Amaya is a syhien like no other—the only warrior among her guardian protected kind. With a love for weapons and a good fight to keep her strong, the snowy plains of Palacous provides the fight she needs to prove she doesn’t need her guardian to protect her. However, she encounters more than she bargained for and soon learns there’s more to her journey when she unearths secrets lost beneath the ice.
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Ice Guardian
A Sacred Journey Short Story
Copyright © 2016 Erin Maxwell
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Erin Maxwell
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Ice Guardian
A Sacred Journey Short Story
By
Erin Maxwell
Author’s Note:
Hey everyone! Just a quick note to let you all know that Ice Guardian, Book One in the Sacred Journey Short Story Series, is a very short read. Only 4000 words long! I know that is an incredibly short read, but I'm writing these books as an introduction to the main novel, Sacred Journey. It serves to introduce some of the side characters in the novel, giving you a deeper look into Planet Khrellia and its inhabitants!
This book starts the countdown. Once the countdown ends, Ameya's story will begin!
In the midst of sharp edged mountains and fluffy clouds’ shadows, untouched snow covered the ground, the glittering surface masking the smooth stone Amaya knew lay underneath.
An ice wall three times as tall as Amaya’s five foot two frame, blocked her view of what lay ahead and turned the crisp air colder when she neared it.
Her reflection stared back with big silver eyes and eyelashes spotted with snowflakes, pale purple, porcelain skin and grey-purple hair that hung in a large plait over her shoulder. Her delicate and flawless features were marred by tiny cuts and bruises she’d received on this journey, surrounding an old scar that ran from the right side of her forehead to her chin
Her knee-height boots kept her legs warm in the cold, as well as the leggings she’d worn under her skirt. Her sword lay against a wide belt, opposite a small satchel that contained food and water. Her thick cloak, though slightly tattered from her journey, still served its purpose in keeping her long, pointed ears warm from the cold.
She’d been travelling for just under a day to get to the snowy plains of Palacous. It had been dangerous. She’d received a nasty bite from a two-headed Khax, whose sharp beak had torn into her thigh, resulting in a wound that needed to be cauterised, and whispering Dassuhzs that had nearly lured her off the face of a cliff. She’d come to her senses before taking the last step that would have plunged her to her death.
While travelling around the outskirts of Khrella woods, she'd sensed her guardian close by, and believing he was going to step from the shadows surrounding her and insist she forget her task and go home to safety, she'd lost focused and ventured too close to the giant woods. She'd only just managed to dodge the deadly arrows of the murderous Bhyubs who lived within the trees. She hadn't sensed him after that, and thought it had just been a trick of her mind.
Turning away from her reflection, Amaya held her weapon hilt tightly and trudged forward, through a gap within the icy walls with a little less enthusiasm than before. She missed her guardian's warmth, although she'd never admit it to him. Despite having been brought up in this very location by one of the strongest creatures she knew, she hadn't warmed up to the cold, so to speak. When her guardian had made himself known, he'd never let her feel the cold again, so coming back had been a shock to her system. Nerves swarmed inside her stomach upon stepping onto the untouched snow—she had one task to prove herself and failing wasn't an option, not in her eyes. Not in the end.
When the smooth and straight wall became rough and crooked, she slowed her pace and crept through the snow without a whisper of sound, until it opened up into a cavern surrounded by the ice wall.
The reason for her dangerous journey sat in the middle of the cavern. A rock the size of a small mountain, untouched by the snow. Crystalline ice shards covered the jagged surface, which slowly rose and fell with each rumbling breath the rock took.
Amaya crept towards it, leaving a fresh trail of boot prints in the snow, staring at hundreds of interwoven frozen stalactites that curved upwards from the ice wall, almost blocking the sky from above where soft whispers of snowflakes spun gently to the ground through the gaps. She unsheathed her arm-length sword and ducked beneath a low hanging rock with jagged tapered pieces of icicles pointing dangerously, neither blade nor boot broke the silence.
The snow fell thick and the air turned cold, whipping at her cloak harshly, but she wasn’t bothered by the cold that bit into her skin and made her breath rise in front of her face.
When she approached her target, she gripped her weapon tighter and used her free hand to touch the rough surface while her eyes moved over the grey-blue rock that vibrated and expanded with a deep, grinding sound. After craning her neck to map out a route to avoid the pointed surfaces covered in a layer of ice, she reached up and pulled herself up the jagged piece of rock slowly, manoeuvring around as she rose higher. The higher she climbed, the thicker and sharper the shards of ice surrounding the rock became. The surface expanded until she could almost touch the ceiling of ice above her.
When she made it to the highest point, she rose to her feet, balancing carefully as the rock's breath made her rise and fall, and gripped her weapon with both hands. She raised her blade, ready to strike.
Beneath Amaya’s boots, a low rumble vibrated up her legs and when she lost her balance, the rock rose fast towards the ceiling of ice, she jumped sideways to avoid being impaled. Snow blanketing her fall and without missing a beat, she rolled to her feet as the giant crashed into the stalactites, shaking everything in the process. She dodged right when the shards broke and fell and pointed her weapon in front of her.
The formidable giant, with ice blue eyes and frozen spikes forming around his body like armour, opened his large mouth and roared.
Icy wind blasted Amaya, a thousand needles stabbing her skin. She tried to shield her face, but the gust pushed her back a few feet towards a wall of rocky ice. A tornado of snow blinded her, but she had the sense to jump sideways as a large, jagged ball of ice slammed into the ground where she had just been standing.
When the ground shook violently, Amaya staggered and swung her blade through the pieces of stalactites that fell. Before the snowstorm cleared, something slammed into her chest and she flew into the rocky wall behind her with enough force to crack it. Pain flared through her back as she fell to her knees, gasping for breath.
Through the sheet of hair that had loosened from its plait, she saw the ice golem stand to his impressive height, doubling in size and
dwarfing any building she’d ever seen.
Run!
She did, ignoring the pain that flared when she moved. There was only a second before the giant swung his massive fist into the wall, crushing it easily. Protecting the back of her head with her arms, she fled through the tunnel of ice and into the open air.
The ground shook, causing her to stagger and turn to see that the great golem had already destroyed the outer walls of his home and was stalking towards her, eyes glowing ice blue.
Steadying her breath, she kept her eyes on him and backed away, but when he raised his large fists and slammed them into the ground, she ran. A tremor ran through the ground and the snow rose like a wave, rolling towards her, gaining height the closer it got. Ahead of her, large shards of ice tore up from the ground, causing her to weave left and right to dodge them. A large shadow loomed over her and she spun, raising her sword. When the wall of snow hit, her weapon glowed brightly. Light pulsed out, bending around her and protected her from the avalanche.
With her heart pounding in her chest and memories of being swept away by a rougher avalanche threatening to rise to the surface, she held strong and thanked Cian for creating a weapon able to act as a shield to protect her from harm, sure she would have been done if she'd been buried under the snow.
Just when