Page 82 of Shardless
“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 theheirin 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 hiseyes. “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 thesea 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 averylong 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 hehastily 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.
