Shardless

by Stephanie Fisher

  She did her best to recall every detail about that moment. The color of the sky. The smell of the grass. The look on his face when she’d tackled him during her victory dance.

  Slowly, the harpy and the pain melted away as she lost herself in the memory.

  Her consciousness began to fade, and a soft darkness crept in at the edges of her vision. It beckoned her, its honeyed voice promising a blessed release from the pain and fear.

  This is it, Taly thought as she embraced the icy tendrils twining around her thoughts. These were her last moments in this world. She’d had a good life with no real regrets save one—Skye. She wished she could have told him the truth—given him the answers he so desperately wanted. At the very least, she had gotten to see him again. She had gotten to spend one more perfect night sprawled out next to him in the space between their rooms, playing chess and nursing a bottle of champagne long after everyone else had gone to bed. That thought brought her a small amount of comfort as her eyelids fluttered closed.

  A loud crunch punctuated the chaotic din, startling Taly awake. The harpy stopped reaching for her as it went quiet, its mouth gaping and its body twitching. The tip of a sword peeked out of the creature’s chest, and flames lapped at the edges of the wound. As Taly looked into the beast’s mournful, glassy eyes, she felt a small pang of sadness as the light slowly dimmed and then faded away completely. The harpy was dead, its thirst finally sated.

  She heard a grunt from beyond the opening as the harpy’s limp carcass was forcefully removed and thrown to the side.

  “Taly?!” came a panicked voice.

  Taly wanted to cry in relief. It was Skye. She had never been so happy to see that arrogant bastard in all her life. “I’m here,” she croaked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Thank the Shards!” His face came into view, sweat and blood streaking his skin. “Take my hand!”

  Taly shifted, trying to extend her arm, but her body didn’t want to obey her commands. She tried again, but the tight space and sudden lethargy pinned her in place. “I can’t,” she said, her words starting to slur together.

  Skye crammed his body farther into the gap and reached for her. His fingers grazed the tattered remains of her sleeve, and he attempted to pull her forward. “Please, Taly! You have to help me!”

  “That hurts, Skye,” Taly murmured tiredly as he continued to tug at her. “Stop… that hurts.” Despite her protests, when his searching hand found hers, she grasped it instinctively.

  The rock pulled at her clothing and skin as he edged her forward.

  “How did you find me?” she asked as he gently laid her against the cliff face. The cool air felt wonderful as it wafted across her bloodstained skin. “There are no roads on this part of the island.”

  Skye barked out a mirthless laugh. “Aiden was able to cast a locator spell once you hit the ground. I followed you on foot. Aiden and Aimee are behind me with the horses.”

  Now that the danger had passed, everything seemed much less urgent. Even the pain had started to fade into the background. For some reason, Taly was having a hard time remembering why Skye looked so concerned. Her eyelids fluttered as her exhaustion started to overtake her.

  “Don’t fall asleep on me,” Skye said, tapping her cheek.

  “Stop it,” Taly mumbled as her head tipped forward. Couldn’t he see that she was tired? “Just… leave me alone.”

  “No,” he whispered, tucking a finger beneath her chin and pulling her eyes back to his. “I’m not going to leave you alone, I won’t ever leave you behind, so you forget that nonsense right now. You’re tired—I know that. But you need to stay awake. Please, just stay awake. Don’t go to sleep.”

  He was pleading with her now, pressing his lips to her hair, her brow. His hands trembled as he wiped blood from her eyes. “Please, Tink. Aiden’s almost here. Just stay awake—that’s all you need to do. I’ll take care of the rest. I promise.”

  “Skye?” Taly tried to look at him, but her eyes didn’t want to stay open.

  The world was starting to go dark now.

  Her vision narrowed.

  No! her mind screamed, thrashing against the pain, the lethargy, the inky blackness that had started to creep in around the edges. There was something she still needed to tell him. Something important.

  Her lips tried to form the words. “Skye… Em, I…”

  And then it was gone. The thought just slipped away from her, like water through outstretched fingers.

  “Aiden! Over here!” Skye looked back towards the tree line and waved an arm before turning back to her. “Taly, wake up!” He started to shake her. “You’re not allowed to leave me yet! Understand?! Damn it! Come on, Tink. You just have to hold on a little longer.”

  Taly felt a new set of hands poking and jabbing at her. She feebly tried to wave them away.

  “This is bad. She’s going into shock.” The newcomer forcibly opened her eyes. “Taly!” he shouted.

  “Aiden?” Taly couldn’t really see him. Her eyes just wouldn’t focus. Still, the voice sounded familiar.

  Aiden pulled an earth crystal from his pocket. The symbol for cocin was inscribed onto the surface—an enchantment that would allow him to use the crystal as a focusing talisman. Though the fey didn’t need crystals to perform magic, a focusing talisman could exponentially increase a mage’s power—take a simple spell and turn it into something lifesaving.

  “What are you doing?” Skye grabbed Aiden’s coat when the healer’s hands began to glow. “What about the venom?”

  “She’s lost too much blood,” Aiden replied hastily. “If I try to bleed the venom out, she will die. Our best bet is to stop the bleeding now and deal with the venom later. She’s mortal. It won’t have the same effect on her as it would on us.”

  Skye still looked skeptical, but he let go of Aiden’s coat.

  Aiden’s hands began to glow once more, sparkling green as he summoned the spell. He took deep, even breaths, waving his hands through the air, forming and shaping the growing fog of earth magic.

  Taly knew the moment the restoration spell took effect. Her skin itched as her wounds began to knit themselves back together, and her vision slowly refocused. The strange sensation of being sewn back together was excruciating, and her back arched as undulating waves of heat seared her from the inside out. Leaning against the rock face, her breath came in heavy, ragged gasps. Even after her wounds had closed, the blood in her veins felt like fire.

  “Taly?” Skye asked tentatively. He rested one hand on the back of her neck and turned her head to face him.

  Taly took a breath to reply but winced when she felt something sharp lance her chest.

  “Why isn’t she getting better?” Skye demanded, turning to Aiden.

  Her limbs felt heavy, but as Aiden continued to heal her, the pain slowly began to fade. She somehow managed to reach up and grasp the hand that rested on her neck. “It’s been a hell of a day, Em. You’ll have to give me a minute.”

  The sound that came out of Skye’s mouth was somewhere between a choked laugh and a sob. His eyes were red and glassy, but he was smiling as he wiped a trickle of blood off her cheek.

  “She’s lost a lot of blood,” Aiden said, mostly to himself. He waved a hand over her, watching the bright pulse of earth magic as it searched for injuries. “No major breaks, but she’s cracked a few bones. Amazingly, no concussion.” Turning to Skye, he asked, “Do you have any more shadow crystals? These restoration spells are taxing, and the aether in the air is so thin—my magic isn’t regenerating as quickly as it would normally. If you can feed me a little more aether, I might be able to cast a second spell.”

  “Of course! Why didn’t you ask sooner?” Skye frantically dug into his bag, pulling out a palm-sized shadow crystal. His fingers grazed the faceted surface as he began to prod at the magic stored within, and a violet haze gradually materialized in the surrounding air.

  It didn’t take long for the aether to saturate the area. In all her life
, Taly had never smelled anything so sweet. The air felt richer, more vibrant somehow, and she took in several deep, shuddering breaths, allowing the heavenly draft to soothe the burning pain that riddled her body.

  As she leaned her head back, Aiden continued to work on the spells. If she were to open her eyes, she knew she would see threads of earth magic, almost like ley lines, crisscrossing her skin.

  When she could finally take a breath without flinching, she mumbled, “Hey guys?”

  The two men went silent, staring at her expectantly.

  “We need to move,” she grunted as she made a half-successful attempt to push herself up into a sitting position.

  Aiden was the first to regain himself. “No. You shouldn’t exert yourself. The restoration spells need time to work before we try to move you.”

  “That may be so,” Taly replied with a groan, “but there are only a few hours of daylight left. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but there’s a harpy nest just on the other side of this cliff face, and harpies hunt at night. We need to go. Now.”

  “Where’s Aimee?” Skye asked.

  “I’m here!” the fey noblewoman called as she emerged from the forest. Her skirts were hiked up around her hips, her dirtied bloomers peeking out from underneath the tattered hem, and she rode astride Taly’s horse. She held the reins of the sidesaddled mare as it struggled to keep up with the nimble gelding.

  “Well look at that,” Taly muttered tiredly. “She can ride.”

  Skye laughed as he put his arm around her and helped her stand. “At least your sense of humor is still intact. That has to be a good sign.”

  Taly leaned heavily against him. Though the wounds on her leg had closed, the limb felt like dead weight and refused to respond to her commands. She tried to take a step but lost her footing and stumbled.

  Without hesitation, Skye reached down and hooked an arm under her knees, effortlessly hoisting her up. “She can ride with me. Aiden, is there anything else you can do for her right now?”

  “No.” Aiden paused, thinking. “Just monitor the spells—they’ll last longer with a steady supply of aether. Once we’re back in the forest, I can check to see how she’s doing.”

  “Wait,” Taly said, tugging on Skye’s collar. “The harpy… I want its feathers.”

  “What? Why?” Skye asked, pausing to look at the harpy’s rapidly cooling carcass. Its head had been cleaved from its body, and its arms and wings still twitched sporadically.

  “My trophy,” Taly replied, smiling when she felt Skye’s bark of laughter. “I promised that bitch I was going to turn her into a feather duster. Don’t make me a liar, Skye.”

  Skye sighed before glancing at Aiden. “Will you…”

  “Yeah, I got it,” Aiden said, chuckling to himself.

  With Aiden’s help, the two men managed to get Taly seated in the saddle, and Skye placed a protective arm around her waist, tucking her safely against his chest as he settled in behind her.

  The journey back to Ryme was far shorter this time around. The harpy had carried her southeast of where they had originally emerged at the Aion Gate, so they were able to cut through the forest, heading south until they found an old, forgotten back road. The path was overgrown and cracked, but the horses managed to pick around the broken stones.

  As they rode, Taly tried to take stock of the damage to her body. Most of the bleeding had stopped now. She could still feel blood trickling down her leg from the puncture wound, most likely from where the saddle rubbed against the delicate layer of newly grown skin, but it was minimal. The gashes and lacerations from her fall through the trees had closed, and though her skin was still red and swollen, Aiden was a skilled healer—she doubted she would even have any scars left over from this ordeal.

  The sun began to slip behind the horizon, plunging the forested road into darkness, but Taly barely noticed. She made no complaint when Skye gently lifted her out of the saddle so that Aiden could check the spells, and she remained silent when they set out again. A single image was burned into her mind’s eye. The harpy—it had just stopped. Like it was frozen in time. That wasn’t a spell she recognized. It couldn’t have been Skye, and there had been no one else around to help her. That left only one conclusion.

  I did that, she thought. I used magic. Real magic. Time magic. She pressed her eyes closed as her body began to tremble. Skye shifted in the saddle, and the arm around her tightened as he tucked her more firmly against him.

  “Everything’s okay now. I’ve got you,” he whispered in her ear. For a moment, she almost believed him. As he rested his chin on the top of her head, his fingers absently caressing a patch of skin peeking through the shredded fabric at her waist, she wanted so desperately to believe him.

  But he was wrong—everything was far from okay. If a Sanctifier had witnessed what happened today, she would’ve been immediately sentenced to die for the crimes of a Queen she’d never met. No trial. No mercy. Because that’s what the Sanctorum did to time mages or anyone they suspected of having time magic. They hunted them, killed them, and then erased every trace of them from this world. And anyone stupid enough to try to protect a time mage… they got to share in their fate.

  “Here,” Skye said, jolting Taly out of her thoughts. He looked back at Aiden and jerked his head toward an overgrown path that veered off the main road. “It’s a shortcut. Should take us around the back of the manor property.”

  No! Taly shook herself, trying to dispel some of the overwhelming fatigue that weighed her down. She couldn’t let them take her back. She was even more dangerous than before.

  “Let me down,” she ordered weakly as Skye steered his horse toward the side road.

  “What?” Skye asked, confused. Nevertheless, he complied, easily sliding out of the saddle and gently placing her on the ground.

  She pushed his hands away, but her knees buckled as soon as he let go, and he quickly pulled her back against his body to keep her from falling. A growl of frustration ripped from his throat as she continued to struggle against him, but when she managed to wriggle out of his grip a second time, she finally found her feet.

  “I’m going back to town,” she mumbled, trying to ignore the way her words slurred together. Her heart fluttered rapidly in her chest, and a strange shimmer had crept in around the edges of her vision, making the world around her dance and sway.

  “Are you kidding?” Skye sputtered in disbelief. “No. You were practically dead not two hours ago. You can’t even walk!”

  Skye reached for her, but she shrugged out of his grasp, still stumbling and listless. “This may come as a surprise to you, but you don’t dictate my actions, Skye. I did my job—I got you to the gate and back. We’re done now.”

  “Taly,” Aiden said, swinging himself out of the saddle and coming to stand beside Skye, “I don’t think—"

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do either, Aiden.” The earth mage simply stared at her, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

  Skye wasn’t just agitated now. He was fuming. “Taly. You’re acting like a crazy person. A very bloody, very injured crazy person. Come home.”

  “I am going home.” For emphasis, Taly added, “My home.”

  “Talya?” Aimee had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire journey back, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and uncertain. “If this is about me, I’ll stay out of your way. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I didn’t think.” Tears, delicate and ladylike, started to stream down her face, and she worried the reins of Taly’s horse between her fingers. “I never think. This is all my fault. I am so, so sorry.”

  Taly looked up at her. In that moment, she knew that she had never really hated the girl. Not really.

  “I don’t blame you, Aimee.” Taly took a deep breath, struggling against the wave of dizziness that crept up on her. Despite the chill wind that whistled through the trees, she had started sweating. “If anything, today just showed me that I was right the first time. This was all a mis
take. It’s too dangerous.” A violent shiver shook her shoulders, and her tongue felt clumsy. “I’m… it’s all too dangerous now.”

  “What is she talking about?” Aiden whispered to Skye.

  Skye shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he replied, his voice equally quiet.

  “Shit,” Aiden cursed. “I think I know what’s happening.”

  When the healer approached her, Taly took a step back, then another. She was wasting time. She just needed to go.

  “It’s okay,” Aiden said gently. “If you want to go back to Ryme, that’s fine. I’ll help you get there. Just let me check the spells one more time. Maybe give you something for the pain?”

  Taly hesitated, and Aiden used that as an opportunity to close the distance, slinging an arm around her waist when she tried to backpedal. His hand came up to her forehead.

  “Shards, she’s burning up.” Aiden turned to Skye, who was watching them with wide eyes. “Which is closer? Ryme or Harbor Manor?”

  “Harbor Manor,” Skye replied readily.

  Aiden started pulling her towards the horses. “Then we need to get to Harbor Manor.”

  “No!” Taly thrashed, trying to shake him off, but she was too weak to do anything but tire herself out. She felt the skin on her thigh tear as one of her wounds reopened, releasing a fresh flood of warm blood. “Let me go!”

  “Hey!” Skye snarled, confusion and anger evident in his expression as he pulled Taly away from the earth mage. “You’re hurting her!”

  Skye’s hands were gentle as he grabbed her fists and pulled her against his body. Her wounded leg gave out beneath her, but still, she writhed, resisting whatever help he tried to offer.

  “Let me go,” Taly pleaded weakly. She was just trying to protect them. Why couldn’t they see that?

  Aiden’s hands began to glow. “We need to get her back to the manor right now. I think an infection is starting to set in.” Ignoring Taly’s feeble pleas, he began weaving and shaping the spell around her. His eyes found hers, and although she saw nothing but kindness and concern shining through, she shrank back. “Can you tell me your name? Do you know where you are?”