Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

When Dyna had first left North Star, she knew she would see many new wondrous things. Some would be dangerous, some awe-inspiring, and others…frightening. So at Von’s warning not to scream when she met Sorren, Dyna immediately halted. They had left the campsite and were in a short clearing leading to a lonesome tent. It was bigger than the others in both width and height. The scent of baking bread drifted with the smoke billowing from the opening at the peak.

“Why would I scream?” she asked. If he expected her to be afraid, then why would she go in there?

Von saw her expression and his mouth twitched. “Sorren can be gruff, but there’s nothing to fear—unless you insult his cooking.”

Dyna didn’t know how to react to that. Was this his attempt at a jest?

They reached the tent, and he parted the flaps for her to enter. She couldn’t make herself move. Von placed a hand between her shoulder blades and led her inside. A displeased growl rumbled in the stuffy tent. Dyna stiffened and gaze climbed up…and up. She sucked a breath at the sight of a large Minotaur glaring down at them.

Sorren stood a little over eight feet tall with the face of a bull. One thick horn curled above his head, and where the other should have been, was a sawed stump. A golden ring hung from his snout and earrings decorated his long, floppy ears. Sandy fur covered his hulking body.

“I think she might spew,” Sorren said. Dyna stiffened at the coarse sound of his deep voice. He set down a stack of dirty dishes and scrutinized her with dark eyes.

“Then try to appear less menacing,” said the pretty woman beside him.

She looked small compared to the massive creature. Long auburn hair framed her face in soft waves, and she offered Dyna a kind smile. The skirts of her olive dress swished around her feet as she approached, every step jingling. She wore witch bangles, too.

“Oh, you poor thing.” The woman wrapped her in a hug. “You must be so frightened.”

Dyna’s first instinct was to shove her away, but the compassion in her gentle voice had her eyes watering again.

“Bring her closer to the fire. She looks cold.” Dyna glanced at the young man standing at another table in the middle of chopping vegetables. He wore a long apron with a white kerchief tied over his head. Geon, she remembered. He gave her a small wave.

The woman led her to sit in a chair near the fire that burned in a deep hole dug into the ground. Above the dancing flames hung a gigantic cauldron bubbling loudly with whatever was cooking inside. Long tables lined the left and right boundary of the tent with several chairs. The air held a potent scent of garlic. It drew her attention to the roof, where dried herbs, smoked meat, and pots and pans hung.

There was no other way out other than the way they came in.

“What did you do?” the woman asked Von in a clipped tone. Dyna tensed, bracing for the backlash, but she held his gaze with no fear.

“I didn’t hurt her,” Von replied, a weight in his words.

“But you hurt someone, didn’t you?”

He didn’t answer.

Dyna closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. Not in front of them.

The Minotaur growled again, and this time it sounded menacing. “When will this end, Von? How many more people must you kill for that filthy cur?”

“I will do my duty and you will do yours,” Von replied tersely. He glanced at Dyna and his features creased before they fell back to his usual stoic demeanor. He introduced the woman. “This is my life-servant, Yavi.”

He had a slave while also being one? Yavi smiled, though it was tight and didn’t reach her hazel eyes. A small sign she hated being called that.

“She will help you familiarize yourself with the camp and how we run things,” Von continued. “See her for whatever you need. I will come find you later.” To the others he said, “Have her eat something.”

Then he swiftly left, and they watched him go until he fell out of view.

“Here. Have something to drink, Dyna.” Yavi poured water into a wooden cup and passed it to her.

“You know my name,” she muttered.

“We have heard a lot about you and your Guardians. Geon told us how you helped him in Corron.”

Geon flushed when they locked eyes, and he fidgeted with his chopping knife. “Thank you for what you did. Master would have thrown me back on the streets if I couldn’t walk.”

They would merely toss him aside with a broken leg? Tarn’s cruelty shouldn’t surprise her after everything he’d done.

“And I-I’m sorry about what happened in Corron.” Geon winced. “And for Landcaster…”

That felt like so long ago. Back then, life seemed easier even with the burden of her past, for the journey hadn’t been tainted yet. Back then, she’d been naïve and optimistic and she still had…

Dyna wiped her cheeks. Everyone was looking at her.

The Minotaur snorted a heavy breath, and his thick brass bangles clanked against his hooves when he made a threatening step towards Geon. The young man flinched away.

Yavi rubbed her back. “Stop spooking him, Sorren. You’ve turned him into a skittish cat.”

“I’m not skittish,” Geon huffed as he continued to chop greens.

Sorren went to stir the contents inside the cauldron, a long tail lashing beneath his apron. He poured something into a bowl before placing it in front of her. “Eat, girl.”

It looked like mushrooms and other vegetables in a brown broth. It smelled good, but Dyna’s stomach churned in protest. She couldn’t consume anything right now.

Sorren crossed his hairy arms. “I prepared it without meat, as instructed.”

How would he know her eating habits? Then she recalled Von mentioning they had spied on them before.

Yavi saw her face and pushed the plate to him. “She doesn’t want it, Sorren.”

“Then I will make something else for you.” Geon hurried off to dig through the baskets of fruits and vegetables on the counter behind him.

“No, thank you…I’m not hungry.” Dyna’s voice came out like a rattle of dry leaves.

Yavi looked at her with sympathy. “This must all be too much for you. Come. Let’s take you somewhere quiet.”

For whatever reason, Dyna followed her outside and walked through the camp again. Most of the Raiders stole glances at them, others gave them a wide berth. Yavi walked on with her head held high, glaring at anyone who lingered too long. But an older Raider sitting by the fire openly stared at them with a lascivious leer, leaving a sickly oily feeling on Dyna’s skin.

Yavi’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure you remember what happened the last time someone crossed the Commander, Haran,” she told him icily, her voice projecting loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

Haran snorted. His dark, contemptuous eyes stayed on her as they walked away. To Dyna’s surprise, the other Raiders no longer looked at them, almost as if they were afraid of Yavi…or the warning. For a slave, she was unusually outspoken.

“You’re safe with me.” Yavi winked. “Von won’t let anything bad happen to us.”

Why did she think that? She must have his favor since her warning had been enough to keep the men at bay.

With every step Yavi took, her bangles danced. They seemed to be engraved with different symbols. “A gift from Master Tarn,” Yavi said when she noticed her studying them.

Dyna heard the bitterness in that statement. They arrived at another tent a bit away from the others. When Yavi opened the tent flap for Dyna to go in, she recognized it as the same one she had woken in that morning. “This is our tent. I know it’s not much. I used to…share it with someone else, but it’s your home now, too.”

Everything in Dyna went cold. “This isn’t my home.”

A rueful smile winced on Yavi’s face. “You’re right, it’s not.” She brought her to sit on a cot, then sat in the opposite one. “I know how you feel. It took me a long time to accept that I was a slave.”

“I’m not a slave,” Dyna said stiffly, scowling at the bangles she wore. “And these don’t make me one. I’m going to get out of here. My friends are looking for me and I know they will find me.”

Yavi sighed and there was only sad pity on her face. “Benton has veiled this camp. Even if your Guardians were to arrive, it would be futile. They cannot smell you, hear you, let alone touch you. Not even if you stood right in front of them. Why do you think they haven’t caught Tarn? No one can find us.”

Something inside of her quivered as the floor threatened to tilt. Dyna shook her head. She wouldn’t accept that. She couldn’t. There had to be a way out, because she refused to accept this new reality.

Yavi looked at the flame flickering in the lantern. “I was stolen away from my family in the middle of the night. My parents don’t know what happened to me or where I am. They probably think I’m dead.”

Dyna felt guilty for snapping at her. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I have Von.” Seeming to catch herself, Yavi quickly added, “I mean the Commander is a kind master. He treats me well.”

It was an odd thing to hear. Slaves tended to be abused, but by Yavi’s clothing and lack of bruises, she wasn’t. She spoke freely with him as well, without fear of retribution. It didn’t make sense.

“He murdered my cousin,” Dyna said. “Kind isn’t how I would describe him.”

Yavi’s eyebrows curled, and she laid a gentle hand over hers. “I’m sorry that happened.”

Dyna tried to focus on the woven patterns in the bamboo mat, so she wouldn’t break down again. The last thing she said to Zev was that she wouldn’t forgive him if he died. She was so furious at him for wanting to take his life. She wanted to force him to live, and some raw, desperate part of her thought guilt might work. But he had passed away with her last angry words. She wished with all her might that she could take them back.

“He didn’t want to do it.” Yavi came to sit by her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Don’t let his demeanor fool you. Von doesn’t like to kill, but he does as his Master orders.”

“And you think that would make me forgive him?” Dyna stood. “You think that is a valid excuse?”

Yavi lowered her gaze. “In this place, disobedience means death. Von, along with a fourth of the men, are owned by Tarn. He makes a sport of collecting people.” She shook her ankle, causing the bangles to clink. “And he likes to remind us of that. These are enchanted to keep me no more than a mile from the Crystal Core in his tent. The mages wear them too, so they can’t attack him with their magic. Sorren’s bangles confine him to his kitchen.”

The Minotaur was a prisoner more than a slave. She made a note of that detail. It might be useful.

“Why?” Dyna asked.

“Because if he was ever freed, Sorren would tear through everyone in this camp to kill Tarn.”

Definitely useful information, then. “Why did Tarn want a Minotaur?”

“That had nothing to do with it. Tarn simply needed someone to feed his men. He offered to employ him into his service, but Sorren had his own establishment and a family, so he refused. Tarn never accepts refusals.”

Dyna shook her head at the incredulity of such a wicked man. “Why did he collect you?”

Yavi motioned to the wooden box sitting on the floor by her cot. “I’m a linguist. I speak, read and write several languages, including ancient Urnian.”

Dyna gasped softly. “You know the old tongue?”

“I’m a descendant of the acolytes that once served in the temples of the God of Urn.” Her brow furrowed as emotion filled her eyes. “My father taught me how to read the Sacred Scrolls.”

Which was astonishing. The scrolls and the old tongue were a lost part of Urn’s history, for so many were destroyed a thousand years ago.

“But why would Tarn care about the scrolls?” Dyna asked. “He doesn’t strike me as a virtuous man.”

Yavi smirked. “Believe me, he is far from it. The only time Tarn calls on the God of Urn is to claim a life-debt. Not even I know exactly what he wants with the Sacred Scrolls. I only know that he’s searching for a specific one with information on the…”

She trailed off, but Dyna knew what she meant to say. “The Unending.”

“He told you?”

“Not everything.”

He was too smart for that, so why reveal his goal for immortality to her? He said the Tree of the Unending was on Mount Ida, and her map had the location. Then what was the purpose of searching for the Scroll of the Unending? Becoming immortal couldn’t be as easy as finding the hidden treasure island.

Nothing ever was.

“What are you thinking?” Yavi asked, watching her pace in the tent with wide eyes.

Dyna hesitated to answer. This woman might have been sent to watch her, but the harsh way she spoke of Tarn dwindled that suspicion, or maybe Dyna wanted to believe that because she needed an ally in this place.

“I have a sense that the immortality isn’t the only thing he wants, or as simple as we think it is,” she said. “It must be on Mount Ida, but…it’s not enough.” She halted when she came to a realization. Tarn told her one truth to distract her from the ones he omitted. “He needs something else. Something hidden in the scrolls.”

The color drained from Yavi’s complexion and she pressed on her stomach, looking like she might spew. “Of course, he does. The Sacred Scrolls hold secrets of the very fabric from which our world was created, the essence of life itself. Whatever he wants, you can’t let him have it,” she said, pleading earnestly. “Can you imagine what he would do with immortality in his hands?”

Some tension eased out of Dyna’s shoulders. “You don’t want that?”

“No one wants that. Not even Von. We’re all bound to that man’s whim, but not you.” Yavi took her hands, her mouth trembling with a watery smile. “I have waited a long time for you, Dyna. Since the moment we learned you were coming, we have been waiting.”

She stared at the woman, taken aback by the look on her face. It was so full of hope and wonder, as if she was some sort of miracle. “What do you mean?”

“Because you, dear Maiden, will be Tarn’s undoing.”