Shardless

by Stephanie Fisher

  The room wasn’t overly crowded, and Skye managed to find a table set against the back wall. Slumping down in an open seat, he watched the patrons as they came and went, patiently waiting for the barmaid to return with their food. A mishmash of people filled the room—some were native to the island, but he noticed quite a few travelers from the mainland as well.

  Taly was leaning against the bar in the adjacent room, speaking with a human woman that, though advanced in years, looked strong beneath the worn leathers she wore.

  A hunter, Skye thought, eyeing the bow at the woman’s feet.

  The old woman scratched at her shorn head while Taly hunched over the bar top, hastily scribbling notes. When the bartender poured two shots from a bottle of what looked like moonshine, the ladies toasted, drank, and then slammed their glasses back on the bar. Taly choked and coughed, and the hunter let out a throaty laugh, slapping the younger woman on the back as she struggled to swallow what was most assuredly an overly strong and foul-tasting liquor.

  They exchanged a few more words before Taly started scanning the room for him. Skye gave her a wave before leaning back, his eyes following her as she deftly navigated the narrowly spaced tables.

  “Hey! What’d you get?” she asked as she threw herself down into the chair next to him.

  “Hydra stew,” Skye replied. “Sounded better than bugbear. I also got us some ale.”

  Taly chuckled and rested her elbows on the table. “Wow. Buying me a drink already? Do you really want to hear about all of my many jilted lovers that badly?”

  Skye threw up his hands. “Okay, you made your point. You’re an adult, and you can do whatever you want with whomever you want. I get it. I shouldn’t have said anything, and I’m sorry.” He drummed his fingers against his thigh, fidgeting with one of the buckles on his armor. “What’d you find out about the road?”

  “Oh!” Taly sat up and pulled out her notes again. “I was right. The tree’s been cleared. My contact didn’t know anything about the wards, though. I figure we can take our chances with the main road tomorrow, but I should still sit down and chart out a few alternatives tonight just in case.”

  “Let me watch when you do. I want to see these so-called ‘hunting trails.’ Maybe then I won’t get so easily manipulated next time.”

  Taly laughed as she put away the roll of papers. “Sure thing. Although, I think you might be a lost cause. Your sense of direction was always pretty pitiful.”

  Ignoring the obvious bait (he’d gotten them lost one time), Skye just smiled, content to enjoy the comfortable silence that had settled between them as they waited for their food.

  As soon as their meal came, Taly tore into it with an eagerness that was a little disconcerting. He opened his mouth, a teasing comment at the ready, but a commotion from across the room caught his attention.

  “Lord Emrys!” a woman called from the doorway. Skye looked up, his eyes widening in surprise as he caught sight of one of the very last people he had expected to see in Della. The great-granddaughter of a high-ranking Countess, the woman currently weaving her way across the room had the kind of elegance and grace that most ladies at the Dawn Court could only dream of—a vision of loveliness, even among the highborn fey. Everything about her, from the demure upsweep of her inky hair to the light brush of color across her cheeks, only served to highlight and enhance her flawless beauty.

  “Lord?” Taly mouthed, rolling her eyes.

  “Behave,” he mumbled under his breath. “Or I’ll tell Sarina that your year spent salvaging made you forget your manners.” Taly made a face at him, but she complied, schooling her expression and sitting up a little straighter in her chair.

  “Lord Emrys, what a pleasant surprise,” the woman crooned as she approached, fluttering her unnaturally full lashes. She gave him a deep curtsey and then waited for her manservant, a scrawny lowborn teen, to bring over a chair. Taking a seat, she waved the boy away with a delicate gesture.

  “Lady Spero,” Skye acknowledged, slipping on his noble façade like a second skin. “Talya, this is Lady Adalet Spero of House Tira. Lady Spero—Talya Caro, the Marquess Castaro’s ward.”

  “My Lady,” Taly said, bowing her head as the other woman’s superior station required.

  Adalet’s bright sapphire eyes lit up. “Oh my! You must be that Talya!” She placed a familiar hand on Skye’s arm. “Skylen’s told me so much about you.”

  “Has he now?” Taly replied cautiously.

  “Oh, yes. Skylen and I go way back.” Adalet’s hand moved down his arm, caressing the skin of his wrist in a way that made shivers go down his spine. Her voice dropped, and a seductive smile curved her lips. “Way back.”

  Taly’s eyes flashed and her lips pursed, but otherwise, her expression remained respectfully neutral. “Ah. I see,” she replied evenly.

  “Oh, Skylen,” Adalet said with a sigh, pulling on his arm and leaning in so that he could see the generous swell of her breast spilling out of her pale blue bodice. Her household’s crest—a spiraling gust of wind—was artfully tattooed along the length of her collarbone and four thin lines streaked the skin between her breasts. The pale white ink nearly disappeared into her skin. “I dare say I’m not the only one that missed you at court last season, but I can say with certainty that I missed you the most. Where were you?”

  Skye laughed lightly. Adalet was perhaps the only thing he had ever truly enjoyed about his visits to the Dawn Court. He had met her when he was 19, during his second season at court, and after their first night spent together, he had continued to seek her out every season since.

  “I’m sorry,” he replied smoothly. The noblewoman smiled coyly when he intertwined his fingers with hers and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. He could almost hear Taly rolling her eyes in the background, but he paid her no mind. The lie he’d rehearsed a million times in his head slipped past his lips. “I had matters to attend to in Ghislain. My father was insisting that I start helping with the Mechanica, and then Marquess Castaro called me back early to assist with the Aion Gate.”

  Adalet smiled, her eyes raking over him appraisingly. Even though Skye knew that she had no personal interest in elevating her current station, he chuckled slightly when he saw the light flush in her cheeks at the mention of his family’s claim to wealth and power. The Mechanica was a famed legion of armored knights. Their mechanical suits could grant the strength and agility of a shadow mage to anyone, even a mortal, and House Ghislain alone knew the secrets behind the crystal-powered armor.

  “Well, duty calls, I suppose,” Adalet replied airily. “Although, now that I’ve seen it in person, I simply cannot fathom why you chose to stay on this island rather than attending the university in Arylaan. For Shards’ sake, everyone still gets around using horses, of all things. I’m surprised you even have running water.”

  Skye flicked a piece of dust from his trousers. “Now, Adalet. Tempris is not that bad. True, it isn’t as grand or progressive as Arylaan, and we’re still working on repairing the air trams in addition to a few other things, but if you can look past all that, the island has its charms.”

  Adalet raised a skeptical brow. “I’ll have to take your word for it.” Leaning in, she remarked, “You missed out on one of the most eventful seasons to date last winter. Lord Tidas…” Adalet stopped, clearing her throat as she turned to Taly. “I’m terribly sorry. Lord Aaron Tidas. He’s the heir to House Corvell.”

  Taly smiled politely. “I know who he is. You’ll find that I’m quite well-versed in both the standings of the current noble houses and their genealogies.”

  Adalet’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh! How refreshing! It’s so rare to encounter mortals with any meaningful knowledge of the nobility. Well, as I was saying, Lord Tidas made a public announcement at the Crystal Masquerade. Apparently, he’s planning to form a” —she turned her head from side-to-side before continuing in a conspiratorial whisper— “soul bond.”

  “Now that is scandalous,” Skye said as he
took a sip of his ale. “But then again, Lord Tidas always was a fool.”

  “I’m sorry,” Taly interjected. “Perhaps I’m missing something. What’s so scandalously foolish about forming the bond? Exchanging a piece of your soul with the person you love most? I think that sounds romantic.”

  Adalet looked at Taly pitifully. “Oh, poor dear. How adorably quaint.” Skye saw Taly arch a brow, but she remained quiet as Adalet continued on. “I suppose if I only had a century to live, then perhaps I would be satisfied with a single mate too. With our lifespans, however, it makes no sense to permanently tie ourselves to just one partner. There’s far too much to do. Too much to taste.” Here, Adalet turned to Skye, pressing her leg against his underneath the table. Skye covered his smile with his hand, feeling the back of his neck flush slightly at the memories her words evoked.

  “So, what you’re saying” —Taly paused for a moment, waiting until she had Adalet’s full attention— “is that your entire species is afraid of commitment?” Taly’s lips quirked to the side when she saw Adalet frown indelicately. “Except, of course, for Lord Tidas.”

  Skye bit back a laugh. “No, Talya,” he said when he heard Adalet suck in a sharp breath, preparing to speak. The woman had a barbed tongue, and the last thing he wanted was to see her turn it on Taly. Reaching for the lessons that had been drilled into him when he was still just a young boy in Ghislain, he said, “The real reason the highborn avoid soul bonds is practicality. The bond is permanent, and almost always precludes the execution of breeding contracts—something that, in addition to helping us mitigate the effects of our declining fertility, is used to form political alliances between households.”

  When Taly continued to stare at him with that familiar, raised eyebrow, Skye tried to elaborate. “Let’s take Lord Tidas as an example. He’s currently serving out the term of a breeding contract with a lady from House Arylaan. If he were to take a bondmate right now, the magic that forms the bond between him and his intended mate would nullify the spells sealing the breeding contract. In other words, the contract would be rendered null and void.

  “Also, considering how fiercely possessive bondmates tend to be of one another, his family would be forced to annul his marriage. Hence why soul bonds are so scandalously foolish, as you put it. They significantly decrease a household’s political maneuverability.”

  Taly took a sip from her cup. “Well, Skylen—” She drew out the syllables of his full name, the look in her eye carrying a thinly veiled note of contempt. She had always hated formalities. “A few comments. Let’s start with your point on fertility. Highborn fertility has been declining over the past two or so centuries—ever since the late Time Queen began manipulating the timelines in her favor. That’s a given. Still, the fey are an immortal race, and, for all your panicking, you’re not sterile. The way I see it, if you could simply learn to stop killing each other, you wouldn’t have a population crisis.”

  Skye coughed, once again trying to hide his amusement. Leave it to Taly to be unabashedly blunt. Adalet also shifted uncomfortably beside him.

  “As for politics,” Taly continued, giving a practiced sigh, “I’m aware of how breeding contracts work. I’m also aware that where highborn fey are concerned, these arrangements tend to have a very low success rate—around 10% if I’m not mistaken. That means that a breeding contract between two noble households has almost nothing to do with fertility or reproduction. What it really equates to is a temporary ceasefire between families that can’t stop bickering unless they’re sharing a bed.”

  Adalet delicately cleared her throat. “I suppose that is one way of looking at it.”

  Taly cocked her head. “If you have a better explanation, then, by all means, clarify my understanding of the matter. However, considering how many additional terms inevitably get built into the executed contracts, I think it’s a reasonable assumption. Therefore, in my very quaint opinion, the way the nobility view the formation of new soul bonds—almost like a taboo—is completely unfounded.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence before Adalet laughed abruptly, the bell-like sound carrying over the din of the crowded tavern. “Shards, I always knew that mortals could be passionate, but Skylen—” She paused to run a bold hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face. Taly’s eyes narrowed at the gesture, and she quickly looked away. “—you weren’t joking when you said she was feisty,” Adalet said with a giggle.

  Skye chuckled, distracted by the way Adalet’s fingers trailed across the skin of his neck. “She has her moments.”

  Taly’s ears flushed, but her countenance remained calm as she took another long draught of ale. To Skye, however, she may as well have been screaming. Like most shadow mages, he was usually channeling a small amount of aether at any given time, and his magically enhanced hearing picked up a dramatic spike in her heart rate.

  “By the way, Lady Adalet,” Skye said, his tone even. “I believe that congratulations are in order. I heard about your engagement to Lord Achard.”

  Adalet’s brows shot up. “I see this island isn’t quite as isolated as I thought.”

  “Adalet, you act as though we’re savages out here,” Skye said, laughing when she playfully swatted at his chest. He heard Taly shift in her chair, and when he glanced over, her shoulders were unnaturally stiff as she continued sipping at her ale. “I was glad to hear the news, though. The last time we spoke, the match was still in negotiation. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you got what you wanted in the end.”

  “Yes, well…” Adalet said, leaning back and picking at an invisible piece of lint on her skirt. “Our matriarchs finally managed to agree on a set of terms that were favorable to all parties.”

  “Lord Achard is here with you, is he not?” Taly suddenly piped up. “I believe I saw him a little while ago. I would’ve greeted him—we were introduced years ago when he visited Marquess Castaro—but he seemed… preoccupied. There must have been something wrong with his room. He was giving one of the maids quite the tongue-lashing.”

  Skye choked on his ale. Maybe it wasn’t Adalet’s tongue he should’ve been worried about.

  “That was probably his Feseraa,” the noblewoman replied icily.

  Taly smiled, sweet and wicked. “I had no idea that House Eno was using Feseraa these days. How interesting.”

  Adalet picked at her gloves. “Ann is the first they’ve acquired. She took the Rites of the Imorati just two years ago, and she’s already birthed a child. We were, of course, all shocked when it happened. As you can imagine, my family has had several offers to purchase her, but my matriarch saw fit to give her to me as part of my dowry. The girl had been promised to two other men in my household, so the amount of paperwork it took to parcel out the rest of her contract was truly staggering.”

  “Your family did you a great honor, Adalet. Relinquishing such a treasure just to secure you an auspicious match could not have been an easy decision,” Skye replied politely, trying to catch Taly’s eye. He didn’t know what she was doing, but he didn’t like it. “Right, Talya?”

  “Yes, a great honor,” Taly agreed with a simpering nod. “Still, I will never know how you fey do it. I realize this is just my quaint, mortal sensibilities getting the better of me again, but, be it a spouse, lover, bondmate, or anything else, I don’t think I’d like it very much if my partner was… you know… with other women—even if those women did have the proper paperwork.”

  Adalet cleared her throat, her gloved hands clenching and unclenching underneath her cloak. She gave Taly a serpentine smile before turning back to Skye. “You know, all this talk of breeding contracts has given me an idea. My household’s matriarch has been going on and on about how much she would love to negotiate a treaty with House Ghislain. While you’re in town, maybe you and I could” —she paused, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as her eyes raked his form— “hammer something out?”

  Skye inhaled sharply when he felt a hand on his thigh. “Perhaps,” he repli
ed with a practiced smile. He jumped slightly when Taly placed her mug down on the table with more force than was strictly necessary. When he glanced over, she glared at him pointedly.

  What the hell is wrong with her? Skye thought, his irritation from earlier starting to resurface. Taly had gone out of her way to tell him how she had spent the past year sleeping her way across the island, but then she had the nerve to get mad when he engaged in a little harmless flirtation?

  Turning back to Adalet, Skye decided to, as the mortals would say, give the little brat a dose of her own medicine. After all, they were all grown-ups here, weren’t they?

  “Now, Adie,” Skye drawled, running a finger along Adalet’s jaw. He had to forcibly suppress a grin when he heard a low, near-inaudible growl coming from Taly’s direction. He didn’t even know humans were capable of making that sound. “While that does sound like a very tempting proposition, with that silver tongue of yours, I may be in danger of getting taken for everything I have.”

  “I was counting on that.” Adalet gave him a subtle wink.

  Taly’s chair scraped against the floor as she pushed herself away from the table and stood. Reaching for her pack, she said, “We’ve got an early morning tomorrow, so I think I’m going to go see about getting a room.” She looked at Skye expectantly. “Are you coming?”

  It doesn’t have to end here, a small voice in the back of Skye’s mind whispered when Adalet’s hand became a little more daring.

  And… now that he thought about it, he found that he rather liked that idea. Yes—maybe a night with Adalet was exactly what he needed. Despite his best efforts, he still hadn’t been able to completely banish the memory of Taly leaning over, flirting with that scumbag trader. That incident had stirred up some strange feelings—ones that, upon reflection, felt uncomfortably close to jealousy. But that didn’t have to mean anything. It was entirely possible that it had just been too long since he’d bedded a woman. After close to a year and a half with nothing except the touch of his own hand, maybe he had just gotten confused. That seemed reasonable. Right?