Shardless

by Stephanie Fisher

  “Well, that is a new but not unwelcome development,” Skye said with a chuckle as he approached a large, cloth-covered lump that took up most of the space on the rooftop platform. “Back to the matter at hand, though. You think this will solve our problem?” Skye asked as he pulled off the giant tarp.

  Taly felt her breath catch. “Shards,” she breathed. “Lift me up.” Cupping his hands, Skye boosted her onto the raised platform.

  Her eyes wide, Taly ran a hand along the shiny metal barrel of the aged tower gun. It was a great, massive thing, pure viridian and mounted onto a rotating platform that provided a full circular range of motion. Originally based on something the humans called a minigun, this was one of the few mortal firearms that the fey crafters had seen fit to convert and optimize for use with crystal firing mechanisms. Even then, the weapon hadn’t really caught on until one shadow mage decided to integrate another human invention—the laser. The result of this single moment of brilliance was what was generally heralded as one of the deadliest ranged weapons known throughout all the fey realms.

  “I didn’t know the Gate Watchers’ compound had flash cannons,” Taly murmured. If there wasn’t a raging, undead nightmare pillaging the streets below, she could’ve spent hours studying the weapon. She’d certainly spent far longer than that poring through books and diagrams detailing the crystal circuitry with Ivain. “Why aren’t these online?”

  Skye bunched up the sheet and threw it to the side. “Two reasons. One—most shadow mages don’t know a damned thing about guns. And two—these guns haven’t been used since before the Schism. This compound used to be one of the Time Queen’s palaces, but it was militarized when the Dawn Court first pried open the Seren Gate after the forced shutdown caused the bridges to collapse. The crystal circuits in the flash cannons require a lot of upkeep, and once the bulk of the fighting stopped, there was no reason to commit the necessary resources to maintain them.”

  “That’s a damned shame,” Taly whispered reverently. Her footsteps echoed as she moved about the hollow, metal platform, checking the various toggles and switches on the control panel. She frowned when the machine gave a sad whine, the lights along the barrel flickering before being immediately extinguished. “Oh, my poor, beautiful baby. What did those mean ol’ shadow mages do to you?”

  “Do I need to leave the two of you alone?” Skye asked, arching a sly brow.

  “Any other time, I would say yes.” Giving Skye a wink, she jumped off the platform and dropped to her knees. The cover on the side paneling had rusted shut, so she pounded it with her fist until she was able to pry it loose. A tangled web of wiring tumbled out, but she pushed it aside. Skye crouched next to her, holding up a lantern as she stuck her head inside the small opening.

  “This one is loaded with ice,” she said when she saw the glint of three massive water crystals set into the framework. “But the shadow crystals are missing. The connections to the ammunition chamber are still intact, but someone tried to rewire the firing mechanism at some point. They didn’t close the circuit.”

  “Well, Tinker… it’s time for you to live up to your name. If I keep that thing distracted, do you think you can fix this?”

  When Taly pulled her head out, she wasn’t expecting Skye to be hunched over, peering into the control panel. She felt her cheeks warm when her nose bumped his. “Um…” she stammered. “Yes. The primary circuit for the firing mechanism is the same as the one I designed for my pistols. It’ll take too long to set a new shadow crystal into the power conduit and repair the aethostats, but I think I can jerry-rig something if you get me some tools and a shadow mage. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll rain icy hellfire down on that thing.”

  Skye nodded. “If we get the gun up and running, it might be able to punch a hole in that creature faster than it can heal itself. Then if we get all the mages to hit it at once…” A slow smile drifted across his face, and before Taly could react, he had tangled a hand in her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m counting on you, Tink. I know you won’t let me down.”

  Skye pulled back and gave her a wide grin before he pushed himself to his feet and disappeared down the darkened stairwell. He returned a few moments later with a bag of tools. Setting the toolkit beside her, he helped her remove her pack, throwing it off to the side as she lay on her stomach and pulled the top half of her body into the narrow compartment below the tower gun.

  “Here,” he said, hooking a comm to her belt and handing her the earpiece. “Let me know when you have the gun up and running. I’m going to have the mages on the wall hold off until then.”

  “Got it. And Em?” Taly pulled back a moment and caught his eye before he managed to move away. “Be careful. If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”

  Skye chuckled, his eyes crinkling with mirth despite the seriousness of the situation. There was something in his expression, something she didn’t have a name for. It made her heart clench and her stomach flip. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied quietly. He opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it, shaking his head as he stood. Giving her one last smile, he turned on his heel and returned to the battle outside.

  Skye’s voice filtered in over the comm, a familiar sound among a haze of static. Moments later, the blasts of fire and ice magic began to taper off. The comparative silence that followed felt heavy and tense, and Taly could now hear the beast’s screams from the square below. There was a flurry of movement as the mages in the tower room below rushed about, their thundering footsteps echoing up from the stairwell, no doubt scrambling back to the rampart to follow Skye’s orders. Taly paid them no mind. Instead, she set to work, pulling herself further into the cramped crawlspace below the tower gun platform, ripping out old wires and trying to reform the connection that would feed aether into the firing mechanism.

  There were more voices on the comm now. From what she could tell, Skye had finally joined the battle. The mages that had been keeping the beast at bay were ordered back to the wall, and Skye and his team began distracting the creature, keeping it busy until Taly could back them up with more firepower.

  Taly’s heart fluttered in her chest, and she had to tamp down on the wave of panic that threatened to overwhelm her. She wasn’t having any luck with the firing mechanism. Whoever had tried to repair the gun had stripped the wiring, and moisture had seeped in over time, rusting out the conductive material. If she tried to power up the gun as is, it would probably blow up in her face.

  “Think, think, think,” Taly muttered, fiddling with a socket that used to hold a shadow crystal. There had to be a way to fix this.

  “Taly?”

  Taly jumped, banging the back of her head on the edge of the frame. “Ow,” she groaned, rubbing at the rapidly swelling lump. The pain, though intense, quickly receded.

  Opening her eyes, she saw Kit’s sheepish face peering at her through the opening of the control panel. His hair was damp and clung to his forehead, and there was a thin, jagged line marring his cheek. The skin around the half-healed wound was swollen and red, standing out in stark contrast to his otherwise boyish features. “You know, Kit… thirty seconds ago I would’ve been glad to see you. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  Kit chuckled, his lips quirking to the side. Even after coming face-to-face with a living nightmare and witnessing the death of a comrade, he could still smile. “You’re not the first woman to say that.” His face grew serious as the boy melted away and the Gate Watcher stepped in to take his place. “Lord Emrys sent me to assist you. I’m yours to command.”

  Turning back to the control panel, Taly smirked. “You sure you’re okay being bossed around by a human?”

  Taly felt Kit shift beside her as he dropped to his knees and grabbed the lantern from her hand. “It’s funny, but for some reason, I don’t find the idea quite as painful as I would’ve when I woke up this morning. But then again, I’ve never had a problem taking orders from a beautiful woman—human or otherwise.”

  �
��Seriously?” Taly barked out a laugh. “You know, Kit… I’m starting to think the only criteria for making it into your bed is having two legs.”

  “Well, there are a few other requirements. But you wouldn’t be the first woman to accuse me of that,” came his reply. Though she couldn’t see his face, she could hear the smile in his voice.

  The voices of Skye and his team still filtered through over the comm. The creature had deviated from the path they had laid out, but they were starting to bring it back around, circling closer and closer to the wall.

  “Okay, Kit. Unless you have a sophisticated working knowledge of firearm-crystal circuits, I need you to shut up and let me think,” Taly snapped, staring at the wiring.

  “As my lady commands.”

  Think, Caro. You need to see this from another angle.

  Ivain’s words from long ago came to her mind unbidden: If you can only see one way to accomplish a task, little one, then odds are you’re not doing it right. No one was ever remembered for doing something the same as everyone else.

  She wasn’t going to be able to repair the circuit for the firing mechanism. That was out. But maybe… Yes! That just might work. If she could split the aether flow that fed into the ammunition’s aether-transformation circuit, she might be able to bring the firing mechanism back online if she got Kit to overcharge the circuit with aether. Without the proper aethostats, the gun would probably still overheat, but she just might be able to eke out a few minutes of steady fire.

  Quickly finishing the repair, Taly pushed herself out of the casing and grabbed Kit’s arm. “Okay, aether battery—”

  “Wait… what?” Kit asked sharply. “What the hell is an aether battery?”

  Taly’s lips quirked. Apparently, Kit’s education hadn’t included mortal science. “It’s not important. Just be a good aether battery and put your finger here.”

  Positioning his hands inside the socket for the shadow crystals, she said, “Now push aether into the circuit.” Kit’s hands began to glow, and Taly couldn’t stop the loud, excited squeal that ripped from her throat when she saw the arrow on the power gauge start to move. “Good. We’re going to need more than that. I need the arrow to stay here.” She pointed to a position on the gauge. “If your hands start to feel hot, don’t worry. I’m expecting that. And if the wiring sparks, don’t worry about that either.”

  “Is it supposed to spark?” Kit asked dubiously, his eyes following her as she hoisted herself back onto the platform and started pulling at various levers on the console.

  “No,” Taly said distractedly. Lights flickered to life across the barrel of the gun, and the platform began to vibrate and hum as the old tower gun powered up for the first time in over two centuries. “But I fully expect this thing to blow up.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Taly wiped at the scope with an old cloth. “Don’t worry. Sparks are fine. When it catches on fire, that’s when we have a problem.”

  She heard Kit grumbling in the background, but she paid him no mind. Her eyes were trained on the battle still raging down below. From the top of the tower, she could see Skye and the other shadow mages racing toward the wall, the creature not far behind. They would occasionally switch off, taking turns as they pulled the rampaging beast closer to the compound walls. Eula was next up, running a blade across her palm as the other mages in her team manifested their aether in bright, violet clouds of magic.

  The haze of magic around Skye’s team abruptly extinguished, and the beast stopped, lifting itself up, almost like it was sniffing the wind. Its grotesque heads swiveled as it trained its attention on Eula and her team, changing course and barreling toward the mages.

  It’s drawn to their aether. Just like the other magical creatures on the island that went wild from their unquenchable thirst for magic.

  Once they had its attention, Eula’s team lashed at the monster’s body with long whips of water drawn from the tips of wands. The magical attack wasn’t nearly enough to hurt the beast, but it did enrage it, kept its attention from wavering.

  “Skye,” Taly said into the comm. “I’ve got the gun online. Did you find the crystal?”

  There was a screech of static, and then Skye’s voice drifted into her ear. He was breathing heavily, and his tone was clipped. “I did. It’s dead center—somewhere deep in its chest.”

  “Of course, it is,” Taly muttered. She didn’t know how it was even possible, but the monstrous creature had become even more massive as the battle raged on. It had grown at least two or three feet since the unfortunate death of Lord Aryn, and it was still grabbing at the bloodied stumps of dismembered arms and legs scattered across the ground, incorporating them into its body as ripples of shadow magic coiled around its form.

  “We’re going to have to work fast then,” Taly said, holding a hand up to her ear. “I’m only going to have a few minutes of focused fire with this thing.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make it count,” came Skye’s curt reply. “Ora, are the earth mages in position?”

  “Yes, sire,” an unfamiliar female voice replied in Taly’s ear.

  Taly started turning the crank, rotating the gun around as she took aim at the monster.

  “Wait!” Kit kicked at the platform to get her attention. “Who’s going to fire this thing?”

  Taly glanced at him, her nose crinkling in irritation. “I am. You think I went to the trouble of repairing this piece of junk just to let someone else do the fun part?”

  “But, you’re human! You’ll break—"

  Taly shushed him harshly. “Aether batteries should be seen and not heard.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t worry,” Taly snapped. “I’m tougher than I look.”

  Skye’s team began to manifest their aether, once more attempting to draw the attention of the beast as they sprinted towards the compound, a trail of mud and rock and magic flying into the air behind them. The creature thrashed angrily, its multitude of heads turning from side-to-side in confusion as the scent of aether changed course. Releasing an enraged howl, it dropped to the ground, propelling itself forward on a legion of stolen, decaying limbs.

  “Earth mages! At my signal!” Skye screamed over the comm, his breaths coming in heavy gasps. “Now!”

  Even from the top of the tower, Taly could feel the ground start to tremble, a low rumble echoing through the air as the pavement below cracked and splintered. Moments later, a mass of vines erupted from beneath the surface of the square. Their leafy tendrils tangled together, lashing and coiling around the beast’s hulking body. Some of its arms and legs were ripped away when the rapidly thickening stems found purchase, sending sprays of blackened blood and gore flying into the air. But others held tight, and soon, the creature fell to the ground, wrapped in a spiraling vice of earth magic.

  It struggled, screaming furiously as it writhed and thrashed. Some of the vines had already begun to snap, sending sharp whip-like cracks ringing out over the din of battle. Managing to free some of its limbs, the monster started to claw at the ground, slowly edging its way forward and leaving a trail of oozing tar-like fluid streaked across the cracked stone.

  “Mages, ready your fire,” came Skye’s voice over the comm. A tingle swept across Taly’s skin as the mages on the wall began casting. From where she stood, she could see great whorls of fire forming in the air, and a low rumble drifted on the wind as the water mages created shards of ice that glistened in the waning sunlight.

  Turning her attention back to the field, Taly started the warm-up sequence on the gun. A cloud of water magic, hazy and faint at first but rapidly growing in intensity, accumulated around the barrel as the water crystals engaged, transforming the massive amounts of aether Kit was feeding into the circuits below into water aether.

  Skye’s voice was once again in her ear. “Cannons—ready? Aim!”

  Taly stared down the sight, bracing herself. Flash cannons had never been optimized for human use, so this thing was going to have a pre
tty good kick.

  With a keening wail, the creature bucked, and more vines snapped and withered.

  “Fire!”

  The gun shuddered and gave a low whine as the cloud of water aether shivered and condensed. Taly’s heart leapt into her throat. For a moment, she thought it wasn’t going to work. But then, the gun gave a sharp kick, and a ray of molten, blue energy shot out of the barrel, slicing through the air. The icy beam cut into the beast’s hulking form, sending up a cloud of smoke as its flesh froze and shattered. Taly groaned under the weight of the gun, but somehow, she managed to keep it steady. She smiled when she saw a hole open in the beast’s side, the edges clean and precise.

  “It’s working!” Eula cried.

  “Mages,” Skye snapped. “Aim for the hole. On my mark!”

  The creature paused in its struggle, its body falling to the ground as the icy ray of water magic pierced its chest.

  “Now!” came Skye’s clipped command.

  A hailstorm of fire and ice rained down from the sky. Though Taly could no longer see the creature behind the glow of magic, she kept her aim steady. Her arms ached, and her hands went numb, but she held on, throwing her weight against the gun to keep from losing her footing.

  “We’ve got sparks,” Kit shouted from below, poking his head over the platform.

  Taly’s eyes flicked to the console gauges when the beam of energy started to dim. “Give me more power!” She heard Kit mutter a curse, but moments later the aether output stabilized.

  A plume of smoke rose from the square below, and blazing streaks of magic continued to rain down from above like shooting stars.

  “We’ve got fire!” Kit screamed, panic in his voice. “There’s fire now! You said that was bad!”

  “Just a little longer!” Taly shouted back.

  “That’s it!” Skye’s voice said over the comm. “I see the crystal! Cease fire! I’m going in!”

  Through the haze, Taly could see Skye reach into his pocket, pulling out a cluster of shadow crystals. The air around him began to glow as he drained the aether from the crystals, each one dropping to the ground as the light within was extinguished. He kept reaching into his pocket, draining crystal after crystal until a brilliant blaze of shadow magic completely enveloped his form, wispy tendrils of smoke lashing at the air around him.