Page 81 of Shardless
“You’re from House Bontu, aren’t you?” Taly asked the woman.
Adanna gave Taly a dazzling if somewhat patronizing smile. “Yes, little human. How did you know my household?”
“Your eyes,” Taly replied, readjusting her gripon her dagger in an attempt to hide the tremble that shook her hands. “I met your brother once—Charli—when he was trying to negotiate a deal for shadow crystals with Lord Castaro. He had the same eyes.”
Adanna leaned in and whispered something to Kit. His lips thinned, and he nodded in response. “You seem to be well acquainted with quite a few important people—for a human, that is. And your diction is too good for an islander.”
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 wordsspilled 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 streamof 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, Iwillpunch 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,justTaly. I can tell you from personal experience that the members of House Ghislain are not known for their patience.”
