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B oth Feng and Winter helped Jai to hobble past the partition, and take a seat in his throne. There was no need to hide his pain now. Because he was going to ask them to heal him.

To Jai’s surprise, Kiran was accompanied by six other men and women of varying ages. Most wore the colours of the Keldar and the Maues tribes, revealing that Teji had managed to take most of the soulbound of the Kidara with him in the split; only one bore the Kidaran colours. And Jai was surprised to see he recognised her. It was Meera the memory keeper.

‘Thank you for coming,’ Jai said.

They replied with nods and smiles, too nervous to speak. All but Meera and Kiran, who looked at his dishevelled appearance with raised brows.

‘Are you all soulbound to khiroi?’ Jai asked, too impatient to stand on ceremony. ‘No Alkhara?’

They replied in a jumble of yeses. Jai nodded slowly.

‘Are any of you ascended?’ Jai asked.

None replied. Most were terrified of him. This bloodied, dirtied prince, with his enormous dragon curled about his feet. Jai knew this was a long time coming. He had neglected the path for far too long. The second half of Winter’s gift had saved him more than once. And he’d squandered it with sleep, with thumbing through an ancient diary.

‘Who here knows the healing spell?’

Meera raised her hand, as well as Kiran.

‘Good,’ Jai said. ‘You first, then. My legs. Please.’

Kiran helped Meera hobble closer, and the old crone aimed her hand at his lower half. There was a brief flash, and Jai felt the light run through his legs, like cool water in his veins.

‘Better?’ Meera asked. ‘You should find yourself a woman, my khan. Give you something else to do than go gallivanting off on your own.’

So the word was already out. Of course, she would know. Her disciples would have found out for her.

‘Come,’ Jai said, calling the others, ignoring her jibe. ‘Please, do the same, if you have the mana to spare.’

The remainder came closer, and Meera helped them achieve the correct forms with the help of a few whacks with her cane.

More flashes, relieving his pain like splashes of ice. Most were dull and momentary, though Kiran’s was the brightest of all. All were too brief, too weak. None of these warriors could do more than a few spells, before they ran dry of mana. And what they used now might well have taken them all month to accumulate.

Yet it was enough. By the end of it, Jai shook out his leg. It was not quite good as new, but he could walk unaided.

‘Thank you, all,’ Jai said.

They all nodded, nervous, one even bowing in the fashion of the Phoenixians.

‘Tell me,’ Jai said, ‘how you came to be soulbound?’

Kiran was first to speak.

‘It is the old way. We bleed the khiro, bleed the acolyte. Wait until they are close to death. If the bond does not happen, we hope they survive. Many do not.’

Jai nodded slowly. It seemed almost all methods of soulbonding required a near-death experience of some kind.

‘Have any of you heard of Balbir?’ he said. ‘Her khiro’s name was Samara.’

Meera held up a hand.

‘I am now bound to Samara. When Balbir passed, we all knew of it. Samara almost died of sorrow where she stood. I bonded with her, for my own khiro had passed too; as is our custom.’

Jai stared at her, surprised.

‘Speak freely,’ he said. ‘Tell me all you know.’

She bowed her head.

‘Balbir was my acolyte once. There were but a few of us, among the Kidara. Soulbound, I mean. Apart from your father, of course.’

Jai’s eyes widened, and he leaned closer.

‘How did my father become soulbound?’ Jai asked.

Meera chuckled, and tapped her chin.

‘He bonded with his Alkhara when he rode out to blood himself. Battled Chak with rope and spear to bring him home to the tribe. The both of them almost bled out. Only they soulbonded instead. Not unlike that Zayn, or so my little birds tell me.’

Jai bristled at the comparison to a man he had grown to loathe, but knew the old woman was careless with her words when she wanted to be.

‘And Balbir?’ Jai asked. ‘Do you know why she came with us?’

‘It was Teji that arranged it. She could have run away, but she went because your father would have wanted her to. She said as much.’

Jai closed his eyes, and offered silent thanks to the woman that had been as close to a mother as he’d ever known. To know, at least, that she’d gone willingly was a debt created than he could ever pay. But at least now, he could pass on what she had taught him, as she’d asked him to.

He lifted his hand, and contorted the fingers. It was a complex move, the positions unnatural and hard to hold still, especially under the weight of Jai’s exhaustion.

‘This is the shade spell,’ Jai said. ‘Balbir asked me to teach it to our people. Share it freely, and make sure it is not forgotten.’

Meera scuttled closer, and eyed his hand. She peered so close, he could feel her whiskers upon his palm. She hummed and nodded, before beckoning the others forward.

‘I will remember,’ she assured him. ‘That’s my calling, after all.’

Jai sighed, relieved that it was done. A small piece of his debt paid.

Still, there was more to do. Even ascended as he was, he knew fewer spells than he would wish.

The shade spell was chief among them, and the most common, fire. Healing too. And some other tricks he had been taught. The glintlight, perhaps the most useful spell of all. The keep-fast charm, to tighten knots, and the reverse to loosen them. And lastly, the frost spell, one that used more mana than it was worth, certainly not enough to be used offensively, but handy on a hot day – or when Rufus wanted his booze chilled.

That was it. More than most would know, for spells were rare things, and kept secret by those that discovered them. Still, he’d missed out on much, for Rufus had known the full gamut of spells known to the Gryphon Guard, and more besides. But the man had been far more concerned with Jai’s progress along the path, to become ascended – to become powerful enough to actually use the spells properly than to focus on the individual spells. Their training had been cut short by Jai’s capture, however, and that had been the end of his learning.

He thought back to then. To his time with Rufus and Erica. They’d thought they had all the time in the world.

Yet another bit of foolishness on my part , he thought bitterly.

I won’t take it for granted again.

‘What other spells have the Sithia?’ Jai asked.

He voiced the spells he knew, and found the frost spell was new to all of them, though Meera knew most of the others. And, he learned, she had another to teach him.

‘The shield spell,’ she breathed. ‘And lightning, though my god, that’s a hungry one.’

She extended her hoary hands, and grunted as her arthritic fingers shifted into position. They waited patiently, until she was satisfied.

‘Look well, children,’ she chuckled. ‘It seems we will soon need it!’