Page 120 of Shardless

I cannot say how long I will be gone this time. A year at the very least. Look after your mother and your sister and be sure to practice your magic. I know you’ve always been disappointed that you didn’t attune to water, but I’m still very proud of you. Earth magic is a powerful discipline, and I know that with time and training, you will excel.

For what it’s worth, I still take Aki with me everywhere I go. Although it’s been many years since you gave me your beloved teddy bear, he’s kept me company on many a long night. I imagine he’ll have more than a few stories to tell when I return. Stories that I hope you are willing to hear.

Always know that wherever I go, I carry you, your mother, and your sister in my heart. There is not a day, not a single hour, that goes by that you are not in my thoughts.

With all my love, always until the end,

Your father

Night had finally fallen, and with it came the screams.

Although he tried, Aiden couldn’t completely stop the trembling in his hands as he stood atopthe walls of Ryme. The sea of rustling treetops stretched out for as far as his eyes could see, kissing the inky blackness of the horizon in a haze of starlight, and the silvery light of the first rising moon bathed the land below in a soft glow. On any other night, the view would have been intensely beautiful, even serene. But tonight, the descending blanket of darkness only carried with it the promise of fear.

“Help me!” came another cry. A woman this time. “Somebody! Please! They’ve taken my child!”

It’s not real, Aiden thought. A muscle in his jaw began to feather.They’re just shades, not people.

His hand tightened on the hilt of the sword strapped to his waist. The design for the blade was simple, almost austere. A single shadow crystal had been set into the base of the pommel, and three luminous water crystals, each inscribed with a different spell, had been embedded in the hilt. Originally a part of his father’s collection, the crystals had been a gift from his mother before his household had given her, as well as all of his father’s possessions, to the man that would become his stepfather—Lord Thorn.

Now there was someone that Aiden would love nothing more than to throw off the side of the wall to the creatures that prowled down below. Lord Thorn was constantly belittling Aiden’s father, a Knight of the Crystal Guard that had selflessly given up his life in the line of duty. After all, as his stepfather liked to point out, how could a man that had absconded with his Feseraa only to, of all things,marryher, have honor? How could a man that had tried to teach his children to be kind even to those below their station haveintegrity? How could a man that had loved and sacrificed for his family be worthy of remembrance or celebration? No, in the eyes of fey society, the scandal of marrying a human was the only thing that mattered now that Sir Bryer, one of the greatest water mages of his time, was only a memory.

Aiden held on to that spark of anger. Anger was better than fear. Anger would keep him from breaking.

“Help!” A child—his wailing sobs echoed out over the treetops. “Mommy!” Terror, pure and primal, laced the desperate cry.

“No.” Ivain placed a hand on Aiden’s shoulder when he unknowingly started to move down the ramparts. “Remember, it’s just a trick. They’re trying to lure us out from behind the wall.”

The older shadow mage looked beaten down as he leaned against the parapet, his practical-yet-stately leather armor streaked with pieces of ooze and viscera. His white-blonde hair was slicked back with sweat, and his hands had been bathed in blackened blood. A rapier that looked to have been forged from starlight itself was strapped to his waist, and the grip peeking out of the worn leather scabbard bore such an intricately carved relief of two foxes playing in a glen that the shadows and moonlight almost seemed to breathe life into the motionless creatures.

Aiden clenched his jaw, doing his best to tune out the babel of desperate pleas coming from down below. He had been at the clinic when the first explosion hit. Thinking that there had been an accident, he and several of the menders had rushed toward the sound, ready to tend to the wounded, only to find that a veritable nightmarewas unfolding. Undead monsters,shadesas Ivain had later clarified, were streaming through the gates, ruthlessly cutting down anyone in their way.

It was pure chaos for a while. As he tried to recall the specifics of those first few moments now from the relative safety of the wall, Aiden’s mind kept going back to how the ground had felt slick beneath his boots as bright rivers of crimson had begun to flow. He kept thinking about how the smoke from the explosions had looked like steam in the chill spring air. Such insignificant details, but ones that he couldn’t seem to make himself forget.

Aiden jumped when he felt the hand on his shoulder give an encouraging squeeze. “You did well today,” Ivain said quietly, staring out over the darkened forest. “Your father would’ve been proud.”

“I failed,” Aiden replied, equally quiet. Although he had tried to fight back, assemble those around him, their response was too delayed and disorganized to do anything more than slow down the enemy’s advance. With no one manning the gates, he had managed to partially block off the entrance to the city with earth magic, but the city’s defenses had already been breached before he’d gotten to the main fight. They had already lost.

Ivain patted him on the back before placing both hands back on the wall. “You did what you could with an impossible situation.”

Aiden ran a hand over his shorn head, remembering how his mother had teared up when he’d had to cut his hair for his initiation into the Crystal Guard. All that night, when he caught herstaring, she had just kept saying that he looked like his father. Without the scars and the beard, of course. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, uncle, but we would’ve lost the city if you and Sarina hadn’t shown up when you did.”

Aiden eyed the deceptively lanky man standing next to him. He had heard stories of his uncle’s prowess on the battlefield, but he had never seen him use the full extent of his power. A veritable blur, Ivain had effortlessly zigzagged through the throng of creatures, ripping out the crystals in their chests with alarming precision. Sarina had walked behind her brother at a far more sedate pace, her form awash in white-hot flames. Seemingly bored, she had bathed the battlefield with fire as she ignited the bodies falling to the ground. The battle ended very quickly following their arrival. The two siblings worked together with the kind of efficiency and expertise that could only come with years of training together side-by-side.

“Help!” The familiar cry pierced the night air. What Aiden knew to be the soft, lilting voice of one of the gentlest souls he had ever encountered was now edged with abject terror.

“That’s one of the menders.” Aiden turned for the stairs, but Ivain caught his arm.

There was pity in his uncle’s eyes when he said, “It’s not her anymore. They’ve already had more than enough time to convert the captives into shades.”

Aiden shook his head, refusing to believe it. “Then how can she still speak? The ones that attacked us today couldn’t speak.”

“Because she’s fresh,” Ivain replied. “When the bodies have not yet had time to decay, they canstill speak. Without the proper enchantments, though, their vocal cords will rot out over time. The ones we saw today were old—several centuries, I’d say. Nothing more than shock troops.”

“So everyone that they took today…?” Aiden asked, dreading the answer. “No,” he spat angrily. “You don’t know that. Youcan’tknow that.”

“I can, and I do.” Ivain sighed. He was silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his eyes looked far away. “I was conscripted to fight in the Shade Rebellion only a few days after I turned 200. This was when we thought we were still fighting over some stupid piece of land on the other side of the Odyssea Gate. I had only been at the war camp in Amaranthe for a week when we found out that House Myridan had allied with the giants. These creatures were monstrous, or so we thought at the time. Almost 20 feet tall, a single eye. Their warriors had ripped out their teeth and replaced them with spears of sharpened steel. It was the stuff of nightmares.

“Even though my unit prevailed, we were unprepared for that first battle with House Myridan and the giants. We lost a lot of people—people that we left on the battlefield while we tended to our wounded. Imagine our surprise when our dead walked back into the camp the next morning—a little pale but seemingly whole and alive, if a little confused.” Ivain stopped here, his lips set in a stern line. The muscles in his neck flexed as he swallowed convulsively.

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