Shattered Ties (The Guadel Chronicles Book 4)

By Dean Murray

Brittle Bonds (The Guadel Chronicles Volume 3) saw Va'del and Jain driven from their mountain home by traitors among the People. The pair's time in the lowlands, surrounded by hostile priests of a foreign religion, tested them in ways they never anticipated, but they never forgot their friends and family who were fighting and possibly even dying on the frozen slopes of the White Spike Mountains.

Shattered Ties picks up the story of that fight and follows the desperate efforts of Javin, On'li, Va'ma and the rest as they try to survive against overwhelming odds. The Guadel who were so opposed to Va'del joining their ranks are about to find out that he's the only person with any chance of saving them from the enemy that they created.

Publisher's Note: Readers new to The Guadel Chronicles should begin with Frozen Prospects (currently free).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Firshan Publishing, Inc
• Release date: Jun 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310753367

Dean Murray

Dean started reading seriously in the second grade due to a competition and has spent most of the subsequent three decades lost in other people's worlds. After reading several local libraries more or less dry of sci-fi and fantasy, he started spending more time wandering around worlds of his own creation to avoid the boredom of the 'real' world.Things worsened, or improved depending on your point of view, when he first started experimenting with writing while finishing up his accounting degree. These days Dean has a wonderful wife and daughter to keep him rather more grounded, but the idea of bringing others along with him as he meets interesting new people in universes nobody else has ever seen tends to drag him back to his computer on a fairly regular basis.

Book preview

Shattered Ties

by Dean Murray

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 by Dean Murray

Also by Dean Murray:

The Reflections Series

Broken (free)

Torn (free if you sign up for Dean's Mailing List)

Splintered

Intrusion

Trapped

Forsaken

Riven

The Greater Darkness (Writing as Eldon Murphy)

A Darkness Mirrored (Writing as Eldon Murphy)

The Dark Reflections Series

Bound

Hunted

The Guadel Chronicles

Frozen Prospects (free)

Thawed Fortunes (free if you sign up for Dean's Mailing List)

Brittle Bonds

Shattered Ties

Table of Contents

The Story So Far

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Other Books by Dean Murray

The Story So Far

An unexpected visit to the village of Bitter Rocks by a Guadel family results in the rescue of an orphan named Va'del from a life of abuse. Although Va'del is sorry to leave behind his best friend, Pa'chi, and Sara, the healer who did what she could to protect him from the rest of the villagers, Va'del is excited at the prospect of finding somewhere he'll fit in. Va'del begins to flourish under the care of I'rone, Betreec and Jasmin, and helps I'rone defeat a group of bestial bag'ligs that otherwise might have preyed upon one of the nearby villages.

Tragedy strikes when the quartet is ambushed by bandits and only Va'del survives the attack. Va'del is taken to the Capital to relate the story of how his sponsors were killed, and although he is found blameless for the deaths of I'rone and the others, is once again subject to bullying.

The worst of Va'del's tormentors is another boy named Be'ter. Va'del and Be'ter exchange blows and the other students close ranks against the newcomer.

The only hope for Va'del is the slim chance that he may still be allowed to become a Guadel, and the time he spends with a girl his age named Jain.

On'li and Javin, the two Guadel who originally sponsored I'rone, manage to get Va'del into candidate classes where he can continue to improve his weapon skills despite severe resistance from the rest of the Guadel Council.

Attacks by roving bandits like the ones who killed I'rone and his family continue to increase in strength and eventually become such a threat to the outlying villages that guardsmen, Guadel, candidates and Daughters are all sent from the Capital to the affected areas in an attempt to stem the losses.

Va'del and Jain are among those sent out to help, and are assigned into the care and supervision of Guadel Cindi and Guadel Oh'scir who are obviously determined to prove that Va'del is unfit to progress in his training. An altercation between Va'del and several village guardsmen seems to provide Cindi with the evidence she needs at the same time that it delays their travel, separating them from the rest of the caravan.

Va'del, Jain, Cindi and Oh'scir are ambushed by another group of bandits while trying to catch back up to the caravan. The avalanche that the bandits trigger kills Oh'scir, buries Va'del and Cindi, and allows the bandits to abduct Jain without any resistance.

After they dig themselves out from under the snow, Cindi wants to go back to the village for help, but Va'del refuses, instead following the trail of the bandits in an attempt to rescue Jain. When the pair finally finds the bandits' base it is apparent that Va'del won't be able to fight his way in unaided and save Jain.

Cindi and Va'del ultimately put aside their differences enough for her to link with him, augmenting his speed and strength to such an extent that he's able to kill all of the bandits and rescue Jain.

Va'del and the others return to the Capital to find that while the external threats have been reduced, at least for a time, Be'ter has been busy in their absence and he is quick to capitalize on Va'del's weakened state.

Be'ter challenges Va'del to what is supposed to merely be a practice bout and nearly kills him. While Va'del is recovering from his brush with death he finds out that the deck was stacked even further against him than he initially realized. Be'ter's sponsoring family violated centuries of tradition and provided him with a series of passive speed and strength boosts normally reserved for full Guadel. Fi'lin, the candidate weapons instructor, is determined to see Be'ter's influence checked and has his wife Ah'bi provide Va'del with the same set of boosts that allowed Be'ter to defeat Va'del.

The ensuing standoff culminates in Be'ter trying to kill Va'del yet again. The fact that Be'ter initiated this fight results in his exile from the Capital and presumed death by exposure.

While the bandit problem has been taken care of, there is still a growing number of attacks by large bands of bag'ligs, which have to be coming from somewhere in the lowlands. The decision is made to send down a large party to Crimson Rocks village to investigate the situation, and Va'del is assigned to the group being sent down, but not before being pressured into a marriage of expediency to Vi'en whom the Council thinks will be able to ensure he obeys orders and stays out of trouble.

Va'del, Jain, Vi'en and the others arrive in Crimson Rocks and soon realize that their best bet for figuring out who is harassing their people will be to pay a visit to a petty local lord who calls himself the Baron.

Midway through the journey to the Baron's castle Va'del and Vi'en have a falling out, which proves to be fortuitous because it means that they aren't with the rest of the caravan when it is ambushed and captured by the Baron's army.

Va'del and Vi'en are able to cooperate for long enough to tail the army back to the Baron's castle, and then are unable to agree on what to do next. In the end Va'del refuses to accompany Vi'en back to the Capital in an attempt to request assistance from the Guadel there.

Va'del's attempt at breaking Jain and the others out of the castle is thwarted, almost as soon as he starts, by none other than Be'ter, whom it turns out survived the trip down to the lowlands and allied himself with the Baron.

Imprisoned with the rest, it appears that there is nothing else that Va'del can do to influence events, until he feels Vi'en, who didn't head back up the mountain after all, trying to link with him. Displaying an ability to link at never-before-seen ranges, Vi'en augments Va'del's strength to such a degree that he is able to tear through the bars of his cell and lead a takeover of the castle.

The prison break is successful, but the female Guadel have all been drugged, which results in Va'del leading a rescue group back to Crimson Rocks to liberate Jain and the other Daughters from the Baron. Once the Daughters have been liberated, the caravan finds itself besieged by the Baron's entire army. In the final conflict Be'ter finds the fortified room where the female Guadel are gathered and defeats Jeeves, the Guadel who was supposed to protect the women while they augmented the male Guadel. Despite being injured and outmatched, Va'del defeats Be'ter, but not before Be'ter manages to kill Vi'en.

Several days later the caravan starts back towards the Capital, but there are signs along the way that all is not as it should be. A group of men, including someone from Va'del's home village of Bitter Rocks, attacks the caravan in one of the way caves, which results in the caravan splitting in two. Javin, On'li and Mar'li take one group and start off for Bitter Rocks, while Va'ma takes the other half of the caravan, including Va'del and Jain, to the Capital.

Va'ma's people are attacked before they can enter the Capital, and in the ensuing fight Va'del and Jain, along with several guardsmen, are cut off from the main body of the caravan and forced to flee up over the top of the mountain range in an effort to avoid their pursuers.

Several days later Va'del and Jain make it back down below the snow line. None of their companions survived the journey, and they are running out of food and water when they stumble upon the scene of an accident where another traveler was thrown and killed by his horse.

In the process of searching the body, Va'del and Jain find a worked gemstone that is unlike anything Jain has ever seen before. The pair continues along the road and eventually they find a village.

Va'del and Jain knock on Abby's door, and Va'del is mistaken for the priest they found dead on the road. Abby and Va'del hammer out a plan that will allow Va'del and Jain to stay in the village and gather their strength for their return trip back up to the Capital in exchange for taking her with them when they leave.

Va'del is apprenticed to Fredrick, the village priest, and is shocked to find out that he's capable of being trained as a mage and tapping into the same energies that Jain uses when she links with him.

It quickly becomes apparent just how badly the female potential magic users are treated by the priests, and Va'del and Jain decide that they will attempt to free more than just Abby when they leave. The trio spends a lot of time discussing whether or not to free Isabel, another of the enslaved women, due to the fact that Abby isn't entirely sure that Isabel is still sane after everything she's been through. In the end, Va'del can't bear the thought of leaving anyone behind if it's in his power to save them.

Va'del's magical abilities continue to expand, partially due to Fredrick's instruction, but mostly due to the help of another priest, Jacob, who helps in exchange for Va'del's assistance in meeting his village's iron production quotas.

Pressure for Va'del to father a child--preferably a boy--on Abby, whom Va'del married to maintain his cover as a priest in training, continues to mount, bringing with it added stress to Va'del and Jain's relationship. Things come to a head on that front when Va'del realizes that he's starting to fall in love with Abby and she confesses to feeling the same way about him.

Despite having suspected that Va'del and Abby would grow to have feelings for each other as a result of the charade they were maintaining, Jain is hurt by the development. She is only somewhat comforted by Va'del's assurances that nothing has changed with regards to his feelings for Jain.

The trio eventually sees an opportunity to put their escape plan into motion when Fredrick tells Va'del that he has to leave the village for several days so that he can meet with another priest named Kraven. Unfortunately Fredrick isn't where they expected him to be. Instead of being safely out of the way, Fredrick and Kraven are both perfectly positioned to capture or kill all of the women whom Abby had hoped to be able to save. Va'del is forced to link with both Jain and Abby in order to defeat Fredrick and Kraven.

All of the women that Va'del, Jain, and Abby set out to save make it to the agreed meeting spot, and the small party begins their journey up the slopes of the White Spike Mountains. They know that they are heading into a civil war, but have no idea how Va'ma, On'li, Javin or any of the others might have fared in their absence.

Shattered Ties begins not from where Brittle Bonds left off, but prior to that--with the events that happened to the people that Va'del and Jain left behind.

Chapter 1

Three weeks after Va'del and the rest of the caravan set out from Crimson Rocks:

With all due respect, sir, your place isn't at the front of the fight. If you were the only Guadel present then it would be different, but given that there are others of us here it would be irresponsible of me to let you lead from the front. Not only are you the commander of this particular operation, you're also a member of the Council.

Javin felt a smile try to make its way out onto his face, but he resisted the urge. The last thing that Vik'tor needed right now was to know that his 'boss' was amused at his painfully polite reminder that old men who were well past their prime belonged safely at the back of the fight. Vik'tor was right, Javin had no business risking the chain of command unnecessarily, but that didn't stop the thought of watching while Vik'tor and the others carried the fight into Bitter Rocks from chafing.

The last week and a half of traveling through the bitter cold of the White Spike Mountains had been even more brutal than normal and for once the weather hadn't been the main source of Javin's headaches. The threat of some kind of freak storm had still been a constant worry, but the speed of their journey had been the primary reason that everyone was so worn out. That and the fact that they'd had to post guards each night.

It was unheard of this high up on the mountain. Down in the lowlands, that was another issue, but in years past the only threat had been the occasional snow leopard or possibly a pack of snow wolves. Now each and every camp, regardless of how high the elevation, required guards against bag'ligs--and even worse, against their own people.

Javin knew that some of the people in their party weren't convinced that Bitter Rocks was in rebellion, but he could feel the danger all the way to his bones. Ma'del, the Bitter Rocks Village Headman, wouldn't have sent men halfway down the mountain on a lark. Bitter Rocks was in active rebellion, the only question was how Ma'del expected to be able to get away with it.

Javin cleared his throat and nodded. Very well. You can lead the attack.

On'li, Javin's wife, trudged up through the snow, apparently done with her review of the female Guadel who'd been gathered at the back of the party.

Strictly speaking it's not an attack until we confirm that Bitter Rocks has truly rebelled, but you're right that we need to be thinking of this operation as being a hostile one. I don't want any innocents massacred, but apart from that, we'll be much better off going in prepared for a fight.

On'li walked a few steps past Javin and Vik'tor, leaning around the bend in the trail that was currently shielding them from the view of anyone in Bitter Rocks, and then sighed. The women seem to be as ready as they are going to get. If the two of you are ready, we can start forward at any time. Probably better sooner rather than later. The weather may not hold out for much longer.

Javin nodded and waved Vik'tor over to the front of the column of Guadel and guardsmen who would be the tip of their proverbial spear. Under ideal circumstances they'd have been attacking first thing in the morning rather than this late in the afternoon. It felt like they weren't leaving themselves an escape route, but Javin knew that some of his people were in pretty bad shape already. Spending another night out in a cold camp would be courting more cases of frostbite and he was already being viewed by some as unduly alarmist.

He and On'li were in command, so they could force everyone to spend the night here and attack first thing in the morning, but the fact that he wielded near absolute power right now didn't mean that he wouldn't have to account for his actions once he returned to the Capital. Given some of the recent infighting on the Council, it was hard to justify anything that would give his opponents cause to view with alarm where he was concerned.

Javin probably would have forced the issue and demanded a cold camp regardless but for the thought of the people inside the village. Based on Va'del's stories, Ma'del was a sadist. If he really felt like he didn't have the Guadel or the Council looking over his shoulder then there was no telling what kind of atrocities he was visiting on his own people.

The risk that Bitter Rocks would repulse their attack and drive them out of the massive network of tunnels and caverns that housed the village was small. That very real risk that they'd be forced back out onto the cold slopes of the White Spike Mountains after the sun had set was outweighed by the horrors that Javin suspected were being inflicted on the innocents inside of Bitter Rocks.

Javin gave the tiny caravan one last quick inspection and then waved Vik'tor forward.

They crossed the distance to the yawning black void of Bitter Rocks' primary entrance in short order and almost before Javin knew it they were inside the long, dark tunnel that was Bitter Rocks' first line of defense.

The four male Guadel at the very front of the party, Vik'tor included, could have easily outdistanced everyone else, but they held their pace down to something only slightly more than everyone else could match.

As long as Vik'tor and the others stayed relatively close to their wives they'd benefit from the augmentation that the females provided their husbands. The augmentation would make each man faster and stronger than mere flesh and blood could hope to be, but only at the price of exhausting the woman or women powering the working.

The tunnel into the village proper was longer than Javin had expected and his people were still bunched up, little more than single file, when he heard the first clash of arms that signaled resistance from the Bitter Rocks Guard.

The sound told Javin that he'd almost waited too long to link with On'li and Mar'li. The big man took a deep breath and then brought down the mental barriers that separated him from his wives. The results were almost instantaneous and Javin felt a sense of calm settled over him as he was flooded with energy and strength.

The sword in his right hand was all but weightless and suddenly he had to rein himself in to stop from pushing past the guardsman ahead of him. Javin jogged down the corridor, still moving faster than those around him despite the fact that they were sprinting.

The tunnel opened up into a large circular chamber and Javin was finally able to see the battle in the dim light of the glow spheres that both the attackers and defenders carried. The Bitter Rocks Guard was arrayed in a line across the far end of the cavern and the center of the group was anchored by three men who were moving too fast to be unaugmented.

A flight of arrows streaked across the cavern as the Bitter Rocks warriors tried to cover the retreat of their comrades. One moment it seemed as though all four of the Guadel from the caravan were going to be cut down and then they exploded into action that was even more breathtaking than anything they'd demonstrated up to that point.

Vik'tor spun in place, knocking one arrow out of the air with his sword and another away with his dagger. Two more sliced past him so closely that they tore through his clothing but neither marked his skin, and his fellows were equally unharmed.

A split second later the two lines collided and Javin saw the foreigners for the first time. There were two of them and they were surprisingly easy to identify. Their clothes were outlandish, but it was more than that. Their skin was darker even than Va'del's, which was an impossibility for someone living underground.

Concern tickled the back of Javin's mind, but he didn't have time to slot the lowlanders into the larger political dynamic. Instead he grabbed a guardsman and the youngest Guadel who had accompanied the caravan and ordered them to hold the tunnel. It was absolutely important that the female Guadel be protected, and not just for the sake of the women. If an enemy were able to cut down their wives then the male Guadel would be no more deadly than any other well-trained group of men.

Reasonably confident in the safety of the women, Javin spun back around and started towards the battle. His guardsmen were slightly outnumbered, but three of his Guadel had engaged the defending Guadel, which left Vik'tor free to tear through the rest of the enemies in spectacular fashion.

In one pass Vik'tor buried his dagger in the chest of one guard and cut the throat of another before running a third man through with his sword. The Bitter Rocks men were starting to give ground and Javin was confident that his people would prevail, but he didn't slow his steps. The six Guadel in the center of the line were furiously trading blows, but nobody was managing to gain the upper hand. Javin needed to get there and save his men before one of them dropped out of link with their wives and became an easy target.

Javin was nearly halfway to the battle when one of the lowlanders raised his hand and yelled something in a language that Javin had never heard before. The results were catastrophic. A line of fire went spinning through the air and cut one of Javin's Guadel in half at the waist.

Vik'tor's response was perfect. He brought his dagger behind his ear and then sent it flipping end over end through the air to bury itself in the lowlander's throat. In theory it was an even trade, possibly slightly in favor of Javin's people because they now knew how much a threat the remaining lowlander was likely to be, but the Bitter Rocks men were nearly all out of the cavern and Javin heard a slight rumbling from above.

It's a trap! Get into the tunnels!

Every instinct told Javin to rush forward and help push through the Bitter Rocks men, but there were already too many men trying to force their way into a tunnel that was just too small to accommodate so many so quickly.

Javin reversed course and sprinted back towards his wives with every ounce of speed the link provided. It took only a split second to cover half the distance, but the rumbling had just grown in strength and the roof came down in an avalanche of stone as he threw himself into the tunnel. The edge of a particularly large chunk of rock knocked him to his knees but it hit the ground in such a way as to not crush him.

On'li was at his side before he managed to pull himself back to his feet. What happened?

Some kind of lowland wizard brought the ceiling down. Vik'tor killed one of them, but there's a second one still alive and I rather doubt that our people will be able to cut their way free.

We'd better get out of here now then. Ma'del will be sending a force out of the secondary exit to try and trap us in here. Even the slopes at night are less dangerous than what he'll have coming our way.

Chapter 2

One week prior to Javin and On'li arriving in Bitter Rocks:

Va'ma swore as he saw Va'del's little party disappear around the bend, running for all they were worth to put distance between them and the ambush they'd just sprung. It wasn't much consolation knowing that they'd probably just saved the rest of the caravan from the second prong of a surprise attack that would have decimated it. Va'ma had known that whoever he put in the vanguard wasn't likely to survive, but that didn't make living with the results of his decision any easier.

Jeeves moved forward across the wind-swept rock of the trail and gave him an abbreviated salute. It looks like we've got bad guys on both sides of us. Which group do you want us to try and cut our way through?

Va'ma looked back over the array of forces arranged against them. He needed to make a decision, but for a moment he was paralyzed by indecision. He'd suspected that something was wrong at the Capital, but he hadn't ever really expected that it would come to this.

There were still hours of daylight left in which the numerically superior forces on either side of his people would decimate his group unless he did things just right.

The group from the Capital is slightly smaller, but that could very easily be another trap. We're still much too close to the entrance to the city. If we move back towards the Capital we have no guarantee but that another force will sally forth before we've even had a chance to engage these Powers-forsaken traitors. I'd like nothing better than to cut through them and go right on into the Capital, but it's just too risky. Minutes count at this point; we can't do anything that will result in us being engaged from both sides at once.

Jeeves nodded. I have to say that I like the idea of not having to leave Va'del and the rest unsupported. You want me at the front of things?

No, I want you in the rearguard. If we get bogged down fighting the ambush group then I'll need someone back there who can hold his own against whatever dregs Ja'dir and the rest scraped together.

It looked for a second as though Jeeves was going to protest Va'ma's accusation that Ja'dir was behind the coup. Va'ma knew it was probably premature to be naming people as traitors, but odds were heavily in favor that he was right. If he was right and Ja'dir had caused the first civil war since shortly after the Goddess had led the People up into the White Spikes, then there wasn't much hope left for their caravan or the People as a whole.

Jeeves nodded and headed towards the back of the caravan. Va'ma, in turn, headed towards the front. It only took him a couple of minutes to decide where he wanted to engage the ambush force and start relaying orders.

I want to fight on that wider section of trail if possible, and I'd like them to fill it two-thirds of the way full or so as well. That will give us some room to work and should mean that we can cut through the bulk of their forces before we're down to some kind of one-on-one engagement.

The Guard lieutenant he was talking to nodded. What about if they don't take the bait?

Then we'll push forward and fight them on the narrow section. The one thing we absolutely can't afford would be to get pinned between the two groups, so we push forward pretty much no matter what.

The men gathered around Va'ma nodded and then started organizing themselves into two groups. The Guadel would serve as the shock troops while the Guard would provide support.

Va'ma wanted to be on the front lines. With his greater experience and the combined power of his three wives, there was nobody else in the party more deadly, but he knew he had to stay out of the fray enough to keep on top of any changes to the tactical situation.

It took less than five minutes in total between when the ambushing force made an appearance and when the caravan resumed its forward motion. Va'ma spent the entire time pacing and watching the group from the Capital. They'd dropped back once the ambush had been sprung, but they started moving forward again once they realized that he wasn't going to just let his people sit motionless on the trail.

The distance between the caravan and the ambushing force continued to close until there was only a few dozen feet between them. At that point one of the figures on the other side, indistinguishable in his heavy gurra-wool coat, started to glow slightly. It was a peaceful, almost beautiful start to the most terrifying experience of Va'ma's life.

A thunderclap of sound announced the arrival of the attack, but the sound wasn't the deadly part. The essence of the weapon was cold and heat all at once. The point of impact was almost exactly in the middle of the forward third of the caravan and the result was an unimaginably cold wind that nearly knocked Va'ma from his feet.

Gurra wool was the best insulator the People had ever discovered, but it wasn't up to dealing with this wind. Va'ma's nose, still protected by the extended hood of his coat, cracked and peeled as the skin went into a nearly instant case of frostbite and his core body temperature dropped to dangerous levels.

Reverse course!

The order sprang from him almost before he had a chance to think about it, but as he looked down at his feet he realized that it was the