Page 25 of Goddess of the Broken

Tempest sat up, and looked at her surroundings. While the walls looked the same as before, the mirror shards were gone. As she peered further down the path, she realized that she must have completed the maze of chaos.

She chuckled to herself as she rose and brushed the dust off her now filthy dress. There were several competitors that she imagined would have difficulty with this challenge. Only by abandoning reason and giving up on trying to ‘solve’ the maze had she been able to find her way out.

A quick look at the blazing sun overhead told her that it was nearing midday. She hadn’t been in the trial as long as she’d thought.

Hanging the amulet around her neck, Tempest set off to tackle the maze of war. She felt more prepared for this portion than the previous ones. After all, she was no stranger to war.

Chapter 14

Thepaininherchest was making it difficult to breathe. Wherever this maze was, it was very far away from Aiden; further than she liked. She needed to hurry and finish.

To her surprise, she found a dead end behind her and only one opening out of the alley she was in front of. The exit opened into a vast space.

Mounds of gold and jewels were piled in the center of the area. Deep ditches filled with scalding coals skirted the edge. Jagged pillars reached up through the embers like stakes ready for the condemned.

Tempest doubted obtaining the ring would be as simple as digging into this pile of treasure to find it. The ground trembled, and the treasure shifted to reveal a form previously hidden beneath it.

Brown and yellow scales as well as leathery sections of hide peeked through the mounded wealth. If she had to hazard a guess, Tempest was looking at a sand dragon asleep in its hoard. She couldn’t imagine how the Dei Electi officials had gotten one here along with its hoard. Not even the gods dared take on a dragon without care.

She reexamined the ditches and pillars. It appeared that she had two options—attempt to sneak into the piled treasure and search through it for one of the rings, or use the pillars to skirt around the dragon. Tempest doubted the rings were actually in the hoard itself, but thought it likely they were hidden on the other side of it.

Tempest crept onto the narrow ledge that stretched between the entrance and the dragon’s hoard. She walked to one far edge of it, then turned and sprinted the four steps it took to reach the other end, launching herself towards the nearest column.

Her fingers gripped the warm stone as she slid down it until her foot caught on a tiny projection, stopping her fall moments before landing in the hot coals below.

She had been merely concerned that her clothing would be burned, but the amount of heat radiating from the too-near coals told her that she may not survive, or at least would be severely injured, if she fell.

Tempest climbed up the column and jumped to the next one. She fell short of the top and again slid until she found hand- and footholds. Slowly, repeating the same scenario at each pillar, she made her way around the inferno surrounding the hoard. After what felt like an age, only three pillars remained between her and the end.

Ignoring her injuries and mangled clothing, she completely focused on her task, and with a grunt, she launched herself at the next column. Just as her hands gripped the stone, a bolt of lightning struck it.

The pillar immediately crumbled in a deafening explosion. Tempest screamed as she flailed in the air, attempting to grab onto anything that may remain. The scorching coals quickly greeted her.

Her flesh immediately blistered and peeled. She scrambled to the edge and attempted to climb out, but the hot coals slid beneath her like stones in a fiery river.

A roar drowned out her screams, and a gust of wind pushed her deeper into the scalding ditch. Gold coins sizzled and melted as they fell off the dragon’s body around her. It dove at Tempest, mouth open. It nearly snapped her up and got a mouthful of coals instead.

She tried climbing the side of the ditch again, only to slide back down and sink up to her waist. The pain was overwhelming all other senses, and her vision began to darken. Her consciousness faded in and out. Flashes of the dragon flying above and taking another dive at her alternated with moments of insensibility.

Tempest called Soulshadow to her fingers and began spinning the chain, ready to answer her call home.

Flickers of memories appeared as her mind retreated from the tumultuous present into the safety of a known past. One moment the sand dragon was coming at her, and the next, she was staring down an entire army while leading one of her own.

For the first few centuries after leaving the gods, she had avoided all wars, but at a certain point, she couldn't handle the pain of all of the broken souls war brought with it. She discovered that if she joined and even led the army of the side she found most worthy, it all ended much sooner. While the moments of pain during battle and as the spirits of the dead left this land was almost overwhelming, it was less overall than when the wars lasted for years.

The dragon and past battles alternated in her vision too fast for her to keep up. Her mind almost broken to the point of not recognizing which one was the present, she prepared herself for the stupidest, but only, plan she could come up with.

As the dragon again flew within reach, Tempest released one end of Soulshadow and allowed it to wrap around the wing. Her charred body shot out of the coals as the dragon pulled up. She smacked against the ditch wall as the dragon faltered and was drug along the side until, finally, she was free.

She let go of Soulshadow, too exhausted and injured to keep it with her anymore, and dropped to the ground. Her eyes barely opened as the dragon landed. Its hoard shook and shifted with each step as it approached her. Unable to move and unsure what was real anymore, she allowed the vibrations to lull her to sleep. If she was going to die, she might as well do it while at rest.

Tempest had never thought of how she would want to die before. Being immortal, it wasn’t something that came up often. The visions of past battles still played in her mind as she lay there, for the second time that day, and accepted Fate’s will.

A man’s roar startled her. She peered through slitted eyes and wasn’t sure what she was seeing. It appeared that her crazed mind had blended her present enemy with a past battle. It didn’t make sense otherwise.

Someone was fearlessly attacking the dragon, and doing a pretty good job of it, too. Knocked off balance, the dragon toppled to its side and slid into the hot ditch. It roared as the collective heat of the coals burned the thinner parts of its leathery hide.

The man hurried towards her and stopped just short of touching her. Golden eyes pierced hers. A name crossed her fevered mind.Aiden. No, it couldn’t be. These eyes weren’t his. They were ancient, intense.

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