a lot of pain. Before you arrived, he was the most powerful of all of us, the only one to breach cooperation. Even if he only had a small amount of control, it was something. The problem was, his vow was small, and his spirit was weak . . . she could only perform the simplest of tasks. Still, Garus grew tired of our isolated existence out here in the desert mountains and believed that he was ready to bring sages back to Darhan. He believed himself much more powerful than he was. He wanted to join the ranks of our ancestors, wanted to be worshipped as a hero . . . wanted to be the new sage at the right hand of the Khan. Obviously, much good that dream has done for him . . . although we tried to warn him. But he was old. Maybe he sensed his opportunity for greatness was running out.’

‘He made a carpet fly.’ That was one thing Raim could never forget.

Puutra grimaced. ‘Yes . . . yes, cooperation. But they weren’t true partners, not yet. Granted, it took him decades of study to accomplish even that, but it is nothing compared with the feats of the past.’

Raim shrugged. ‘I think most people in the room were awed . . . I know my best friend was.’

Puutra released a long sigh. ‘If he had stayed with us perhaps he could have been truly great. But he caused far more damage than good. The knowledge we’ve lost because he has g a temporary settlement tI sense of feone, that is one thing. But it is not nearly so bad as
how
he chose to escape.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Raim. ‘Surely he would have had to join the Alashan . . .’

‘No.’ Puutra shook his head and cracked his knuckles. ‘The Alashan never take Chauk back to Darhan. Never. But there is another way out of Lazar . . .’

Raim raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought we were completely cut off here?’

‘As far as most know, yes. But there are tunnels through the mountains that eventually lead to Darhan. They were once underground trade routes – the only real way through the desert to Aqben in the south. Lazar was a hub of activity. The Khans of Darhan, Mauz – even the southern kings – would send their heirs here to learn the ancient art of being a sage.’

Raim folded his arms across his chest. ‘The Khans sent their children to be oathbreakers? Why in Sola’s name would they do that?’

‘Raim . . . I realize this is difficult for you. Most apprentices to the Shan discover this knowledge themselves, from the book that you cannot read. That way they can come to these revelations slowly, unlocking the
real
history of the past from the words inscribed on the page –
at their own pace
. But you do not have that luxury. So I beg of you to keep an open mind.’

Raim hesitated.
What would Khareh do?

‘He would listen,’ said Draikh. ‘He would try to learn.’

Raim knew Draikh was right. He nodded slowly.

Puutra walked over to a locked chest at the far end of the room. From it, he pulled out a large scroll of paper. Inscribed on the scroll in delicate inkwork was the most detailed map Raim had ev

‘Like me!’ Raim exclaimed. ‘You said I had to have broken my oath for Draikh to appear, but that’s not always true, is it?’

‘Like you, but not like you. Tthe old stories – the ones who sat at the right hand of the Khan – were not oathbreakers. Lazar was where they came to learn how to externalize
their own
spirits. They could perform sage magic without breaking any oaths at all.’

‘Then why don’t you teach that? Surely that is much better than having to become a traitor first!’

‘We would, if we knew how. But that knowledge is even more lost to the sands of time than our version of the art. The sages could never become Khans of their own right, because by externalizing yourself, you make yourself so much weaker. You’re losing part of your own spirit, after all. One sage – whose name we do not speak – discovered
that he could become much stronger if he used someone else’s spirit as his power. He dreamed of becoming both Khan and sage in one – he didn’t want to be someone’s second-in-command. He wanted to lead. There were seven other sages living in Lazar at the time, and when they realized what he had done, they were horrified. They chased him through the tunnels, battling him along the way, trying to prevent him from reaching Darhan. It was an epic battle, the seven against the one rogue. They defeated him, but at great cost. In the end, Hao – the extremely blJud strongest left – decided that the knowledge that oathbreaking could lead to becoming a sage was too dangerous. They sealed the tunnels into and out of Lazar, keeping one key – one pass-stone for each remaining sage – seven in total. Five of the sages left Lazar then, to travel back to Darhan and spread words of hatred and deceit against all oathbreakers. They encouraged their khans to exile oathbreakers into the desert to Lazar – the only way they could think of to keep oathbreakers from learning how to manipulate their spirits into becoming powerful sages.

‘Only two of those keys remained in Lazar. And Garus stole one of them. That fool! We are lucky that another has returned to us very recently.’

‘But why would you want to train sages again, if this Hao person and the others tried so hard to stop it?’

Puutra’s face darkened. ‘Because what else can we do . . . just wither away here and die? If I had been allowed to stay in Darhan, then perhaps I would have been able to
earn my forgiveness from my lovely wife. But now, I have no choice but to live the last of my days here, with her as my haunt hating my every move, knowing that I will die a traitor. But if I dedicate myself to becoming a sage . . . well, then at least my betrayal will not be my only legacy.

‘And you have brought hope back to us, Raim. Maybe you can prove that there is another way. Another path to becoming a sage – one that doesn’t result in weakness or require treachery. One that will bring honour to the sages again . . . and to Darhan.’ Puutra put his hand on Raim’s arm, and then shuffled off, leaving Raim alone in the room.

Raim sat down on the very edge of the map, gazing out over his entire world. All Puutra had said about sages swirled in his head.

‘See what I told you?’ said Draikh, in Raim’s mind. ‘You could be great.’

Maybe
.

‘You will.’

Raim traced his finger to where Kharein was. He imagined all the people he knew there. Khareh, Erdene, Lars. What were they doing? Were they living out their lives as if nothing had happened? Would Lars take his empty place in the Yun? His finger migrated out onto the steppe, into the vast grasslands. Loni, Dharma, Yasmin. All out there somewhere. Did they worry about him? Did they presume him dead, or as good as, in the desert? Up into the mountains. Tarik. He wondered if word of his exile had reached
the Baril. He wondered if Tarik would be surprised. Something they had both shared was a fierce sense of honour, and loyalty – with a jolt of pain, he knew Tarik would be ashamed of him.

He imagined going back there, scar gone for ever, not only reclaiming his honour, but taking his place alongside Khareh as his sage and Protector combined.

‘You could do it,’ said Draikh.

Yes
, Raim thought, not daring to say it aloud.
We could. We could do it
.

All I have to do is clear my name.

Wadi might have her own path, but there was no way he was going to be able to follow his without her. If there was anyone who could help him make sense of what he had learned, it was her. And if she wanted to be alone – if she didn’t want his help in return – then he could accept that. But only if he heard it from her mouth.

He had to find her.

He looked up and down the hallway. It was deserted. He crept towards the stairwell and followed the twisted staircase down, only once having to hide in the shadows as a strange noise caught his attention. He waited, holding his breath, until the sound disappeared. False alarm.

The curtain leading to the water garden billowed out
into the hallway, soft as a ghost. He kneeled down low beside it and drew it aside by the tiniest margin to give him a view into the garden. He peered through but had trouble seeing anything in the darkness beyond. It seemed empty.

Rules of surveillance
. Excitement surged through him as memories of his Yun training flooded back. Even on this small scale, he loved the rush.
Look again
, Mhara would have said.
Is it really empty? Don’t trust your first look.

No rash decisions.
He kept looking, his pupils adjusting to the lack of light. Then he saw a dip in the blackness – movement. Someone stood up from the centre of the pagoda, walked over the stepping stones, and exited through the curtain to the right of where Raim was looking. Raim caught a brief silhouette of the man in the light from the open door. A guard from the front gate. So they were still monitoring the pagoda.

So, what does it matter?
he chided himself. It’s not like he could get kicked out of Lazar – Puutra had made that clear.

Still, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself and potentially get Wadi in trouble if she was waiting for him. But she wouldn’t be waiting at the pagoda if it was under watch. It was now or never; he didn’t know when the guard might return.