Page 86 of Shardless

“Except that the fire and ice spells aren’t working anymore. Look.” Skye handed Taly a small telescope, and it didn’t take her long to see exactly what he meant. The mages on the wall were still firing at the creature, but the spells did nothing. Each blast carved away its flesh, only for the skin and bone to knit itself back together in a matter of seconds. The beast didn’t even acknowledge the salvo of offensive magic as it continued to charge after the remaining shadow mages.

“Shit,” Skye cursed softly, watching one of the decoys stumble. “They’re not going to hold out for much longer.”

Taly glanced up at Skye before following his gaze. He was right—they were already starting to lag. In fact, the only reason the beast hadn’t caught them yet was because they had started skirting along the edges of the square where the layer of scattered debris was densest. The beast, though fast, was far from nimble, and had a harder time pursuing them through the sea of splintered wood.

“You need more firepower,” Taly stated decisively. “Something more concentrated than your basic fire or ice spell.”

Skye looked thoughtful for a moment, his brow creasing as his eyes scanned the rampart. The mages, a motley collection of Gate Watchers and civilians, had managed to form a sloppy line along the wall. Eula marched behind them, barking orders. “I’ve got it,” he finally said. “Follow me.”

Skye took off at a jog, pulling Taly along as he shoved his way through the crowd until they came to one of the crystalline towers overlooking thecompound’s gate. Tables were set up along the walls of the turret, and mages huddled over the workbenches, some charging crystals and others mixing herbs and salves to help heal the wounded.

Weaving in between the flurry of people darting to-and-fro in the confines of the cramped tower room, Skye dragged her over to a narrow set of stairs set into the corner. When they stepped out onto the tower roof, Taly’s head swam, and she had to lean against the balustrade.

“You okay?” Skye asked, placing a hand on her elbow.

Taly nodded. “Yeah—made the mistake of looking down.”

Skye glanced over the side of the tower, completely unfazed by the steep 60-foot drop. “I never thought you’d be the type to be afraid of heights,” he said, giving her a subtle smirk as he pulled her away from the edge.

“I’m not,” Taly retorted. “I just have a healthy respect for things that could kill me instantaneously.”

“Well, that is a new but not unwelcome development,” Skye said with a chuckle as he approached a large, cloth-covered lump that took up most of the space on the rooftop platform. “Back to the matter at hand, though. You think this will solve our problem?” Skye asked as he pulled off the giant tarp.

Taly felt her breath catch. “Shards,” she breathed. “Lift me up.” Cupping his hands, Skye boosted her onto the raised platform.

Her eyes wide, Taly ran a hand along the shiny metal barrel of the aged tower gun. It was a great, massive thing, pure viridian and mounted onto a rotating platform that provided a fullcircular range of motion. Originally based on something the humans called a minigun, this was one of the few mortal firearms that the fey crafters had seen fit to convert and optimize for use with crystal firing mechanisms. Even then, the weapon hadn’t really caught on until one shadow mage decided to integrate another human invention—the laser. The result of this single moment of brilliance was what was generally heralded as one of the deadliest ranged weapons known throughout all the fey realms.

“I didn’t know the Gate Watchers’ compound had flash cannons,” Taly murmured. If there wasn’t a raging, undead nightmare pillaging the streets below, she could’ve spent hours studying the weapon. She’d certainly spent far longer than that poring through books and diagrams detailing the crystal circuitry with Ivain. “Why aren’t these online?”

Skye bunched up the sheet and threw it to the side. “Two reasons. One—most shadow mages don’t know a damned thing about guns. And two—these guns haven’t been used since before the Schism. This compound used to be one of the Time Queen’s palaces, but it was militarized when the Dawn Court first pried open the Seren Gate after the forced shutdown caused the bridges to collapse. The crystal circuits in the flash cannons require a lot of upkeep, and once the bulk of the fighting stopped, there was no reason to commit the necessary resources to maintain them.”

“That’s a damned shame,” Taly whispered reverently. Her footsteps echoed as she moved about the hollow, metal platform, checking the various toggles and switches on the control panel. She frowned when the machine gave a sad whine,the lights along the barrel flickering before being immediately extinguished. “Oh, my poor, beautiful baby. What did those mean ol’ shadow mages do to you?”

“Do I need to leave the two of you alone?” Skye asked, arching a sly brow.

“Any other time, I would say yes.” Giving Skye a wink, she jumped off the platform and dropped to her knees. The cover on the side paneling had rusted shut, so she pounded it with her fist until she was able to pry it loose. A tangled web of wiring tumbled out, but she pushed it aside. Skye crouched next to her, holding up a lantern as she stuck her head inside the small opening.

“This one is loaded with ice,” she said when she saw the glint of three massive water crystals set into the framework. “But the shadow crystals are missing. The connections to the ammunition chamber are still intact, but someone tried to rewire the firing mechanism at some point. They didn’t close the circuit.”

“Well, Tinker… it’s time for you to live up to your name. If I keep that thing distracted, do you think you can fix this?”

When Taly pulled her head out, she wasn’t expecting Skye to be hunched over, peering into the control panel. She felt her cheeks warm when her nose bumped his. “Um…” she stammered. “Yes. The primary circuit for the firing mechanism is the same as the one I designed for my pistols. It’ll take too long to set a new shadow crystal into the power conduit and repair the aethostats, but I think I can jerry-rig something if you get me some tools and a shadow mage. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll rain icy hellfire down on that thing.”

Skye nodded. “If we get the gun up andrunning, it might be able to punch a hole in that creature faster than it can heal itself. Then if we get all the mages to hit it at once…” A slow smile drifted across his face, and before Taly could react, he had tangled a hand in her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m counting on you, Tink. I know you won’t let me down.”

Skye pulled back and gave her a wide grin before he pushed himself to his feet and disappeared down the darkened stairwell. He returned a few moments later with a bag of tools. Setting the toolkit beside her, he helped her remove her pack, throwing it off to the side as she lay on her stomach and pulled the top half of her body into the narrow compartment below the tower gun.

“Here,” he said, hooking a comm to her belt and handing her the earpiece. “Let me know when you have the gun up and running. I’m going to have the mages on the wall hold off until then.”

“Got it. And Em?” Taly pulled back a moment and caught his eye before he managed to move away. “Be careful. If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”

Skye chuckled, his eyes crinkling with mirth despite the seriousness of the situation. There was something in his expression, something she didn’t have a name for. It made her heart clench and her stomach flip. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied quietly. He opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it, shaking his head as he stood. Giving her one last smile, he turned on his heel and then returned to the battle outside.

Skye’s voice filtered in over the comm, a familiar sound among a haze of static. Moments later, the blasts of fire and ice magic began to taper off. The comparative silence that followed feltheavy and tense, and Taly could now hear the beast’s screams from the square below. There was a flurry of movement as the mages in the tower room below rushed about, their thundering footsteps echoing up from the stairwell, no doubt scrambling back to the rampart to follow Skye’s orders. Taly paid them no mind. Instead, she set to work, pulling herself further into the cramped crawlspace below the tower gun platform, ripping out old wires and trying to reform the connection that would feed aether into the firing mechanism.

There were more voices on the comm now. From what she could tell, Skye had finally joined the battle. The mages that had been keeping the beast at bay were ordered back to the wall, and Skye and his team began distracting the creature, keeping it busy until Taly could back them up with more firepower.

Taly’s heart fluttered in her chest, and she had to tamp down on the wave of panic that threatened to overwhelm her. She wasn’t having any luck with the firing mechanism. Whoever had tried to repair the gun had stripped the wiring, and moisture had seeped in over time, rusting out the conductive material. If she tried to power up the gun as is, it would probably blow up in her face.

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