The Oathbreaker's Shadow (28 page)

‘What, the spirit?’ Raim let out a bitter laugh. ‘Impossible. You didn’t know this haunt . . . he was crazy.’

‘On the contrary, I knew him very well. And but for the illiterate, uncultured society promoted by my uncle, you – the best Yun apprentice in a century – should also have known him. We cannot even recognize the heroes of our past . . . you cannot even recognize the founder of the community you hold so dear. He was haunted by Malog.’

Raim gasped. ‘No!’

‘Oh yes, so you do know the name? Malog, the original Yun founder, with that messed up face. All the Yun make their vow to him. If you’d manage to pass your test, you would have known that. And if Silas had managed to control him, can you imagine the power he would have had? Of course, Silas did not have the mental strength.’

‘Controlling a spirit like that . . . that’s impossible! It takes decades of intense training just to get to the point where the spirit isn’t a haunt a temporary settlement tI up andfe any more!’

‘Then how do you explain me? How do you explain you? It doesn’t take decades of training, it simply takes the right mind. Funnily enough, in both our cases, that mind is mine . . . but you only have a small, useless part of me. Look at him over there. As if I ever needed that? And now I will extend my power, and create a whole army of
spirit-warriors, soon to be enhanced by an entire flock of subjugated people who will be only too happy to submit to my will. Oh yes. I’m so glad the Chauk are coming. I will lay out a special welcome greeting for them.’

Raim was on his feet now. His hands were clenched tightly against his sides. ‘What did you say?’

‘You think I stopped the Chauk from leaving Darhan because they deserve forgiveness? The Chauk are the scum of the earth. That hasn’t changed. They don’t have the mental strength to be sages, like me.’

‘You are exactly like them. You are an oathbreaker like any other. Worse, because you had to harm an innocent child to do it!’

‘I am nothing like them! I am all-powerful! I will make Darhan great again, not the pitiful country it is now. I will make us greater than Mauz! Greater than the south! Greater than any place on earth. You cannot deny my strength, my genius! And the Chauk only serve to complete that.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Raim was out of his mind now. It had been a trap. He had been right. Would Wadi get to Dumas and the Chauk on time? Could she warn them?

‘Of course you don’t! Your strength was always solely in your muscles, Raimanan. I’m going to use them, use them all and then they can die for all I care. Starting with that girl you brought here. She would make a strong spirit, don’t you think?’

Raim hurled himself at Khareh then, even as Draikh
flashed to intervene. He felt savage, betrayed a thousand times over, raw with worry and ire. But attacking Khareh directly wasn’t Raim’s intention; instead he hurtled into the side of the carriage, splintering the fragile frame. He came flying out the other side, bouncing off the tough grey hide of the elephant and hitting the ground hard. Khareh screamed, ‘Raim!’ as the carriage lurched sideways, the force of Raim’s collision sending it sliding down the elephant’s side. Khareh’s giant turban threw him off balance and he toppled through the curtain door, breaking the ladder as he punched through it, rung by rung. Raim rolled away, winded by the fall. Pain stabbed at his sides. Then, fingers gripped his throat and lifted him clear off the ground. Raim’s eyes were clenched shut and he struggled against his attacker, kicking out his legs and trying to pry his fingers off his Adam’s apple. When the worst of the shock and the initial pain passed, he opened his eyes. He found himself staring at his own face, frowning with concentration.

Khareh struggled up to his feet. He brushed the dust off his clothing and waved aside the guards who had rushed to his aid. Raim’s eyes flickered between Khareh and the spirit form of himself. His brain was unable to comprehend, unable to work fast enough. It alternated between trying to free his throat from the suffocating grasp and trying to understand how he could be killing himself.

‘Raimanan,’ Khareh said, his voice hard. ‘Meet Raim.’

The spirit-Raim threw him to the ground. Raim lay in
a crumpled heap, his hands around his own throat, massaging it back to life. He his curiosityor in his hand ex coughed and spluttered, tasting his own blood. He spat it into the dirt. With every breath he drew in clumps of dust. Other smells filled his nostrils as he wrenched himself to his feet. Ashes. Smoke. Fire.

Khareh’s eyes narrowed. ‘The power I wield is greater than anyone could ever imagine! And I have you to thank for that, Raimanan. Why not turn round and take a look?’

‘I will do nothing you ask of me.’

‘Of course you will,’ he snarled. He strode over and grabbed Raim by the hair. He forced him round and jerked his head backward. ‘Because you must follow orders, mustn’t you, Raimanan? You couldn’t be a leader if you tried. You can’t even control your own spirit – because you made that promise to me permanent.’ He threw Raim to the ground. ‘You see?’

And Raim couldn’t help but see. Khareh had parked them right on the edge of a cliff. The cliff was a vertical rock face that speared straight down into the valley beneath. There was nothing to block the view of the turmoil below and, with Khareh’s foot firmly planted on the back of Raim’s neck, there was nowhere to look but down.

‘Your little girlfriend led us here, to these seven Chauk and their savage companions.’

There was swarming chaos below. It wasn’t hard to see
what had gone on. The Alashan and the group of seven Chauk were clashing with the Yun at the entrance of an enormous cave – a tunnel entrance, like the one Raim, Vlad and Wadi had exited from only a day before. They were surrounded. Further into the valley, Raim could see the scattered remains of the Alashan tents: flimsy, temporary wooden frames. Frames that were now consumed by fire. The cloth that had once wrapped around them rose, billowed and flapped in the smoke from the flames, looking for all the world like tortured birds, great wings trying to fly, to escape. But there was no way free.

It was the screaming that was the worst. Raim could barely make out the Chauk and the Alashan for all the smoke but gods, he could hear the screams. Dumas hadn’t picked warriors – he had picked the younger ones, the ones he thought would most appeal to Khareh’s sensitivity.

Every now and then, a glint of light would pierce his vision. It was the bright glint of a Yun sword. Letting Wadi go had all been part of one big trap. One that he, Raim, had led the Chauk directly into.

He scanned the scene, desperate for a glimpse of Wadi. Was she amongst all the destruction below?

Khareh leaned down and whispered in Raim’s ear, ‘I’m invincible. There’s only one anomaly in my plan, Raimanan. You. You and him.’ He pointed at Draikh. ‘You just don’t fit in.’ Khareh’s bodyguards rushed forward with their weapons and Raim cringed, but the Khan put out his
hand to stop them. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I want him to die with the blade that gave me this.’ He lifted his palm and Raim saw the scar his spirit-self had given Khareh the day he broke his vow. It curved cruelly across his lifeline, festering and red, and Raim had no doubt of the deed Khareh had committed in order for it to have attained that crimson colour.

The haunt-Raim drew his sword slowly. It was a spirit-blade, black as night and viciously curved. Raim had no weapon and behind him, the drop of the cliff.

His eyes met those of his haunt-self. ‘Why are you going to do this to me?’ he said to the haunt. ‘Why are you following his ord the other apprenticesanvoceders?’

Instead of replying, the haunt-Raim quickened his pace, his sword readied in front of him. Khareh’s other bodyguards fenced him in. But Raim was resolved not to go down without a fight. He steadied his feet on the ground and slowed his breathing. He tensed his muscles. How would Mhara get out of this? She would fight the haunt.
It’s not you
, he told himself.

The haunt-Raim was upon him now. Raim felt all his muscles tense in anticipation. But it was Draikh who intercepted the blow for Raim and the two spirits were locked in battle. ‘I’ll take the haunt,’ Draikh said inside Raim’s mind. ‘You just concentrate on the flesh and blood.’

The other bodyguards jumped into action and began attacking Raim. He ducked and dived out of the way, and it quickly became clear they weren’t Yun. Khareh had
grown cocky, and felt his haunt was enough protection. All the Yun were battling the Chauk down below. These men were regular soldiers. Raim could tell as soon as they drew their blades. Just ordinary steel.

Still, when Raim had nothing, ordinary steel came out on top. ‘Draikh!’ Raim shouted. He could only avoid for so long, and he could feel the drop yawn behind him. Terror filled his throat, made him stumble, made him slow. A sword blow slashed down the side of his arm, and his sleeve instantly turned red. He was going down.

‘On three, do you trust me?’ Draikh said into his mind.

On three? On three what?

‘Kill him!’ Khareh shrieked. ‘I want him to die!’

‘On three and over the cliff! Ready? Three!’

Raim abruptly stopped moving, sending his enemies reeling forward. He spun round, took a step forward and without allowing another moment for thought, leaped off the cliff and into the chaos below.

They were falling. Draikh grabbed the shoulder of Raim’s tunic and it caught under his chin. But they were still falling. Plummeting, in fact.

‘Draikh?’ Raim screamed.

Draikh readjusted his position and grabbed Raim under his arm. Their descent slowed but the ground – and the Yun army – loomed closer by the moment. ‘I’m not strong enough!’ he said.

‘You told me to trust you!’

‘Sorry!’ Draikh’s grip slackened.

Raim thought his stomach dropped out of his body.

He kicked out his legs, imagining he was going to hit the ground running. Who was he kidding? His leg bones would shatter on impact. But then he felt an enormous tug on his other shoulder. He looked up and saw the woman in the white dress again, stabilizing him in the air, but from that angle he could not see her face. ‘I will not let you die,’ her voice said, firmly.

The Yun on the ground below pointed up at him and shouted. One of the Yun sent a bird, a huge hawk with razor-sharp claws, soaring up to intercept them. Raim could hear the beating of its enormous wings in the air.

The Yun’s orders whistled up to the bird, and although Raim couldn’t understand the sounds he soon realized what they meame between the

The hawk dive-bombed into Raim’s back and beat his wings so that Raim was being pulled in two directions. He cried out in ound echoed against the tall cliffs and his own screams filled the air. He could feel the curved talons wrenching at his skin. The wind surrounded him, buffeting the four beings as they struggled in mid-air, cooling the blood that was spilling down his back in thick streams. He shivered violently and darkness crept at the edge of his eyes.

A screech, this time not from his own throat, sounded from above him and something crashed into the bird on his back. The talons released. The collision shook them all and Raim lurched from Draikh’s grasp. Raim’s head flipped back and he caught sight of Oyu battling with the hawk above him. But then the birds were drawing further away from him, and the ground neared.

The cries from the ground got louder, the action halting as faces turned to look up at him. Then one voice cried out, clearer than the rest.

‘RAIM!’ It was Wadi.

With a final surge of energy, Draikh shot down and slowed Raim’s descent enough for him to hit the ground and roll, protecting his bones from breaking on impact.

Wadi was running towards him, two swords in hand. She threw one at Raim’s feet, and he snatched it up right away and scrambled to his feet. Now that his feet were on the ground, the Yun wasted no more time. ‘I can’t fight them all, Wadi!’ Raim said.

‘The tunnel. If we get back to the tunnel, I can seal it!’

There was another familiar wail. It was Dumas. His face was caked with blood and the sword in his hand was trembling. ‘I’m so sorry. I should have believed you.’

‘Dumas, pull yourself together.’ They had a few moments to spare.
Khareh doesn’t want a massacre
, Raim reminded himself.
He wants them alive
.

He looked at the terrified Chauk. There were only three, apart from Dumas. The tunnel entrance wasn’t that
far. ‘Run!’ he screamed, and Wadi’s voice joined with his own. ‘Run to the tunnel!’

They fled, but some were faster than others. Raim saw one woman go down, a soldier at her back. Raim got his sword between them, battling back against the soldier, giving the woman time to get up again and run.

‘Wadi!’ he cried, as his sword clashed with the soldier’s again and again. ‘You have to do something.’

He disarmed the soldier, throwing all his energy into the blow, ignoring the pain shooting up and down his arm but didn’t wait to find out who was next.

He turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the tunnel entrance.

Wadi was already there. Her fingers were gripped white around her pendant, and she was screaming at it – at the spirits who guarded the tunnel. ‘Protect us!’ she screamed. ‘Protect Lazar!’

There was a rumble beneath their feet and a chunanguish. The s

He had followed the light until it had led him to another exit. Here there was no sense of the battle he had just left, but he didn’t know where ‘here’ was. He felt weak from blood loss, the wound in his arm still dripping, leaving a trail of red drops to follow if the Yun had broken through the rock wall.

Raim didn’t care. He tripped and fell onto the rocky ground, and didn’t have the energy to move.

His cheek felt glued to the floor. He reeked of blood and his back stung like it was being attacked by behrflies. High above him, an ear-piercing cry caught his attention and Raim turned his eye up towards the sky. Oyu’s silhouette was black against the grey and orange sky, and he circled the valley twice before swooping down towards Raim. He landed on Raim’s upturned elbow and hopped along his upper arm to his shoulder. Then he dropped a still-steaming chunk of hawk wing in front of Raim’s face.