Page 66 of The Tainted Khan (The Soulbound Saga #2)

J ai allowed himself a curse, as the last of the acolytes made their way down the trails. Jai breathed in, and out. He could almost taste each mote of mana as it passed between his lips.

He could do this. Hell, he’d already spent one night in the mountains, in the midst of a storm no less. But he’d had some mana to spare then, with Winter willing him her reserves no less, and it had been nothing compared to the cold of these heights.

Now, as night fell, and the moon but a sliver in the sky, Jai sat in frigid darkness, the howling of the winds his only companion. Even Erica had dared not disturb him, and Winter forced away from him, sealed from his pain as best he could.

Just another test. One that all those devotees on the mountaintop had to endure, before they were allowed the succour of the artery of mana within the mountain. Erica had managed it, it seemed. Those sitting along the trail had not.

It seemed unfair to Jai, for his competitors were sheltered in at least one direction, while he was most exposed of all. Had the Speaker singled him out to make things harder? Or make his triumph all the sweeter.

It mattered little – this was his lot. Still, the imbalance gave him some satisfaction as he watched one after the other stagger from their perches, down to the alcoves that offered a modicum of warmth and mana. Another night recovering, only to try again the next.

Jai could feel his body screaming at him. To do something, anything , but sit there and endure. Every instinct told him to jump up and down, clap his hands. He didn’t have the time to waste, though. His people needed him. All the Sithians needed him. He couldn’t spend day after day to pass this. Jai had to figure it out, and figure it out now. There was no second chance. Instead, he gulped down another enormous breath, sucking up the thin air and scattered mana in equal measure.

In truth, there was something to this challenge. He could track the passage of each mote of mana as it entered, feeling it dissolve into his body, trickling through his channels, those invisible pathways that scattered his body like blood vessels, sending impure mana in, and purified mana out to where it was needed.

These, he willed in faster, speeding them to his core before they dissolved, sucked away by a greedy body that would take weak, impure mana where it could get it, rather than wait for the more potent mana to return and do more good.

He sheltered his channels from that greed, sealing these invisible passageways in the labyrinth of his mind’s eye, saving every mote of mana that travelled down their paths. Soon, he had secured a safe passage, a highway from lungs to the chamber that housed his core.

Only then would he see the tiny globules of mana finally settle upon the crystalline shell of his core, filtering through to become that golden liquid light. In his current state, he had no need to seal his core, letting the mana seep out of his core to extremities the sooner it passed through.

But freezing as he was, Jai had to prioritise. Before long, he did not simply let the mana seep out, but rather sent it to his extremities. It was far more useful, and by now Jai had become adept at willing the mana to and fro, sometimes circulating when he had some to spare around his channels to warm every part equally.

So it was in this deep state of concentration that Jai found himself when a large figure ducked out of the darkness behind him, and took a seat at his side.

At first, Jai thought it Erica, there to give him comfort. Instead, he saw the enormous hands folded in a dark lap. Jai turned his frozen head slowly, only for the man to lean close, and whisper.

‘You are so like your father, Jai.’

Jai did not give him the satisfaction of an answer. Eko leaned forward, and placed a hand on Jai’s chest. Jai started, but the man held him firm, staring into his eyes.

Jai felt strange. As if the man was staring into his very soul. And now, as Eko nodded in approval, his eyes flashing with a brief pulse of golden light, Jai realised he was . Analysing his core. Measuring it.

The eyes approached, Eko leaning closer.

‘I know what you have come to ask of me. Our birds fly far, meet many. The traders of the steppe sing with rumours of an heir returned, hellbent on the destruction of an invading legion.’

He stopped. His tone changed, beseeching.

‘I urge you, do not waste the Caelite’s favour should you join our sect. Ask something that can be granted. We still wish to help you.’

Still Jai said nothing, although his eyes conveyed much. Eko nodded, as if Jai had passed yet another test.

‘You may speak.’

Jai lunged then, gripping the man by the head and croaking between frozen lips.

‘I ask it now, and I will ask it again. Protect the steppe from the Sabines.’

Eko gently pried Jai’s fingers from him, and leaned close.

‘The Caelite care only for the Caelite, and the flock,’ he said. ‘No favour is worth risking that.’

‘Who will the Sabines turn on next when we are done with?’ Jai uttered. ‘When the grasslands burn and my people lie dead? Your refusal is a risk in itself.’

Eko stared silently into the abyss beyond. His breath puffed steam, but if he had sighed, it was lost to the winds. He turned his head. Whispered, his words hot in Jai’s ear.

‘The war was a terrible thing. The Gryphon Guard were warriors trained. We did not follow that path, then. We walked the one of peace, not the one of war, of violence. Many were lost. Your father’s defeat was the end of it. A blessing, I thought.’

‘What path do you follow now?’ Jai demanded, careless to keep his voice a whisper in his anger.

Eko stiffened, but with the wind their raised whispers were but harshened speech anyway. He inclined his head.

‘Now we follow both,’ he said. ‘Our acolytes are trained in Talvir. Majicking. More.’

They sat in silence a little longer.

‘In honour of your father’s memory, I will help you down that second path. Fight your war, Jai. But remember, it is yours alone.’