CHAPTER 13 – The Oath

　　13 YEARS AGO

　　HUNJI

　　I had been left for dead.  Unceremoniously dumped in the middle of the Selselon Desert, far from the kingdom of Eririat. Visions of Rostam holding my sister Sonia as she collapsed and cried when I was sentenced, flitted through my barely conscious mind.

　　I no longer felt Ruda. He had been called back to the moon Goddess. I was so close to death I could smell my own rotting flesh.

　　Six months later and my body was still healing. I walked on shaky legs with the aid of canes. My arms were still wrapped and fighting the rot that had settled into the bones.

　　“You are doing well Kian,” Mahati said, a girl who was studying here at the sanctuary to become a healer. She was my physical healer. When I wasn’t with her, I was carted off to the great hall where books upon books lined the walls and then some. “Have you read anything interesting lately?” she asked me.

　　“No.” I gritted through my teeth, taking another painful step.