Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

The next few days were the same. Dyna would wake, spar or train with weapons until she could hardly move, then trudged back to camp before sundown. Tarn hadn’t spoken to her since the incident in the woods. Not that she’d seen much of him either. Whenever she reluctantly returned to his tent at night, he was never there. But she was getting stronger and her endurance was growing.

Dyna was determined to stay awake today.

Her boots crunched over gravel as she strode through the camp alone. No one guarded her anymore and the Raiders hardly stared. They thought she had accepted being trapped, but no matter how many times she failed, she wouldn’t stop trying to find a way out.

Following the smell of food, Dyna made her way to Sorren’s tent and was welcomed by warm laughter. Yavi and Geon were teasing him about something again.

“Aye, there she is!” Geon cheered when he saw her. “Look at her in all that leather armor. She looks like she could beat me senseless, and I might enjoy it.”

Dyna snorted and slid into the chair next to Yavi.

“Is Len going easier on you?” Yavi asked.

She gave her a look.

With a soft laugh, Yavi tucked one of the loose strands that had escaped Dyna’s braid behind her ear. “Well, you don’t look as bad today. I think you have less bruises.”

“Only because I learned how to duck,” she said.

And Elon had given her an ointment to speed up the healing. Perhaps in exchange for the royalrod tonic she had made for him. Now that she thought of it, what did Benton do with all the flowers they harvested?

“How are you feeling?” Dyna asked Yavi discreetly.

Happiness lit her face. “Every flutter is a joy.”

“Good.” She squeezed her hand.

Sorren grunted at Dyna in greeting and set a plate of food in front of her. The rich scent of wild rice with herbs, mushrooms, and carrots made her mouth water. One bite and the combined flavors melted on her tongue.

She gave the Minotaur a grateful smile. “It’s delicious, Sorren. Thank you.”

But he only gave her a stiff nod and lumbered away. He must be in a sour mood.

“So, Dyna, we’re waiting to hear what your next strategy is,” Yavi said excitedly at normal volume, prompting Sorren and Geon to glance at them. “We’re running out of time. We’ll be at the port in a couple days.”

The sudden attention left her startled. She hadn’t expected her to bring it up in front of the others.

“They know,” Yavi waved it away. “Geon swears not to interfere this time, or we will make him shovel horse dung every day for a month straight.”

Dyna’s eyes widened at her.

Yavi flushed. “They’re coming, too. We’re leaving together. All of us.”

Geon nodded.

“So what’s the plan, lass?” Sorren asked gruffly.

Dyna looked away from their waiting gazes. “I…well…”

She didn’t have a plan. Not yet. Her previous attempt had been disastrous because she hadn’t thought things through properly. And now she had to implement everyone else in a new plan.

A rough growl rolled in Sorren’s throat, and he continued chopping meat. “The way I see, the lass may not want to leave. They’re training her now and they don’t even guard her. Clearly Tarn means to give her a place among his inner circle. She even looks like a spy now.”

Dyna’s heart jolted. Was that his intention? To make her into one of his spies?

Yavi’s smile faded as they all glanced down at Dyna’s black leather armor. “Tarn has shown her favor,” she said in feeble defense. “That’s a good thing. She’s supposed to capture his heart and be his undoing.”

Dyna gaped at her. “What?”

“Oh, aye,” Sorren retorted. “The favor of his protection and the warmth of his bed is a grand thing.”

Heat rushed to Dyna’s face, and shock locked the breath in her lungs.

“Sorren!” Yavi gasped.

Geon’s eyes bulged. “Oi, that’s a bit much even for you, hairy lug.”

“No, let him speak.” Dyna stood, raising her chin. “Tell me exactly what I have done to deserve this scrutiny, Sorren? Much less your slight against my integrity? Since I have gotten here, I have been spelled, enslaved, drugged, beaten, terrorized, and rendered unconscious. That certainly sounds like a mighty grand thing.”

Silence filled the tent.

“Yet Tarn was the only one who gave me a place to sleep in a camp full of men that would have their way with me if he didn’t command otherwise. Because of it, you accuse me of consorting with the enemy. Would you prefer I be assaulted or left to freeze outside?” They lowered their gazes beneath her glare. Dyna exhaled a sharp breath. “I’m only trying to survive. Like all of you.”

She strode back out into the brisk cold.

“Wait.” Yavi hurried after her. “Dyna, we’re sorry. Sorren didn’t mean it. He’s been trapped in his tent for the last three years. I think with all my talk of you bringing us freedom, he’s merely impatient for it to happen.”

“Yavi, I’m not your savior,” she snapped. “I’m not here to make some divination come true. And I’m certainly not spending my nights attempting to make Tarn fall in love with me. I had no choice but to share his tent when yours was taken. Now I wonder if that was your plan in the first place.”

Yavi’s cheeks darkened, and she couldn’t quite meet her gaze.

Dyna let out an appalled scoff. From the moment she arrived, someone wanted something from her. It hurt to find her only friends here were no different.

“If you could merely steer him off his path, all of our lives could change.”

“And you expect me to do this with love?” Dyna demanded. “That will never happen, Yavi. Ever. If you want freedom, then come up with a plan to save yourselves instead of using me to do it.”

She stormed away before Yavi could say more.

Tents came down all around her, horses saddled and packed as the Raiders prepared for another trek through the night. She let her furious steps aimlessly move in no particular direction. They only wanted to be free. Dyna understood that. She simply didn’t think they’d use her to get it. An unpleasant thought reminded her she had attempted to use Dalton for her freedom, too.

When had desperation taken over her decency? There were others here as trapped as she was.

You can’t save everyone. Her vision brimmed with tears at the memory of Cassiel’s voice.

“I can damn well try,” Dyna whispered back.

At the sound of approaching footsteps, she glanced up to see Dalton coming. But he took one look at her and quickly went in the opposite direction. Scowling, Dyna chased after him.

“Dalton!” She jerked on his shoulder, forcing him to spin around. He nearly dropped his staff. “Might you try apologizing instead of avoiding me?”

Sighing heavily, he rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry, Dyna. I had to do it.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, if I want to keep my neck intact,” Dalton exasperated. “We all obey him, in whatever he commands.”

At the unease on his face, she reined in her anger, and decided not to punch him. “How did you do that, anyway? I have seen illusion spells change appearances, but you projected Von’s.”

“It wasn’t an illusion. I planted a vision of the Commander in your mind and amplified what you felt about him. You did the rest.”

He’d been in her head, sorting through every dark and secret thought she had. It left her feeling exposed and violated.

“Tarn asked you to show me Von?”

“He ordered me to show whoever you wanted to see dead.” Dalton’s brown eyes flickered to her uneasily. “Von wasn’t the first choice, but I couldn’t bring…it…out. After seeing how much it haunts your past, I couldn’t do that to you.”

What would she have done if she’d seen the Shadow there in the woods? A tremble sank in her chest.

Emotion swelled in her chest to be spared that. Her shaking hands reached out, and she hugged the startled mage. She didn’t know why she did it. Perhaps she merely needed the comfort of someone who knew her pain and was sorry for it. “Thank you.”

Dalton awkwardly patted her back. “Aye.”

“But don’t do that again.” She shoved him off with a glower. “Or I will be the one you fear.”

At that, he chuckled, eyeing her tight leathers. “I think that would be very unlikely. Not while you’re dressed like that.”

Rolling her eyes, they fell into step together. “How unusual that your father didn’t insist on Clayton casting the vision, since he deems him so powerful.”

He also wouldn’t have been as compassionate either.

Dalton smirked and bounced his staff against the ground, sparking the orange crystal to life. It glowed in the growing darkness as the sun set beyond the trees. “Visions are one thing I’m far more superior at than my brother.”

“It’s earth magic?”

“No, it’s cognition magic. All guilds can use it. The mind is fragile and easily corrupted with the right spells.”

Dyna wondered if it was like King Yoel’s compulsion or the Shadow’s trance. It drew a new vulnerability she didn’t like. She had some practice protecting her mind when she made a shield for the bond and made sure to build hers now.

“Spells,” she repeated. “Meaning other than visions?”

“Illusions, dreams, emotions, memory, and hallucinations fall under it.”

“Was this something you learned from your father?”

“I learned it on my own…” They reached an abandoned campfire and sat on a couple barrels left beside it. Dalton’s gaze had gone distant to some past memory. An old shadow of sadness surfaced in them. “I told you my mother was desolate.”

Dyna nodded. She hadn’t heard of that before.

“The Magos Empire can only function as long as the laws are kept,” he said. “Those who defy them… are either siphoned or made desolate. It’s when a sorceress is trapped within their mind with a spell we call halucinor. It’s a practice that came into law about twenty or so years ago.”

“God of Urn, that’s awful,” Dyna said. “Your father did that to your mother? Why?”

“He caught her using magic. It would have brought shame to House Slater. So once I finished nursing, he locked my mother’s mind away.” Dalton’s features tightened, and he rubbed his face. “I could be standing in front of her and she wouldn’t see me. I…hated her empty eyes. I had to see if she was still there somewhere. I wanted to meet her.”

“So you taught yourself cognition magic.”

“I studied everything I could on the subject. Eventually I managed to enter her mind through dream walking. It’s the easiest spell. It allowed me to see what my mother was seeing as she dreamt.”

Dream walking…

Dyna had experienced something similar. Sometimes during her nightmares, she seemed to stand outside of them as they happened.

“But at least my mother lived in a peaceful dreamland and she was happy. I even eventually learned how to guide her dreams to her past, so she could relive good memories. I visited her when I could, even if she didn’t know I was there.” Dalton shrugged and forced a smile on his face. “Well, I have not seen her in years. Father said he released the spell, so I assume our family is caring for her now.”

But Dyna could tell from his expression that deep down, he didn’t believe it. Benton wouldn’t care and House Slater had no reason to take in an abandoned sorceress. Neither of them said such things aloud.

“How old were you when you were captured?” Dyna asked.

“I was eleven summers old. My brother was fourteen. If we hadn’t gone to the Magai Tournament, I often wonder what would have come of our lives.”

“What’s that?”

“Once a year during the Summer Solstice, mages, fae, and elves from around the world come to Ledoga in the midwest for a tournament of magic. Clay was supposed to fight in the junior league,” Dalton said.

“If I had ever arrived, I would have won.”

They looked up at Clayton’s presence, his eyes glowing faint yellow in the twilight.

“I have no doubt you would have.” Benton stepped into the firelight. “We lived far different lives before all this. Yet here we are. Captured and bound to the scum we’re forced to call Master.”

“Not for long,” Dyna said quietly, sensing the mage was also planning something. “You want out. So do I.”

Benton smirked. “Good. Then we will sort something out and see what we can learn of your abilities.”

What did he mean by that?

The old mage spared Dalton a long glance, before heading for Sorren’s tent with Clayton.

She narrowed her eyes. “Your father sent you to befriend me, didn’t he? He wants to use me to escape.”

Dalton shushed her, looking around, but no one heard. The camp was in an upheaval as the Raiders worked to break it down. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Don’t pretend you didn’t do the same to extract information out of me.”

She made a face at being caught.

“It’s a good thing we want the same thing: to get out of here. You need to bring down the veil, which only we can do.”

Dyna glanced at the bangles. “And you want out of your bindings, which I am the only one with access to Tarn’s tent to get the keys.”

Dalton nodded. “To get what we both want, we have to form an alliance. Are you with us?”

Mistrust was her first instinct, but hopefulness radiated from his expression as he waited for her answer. Dalton only wanted to go home to his mother. Dyna understood that more than anything. And this would be the closest she would get to another chance.

She nodded once. “Whatever plan we come up with, it has to include the others, too.”

He grinned. “Agreed. Come on.”

Dyna followed after a hesitant pause. “What did your father mean about my abilities?”

Dalton’s steps crunched over gravel in the silence before he vaguely said. “You come from two bloodlines.”

Azeran and Helia.

“Are you telling me I’m part sun and lunar sorceress?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“It’s not a thing to be proud of. Any found with mixed bloodlines are immediately siphoned.”

She stared at him. “Why?”

“Because it goes against the Mage Code.”

“I don’t understand.”

Dalton increased his pace. “It’s not for women to know.”

Dyna kicked his calf. His leg gave in, and he barely caught himself on his staff. “Don’t speak down to me because I am a woman, Dal. I don’t care what your father believes in or whatever Magos believes in. Tell me.”

He glowered at her.

“If you want an alliance, then it starts with trust. Tell me the truth, or I will find my own way. But clearly you need me, so speak.” Dyna crossed her arms, and he groaned. “Why is it wrong? Does it truly dampen magic? If so, why would your father want to give me to your brother?”

Dalton’s glower deepened.

“The Mage Code is slavery,” she said. “You must see that in your predicament. I don’t think you’re accepting of how women are treated in the Magos Empire, much less of how your mother was treated.” They stood in the night, studying each other. She was asking a lot of him, but she had to know. “Why would your father want me for his son when I don’t have a lot of power?”

Huffing a groan, Dalton grabbed her arm and hauled her into their tent. “You want the truth?” he whispered sharply. “Dyna, you’re powerful because you are a woman. Especially because you have mixed blood from two guilds. Part moon. Part sun.”

In her shock, she chose not to answer.

Dalton leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. It was riddled with potions and herbs. She recognized Azeran’s journal with the stack of books, and the hindrance arrow among the clutter of trinkets. Beside the desk was a barrel of harvested royalrods.

His throat bobbed a few times before he made himself say, “Sorceresses… are more powerful than mages. They simply don’t know it.”

Dyna kept still, repeating his words in her head several times to be sure she heard correctly. “Marrying outside the guilds doesn’t dampen magic, does it?”

“It makes their magic more potent because they can influence more elements. Like a Transcendent.”

Her mouth fell open. That’s why she had green fire. Her Essence blast was powerful because it truly had the force of the sun. “So mages bind our magic through law or spell because they fear women being more powerful than them?”

He ducked his head. “I didn’t make the laws.”

“No, but you know what it means. Women are suffering for the pride of men. Mages are stealing their power, Dalton. They’re dying!”

“Not all mages siphon,” he said sheepishly. “Some give their wives or daughters’ jewelry to dampen their power. Some use spells like my father did. Your father did the same.”

“I beg your pardon?” she hissed.

Dalton blinked at her. “You…have a spell put in place to block your magic. I sensed it in Landcaster. Didn’t you know?”

“I learned of the barrier recently, but it wasn’t my father who placed it.” Even as Dyna said it, doubt clouded her mind. Was her father responsible?

“Regardless of who did it, the spell is weakening,” Dalton said. “Such things cannot remain in place forever without constant restoration. Over the years, the spell weakens under the pressure of your magic as you grow in strength. It builds and builds with no place to go.” His expression tightened, and the crystals overhead flickered. “When the barrier breaks, Dyna, all of your pent up Essence will explode. God of Urn forbid anyone be around you when that happens.”