Page 124 of Shardless

Today, those runes gave off a blazing magenta radiance, scattering the light that shone through the center of the pillar into countless shards of rainbow-colored splendor. The twinkling flashes of light were almost blinding, and Taly had to avert her gaze until her eyes adjusted to the glow. Still, even if she had to squint, and even if the tickle of magic that swept across her skin set her teeth on edge, it was the most beautiful thing she had seen in a long time.

The scrying relay was online.

Taly resisted the urge to sprint down the stairs, taking her time and avoiding the steps thatthreatened to creak underfoot. Usually, a special technician oversaw the tuning of the larger relays, but she had gone with Skye to the main relay in Ryme dozens of times. It looked easy enough. Plus, she had once snuck a book about hyaline tuning principles out of Ivain’s private collection when she was 13. She had been grounded for a week when he found out, but it had been an interesting read nonetheless.

And very useful to her now, almost eight years later.

Taly ran her hand over the carved script embedded in the control panel, smiling when she felt the aether tickle her fingers. Whoever had used the relay last hadn’t bothered to cut the connection to the spire in Strio, and she could hear hushed voices filtering in through the speaker. Switching off the glamour interface, she listened.

“When will he be here?” a young boy quavered.

“I don’t know,” a woman snapped. “He’s been delayed. However, he was able to send the list of recruits that we need to track down and convert before his arrival.”

“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get to all of these,” the first voice replied. Taly couldn’t be sure, but the boy sounded oddly familiar. “Especially this one. Our contact in Ebondrift says that they’ve really tightened up security since this morning. Even if we could subdue him, we’d never be able to get him out of the compound.”

“We’ll just have to figure something out. Hey!” There was shuffling on the other end of the connection. “Shards, who left this on?” The connection abruptly disconnected, plunging the room into silence.

“Damn it,” Taly muttered as her hands raced over the control panel. So, there really was a traitor in Ebondrift, and it sounded like she wasn’t the only one these people were trying to “recruit.”

The hyaline pillar gave a soft pulse as it attempted to contact the relay in Ryme. Other than Strio, that was the only relay that was still connected to the grid. Taly’s heart thundered in her ears as she anxiously waited for the relay technician’s voice on the other end.

Please be there. Please be there,she mentally chanted, trying to summon him by will alone.

“This is Relay 12-001—Ryme. Identify yourself.”

Taly felt liked she’d been punched in the gut and tears pricked her eyes when she heard the familiar sound. “Ivain?”

“Shards! Taly?! Aiden, Sarina—hurry!” Ivain’s voice sounded tinny and far off. “Taly, are you okay? Why can’t I see you? Why are you in Vale? Where’s Skye?”

“No time for that,” Taly said, interrupting his rush of questions. “Ebondrift was attacked by shades, and Vale’s been taken.”

“Are you safe?” a new voice demanded.

“Hi Sarina,” Taly replied, wincing. “You know, safe is really arelativeterm.”

“I’ll take that as anothen,” came the frustrated reply.

Taly pressed herself against the relay when something creaked overhead. “Look, there is a very real chance that these things could attack Ryme. You need to secure the village.”

“Too late,” Ivain sighed. “They attacked this morning. We were able to hold them off, but we lost a lot of people in the process.”

“Fuck,” Taly cursed. She could hear Sarina mutter something under her breath on the other end, but the reprimand never came. “Well then for what this is worth, Skye is still in Ebondrift. Both the relay and the Seren Gate have been sabotaged, the leadership is missing, the walls are breached, and they think that there’s someone inside the Gate Watchers’ compound that’s working against them. They’re going to be transferring the survivors to Ryme by way of Della in a few days’ time, and they need backup. I don’t know what you’ve encountered so far, but these things are different from what you saw in the Shade Rebellion, Ivain.”

“Taly—” Ivain tried to interject, but Taly continued to talk over him. There was something moving upstairs now.

“I don’t know how, but they can use aether to remake themselves—completely change their forms. We had something attack us in Ebondrift. Everyone was calling it an abomination. It… it devoured one of the shadow mages and then used the aether to make itself stronger. Skye nearly got himself killed trying to take this thing out.”

“Taly, slow down—" Aiden this time.

“No,” Taly interjected, her eyes flitting to the walkway high overhead. She thought she heard the low groan of a door opening on rusty hinges. “I don’t know how much time I have. Um… Plum was burned, Vale is overrun, and someone here was talking to Strio. They said something about what sounded like a leader of some sort and they have a list of people that they’re trying to recruit. That’s all I was able to overhear before they cut the connection.”

Heavy footsteps were echoing down theupstairs hallway. “Uh-oh. I need to go. Just to be safe, I wouldn’t trust any more transmissions from this relay or Strio.”

“Taly, wait—” Sarina called frantically.

Taly cut the connection and fell to the floor in a defensive crouch. Peering around the edge of the base, she unsheathed the new air dagger Skye had gifted her—Snowdrop as she had decided to call it—and waited as the footsteps came closer. Whoever it was sounded big.

Damn it, Caro,she thought desperately.This may not have been your best idea.

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