Fractured Souls by Ankh Alana

Author:Ankh, Alana [Ankh, Alana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-01-08T17:43:12+00:00

WHEN SHURI stepped out of the rift, the first thing he registered was sand. A huge desert stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance, the heat made the horizon dance, as if the limit between the ground and the sky had started to blur. The unsurprising desolation told Shuri he’d been successful in his risky endeavor.

Technically speaking, rifts were impossible to open if the Nikari attempting the process didn’t have personal, firsthand knowledge of the destination. Therefore, when he’d decided to use a portal, he’d kind of doubted it would work. He’d taken refuge in the guidance of the elements and allowed them to lead him—and here he was.

It took him less than ten seconds to process all of this, and after that, he could only focus on the two figures standing a few feet away. He recognized one of them as Tynare, but the other was a stranger—an unfriendly one, if Shuri had to guess by Tynare’s tense stance and, perhaps, by the mysterious man’s wings and horns.

Shuri approached steadily, keeping an eye on Tynare and his unwelcome companion. It felt unsettling, not right, because the stranger could see him, and the smirk on his face seemed to say he knew something Shuri didn’t. To make things worse, he looked awfully familiar—wings and horns aside—but Shuri couldn’t quite pinpoint how or why.

Tynare met him halfway and grabbed his arm. “Shuri, what are you doing here? You need to go back to A’rankin.”

“Did you really think I’d abandon you?” Shuri snapped back. “You might have countless secrets, but I make my own decisions, and I’m done waiting.”

In front of them, the stranger laughed lightly. “How touching. A lovers’ spat. I have to say, you’re not exactly what I expected, Prince Shuriden.”

Shuri faced the man he’d identified as his foe—in all likelihood the “he” Nari kept trying to warn him about—without flinching. “It seems you have an advantage over me. You know who I am, but I don’t know who you are.”

“Ah, where are my manners? Let me introduce myself. My name is Nilswryn Essteka, and I have the honor of being the leader of Shyrn, the Guardian of the Spawn.”

The Guardian of the Spawn? Shuri had no idea what that meant. Nothing he’d read on Shyrn suggested the creatures now living in the desert had any sort of organization. In fact, Aranken chronicles suggested most of the Shyrn inhabitants were beastlike. The few manlike tribes that made this place their home actually originated from Altea, the land beyond Shyrn and home of the beastmasters. Apparently, the Aranken had neglected to notice some very important facts.

This left Shuri in quite a conundrum. He stepped in front of Tynare, doing his best to shield the other man with his larger form. “What is it that you want?” he asked his foe.

“Oh, how quaint. Is this where you ask me about my evil ploy to harm your lover?” Nilswryn tsked. “And here I was hoping you’d do something more interesting.

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