Page 115 of Shardless

“Fine.” Taly’s head snapped up. “I’m fine,” she repeated, turning back to the map. “Tell me, have you talked to Kato yet?”

“Nope.” Skye dropped down into the desk chair that had been pushed off to the side. “He’s been trying to track me down, but I’ve been tied up with Kane all morning. Why?”

“No reason,” she replied a little too quickly.

“What did he do?” Skye asked, bristling. If his brother was trying to mess with Taly just to get to him… and when they were dealing with shades on top of everything else…

“Please.” Taly glanced at him from the corner of her eye, giving him a sly wink that made his heart stutter. “I think I know how to deal with you Emrys boys by now.”

“And I like to think I still have a few tricks you haven’t seen.” Although, he would be more than happy to divulge every trick he knew if it would convince her to crawl into hisbed and never leave.

Standing up straight, Taly began buttoning her shirt, rolling her eyes when he pouted. “I have something to tell you, and I don’t think you’re going to like it,” she said, suddenly serious. “I’m going to Plum. I’m going to try to make it to their scrying relay.”

“Are you kidding? That’s a terrible idea,” Skye said, his eyes narrowing. For the first time since he’d walked in, he noticed that her pack rested at her feet, and panic coiled deep in his belly.

Taly began pacing in a nervous circle as she tucked in her shirt tail. “Skye, we have no way of knowing if the other villages have been hit yet. Sure, this might be a one-off thing, but it might not be. Send me to Plum. There’s another relay there—one that might still work. If not, then I can move on to Vale, even Bago if I need to. If I can find a relay that’s still operational, I might be able to get a message out before this happens again. Or, at the very least, contact Ryme and get you the backup that you need.”

Grabbing her by the arm as she passed, Skye said, “No. Were you not there this morning when we all unanimously decided that going to Plum would be suicide?”

“For a fey, maybe,” Taly said, pushing him away. “But I’m not fey. I’m human—that means no aether. If I’m careful, I won’t attract beasts or shades. And if something does go wrong, I know how to defend myself.”

Skye shook his head. “Taly, this is not the time to go off and play hero. If you want to help, then stay. You can contribute more right here than off in the woods somewhere.”

“That’s not true,” she argued stubbornly. “While I might be good for digging through a pile of old books and repairing a rusty tower gun, I’m just going to be another liability on the road. I’ve already looked at the preliminary census data, and anything I could contribute would just be redundant. I have no value here. But out there…” She looked at him pointedly. “I need to do this, Skye. I can’t just stay here and do nothing.”

Skye was silent for a long moment, his eyes taking in her wide stance and crossed arms. She wasn’t going down without a fight. “I’m sorry, Taly. I can’t let you go off alone.”

“You don’t get to make that choice,” she replied simply. “I know the way, and I can handle myself. I’m going.”

Standing, Skye took her in his arms, pressing his nose to her hair and noting the way her arms came up to circle his waist—despite the look of defiance he’d seen in her eyes only moments before. “No.” When she tried to push him away, he held on. “Just think about this for a minute. I know you can handle yourself, but you were lucky to get away from those things the first time. We’rebothlucky to be standing here right now.”

“I’m going, Em,” she said more forcefully. She pushed against him, stumbling slightly when he let her go. That rebellious flame had been rekindled and shone brighter than he’d ever seen it. “We both have a part to play right now. Let me play mine.”

No, no, no!his mind screamed at him. It was madness. Had she hit her head yesterday? That was the only reasonable explanation he could come up with to describe this insanity. His fists clenched at his sides as he suppressed the urge to sling her over his shoulder and force her to see the healer.He had dealt with Taly’s stubbornness before. He just needed to remain calm and reason her out of this corner she had somehow backed her way into.

“Look, I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” Skye said. “I can’t make you stay. But here’s what I will do. I’ll make you a deal. It’s going to take us a few days until we’re ready to move, and we’re not giving up on fixing the scrying relay here. Let’s see if we can bring it back online. If we can’t, then come with us to Della. It’s not far, and there’s a relay there. If that one’s down too, then we’ll regroup—reopen the discussion about going to Plum or Vale. If we get a foothold in Della, then that becomes a far more reasonable distance to travel—a few hours there and back. We could even spare a team. That sound fair?”

“That’s a great plan, Em, but it’s going to take too long. The other villages on the island might not have a few days. I’m going. You can’t stop me.”

“Fine!” Skye snapped, rounding on her. She refused to give up any ground, her chin raised high as she stared up at him defiantly. “If you want to go get yourself killed, you have to see the healer first.” He couldn’t help but laugh when her eyes widened. It had been a gamble, but it paid off. While he had no idea why she seemed so reticent to let the earth mages examine her, if he could use that to his advantage, he would.

“I don’t need to see the damned healer,” Taly ground out, a low inhuman, nearlyfeygrowl emanating from deep within her chest.

Skye started at the sound but quickly shook off his surprise. Before she could argue any further, he said, “Prove to me that you’re of sound body and mind, and I’ll send you on your way. After all, I’m certainly in no position to turn downvolunteers at this point.”

“Em—”

“Oh, don’t ‘Em’ me,” Skye shot back. “If you won’t see the healer, then I’m not going to get behind this. I’ll tell you the same thing I told Eula—I’m not going to send our men and women to their deaths. You collapsed on me not two hours ago, but now you’re saying that you’re fit to trek halfway across the island? And fight shades on top of that? I don’t buy it.”

“Shards, stop being so overprotective. You’re as bad as Sarina.”

“Really? That’s your go-to argument right now?” he asked dubiously, reaching for her wrist and pushing up her sleeve so he could study the web of discoloration. When she struggled against him, he let her go. “You were supposed to go see the healer this morning for those bruises, but you notice I didn’t say anything about that.”

“Because I don’t need a healer. This” —Taly held up her wrist after checking to make sure that the cuff was securely buttoned— “looks worse than it actually is.” When Skye looked at her, a single eyebrow arched skeptically, she stuttered, “I-it doesn’t hurt—much. I don’t know why it looks so bad. I think I’m just getting clumsier.”

Skye snorted a laugh. “You always did have a knack for running into anything with a sharp edge.” Reaching over, he tucked a finger under her chin, pulling her eyes back to his. “Look, we’ve both had a rough few days, and I think we’re both feeling it. You’ve already done enough for today. Get some sleep, and then we’ll talk again tonight.”

When it looked like she was about to protest again, he wrapped his arms around her. “Please, Taly. Just work with me here. In the past month,I’ve watched you almost die twice, and that’s not including the time I spent yesterday thinking I might not get to see you again. I’m pretty sure I saw a gray hair in the mirror last night, and that’s something that shouldn’t happen until I’m well past the age of being an elder. So please, for the sake of my sanityandmy hair, just give me some time to work through all of this. We’ll come up with something. And you have my word that if I see a way you can help, I’ll use you.”

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