Oathbreaker

Infobox Book |
name = Oathbreaker
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Oathbreaker Cover
author = Michelle Paver
illustrator =
cover artist = John Fordham
country = Great Britain
language = English
series = Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Orion
release_date = September 2nd 2008 (Though WHSmiths and Waterstones released it around a week earlier)
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 272 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 978-1842551745 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by = Outcast (paver)
followed_by = Ghost Hunter

"Oathbreaker" is the fifth book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness written by Michelle Paver and first and will be published in September 2008. There will be six titles in total.

The story will take place in the Deep Forest. [cite web
url= http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/books/review/interview-paver.html
accessdate= 2007-11-12
title= An Interview with Michelle Paver
work= Sunday Book Review
publisher= New York Times] In a fan letter published on www.torak.info, Paver hinted that the cover might be green because of the story's setting, and revealed that something terrible will happen at the beginning of the book to someone very close to Torak. Torak then sets out for revenge which takes him to the Deep Forest where the Clans are at war.

Paver announced in a New Year's message to her fans on www.torak.info, made public in late January 2008, that she completed Oathbreaker on 3rd January 2008. It is slated for an early-September 2008 release.

Plot Summary

Oathbreaker begins at sea near the Seal Islands that previously appeared in Book 2, "Spirit Walker", where Torak and Bale are riding skinboats and challenging one-another to a race. When the pair stop for food at a small beach, Bale reveals that he wishes to ask Renn to stay with him when Torak returns to the forest. At this, Torak loses his temper with Bale, going off on his own and leaving Bale to return and keep watch on the Sea Cliffs back at his camp. Torak camps further off on the bay.However, when Torak returns the next morning, he finds Bale's mutilated body at the foot of the cliffs, with bloodstains under the nails and his brains spattered across the rocks.He guesses his friend has been murdered, and feels guilty that he was not with Bale over a stupid disagreement, and if he had been there he could have helped. Renn arrives, along with her uncle Fin-Kedinn, who tells Torak to track at the top of the cliff for Bale's killer. Torak finds a handprint missing two fingers - making him certain the murderer is Thiazzi the Oak Mage, one of the two remaining Soul-Eaters. He then goes down to the sea for the funeral rite, in which Bale's body is towed out to sea in a skinboat by his father, and breaks clan law by speaking Bale's name before the five summer 'quarantine' is up after his friend's death, making it possible for Bale's soul to return and haunt him. He swears vengeance on Thiazzi for killing his friend and immediately sets off in pursuit to the forest.

Back at the Raven Clan camp, Saeunn, the mage, warns Fin-Kedinn that going with Torak, Wolf and Renn to find Thiazzi will mean his death. Fin-Kedinn does not listen, and all four of them head upriver in canoes on the Soul Eater's trail. While they are travelling, Torak spots and saves Renn from a trap, a line rigged to slit their throats over the water, and Fin-Kedinn destroys the line, saying that Thiazzi does not care who he kills. They carry on regardless, though Renn is terrified of Saeunn's predictions of her uncle's death.

On a hillside Torak misses another trap of falling logs. He loses Renn and Wolf in the scuffle. Fin-Kedinn is taken back to the Raven Clan camp with a man called Gaup of the Salmon Clan. Gaup arrived to meet Torak and his friends without a hand, speaking of how the Auroch Clan took him in and cut off his hand.

In the Deep Forest, which they enter shortly afterwards, they find that the Auroch and Forest Horse clans are having a disagreement. With the Auroch Clan is the Lynx Clan and accompanying the Forest Horses are the Bat Clan and they have all split apart from each other. They use 'curse sticks' like the one which has Gaup's hand tied to it to ward off strangers from their 'ranges'. Then, Torak and Renn disguise themselves and enter the Deep Forest. There is a Great Yew in a secret grove at the middle of the forest where the clans go when they are in trouble - like they are now, preparing for war. But the Forest Horse Mage who hides his face with a green horsetail mask has forbidden it. Torak and Renn suspect the Forest Horse Mage is in fact Thiazzi.

While in the Deep Forest, Torak and Renn encouter the Red Deer Clan, but they have no part in the fighting - their solution is to sit back and pray. Torak is frustrated that his bone kin (for his mother was one of the Red Deer Clan) will do nothing in the battle against Thiazzi. Torak manages to slip away from the Red Deer Clan without Renn: he wants to take revenge on Thiazzi alone. Arriving in the sacred grove, he confronts Thiazzi. Soon afterwards, there is a big clan meet where all the clans are united, and the Forest Horse Mage (aka Thiazzi) tries to tell the clans to unite against a common foe: the people of the Open Forest. He already has Torak captured, and claims they should kill him. The people protest and say the Auroch Mage ought to be consulted. Thiazzi reluctantly concedes.

Renn is very worried about Torak being sacrificed so she goes to the Auroch Mage to try and persuade him not to become a mere tool of the Soul-Eaters. While there, she discovers that Thiazzi is the Auroch Mage in disguise too, and is using the mask of the Forest Horse Mage and the solitary vigils of the Auroch Mage to his advantage. Renn is captured, and soon Torak realises his mistake and arrives to save her on one of the sacred mares of the forest.

He confronts Thiazzi, the strongest man in the forest, but throws down his weapons, breaking his oath to avenge Bale so that Thiazzi will let Renn go. She is trapped inside an oak tree, while smoke begins to curl inside and choke her. Torak is captured up a giant tree too, whilst Thiazzi climbs after him to kill him. Renn manages to break free and throws a burning brand up to Torak. With his great strength at his command, Thiazzi lashes out and Torak loses hold of the brand. But a spark catches in Thiazzi's clothes, and at the last minute as he claims he has the fire-opal, a huge eagle-owl, sent by Eostra, swoops down and using her sharp talons snatches the fire-opal from Thiazzi's grasp. Whilst trying to get rid of the fire, he loses his balance and falls to his death. Eostra's owl flies off towards the High Mountains with the fire-opal.

Right at the end of the book, Torak and Renn go to find Wolf. They find him happily living at a den with the black wolf, Darkfur, from the mountain pack in previous stories. Darkfur brings out three cubs, meaning Wolf has found a mate in Darkfur. The book ends with Torak explaining that it is the day that the cubs meet the rest of the pack; which is both Torak and Renn.

Note: The sixth and final book, "Ghost Hunter" is to be published in 2009. The story is said to feature Eostra the Eagle Owl Mage heavily and will be set in the High Mountains. This rumour is strengthened by various points in the second-to-last paragraph of this article.