Page 24 of Shardless

“It’s a cartridge,” she explained. “This piece and the inner spring are made from an aether-conducting metal—viridian. With these, instead of installing the crystals in the gun itself, both the shadow crystal and the fire crystal for the firing mechanism get set into the cartridge. That way, when the shadow crystal runs out of power, the cartridge just pops out, and you can replace it.” Reaching into her pack, Taly pulled out a handful of identical cartridges.

Skye took the cartridges and laid them side-by-side on the bench, studying each one with rapt interest.

Resting her chin on her hand, she continued, “This way, the gun keeps firing. And then when you drag your still-alive ass back into town, your resident shadow mage can do all the necessary handwaving and such” —she paused to demonstrate, earning a snort from Skye— “and the newly charged cartridge fits back into the chamber. The viridian still conducts aether the same way any enchanted weapon would, but thecartridge makes it interchangeable. Carry enough cartridges around, and suddenly you have a weapon that’s good for more than a few cheap shots.”

“So why use hyaline then? Why not use a metal that conducts aether?” Skye started disassembling the handgun, turning each piece over in his hands before he laid it on the bench in front of him.

Taly shrugged. “Because you don’t really need to use a conducting metal for every piece of the gun. The first firearms were made from metals because that’s just how traditional enchanted weapons are made. But this is different from, say, a sword or an ax. The entire pistol doesn’t need to conduct aether—just the firing mechanism. And since aether can’t move through hyaline, I thought it might make the aether transfer from the shadow crystal to the fire crystal more efficient. Plus, hyaline is harder than the metals used in the vast majority of weapons, and it doesn’t conduct heat.”

Skye sat stunned for a moment. “Taly, I…” He stopped, unsure how to go on. “Where did you get the idea for this?”

Taly reassembled the handgun with a few practiced motions before placing it back on the table. “Remember when Sarina taught us how humans had figured out a way to store energy in these little metal cylinders and use them as interchangeable power sources? Kinda like shadow mages and shadow crystals? It was an interesting idea, so I tried to replicate it with our materials. If there had been more interest in guns when the first enchanted firearms hit the market, I’d be willing to bet good coin the crafters in the Shadow Guild would’ve come up with somethingsimilar—eventually. But everybody just sort of lost interest in guns small enough to be carried.”

Skye remained quiet for a long moment as he considered the two pistols laid side-by-side on the benchtop. “You know what would make this even better?” He paused, waiting for her to look at him. “The cartridge needs an air crystal. There’s more than enough room for one, and that would decrease the load on the fire crystal. You’re going to have a problem with heat buildup inside the frame. The way this is constructed right now—I bet you’re going to get some kickback.”

Taly stood up from the bench and stretched. “Yeah, I thought of that. Butmostshadow mages for hire can’t make fire and air crystals work together in perfect harmony. Not likesomepeople.” She half-heartedly punched his shoulder, glancing at the sheathed sword that sat on the table behind them. “Plus, that would’ve been way more expensive. I spent three months eating sludge just to save enough money to get the metal for the cartridges. Don’t ask me how much it cost to have them made.”

“Yeah. There’s so little surface area on the cartridge—if you had used anything cheaper than viridian, you wouldn’t get nearly enough aether to the focusing crystal. Why didn’t you ask me? I could’ve made these for you, or at least given you the metals.”

Taly shrugged, looking away. “We didn’t exactly part on good terms the last time we spoke. Plus, you probably would’ve lectured me.”

“Yes. Yes, I would have,” Skye snapped. “Granted, this is kind of amazing, but hyaline mining is regulated by both the Genesis Council and the Dawn Court. There are someheavypenalties for illegal mining. How did you even get enough dead crystal to make these?”

Taly bounced in place. “I…foundit,” she said with a secretive smile.

Skye looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead, he held up his hands in surrender and turned back to the bench. “So why didn’t you want to show me the guns last night?”

“Because you already looked like you wanted to lecture me about—well, knowing you—everything. I could see it in your eyes,” Taly replied, waggling her finger. “Plus, they’re my new toys, and I wanted to spend some alone time with them before I let you manhandle them.”

“You are so weird,” Skye chuckled, his irritation seeming to evaporate. “I hope you know that.” Holding one hand over the parchment and dagger that had been pushed to the side of the table, he said, “Well, my work here is done. Zephyr should be good as new in about an hour. Are you sure you don’t want a better dagger? Maybe even a short sword?” He jerked his head towards the door to the armory at the far side of the room. “Ivain and I have stuff in there that we literally haven’t touched in years. You can take your pick.”

Taly smiled and shook her head. “Nope. I like Zephyr.”

“Okay.” Skye stood and started heading towards the door of the workshop. “What do you want to do while we wait?”

Taly followed him out into the training yard. The sun had chased away some of the chill, and the smell of early morning dew saturated the air.

Taly leaned against the wall of the workshop. “Do you have everything you need for the trip to the Aion Gate?”

“You act like this is my first time outside of the city, Tink.” Skye’s voice carried just a hint of derision, but mirth colored his expression.

“Okay, okay,” Taly acquiesced easily. Pushing herself away from the door, she rounded on him, pretending to inspect him carefully. “We could spar. We used to do that all the time when we got bored.”

“Or Sarina just wanted us out of the house,” Skye added with a laugh. His good humor was short-lived, though, and a look of pain flitted across his expression. “I don’t feel like sparring.”

Taly snorted indelicately. “Since when? You’ve never turned down an opportunity to kick my ass.”

“Just… I said no.” Grabbing a dagger from the rack on the wall, he stepped over to one of the training dummies.

“Oh, come on.”

“No, Taly. The last time we sparred, I hurt you, and then you left.” His eyes were hard as he swung the dagger in a practiced motion.

Way to ruin the mood, Caro.She knew Skye still blamed himself for what happened during their sparring match that day, but it wasn’t his fault. After all, it wasn’t the first time he had discharged a dagger while she was holding it. There was no reason it should’ve hurt her the way it did, and no way they could’ve known that it would. Really, it was what happened after that was the real problem. Just after she’d dropped to her knees screaming in pain, her vision had clouded with gold, and she had started seeing things that hadn’t happened yet.

I need to fix this,she thought. It was one thing to push him away. It was another, entirely, to lethim think it was his fault.

Well, Skye had exploited her weaknesses to get what he wanted. Turnabout was fair play.

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