The Sun, The Storm, & The Shadows

The Sun, The Storm, & The Shadows Hearts of Maya: Vol 1 Mikayla D. Hornedo Copyright © [2023] by [Mikayla D. Hornedo] All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. While this story was inspired my Mayan Mythology, it is not a retelling of any of their stories. Dedicated to all the readers who can feel underrepresented in books like this. This one is for you. Contents Map Left Map Right 1. Chapter 1 Xio 2. Chapter 2 Camila 3. Chapter 3 Xio 4. Chapter 4 Camila 5. Chapter 5 Xio 6. Chapter 6 Camila 7. Chapter 7 Xio 8. Chapter 8 Xio 9. Chapter 9 Camila 10. Chapter 10 Xio 11. Chapter 11 Camila 12. Chapter 12 Xio 13. Chapter 13 Camila 14. Chapter 14 Xio 15. Chapter 15 Camila 16. Chapter 16 Xio 17. Chapter 17 Camila 18. Chapter 18 Xio 19. Chapter 19 Camila 20. Chapter 20 Xio 21. Chapter 21 Holt 22. Chapter 22 Camila 23. Chapter 23 Xio 24. Chapter 24 Cree 25. Chapter 25 Camila 26. Chapter 26 Xio 27. Chapter 27 Camila 28. Chapter 28 Xio 29. Chapter 29 Cree 30. Chapter 30 Camila 31. Chapter 31 Xio 32. Chapter 32 Cree 33. Chapter 33 Holt 34. Chapter 34 Camila 35. Chapter 35 Xio 36. Chapter 36 Camila 37. Chapter 37 Xio 38. Chapter 38 Xio 39. Chapter 39 Camila 40. Chapter 40 Cree About Author Pronunciation Guide Xiomara/Xio – Zee-oh-ma-ra / Zoh Camila – Ka-mee-la Ixchel – Ee-shell Kinich – Kee-nich Itzamna – Its-am-na Chaac – Ch-ak Alux – Ah-loosh Zuma – Soo-ma Xibalba - Zee-ball-bah Estrella – Ehs-trey-ah Possible Triggers: This story contains: grief, mentioned abuse, sexual scenes, and violence. Chapter 1 Xio Well, this wasn’t going as planned. I dodged the sword that the guard was swinging to kill, but he didn’t know who I was. Nobody did. I didn’t even know who I was. All the same, he underestimated me. Probably because I’m a woman. He didn’t know I could use his own weapon better than him. Misogynists practically grew on trees here in Zuma. I dodged again, staying on the defense, letting him continue to underestimate me. I could use that to my own advantage. He had no real skill, just swinging his sword with all of his strength in the same formation over and over. I should have expected this from Lord Wayward’s guards. He never was very astute, influential sure, but an idiotic bastard. He went in for another strike, but I anticipated it. I twirled around him and slashed the back of his legs, causing him to fall to the ground. I didn’t kill him. As skilled as I was with a blade, I never actually killed anyone. I just stopped them from killing me first. Death just seemed so final. I didn’t think I should have that power over anyone. Well, no situation made me feel like I should yet. Our plan to steal from Lord Wayward was solid. We planned to go in during a guard change, slip into his treasury, throw everything we could into the bags we brought, and escape back out over the garden walls. We had help from a couple of the servants in the estate who were looking for their own way out of the village and revenge against the Lord. With that being said, we weren’t expecting this guard to be where he shouldn’t have been. I dealt with him quickly while Camila grabbed the bags and brought them over to the wall. I positioned my sword in my hand blade up and brought the hilt down against his temple. After I ensured the guard was unconscious, I met Camila at the wall and threw the heavy loads over. If this was the only guard to see us, we would have plenty of time to get out. Not to mention he didn’t see our faces. We had our hoods up and scarves over the bottom half of our faces. Camila climbed up the wall with the skill of a thief, and straddled either side of it before making her way down. She tried to shimmy down the other side, but the wind blew stronger than expected, and her hood flew right off her head. Exposing her hair, her very noticeable, very unique hair. Camila’s hair was streaked with gold, like spun threads of pure gold running through her curly brown hair. While many people here in Zuma had blonde hair, hers was much more distinctive. We heard a shout from the other side of the wall, it sounded like a servant, but nothing else came from it. Camila decided to take a lap around the estate to see if that shout we heard would turn into the full force of Wayward guards coming for us. I ran to our home with the stolen goods and waited. I slammed the rickety door, dropped the satchels of gold, and jumped up and down with slightly premature excitement. If we pulled this off…I needed to wait until Camila returned. I didn’t even feel bad for the Lord. That bastard deserved it. He treated the people in our village like they were less than him and his noble family. He always seemed to find a way to make the villagers’ lives more difficult than necessary. Being the Lord of the village came with far too much control over the people. He held the influence to stop everything we needed to survive. He raised our taxes, made food less available in our markets, and caused some people to lose their homes altogether. Just because he could. Forcing people to have to come to him for help or work. He got