Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Von looked away as Novo slammed his fist into Clayton’s face. The young mage only gave them a bloody grin and spat at the ground.

“What did you do to Dyna?” Von demanded.

“Her mind is expunged. Wiped clean, so she may never reveal the map to your master.” For someone beaten up and tied to a tree, the mage had the gall to be smug.

Raiders were gathered around to bear witness. Tarn stood aside as the spy beat the mage further.

“Enough.” Von grabbed Novo’s wrist. He was only a lad.

Clayton laughed and wiped the blood from his torn lip on his sleeve. “It’s useless to have me beaten, Tarn.” He boldly met the master’s stare. “Release us, and I will undo the spell, then cast another to track her for you. But I have served you far enough. I’m trading the Maiden for our freedom.”

When Dyna dropped out of the sky, Von had felt his body go cold. Her prince fell with her into the ravine, and there was no sight of them again. He feared they didn’t survive. But they found no bodies when they went searching.

“Is she alive?” Von asked. He could already feel the weight of her death on his shoulders. He couldn’t shake that it was his fault again for defying his master and helping her escape.

Clayton sneered. “Not for long. Not without me.”

Von shook his head. The mage wouldn’t admit to it if she was dead. Not knowing what happened to her is the only thing keeping him alive right now.

This never should have happened. Why did he leave her out of his sight? He gave his word that Dyna would be safe.

“You need me,” Clayton retorted at Tarn. “If you want the Maiden sound and found, you will set us free. I’ll bow to you no more.”

Tarn said nothing. By his lack of response and expression, the verdict was clear.

“You and your father have broken your servant’s oath and defied the Master’s order, Clayton.” Von rubbed his face. “Unfortunately, you won’t be the only one to pay for this.”

The Raider’s parted for Elon and Len, who dragged Dalton forward. At the sight of his young brother beaten bloody, Clayton fought against his restraints. “Leave him. He did nothing!”

Geon and Yavi rushed forward but Olsson held them back. The lad looked at Von, silently begging for his friend. His stomach sank. Everyone knew their fates had already been decided.

“How did Dyna get the arrow?” Tarn asked him.

Dalton lowered his head. “I-I don’t know, Master. It was left on my father’s desk. It seemed such an inconsequential trinket, I didn’t know she would…” His mouth quivered, and he looked at his shocked brother. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop talking,” Clayton growled at him. “Don’t tell them anything.”

“How did the first veil come down?” Tarn asked next.

Dalton pressed his mouth closed. Novo whipped out a knife at his brother’s neck and that’s all it took for him to reveal it all.

“Kneel,” Tarn commanded. Elon pressed on Dalton’s shoulder, forcing him to bend to his knees.

“My father only wanted to regain our freedom,” Dalton mumbled, his hands shaking on the ground. “Why do I have to die for that?”

The question broke something in Von. If only he hadn’t stepped out of the mage’s tent.

All Benton wanted was to be free. What he had done was to serve that purpose, but why had the old mage thought there wouldn’t be repercussions for his defiance? He served Tarn for five years. In that time, he learned the extent their Master was capable of when angry. Benton thought his magic made him indispensable. He had been wrong. And his sons would pay for it.

“Don’t do this,” Clayton begged. His hands sparked with magic, but the bindings zapped him. “Leave him alone!”

Tarn’s gaze remained on Clayton. A hushed silence fell, everyone surely feeling the same fear at the chill stirring in the air.

“I can undo the spell,” the mage repeated, now earnest. “You only need to release us!”

At his silence, Clayton tried another spell, and the black clover bracelet on Tarn’s wrist immediately absorbed it. He had found it that morning when stopping by the hollowed out tree.

The mage screamed as his Essence was stolen, simultaneously as the witch bracelets punished him with electrical shocks for using attack magic. Clayton was powerless to fight back. When he realized he never had the advantage, his face filled with fear. “Master, please spare my brother. Dal wasn’t part of our plans. It was only a moment of madness. I can help you find the Maiden.”

“Is she alive?” Von pressed.

“I don’t know.” The uncertainty in Clayton’s voice left no room for hope.

Tarn’s sword rang as he drew it free.

“Wait! Wait! I know where Mt. Ida is!”

Von and everyone else stilled at the news. His heart picked up speed because he could tell the mage wasn’t lying. In his last desperate attempt to save them, Clayton was willing to tell Tarn whatever he wished to know.

“I saw it when I was in her mind,” he babbled. “It’s in…” He trailed off, glancing at everyone intently listening.

Von motioned at them to step back at a distance where they couldn’t hear. Tarn crouched in front of the young mage and cocked his head, indicating he should continue.

Clayton’s throat bobbed. “It’s within the Leviathan Ocean. About twelve hundred knots west off the coast…it’s yonder what sailors call the Heartless Boneyard.”

Of course, it was there. That place was a death trap for ships, riddled with the bones of human and sea beast alike. No one has ever crossed it alive. No wonder the island went undiscovered.

Tarn stood.

Clayton smiled up at him shakily. “Forgive me, Master. I should never have defied you. It won’t happen again.”

“No,” Tarn said. “It won’t.”

The sword swept through the air. Blood splattered across the frozen dirt at Von’s feet. Clayton’s body jerked, his eyes stretching wide. Red streamed from the slit in his throat.

“Dal—” He reached out for his younger brother, a wet gurgle leaving him. His body swayed then he slumped against the tree, his blank eyes staring at nothing.

Dalton’s mouth gaped in a silent cry. His trembling fingers hovered over Clayton’s face, his expression forever fixed in shock. “Dyna…she was under his halucinor spell. Her life was tied to him.” He whimpered, pure anguish overtaking him. “Now she’s surely dead, too.”

Tarn’s expression froze a moment before his mask fell back in place. If he ever cared about Dyna, he had erased it with Witch’s Brew. “Then there is no one left to stop me.”

Von closed his eyes.

He failed her.

Now the divination was lost, and next the world.

Dalton wrapped his arms around himself, rocking back and forth. Orange sparked around his body. The air crackled with static. Von stepped back, the hair rising on his back. The lad let out a broken cry, and the wail reverberated through the camp.

The next moments were a blur.

Dalton’s cry turned into a scream of rage. Orange light shot out of him and blasted away Von and anyone else standing near him. His slave braces immediately attacked him with electricity. His body convulsed violently as his eyes glowed orange with pure hatred at the man that killed his brother.

“Don’t do it, boy!” Von shouted at him, but he knew Dalton had already made his choice.

His silhouette blazed with vivid orange. The bangles punished him again, and he dropped to his knees, but he bore the pain. A blast of power threw Von back. Dalton yanked a slaver’s key from his robes and unlocked his slave bangles.

His magic was free.

The Raiders charged for him, taking out their weapons. Dalton clenched his fists and whipped up his arms. Jagged mounds of rock burst from the ground and hurtled towards them, crushing in faces and chests. Spearing his fingers into the dirt, the ground let out a horrendous groan then began to rumble violently. A deep crevice split the ground and fractured through the camp like a snake. Several Raiders fell in screaming, swallowed by the earth before they could escape.

Von slid on a slant of loose rock aiming to take him next. He threw himself and caught the edge of the crevice. His fingers clawed desperately for flat land, his feet searching for purchase on the rock face. Elon and Olsson seized his arms and hauled Von back up to safety. There wasn’t time to thank them.

They ran south with the fleeing Raiders. The direction was taking Von away from Tarn. It went against his duty, but instinct and fear for Yavi put her first.

Tents collapsed all around them, as wood support beams snapped in half. A stampede of their horses crushed any that had fallen in the mayhem. Confused and frightened Raiders trampled and shoved each other to get away. A fire roared as it burned through an overturned broken barrel of whiskey outside of the Sorren’s tent. The confined Minotaur tried to fight back the flames with a blanket, but he was quickly losing. Von motioned for Olsson and Elon to help him as he sprinted past.

Von braced himself to stay erect as he ran through the quake. He found Yavi and Geon outside of her tent, supporting each other. Relief rocked through Von’s heart as he sprinted for her. She cried out at the sight of him. Geon let her go, and she threw herself at Von, sobbing against his chest. He could breathe now. It was enough to know she was safe. The support beam of Yavi’s tent cracked loudly. It was going to come down next.

“Both of you, flee this place!”

“What do you mean?” she cried. “You’re coming with us, are you not?”

Von cupped her cheek.  “I must go back.”

“Dalton doesn’t know what he is doing,” Geon told him. “Please.”

Von couldn’t answer him. “Go. I leave her to you.”

“No! You don’t need to go back for him!” Yavi clung to his coat. “Von, please stay with me!”

He kissed her passionately, memorizing her lips. When he felt Yavi’s arms relax around him, he broke out of her hold. “I’m sorry.”

He sprinted back to his Master. He must uphold his sworn duty to Tarn and die with him if that was the debt the God of Urn demanded.

“Von!” Yavi’s cry followed him.

He returned to the clearing to see Dalton had collapsed the crevice into a profound hole. It surrounded the tree where Tarn stood among its roots, holding onto the trunk. That saved him only because Dalton couldn’t bring himself to harm the ancient tree. It held strong, its thick deep roots emerging from the rock face. The glowing mage continued screaming through his brandish of power while he commanded the roots next. They snaked up, alive and quick as tentacles for Tarn. He leapt out of the way for a branch, dodging roots whipping through the air.

Von sprinted up behind the boy, snatching a dagger from the sheath at his hip. He beat the hilt against Dalton’s head. He fell limp, falling face first on the ground. The quaking ceased, and all was still. After a few breaths of quiet, Tarn climbed down the tree. He used the extending roots to cross the crevice onto solid ground.

His unfeeling eyes fixed on Dalton.

There was no saving the boy. Tarn would kill him next as brutally as his brother, if not worse. Von had enough of seeing others cut down. He was tired of the blood and the death.

Dalton had been bound to this life since he was child, and it wasn’t fair. It never was. He hadn’t gone out of his way to offer any kindness to the lad, but now that it was too late, Von wished he had taken the time to do so. Maybe things might have turned out differently.

He crouched down beside Dalton and made the mage sit to look at him. Tears welled in his faintly glowing eyes.

“Are you going to kill me now?” Dalton asked, his voice so sad and tired.

Von rested his hands on the lad’s shoulders. “I’m sorry for the childhood we took from you, and for the ill done against your family,” he said softly. “That’s finished. I liberate you of your servitude, Dalton Slater of the Earth Guild. You will be a slave no more.”

The young mage closed his eyes, and for the first time since they met, he gave Von a genuine smile. “I…I will see my mother again?”

His vision blurred.

“Yes…” Von pulled the lad into his arms, hugging his quivering form. After a pause, Dalton embraced him in return. A shaky breath left the lad as he sank into him and clutched his jacket in his trembling fists.

“You’re free,” Von whispered, and he snapped Dalton’s neck.

The crunch of breaking bone rang through his ears. It was quick and painless. Gone in an instant. Von held the limp lad to his chest as he felt the murder damn him further. It was the first and last kindness he could offer.

Over his shoulder, Tarn fixed his cold gaze on him next.

This was it for him, too.

He accepted his fate.

His actions brought these deaths and nearly took the life of his Master. He couldn’t have missed that Von had left him to find Yavi first. Death was his befitting punishment. But Tarn didn’t take his life. He didn’t speak. Didn’t condemn him.

Tarn simply strode away.

But it wasn’t a relief. It merely meant the guillotine hovered above his neck, and he was left with the unease of never knowing when it would fall.

An icy cold breeze pushed against Von as he watched Tarn lead the procession of Raiders into the dense woods. Sorren trailed at the end of the line with a wagon carrying what remained of their camp gear. Elon walked with them, keeping a hand on the hold of his sword should the Minotaur act out of place.

“Where is Geon and Yavi?” Von asked when they passed him.

“They are paying their respects.” Sorren eyed Von down his long snout and nodded behind him. “As should you.”

He spotted their shadows lingering near the far edge of the camp by three graves under Dalton’s tree. It was the only ones Von had managed to dig because he couldn’t leave them to the crows. The other Raiders who perished, and most of the bodies left by the skirmish, had been claimed by the earth.

Geon sat before the tree with his head bowed. Yavi stood behind him, her arms wrapped around herself. He didn’t know how to face them, but he couldn’t leave before he at least said he was sorry.

Von walked around the massive chasm to reach them. “Geon—”

The lad jerked to his feet and walked away from him. Von sighed as he watched him go.

“Are we to simply leave them here?” Yavi asked, not looking at him.

“There is nothing more we can do for them.”

“This isn’t right. I…” Yavi pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, her cheeks wet with tears. “I was so sure that Dyna would be the end of Tarn. I believed it. She was…”

Her hope for freedom.

“It was unfair of me to put so much on her. But now she is gone, and so are they. I’m so sick of seeing lives cut short, or losing the only family we have, for that man.” Yavi finally looked at him, her eyes sharp and angry. Accusing. “None of us had a chance to say goodbye to Dal.”

Before you broke him. She didn’t need to say it but Von heard it all the same.

It had been the quickest way to end his life without unnecessary suffering. He wished he could have done more, but all he could offer was to spare him a horrid death. “You can say it now.”

“He is no longer here to hear it.”

Von reached for her, but Yavi jerked her arm out of his grasp. He lowered his gaze to her clenched fists. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

The cold wind blew against them, rattling the dry leaves still clinging to the trees. It swept through her auburn hair and it clung to her wet lashes. Yavi’s gaze drew inward as her expression went numb.

“You will be headed to the port with the others, I have a task in Beryl Coast,” he said softly. “I don’t know how long I will be gone. A fortnight at the very least, if not longer. Will you not allow me to embrace you before I go?”

Their mission had been delayed but Tarn made it clear they were to depart immediately. This was the last shred of a second they had left.

When Yavi didn’t leave, Von took a step forward hesitantly and gathered her in his arms. She was stiff as a rod.

“Why did you go to him?” Yavi asked faintly, no more fight in her words. As if it was a question she had asked herself over and over, and this was merely an echo. “Yet again, you chose the Master over your life with me. I see now … you will never choose me.”

She stepped out of his arms and followed the procession of Raiders.

Von had once asked himself why the God of Urn had made him a slave, but he had always known the answer. He deserved it.

He failed and failed and continuously failed. His whole life was constructed of failures, and he knew nothing else. There was no end to it. Everything he ever wanted was slipping through his fingers. He felt it as he watched Yavi walk away from him once again.

Crows cawed loudly as they picked at the bloated flesh of the bodies left behind. Both Raider and knight. He memorized their faces along with all the others that had died in the quake. Their spirits were there in the campgrounds with him, their cries haunting the wind. The sound joined the screams and roars of trolls in his mind.

Remorse strangled him as tight as a noose. So many lives were lost because of him.

Von knelt down by ashes of the old campfire surrounded by charred stone. He gathered a handful of twigs and leaves and tossed them in. From his pocket, he took out flint and steel and beat them together until a spark caught. He blew on the smoking leaves gently, coaxing a small flame to grow. It was probably pointless, but it was all Von could offer to the lives lost here. One last vigil to guide them through the Gates.

Standing, he looked upon the graves of House Slater one last time. “May you leave the Mortal Gate with no burden to bind you,” he murmured. “May you cross Death’s Gate with all faults forgiven. May you pass through the Time Gate with the wisdom of the age. May you pass through the expanse of the Spatial Gate’s wonder. May you pass through Life’s Gate as you did at the beginning. May you arrive at Heaven’s Gate at the end. May the God of Urn receive your souls.”

As Von walked away, he felt their judgment fall on him, and the weight of it grew heavier and heavier with each step.