The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch

ground and drew himself up to his full height. Then he launched the rock at the wolf and ran down the hillside shouting as loud as he could. He leaped the last few feet as he reached the sheer rock face, and landed in front of the other boy.
    He had thought the rock and the shouting might be enough to drive the wolf away, but not this one. This wolf was hungry; the scent of blood was in his nostrils, and a hungry wolf was also desperate. The creature eyed Raim like a soldier assessing a new foe, but Raim was only small then – and the threat was dismissed. The wolf advanced.
    But Raim was prepared. He star own path to followor from side to sideCC fed the wolf in the eye as his fingers fumbled behind his back for the whittling knife he carried at his belt. Fear was beginning to scratch at him now, threatening to pull his focus from the job at hand. Actually being face to face with a wolf was differentfrom how he had imagined it. Being so close – the razor sharp points of its teeth, the terrible stench of its breath, the rabid look in its eye – made it seem all the more real and terrifying.
    The wolf was advancing on them both now. Raim saw him bunch his muscles, prepare to lunge . . .
    The other boy moved then. He scooped up the piece of meat and prepared to dash past the wolf.
    Its attention diverted, Raim took the split second to leap for the wolf, even as it sprang for the other boy. He plunged the knife into the wolf’s ribcage, trying his best to ignore the snarls and howls of pain from the creature. He gripped tightly onto the wolf’s fur, not letting go as it thrashed from side to side, trying to stay out of reach of the gnashing teeth.
    Then there was a thud, and then another, and the wolf slumped into his arms, two arrows buried into its side.
    For the first time throughout the whole ordeal, the two boys looked at each other. The other boy’s arm was shaking under the weight of the bow, but his aim had been true.
    The moments after that had been a blur. The elders arrived – attracted by the shouting and commotion – to find Raim drenched in wolf’s blood. That was when Raim found out the boy he saved was the son of a warlord. The warlord wouldn’t let Raim go back to being a lowly goatherder, but told him that someone of his bravery and skill should be training with the elite warriors ofDarhan. That’s how Raim had become a Yun apprentice.
    Khareh had explained later that he had been trying to trap the wolf, so he could tame it and keep it as a pet. But instead of a wolf, he had gained a friend – and from that moment on, the two boys had been as inseparable as two humps on a camel.
    Now, Raim was about to take his Yun test, and the only growl was from his stomach.
    He found himself being drawn deeper towards the market stalls. The smell warmed him more than a freshly stoked fire and made his mouth fill with saliva. After months living on a diet of goat’s milk, rice and the occasional piece of dried meat, the variety on Kharein’s streets overwhelmed him. It seemed like everyone in Darhan – and beyond – felt the same way. The food market was filled to the brim. The Festival had well and truly begun.
    But it wasn’t just any food that Raim was after. If anything, it was the tyrfish from the River Erudine that was drawing him deeper into the market. The Festival was the only time of the year that the fishermen – the Erudees – brought their catch to the capital city. They transported it strapped to fragrant planks of wood cut from the forests on the border of Mauz. By the time they reached Kharein, the fish was rich with flavour – once seared on the giant wood-heated grills on the city streets it became Raim’s favourite dish.
    He followed his nose to the stall and handed over a fewbronze coins for a portion. It came wrapped in thin white paper, juicy and delicious.
    Before he could take a bite, he felt a tug on the sleeve of his tunic. He looked down into the face of a young boy. ‘Excuse