The Stone Oath

A stone oath is a promise that the castle at Déynáir itself accepts. Ahra has only heard about them. His grandmother believed that it is the castle itself that stands behind them, and that it is choosy about whom it will listen to. That is why Ahra guesses afterwards that one of the two boys has a strength in him that the castle found worth listening to.

The first evening

Chris has got lost in the corridors and stumbled upon a secret passage. Ahra suggests that the two of them find all of the school’s secret passages before they leave the castle, and holds out his hand. Chris takes it.

At that moment the stones turn cold. The torches flicker, the air smells as if it came from the seabed, and Chris cannot pull his hand away. Nothing is holding it. It simply won’t go. A deep, old voice, coming from floor, walls and staircase all at once, speaks their names and asks whether they mean it. When both have answered yes, the voice says that the stone now carries their words.

The ring

Afterwards an invisible ring of cold sits around each of their wrists, almost like a damp stone bracelet. Ahra explains that the ring is supposed to warm up if a passage nobody has yet discovered is nearby. That way the ring shows the way.

It happens when Chris and Ahra begin searching in the evenings. The first time a passage is close, Chris’s ring turns warm, and Ahra feels the same. Afterwards Chris learns to smell the passages before the ring has time to say anything. Otherwise the ring is cold and stays where it is. The stone oath is only between Chris and Ahra, but Retia insists on joining in from the first evening, and the two of them take her along.

The price

The stone oath only costs something if it is broken. Then you pay with your Dherak. Ahra’s grandmother has known a man who failed his stone oath. For a whole year he had a taste of copper in his mouth, and he could not light a candle.

Later in the book the friends promise each other something new. It is not a stone oath, and the castle doesn’t hear it. They simply say it and mean it.