Taly raised her dagger. “Your point?”
Kit’s eyes flicked to her blade and then to the two guns holstered at her waist. “Easy,” he said with a low chuckle. “I’m not going to hurt Lord Castaro’s ward. I may not be the brightest, but I’m not that dumb. Adanna, assign lookouts. Let’s take a short break. I want our weapons recharged and the water casks filled.”
Adanna jerked her head in a terse nod, but before she turned to carry out his orders, she caught Taly’s eye, her expression softening. “Would you like me to recharge your dagger?”
Taly’s eyes darted to Adanna’s outstretched hand and then back to Kit before she twirled the dagger in a single fluid motion, gripping the blade as she handed the weapon to the Gate Watcher. “Thank you.”
“You probably have questions,” Kit said, standing up straighter. Though he was tall and thin, his shoulders looked broad beneath his scaled leather armor. There was a small spattering of crimson across his belly, but Taly could see that the wound below had already healed. “We don’t have much time, but I’ll answer what I can.”
Before she had time to think, the words spilled from her mouth. “What happened here?”
Kit grimaced. “I think we’re all still asking ourselves that same question. In short, Ebondrift was attacked late last night.” Taly flinched away when he reached over and picked a chunk of flesh out of her hair. He smiled as he pulled a threadbare handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. “It looks like you’ve already met our new guests. Friendly, aren’t they?”
“That’s not exactly the word I’d use to describe those walking nightmares, but yeah. What were those things?” Taly asked, rubbing her face with the cloth.
“I don’t know,” Kit replied with a tired sigh. “I wasn’t assigned to the team responsible for figuring that out. Myself and the men and women you see here were deployed to retrieve a member of the High Lord of Earth’s family—Lord Kalahad Brenin.”
“I’d heard the High Lord of Earth’s brother was on Tempris,” Taly said. “I also heard he was in Strio, not Ebondrift.”
Kit’s mouth quirked to the side. “You’re very knowledgeable for a human.”
“Try not to look so surprised,” she quipped in reply. “If you fey could ever get your heads out of your asses, you might see that humans aren’t so bad.”
“Duly noted. Please accept my sincerest apologies, dear lady.” When Taly arched a brow, the corners of Kit’s mouth lifted into a genuine smile. “Lord Kalahad came through the Seren Gate about two weeks ago. His visit was… unexpected. He left the compound several days ago to tour some of the old farms that were destroyed during the Schism and was scheduled to return yesterday evening. At this point in time, we’re not sure if he and his entourage encountered these creatures.” Kit hung his head. “Since we failed to retrieve him, we were on our way back to the compound. You’re lucky we found you when we did.”
“Sir,” Adanna said, handing Kit a small leather case, “there’s a message for you on the comm.”
“Thank you.” Lifting the flap, he keyed in the proper set of commands on what looked like a scrying communicator—a smaller, handheld version of a scrying relay.
Taly’s hand reached out before she could stop herself. “I’ve never seen a scrying comm with a hyaline harmonizing prism wired parallel to the focusing crystal before.”
Kit tilted the communicator so that she could take a closer look. The base of the small device was made of a silver alloy inset with thin strips of hyaline that threw off fragments of diffracted light. Glowing Faera runes were etched across the surface of each strip of translucent crystal, and a single, blinking water crystal was set into the center of the control panel. Her eyes wide, Taly ran a finger over the line of shadow crystals that winked and glittered along the bottom edge.
“I take it you like gadgets?” Kit asked, a wide, toothy grin splitting his face.
Taly shrugged. “You might say that.”
Holding up the small device to his ear, he said, “They’re new—we just got them in last month. The new design increases the communication range by 50%. I took mine apart as soon as I got it—which is probably how I got stuck on search and rescue duty.” Kit winced as a stream of garbled noise sounded from the earpiece of the comm.
“Ma’am,” he replied tersely. “No, ma’am. Yes, I understand.” Kit’s eyes flicked over to Taly. “Describe her. Uh-huh. Yes. So, about three and a half ells, blonde, armed with” —he leaned over, giving Taly a wink as his eyes dipped to her waist— “pistols and two air daggers—both viridian. Okay. Unrelated question—does the look in her eyes say something along the lines of ‘if you test me, I won’t hesitate to punch you in the balls?’ Uh-huh. Hold on.”
Kit held a hand over the communicator. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Talya Caro by any chance, would it?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Taly replied, her lips quirking to the side. “And your instincts are spot-on. If you test me, I will punch you in the balls.”
Kit barked out a laugh before replying, “Yeah, I might have seen her around. Tell him not to worry. I’ll have her back safe and sound within the hour.” With that, Kit pressed a key on the interface of the comm, and the water crystal went dark. Looking up, he said, “It looks like your Lord Emrys is worried about you, Miss Talya Caro.”
Taly sagged against the wall as a wave of relief washed over her. Skye was safe. He had made it to the Gate Watchers’ compound, and he was safe. And already worrying himself sick, apparently. “That doesn’t surprise me. Also, it’s Taly—just Taly.”
Kit reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to her feet. “Well, let’s not keep him waiting, just Taly. I can tell you from personal experience that the members of House Ghislain are not known for their patience.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Taly remarked as she fell into step beside him. She mumbled a shy “thanks” when Adanna handed back her dagger.
Kit gave a signal, and the rest of the Watchers took up formation around them. Pulling Taly to stand in the middle of the large group of heavily armed shadow mages, he wiped a thumb across her cheek, removing a smudge of black ooze she’d missed. “Very astute, Miss Caro. I’m a distant relation of Lord Emrys—a cousin in fact. I’ve never met the heir in person, but I squired for his older half-brother, Kato, before I joined the Watchers. Have you met him?” When Taly shook her head, he gave a low chuckle. “You’re not missing much.”
They moved swiftly through the silent city. Occasionally, they would come upon a small group of those creatures, but the Watchers were able to dispose of them quickly and efficiently, severing their limbs and smashing in their heads. Even if they couldn’t figure out how to completely end their suffering, the shadow mages treated the fallen, undead soldiers with as much respect as possible.
The streets started to widen as they circled back around to the market square. From what Taly could tell, running from those creatures had somehow brought her back to the north side of town.
Kit held out a hand, signaling for her to stop as the other Gate Watchers raised their swords unbidden. No doubt their magically enhanced senses had detected something she couldn’t.
“How many do you think?” Adanna asked in a low voice as she came to stand beside Kit.
“Too many,” he replied, a faraway look in his eyes. “Did Eula say anything about another attack?”
Adanna nodded and pulled her hood back, revealing an intricate mass of braids coiled at the base of her neck. “Yes, but she also said that they were able to fend them off.”
“Okay. It’s most likely the dismembered bodies. They must not have disposed of them properly. Let’s keep moving,” Kit said, the shadow crystals in his sword flashing. “It’s almost sundown. If we want to make it back to the compound before nightfall, we don’t have time to send a scouting party.”
As they entered the square, Taly felt her breath catch in her throat. The market was unrecognizable. The stalls had been
smashed and scattered across the cracked pavement, and severed limbs and broken bodies littered the area. Torsos with no arms or legs, some with no heads, writhed on the ground. A babel of deafening wails filled the square.
“Taly,” Kit began, pulling her behind him, “pull those guns and stick close to me. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Taly sheathed Zephyr and the yet-to-be-named dagger Skye had gifted her and pulled both of her pistols. “You got it.”
“I take it you know how to use those things?” Kit asked with the ghost of a smile.
“Please,” Taly replied with a snort. “I can give you a demonstration if you’d like.”
“No… no, I believe you.” Squaring his shoulders, he turned to each one of the Watchers, catching their eye before giving his order. “Let’s move.”
They carefully picked their way through the sea of fragmented corpses. The line of Watchers taking point kicked the still-moving bodies off to the side as the group advanced, and the ground, coated with a thin film of black ooze, felt slick underfoot.
Taly held both pistols at her side, the barrels of the crystal handguns aimed toward the ground. As she followed Kit across the deserted square, tendrils of golden thread began rippling across the pavement, twining between the legs of the men and women surrounding her. Taly blinked, trying to dismiss the vision. The last thing she needed was another explosion of time magic when she was surrounded by shadow mages. But the apparition refused to be ignored, growing in intensity and forcing her eyes up. The market square was now awash in gold, but the glittering magic particles seemed to be concentrating in one area to the south. They clustered together, forming and reforming themselves into something that Taly didn’t have the words to describe. It was a colossal mass of chaotically swirling magic, and it was coming right for them.
“K-Kit,” Taly stammered softly. “To… to the south.”
“What?” Kit asked, his head swiveling around to meet her horrified gaze.
A thundering roar reverberated through the market, completely drowning out the din of the wailing, dismembered dead, and the ground began to tremble beneath their feet.
“To the south!” one of the Watchers called as a hulking beast barreled into the square. Wreckage and debris sprayed into the air as it angrily thrashed about, and a mist of blackened blood stained the surrounding pavement.
This thing—this gruesome fiend—wasn’t like the others. Though it might have once been alive, that must have been a very long time ago. At least 12 feet tall, its arms and legs were dense amalgamations of striated flesh. Its skin was rotting, stretched so thin it was nearly translucent, and blisters and swollen abscesses covered its bloated body. Countless bony spikes protruded at haphazard angles from its torso, each covered with drips and splatters of tar-like gore.
Except… no.
As the thing lumbered closer, Taly could clearly see that what she had mistaken for spikes were really limbs—arms and legs in varying states of decay that had been randomly planted along the beast’s body. And those weren’t blisters. They were heads. Some were nothing but skulls with a few remnants of flesh still clinging to the bone, but others looked fresh—recently killed if the crimson blood streaking their cheeks was anything to go by. Their mouths gaped, and Taly suddenly realized that the great wail echoing through the marketplace wasn’t a single voice. It was many—a chorus of mournful cries woven together in discordant harmony.
The Gate Watchers were already moving into formation. Flames flared along the blades of swords and daggers, and gusts of wind spiraled out of the tips of wands, lashing at the ground and creating a wall of whirling dust and debris.
Someone grabbed at Taly’s arm, pulling her back. “If the human is valuable to House Ghislain, we need to protect her. Get her to safety.” Adanna shoved Taly towards Kit. “We’ll cover your retreat before we move in.”
“Good. I’ll join you when I can,” Kit said as he hastily sheathed his sword and dropped to one knee. “Get on,” he ordered, turning to look at Taly.
She didn’t argue. Holstering her pistols, she wrapped her arms around Kit’s neck, tightening her grip when he slung his hands beneath her thighs and lifted her onto his back.
“Hold on tight.”
With that short, muttered warning, they were off. The world was a blur, and Taly had to bury her face in Kit’s neck when the sting of the wind became too much for her. The sheer force of their momentum was almost enough to make her lose her grip, but she held on, her fingers clutching at the leather strap of his breastplate. Without warning, her stomach lurched, and when she opened her eyes, all she could see was the white marble stone of the compound’s wall as they flew through the air. Chancing a glance down, she saw the ground below, the details of the broken carts and shattered bodies blurring as they rose higher and higher.
Kit’s boots hit the floor of the ramparts with a heavy thud. As soon as he deposited her on the ground, Taly collapsed against the wall of the parapet, her chest heaving as she desperately tried not to splatter the contents of her stomach across the walkway.
“Shards,” she gasped, closing her eyes and turning her face towards the cool breeze drifting over the top of the wall. “How do you shadow mages do that without losing your lunch?”
Kit smiled as he crouched down next to her. “A lot of us do the first few times. I take it you’ve never run with a highborn shadow mage at full speed?” When Taly shook her head, he laughed and offered her a canteen of water. “Well, I’m honored to have been your first.” He gave her a sly wink and a winsome smile.
“Are you flirting with me?” Taly asked as she accepted the canteen and took a long sip.
Kit hung his head. “Maybe. Although, if you have to ask, that means I’m not doing a very good job.” When he looked up, his eyes were crinkled with mirth. “Stay here. I need to go take care of that thing out there, but I’ll be back soon. Then we can go find your Lord Emrys.”
“Thank you,” Taly breathed. “And be careful.”
Kit gave her another wink as he stood to his full height. “As my lady commands.”
With that, he stepped off the edge of the curtain wall. When Taly was able to pull herself to her feet, she could see him sprinting across the market to rejoin the battle. The shadow mages were circling the beast, but it paid them no mind. Instead, it lumbered across the square, its motley collection of limbs grabbing at the mutilated bodies strewn across the ground as it shoved the dead flesh into whichever mouth was nearest.
As Taly tore her eyes away from the sickening sight, someone shoved her to the side. There was more movement around her now as mages streamed in from a set of stairs at the end of the narrow corridor.
“Line up!” a woman called as she marched down the parapet behind the group of mages that were clumsily trying to arrange themselves between the gaps in the wall. Grabbing Taly’s arm, she whirled her around. “What are you doing up here… Taly?” The woman’s azure eyes widened, and Taly suddenly found herself enfolded in a familiar set of arms.
“Hi Eula,” Taly mumbled, returning the woman’s embrace.
“Paravani sora,” Eula whispered. “When Skye told me that you were still out there, I thought the worst.”
Taly smiled at the old nickname. Paravani sora was ancient Faera and roughly translated to little sister. Eula had been one of the few Gate Watchers to take an interest in Taly when Ivain let her tag along on his trips to the compound, often inviting Taly to accompany her to the shooting range. If not for Eula, Taly might never have learned how to use a pistol.
“I’m fine. Really,” Taly said reassuringly.
Eula raised a perfectly groomed brow, her eyes lingering on the red stain on Taly’s hip. Before she could press the matter, Eula’s hand flew to her ear, and for the first time, Taly noticed that the Gate Watcher was wearing a scrying comm strapped to her waist.
“Yes,” Eula replied tersely into the earpiece, smoothing back a raven lock of hair that had escaped from the braid coiling around
her head. “We’re not sure, but it’s under control. Yes, the search and rescue team have it surrounded. No, sire. I’ve got her right here. Yes, sire.” Eula keyed off her comm before jerking her head, indicating that Taly should follow her. “Come with me.”
“What happened here, Eula?” Taly asked as she followed the older fey woman along the battlements.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eula replied, glancing over her shoulder as they weaved through the crowd of mages lining the walkway. “We’ve barely had enough time to lick our wounds since this mess started. Skye’s arrival was a Shardsend, especially with our chain-of-command in shambles. He may be young, but Ivain trained him well.
“You!” She snatched a young fire mage by the sleeve of his robe, pulling him to his feet. “How many times do I have to tell you?! You’re no good if you deplete your supply of aether. Find a shadow mage to help you regenerate your magic.”
Eula let out a low growl. “Whelps. Nothing but untrained whelps. Can you believe that?” Eula asked as she stopped on the far side of the battlement. “Almost 200 years old and he still doesn’t know how to use his aether efficiently. I’m telling you, I have no idea why these damned noble families nowadays think they’re too highbrow to teach their children basic spells. That showy shit is all well and good if you’re trying to get laid in Arylaan, but the basics are what keep you alive in a siege. What good are you if you use up your entire supply of aether on one spell?!”
Taly jumped when she heard a sharp cry pierce the air. Both Eula’s and Taly’s heads whipped around to the fight still raging through the market below. The creature had finally turned its attention to the shadow mages, and it looked as though it had managed to catch one of them by the leg. It threw the mage across the battlefield, and the others rushed in to try to keep the beast from charging the wounded soldier.
“Marshal Ora!” Eula snapped her fingers, grabbing the attention of a shadow mage at the opposite end of the wall roughly 20 feet away. The woman was stooped over a table, her hands glowing with shadow magic as she hastily recharged a stack of shadow crystals. The ground around her was littered with crystals centered on pieces of parchment, each surrounded by a faint, violet haze as they pulled aether from the air. “Back them up! They need fresh crystals!”
Shardless Page 32