The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch Page A

was going to straight to the Yun and all would be ruined. But he just needed time! Time to get to his grandfather. What was it his grandfather had said?
Raim, I have to talk to you about your bracelet
. His bracelet. This was what Loni had wanted to warn him about. Yasmin must’ve known that he couldn’t make another promise – that he was already bound.
But to what? To whom?
    He had to discover the promise behind the scar and try to keep it, or else seek the person who forced the promise on him and get them to forgive the burden. He had just become of Honour Age today. His promise to Khareh was to be his first and his last. None of this was supposed to happen. Maybe Loni knew how to solve it? He had to find out before Erdene told the Yun.
    His fingers still clutching her wrist, he brought his right hand up so that his new promise-knot to Khareh was in her line of sight. ‘You see this?’ he said, shaking the knot in front of her. She bit down on her lip. ‘You know what this means. It means I will be Chief Yun.’
    Understanding flashed through Erdene’s eyes. When the time came, Raim would have great influence over where Erdene was placed in Darhan. He could keep her close to her homeland. He could elevate her to a position of immense power. Her hesitation inspired him. Seeing that she understood, he pressed on. ‘Please, tell me you won’t say anything.’
    Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded.
    He tried his luck. ‘Promise me.’
    This time she did wrench away. ‘What right do you have to speak of promises?’ She spun round, her hair whipping his cheek.
    Bile rosng that he bar

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    Regular soldiers had dragged him from the party – none of the Yun would touch him and taint themselves by their interaction with an oathbreaker. They paraded him in front of the entire party, through the streets from the palace, and then threw him in a dark, damp cell beneath the Rentai. From hero to traitor, in one fell swoop.
    All for a promise he didn’t even know he had made.
    Someone had to understand. He just needed a moment to explain. He knew his pleas would fall on deaf ears to the soldiers, but if he could speak to Mhara . . . he could tell her the truth. Panic rose in his chest, causing him to choke down air, as his mind considered the alternatives. What if Mhara wouldn’t listen? What if they sent him into exile? He wasn’t an oathbreaker. The panic threatened to engulf him – he felt his vision close, his heart pounding in his chest, his palms slick with sweat.
He wasn’t an oathbreaker
. He clung to that thought like the reins of a runaway horse,desperate to bring the situation back under his control.
    Some of Yasmin’s meditation tricks came back to him as he tried to keep himself from panic. He needed to be sound of mind in case they came to question him. He closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling every muscle from his toes to his forehead. He focused on his breathing, trying to slow it down as much as possible. When he finished he felt better, calmer, ready to defend himself against the unjust accusations. His Absolute Vow knot to Khareh was still hidden in his tunic. He tied it in a loop and hung it around his neck. That would show them he still had oaths to keep.
    The bolt on his door opened with a clank and an imposing hooded figure entered the room, features obscured by shadow. The figure lowered her hood. It was Mhara.
    Her face and neck were drenched in sweat; Raim could see the outline of moisture on her tunic. He had been relieved to see her; now he was afraid. Her eyes were narrow; there was none of the kindred affection he was used to receiving the other apprenticese was I to the ground from the i from her. Now there was just anger – anger and something else, something unreadable.
    ‘Tell me it isn’t true, Raim.’ But she didn’t wait for him to reply. She strode across the room, dragged him to his feet by grabbing his sleeve and threw him out of the door. When they were in the hallway, she