Page 111 of Shardless

Another drum of Skye’s fingers, this time against the side of his leg as he pretended to shift in his seat.Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Although he kept his eyes trained ahead, he tilted his head, listening for her reply.

They had attracted Kato’s attention again, so Taly leaned forward in her seat, making a note of something on the stack of papers in front of her. When she saw Kato’s eyes slide away, she covertly slipped her hand into Skye’s beneath the table and lightly tapped out her message against his palm.Last I heard, Kane’s son was in Ryme.

The exchange couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, maybe two, but Taly could already see a plan formulating in Skye’s mind. Sitting up a little straighter, he said, “Kane. I understand the need to exercise caution, but in light of everything that’s happened, I think we have to take the risk. If anything, think about how many people downstairs have family that’s gone missing. Family that may very well be on their way to Ryme right now. If we’re dead either way, don’t we owe it to them to try to make the journey?”

The shift in Kane’s attitude was immediate. His shoulders slumped, and his eyes becameshuttered as he looked to Taly. A question.

“Avi was headed to Ryme night before last,” she said quietly. “I saw him in Della with my own eyes.”

Shaking his head, Kane stared out into the churning sea of gray rippling past the windows. “It’s a risk.”

“One we can mitigate,” Skye replied calmly. “We can repurpose the debris outside the compound to fortify our caravan, keep the lowborn civilians in the center, train the mages so they can respond more quickly as a unit. If we go, we stand a chance. If we stay, we’ll starve—assuming the shades don’t get to us first.”

Kane hesitated for a long moment, wavering. “Alright,” he said slowly, tiredly. “I’ll go.”

“And me,” Timo chimed almost immediately, just as Taly had predicted.

“Are you out of your minds?!” Lissa hissed as she shot to her feet. “This is ridiculous. I will not leave this compound until I know Ryme is safe.”

“That is my feeling as well,” Reya said far more calmly, pushing herself to stand. “If it is the wish of this delegation to leave, then my sister and I will not be a part of it.”

“I can’t fault you for that,” Skye said with a sigh. “Anyone that wishes to stay with you, I won’t interfere. So long as you grant us the same courtesy.”

The two sisters departed shortly after their outburst, but it was of little consequence. The meeting was already winding down as Eula and Skye doled out orders. Taly idly wandered over to one of the windows, only half-listening as she stared out into the fog. With her human eyes, she couldn’t see anything through the somber, grayhaze. Even the flat crystal planes of the Seren Gate that she knew to be standing no more than 100 feet away were invisible.

When the last of the delegation had left, Skye came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and tucking her underneath his chin. They stood there for several minutes, just staring out into the storm.

Taly was the first to break the silence. “Why would they take the time crystals? Of all the ways to shut down a gate, why did they remove the time crystals?”

She felt Skye shrug behind her. “I’m not sure. A part of me thinks that whoever is behind this might be trying to recreate the enchanted armor, but that’s not possible.”

“Why not?”

“No time mages,” Skye replied simply. “No Time Shard either. Even if the crystals didn’t go dark as soon as the preservation enchantment was removed, you’d still need a time mage to inscribe the crystal with the proper spell.”

That’s right. Taly had forgotten about that small detail. The Gate Watchers had enchanted each gate before the time crystals went dark, completely losing their ability to channel and convert aether. Without the Time Shard, they were little more than useless. But what had Aiden said? Taly’s very existence was evidence that the Time Shard had been revived. Which meant that maybe re-creating that armor wasn’t so impossible. Not anymore at least.

And then there was her. What would their unknown attacker do if he (or she or they) found out that there might be a living time mage? A human one, but still… Taly shuddered at the idea.

“It’s okay, Tink,” Skye said, most likely having heard the sharp spike in her heart rate. His arms tightened around her. “We’ll figure something out. All we’ve got to do is stick together, you and me, and we’ll be fine.”

“What are you not saying?” Taly whispered, noting the slight edge in his voice.

“Am I that obvious?”

Taly shook her head, smiling softly. “Only to me.”

Skye sighed. “I’m worried about Ryme and how we’re going to get all of these people there. Kane’s concerns are valid. Even if we fortify the caravans, wewilllose people if we get attacked out in the open. I’d feel a lot better if I knew we had backup coming.”

A sharp stab of guilt lanced Taly’s chest. She stepped away, moving back over to the table to start gathering up the scattered books, notes, and journals. She needed to keep her hands busy.

Reya’s dull, lifeless words filtered back through her mind:What do they want?Or maybe more precisely,whodid they want? She didn’t have any evidence, but Taly was starting to suspect she knew the answer to that question. And it made her stomach churn.

“There’s no one you can send?” Taly asked shakily, glancing at him over her shoulder. A gnawing sense of guilt took root deep inside her, and she took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to gasp for air. How could she fix this? If this really was her fault, if they were after her, how could she fix this? “What about… woah.” A prickling sting rippled up and down her arm, and then the world tilted sideways. She stumbled, grabbing at the table for balance.

A spectral golden hand gripped her arm moments before she felt Skye come up behind her.

Damn it!She’d dropped her guard—allowed her attention to slip. She prodded at the mental wall, frantically searching. The patches she’d put in place were still holding but…There!A tiny, almost insignificant trickle of power seeping out from between the stones. Shoving every bit of willpower she had at the leak, the glimmering, golden haze creeping in around the edges of her vision slowly abated.

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