Page 53 of Shardless

“Valid points.” Ivain finished off his beer and tossed the bottle into the rubbish bin across the room. “Still,” he mused, a devilish gleam in his eyes, “I can’t help but think that maybe your recent reticence to entertain the young ladiesmight be because you already have a special one in mind.”

Skye scoffed, chucking his own beer bottle across the room and into the bin. “I’ve been chained to my desk this past year, the same as you. When the hell was I supposed to have met someonespecial?”

Ivain chuckled softly. “Still in denial, I see,” he murmured, shrugging when Skye arched a skeptical brow. “Oh well. Tell me, did you have any luck contacting the Gate Watchers’ compound in Ebondrift yet? With the new timeline in place, we really need them to move to Ryme soon.”

“Nope. No luck,” Skye said. While there were more shadow mages on Tempris than anywhere else in the fey world, Ivain and Skye were the only two members of the Gate Watchers that chose to maintain a permanent residence in Ryme. The bulk of their forces were stationed at the main compound in Ebondrift near the Seren Gate. “I pinged them on the scrying relay this morning, but I haven’t received a response from Commander Enix or his Precept yet.”

Ivain scowled. “I realize that the Seren Gate is open and that they’re undoubtedly dealing with all of the traders and supplies that are coming through for the Aion Gate connection, but Enix is usually more conscientious than this. Even without the new timeline in place, we should have received at leastsomebackup by now.”

Skye rubbed at his temples. Just thinking about the stack of paperwork waiting for him on his desk made him feel tired. In a few short months, Tempris would be inundated with people traveling from both the fey mainland and the mortal realm, and the logistical nightmare thispresented for the little island left no shortage of work.

The Marquess clasped his hands behind his head. The cigar perched between his lips garbled his words. “Surely, they don’t expect two people to handle all of the logistics for the Aion Gate connection. I just finished a call this morning with the Master of Letters in the Port of Marin, and the amount of backlogged mail and parcels bound for the mortal realm this cycle is truly staggering. We’re probably going to need to open every storehouse between Ryme and Litor just to hold it all when it finally gets transferred.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it. I swear if one more person asks me about their package delivery, I might stab someone. And don’t get me started on signage. We’ve already sold every last inch of available promotional space around the Aion Gate. I would send people to start setting up, but the army hasn’t arrived to secure the area.”

Ivain pushed himself to his feet and began pacing the room, stopping to inspect the two hyaline pistols on Taly’s bench. “Unfortunately, the army has been delayed. When I spoke with the High Lady of Air, she confirmed that the regiment that was dispensed is going to be late.”

“They need to get here soon,” Skye said with a sigh. “I have a feeling the magical beasts are going to put up a fight this year. It’s probably going to take several weeks to thoroughly sweep the area around the gate and run the creatures out.”

Ivain nodded. “I agree. Although, if the beasts are so rabid that they’re attacking humans, maybe that explains why so many mortals are going missing. I had another five missing person reports delivered just this morning—all human. Thatmakes 12 this week alone. Usually, I don’t see those kinds of numbers until much later—not until there are enough people coming from the mainland that the illegal Feseraa traffickers manage to slink through unnoticed.”

Ivain picked up one of the pistols. “Is this… hyaline?”

“Taly’s latest project,” Skye replied, grimacing.

“Well, I can see I’m going to have to have another talk with her about not engaging in illegal activities—even if she doesn’t think she’ll get caught.” Ivain shook his head and placed the pistol back on the desk. He smiled when he saw Zephyr. “Of course, she took this old thing with her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm?” Ivain looked up. “Oh. Sarina cleared out Taly’s room at the tavern today. Apparently, she didn’t have much—just a stack of old glamographs and a little bit of gold. Now, I don’t know what she took with her when she left, but I find it quite interesting that after a year, the things she held onto were family pictures, the pistol you gave her, and this dagger. Judging from how skinny she is now, she missed a lot of meals, and just the crystals from that pistol could’ve brought in enough coin to feed her for several months.” He gave the dagger a practiced twirl, holding it up to the light. “If I recall correctly, this was the first air crystal you ever set.”

“I wish she would just get rid of that piece of trash,” Skye muttered. “Throw it into the rubbish bin where it belongs.”

“Shards, boy,” Ivain laughed. “You really are dense. You’re telling me you don’t know why Taly likes this old thing so much?” When Skye shook hishead, Ivain gave him a good-natured glare. A flick of the old man’s wrist was all it took to embed the blade in the workshop door across the room. “When Sarina told Taly that she was too young to learn how to throw a knife, you snuck out to the training yard one night and taught her usingthatblade. You never could tell that girlno.”

Skye felt a tug at the corners of his mouth, and some of the weight that had settled on his chest in the wake of his confrontation with Taly lifted. “Well, in my defense—when she pouted, she looked like a kicked puppy. You try sayingnoto that.”

“Oh, I remember. That look—you know the one—got me into a lot of trouble with my dear sister. I still don’t think Sarina’s forgiven me for teaching Taly how to fight.” Ivain paled slightly before taking one last drag of his cigar and depositing the remains in the ashtray. “Well, I need to get back to work. I put a new stack of files on your desk, but you can set those aside. Something tells me that Enix would enjoy personally overseeing the public latrine repairs, so I think we should save it for him. We can just tell him that we were too busy to get to it since he forgot to send us help.”

Ivain shrugged on his coat as he prepared to dash out into the rain.

“Hey Ivain,” Skye called out before his mentor could disappear through the small crack in the door. His mind, dulled by stress and lack of sleep, finally managed to catch up with something the older man had said. “What did you mean by ‘Sarina cleared out Taly’s room?’ The last time I talked to Taly, she was adamant about going back to Ryme.”

Ivain’s eyes widened. “Oh, you don’t know yet? Aiden convinced her to stay. Apparently, he got her to open up a little bit, and she decided to move back in.” He shook his head, a stark look of relief washing over his features. “At least one good thing came of this mess.”

With that, Ivain turned and ducked out of the workshop, running through the rain at a speed that turned him into nothing but a blur of color set against the gray light of early evening.

Sitting back, Skye smashed the tip of his forgotten cigar into the ashtray, a deep frown creasing his brow. Aiden had convinced her to stay. After basically telling him that he could go to hell, she had listened to Aiden—talkedto Aiden.

But not him. No. After 15 years of friendship, she had stopped confiding in him, stopped talking to him, seemingly stopped trusting him.

Skye’s eyes stung, and he viciously swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. Pushing himself to his feet, he approached Taly’s bench and picked up the viridian dagger he had given her after their sparring match. The gleaming swirls of metal shone, even in the unusually dim, watery light pouring in from the window behind her bench.

He didn’t tell her at the time, but he’d made this for her 21stbirthday. It had taken him six months to get the design right, and he’d lost count of the number of times he’d almost finished only to find some imagined fault that would prompt him to melt it down and start over.

And she hadn’t even wanted it. She’d tried to give it back.

With a growl, he turned and hurled the dagger at the workshop door, his chest heaving ashe stared at the two blades embedded in the splintered wood.

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