Page 23 of Shardless
Taly hastily tucked the picture back underneath the sword. She hadn’t expected Skye to get up before early afternoon. “What? The sword? Yeah. It’s beautiful. How did you keep the fire crystal from overheating the circuit? With the enchantment diagram you showed me originally, you would’ve had to route the aether flow through the fire crystal first. Air focusing crystals are so finicky when it comes to internal temperature.”
Reaching for the sword, Skye hefted it andgave it an experimental swing. “That’s my little secret. Although, I did break a lot of crystals in the process. Ivain threatened to disown me on more than one occasion.”
Taly snorted. “I can imagine.” Then, with an appreciative smile, she said, “But you did it. So, I will gladly concede that I was wrong. In this case, at least.”
Skye grabbed his chest in mock horror. “Now, I’ve seen just about everything. Princess Tink can be wrong?” He held up a hand to her forehead. “Are you sure you’re alright? I think we need to get you back to bed immediately.”
“I’m not that bad,” Taly muttered, shoving him away. It seemed some of the familiarity they had recovered the previous night hadn’t completely disappeared. She probably had Sarina to thank for that. She had kept their champagne glasses quite full. “I’m usually quite agreeable. You’re just an ass.”
Chuckling to himself, Skye turned to sheathe the sword in a scuffed, leather scabbard while Taly started absentmindedly tidying the bench. She was just finishing sorting the crystals by type when she jumped back and said, “Oh! I almost forgot.” She reached for her dagger. “Since you were complicit in trapping me here—"
“Yes—trappingyou. In a place with hot water, ample food, and soft beds among people who care about you, your well-being, and your safety. I’m a truly awful person, I know.” Skye made no attempt to hide the sarcastic edge to his voice as he turned to glare at her. “But go on.”
“Yes, all of those things,” she replied, unaffected by his teasing. “I was hoping you could repay me by repairing my dagger.” She held outthe weapon for his inspection. It was a plain little thing. There was a single, dull air crystal embedded in the blade and a shadow crystal mounted on the hilt. When he continued to stare at her blankly, she added, “Please? It stopped firing last week.”
With a beleaguered sigh, he took the dagger and held it up to the window behind his bench. “I can’t believe you still have this thing. It’s so awful.”
“Hey! Don’t talk about Zephyr that way. She’s sensitive.” Taly punched him in the arm for emphasis.
“Terribly sorry. I forgot that Princess Tink’s special power is granting sentience to inanimate objects,” he responded drolly. The crystal in the hilt flashed as he used his magic to push a small amount of aether into the circuit. “The shadow crystal is fine—shitty but fine. Here,” he said, handing the dagger back to her, “show me what it’s doing.”
Skye tossed a wadded-up piece of parchment into the air, and Taly held up the dagger, depressing the tiny toggle mounted beneath the guard. She tensed as the blade lurched in her grip, and a pitiful gust of wind sputtered out of the tip. It didn’t even reach the little ball of paper as it landed and rolled off into a corner.
Skye looked at her with a smirk. “Wow, Tink. I used to be jealous of your aim, but now? I don’t know.”
Taly pursed her lips and threw the dagger on his workbench. “You watch your mouth, Em.” She didn’t miss the small smile that tugged at his lips at her use of his old nickname. She was only six years old when she came to the manor, and shehadn’t been able to pronounce his last name—Emrys. So, she had taken to calling himEm. “This has nothing to do with my aim, and you know it.”
Skye laughed as he turned and started to rifle through a stack of parchment. Finding a page that had a series of crimson runes inscribed down the side, he sat down on the bench and set to work. “You know, I’m much better at setting air crystals now. I could make you a new dagger. This thing—it’s just a stain on my reputation at this point.”
Taly shrugged noncommittally as she leaned against the table. She had always liked watching him work. Skye might be arrogant, but no one could deny that he had the skills to back up the ego.
Choosing a quill, he pricked his index finger and held it over the page. A single drop of blood dripped onto the surface. Before the wound managed to heal itself, he held his hand over a clean inkwell and let the remaining fluid trickle out. Since shadow mages didn’t need to refine the aether they absorbed from the air into a specialized form, they had raw aether dissolved in their blood. That meant the more traditional uses of their magic tended to be tied up with bloodletting. As a child, Taly had been surprised to learn about this little quirk in their magic, but she had become accustomed to it over the years. She only felt a little squeamish now whenever she saw Ivain and Skye slice open their hands with ceremonial daggers.
Skye gave her a knowing look as he placed the dagger directly over the crimson stain and touched the quill to the shadow crystal inlaid at the base of the blade. The script on the edge of the page began to glow as it pulled aether out of the surroundingair.
“The rune on your air crystal is starting to fade. At the very least, it needs to be re-inscribed, but I’m thinking the entire crystal is probably going to need to be replaced eventually. From what I can tell, you’re still getting aether feeding in from the shadow crystal, but the air crystal just isn’t converting it to air aether efficiently enough. For now, I can increase the amount of aether that’s getting pulled for each shot—overload the circuit—but that’s going to drain your shadow crystal pretty quickly.” Skye glanced at her briefly before turning his attention back to the dagger. Dipping his quill into the inkwell, he penned a few additional crimson runes around the base of the grip before setting down his quill. “While I’m at it, do you need anything else looked at?”
“Let me check,” Taly replied, pulling out her new pistols from the holsters hidden beneath her coat and placing them on the bench for his inspection. She also retrieved a small drawstring pouch from her pack and dumped its contents out on the table. “I think that’s it. I just had the fire crystals for my lamp re-inscribed, so they should be fine, but it can’t hurt to check.”
He began picking through the little pile of crystals, occasionally holding one up to the light and running a finger over the runes carved into the surface. As he finished examining each one, he carefully placed it back in the bag. “These are fine—for now. They won’t last long, though. Whoever inscribed these runes did a piss-poor job. I’d try to fix these for you, but this is beyond my ability to patch. I’d need to get a fire mage here to look at these.” He handed the pouch back to her and then moved his attention to the pistols. “Is thiswhat was in that package last night?” he asked, picking up one of the crystalline handguns and turning it over in his hands.
“Yup.” Taly shifted her weight nervously. “I’m testing a new theory.”
“Is this what I think it is?” he asked, scowling. He tapped the crystal frame and looked at her pointedly.
“If you were thinking hyaline, then yes,” Taly said shakily, fidgeting with one of the stray crystals on the bench. She knew Skye would have asmallconniption once he found out she had been meddling in a few harmless, illegal activities, but she was hoping his curiosity would win out in the end. She really wanted his feedback on her latest idea. “And before you freak out, I only used hyaline for the frame. And the magazine. And the slide. And the barrel. Okay, it’s mostly hyaline.”
“Talya Caro!” Skye exclaimed, running an anxious hand through his hair. “What the hell were you thinking?! Hyaline? Are you crazy?”
Taly rocked back on her heels. “I know you’re mad, but you’re also curious, right?”
“Shards.” He placed the gun back on the bench with a thud. “Yes. Yes, I am. So, go on. You have one minute.”
“I can work with that,” Taly said enthusiastically, shoving him over as she sat on the bench beside him. There was barely enough room for both of them, so she had to lean into him to keep from sliding off the edge. “So, you already know that the problem with guns is the same problem with any other enchanted weapon. Once the shadow crystals expend their aether, there’s no way to charge them back up quickly unless there just happens to be a shadow mage hangingaround. On top of that, any shadow crystal small enough to fit into the circuit for a handgun is only going to be able to store enough aether to fire off a few rounds—meaning that after seven or eight shots, the gun is useless. I figured out a way to fix that problem.”
Smiling, Taly depressed a small button below the barrel. A hidden compartment in the frame slid out. Carefully removing the capsule inside, she held out the rectangular piece of metal for him to see.
“What is this?” Skye held up the metal object to the window, running a finger along the surfaces of the embedded shadow and fire crystals.
