Shale’s Story So Far
Some of this is adapted from other essays, some is brand new. Enjoy!
Gargoyle, spy, poet, and fashionista. Shale is one of Seril’s children, who fought on the front lines of the God Wars and spent decades in exile sheltering his goddess. Now returned to Alt Coulumb, he has played an integral (and really quite fun) role in the story so far.
As we approach the publication of Dead Hand Rule, let’s take a look at Shale’s story so far.
Shale before the series
Shale is one of the youngest gargoyles. We don’t know exactly when he was carved, but it was likely quite a while before the God Wars - or, at least, before Seril and Her children joined the battle. I think it’s helpful to have a bit of historical context on the gargoyles here, so let’s take a look at Alt Coulumb and the goddess Seril.
The great city of Alt Coulumb, on the eastern coast of Northern Kath, was beholden to two gods: a lady of the moon, Seril, and lord of fire, Kos. Before the God Wars, gargoyles were a common sight in Alt Coulumb. They made the streets into poetry, their liturgy and worship of their Lady. Seril carved generations of gargoyles, many of whom left with her to fight the Wars. Shale is one of the younger gargoyles. He’s the youngest to still survive, and likely part of the youngest generation.
“There’s only like thirty of you, and you were built—made—”
“Shaped, we say, or carved. And we were not always so few. We were made of Alt Coulumb, not born of it, so the Lady gave us our own tongue.”
“How many of you were there?”
“Two hundred fifty-six, as of the eighth carving. Some fell in the Wars, and after. Some perished in exile. There is a grove in the Geistwood where many stand who gave up hope of seeing home again. They set aside the quickness of their body and sank their roots into living stone. They will not move for a turning of the world.”
“Gods.”
…
She remembered her debates with the Lady about carving [Shale]. We’re strong, Aev had said, almost too strong, and fierce. Perhaps we need a young one who’s fast, who can move unseen in shadows, a king of infiltrators and sneaks, a messenger no door will bar.
Should have made him clubfoot and slow, and ironed out that infuriating spark of personal initiative.
(Not really, but some days she wished.)”
Shale is therefore unique among gargoyles. Unlike others, he was designed as a spy. What that looked like before the God Wars is uncertain, but he tells Tara that he kept up with fashions around the world to be better able to blend in, and that those fashions changed slowly before the God Wars and the subsequent industrialisation of manufacturing. Given that he has a broad knowledge of fashions around the world, one can assume that Seril sent him out of Alt Coulumb on missions, but we haven’t heard anything about that.
When Seril was seemingly killed by the King in Red, the gargoyles left in the city went mad and turned to destruction. The citizens of the city and Kos’ clergy fought back with hammers and chisel, and the city holds dark memories of the gargoyles and their terror.
Unbeknownst to those left behind, Seril survived - in some form. She fled into the hearts of those gargoyles who went to war with her, but when they returned to their Lady’s city they were unable to enter.
Shale was one of those gargoyles. He and his flight have spent the subsequent forty years in hiding, and as the only gargoyle to have a human form it appears that Shale went on further missions - but, once again, Gladstone has been close-lipped on quite what those entailed.
What we do know is that he kept up with fashions, and submitted poetry to journals. Adorable. Gargoyles receive prophecy and divine inspiration through poetry, and Shale thought that perhaps he could revive believe in his goddess through published works. He talks about receiving rejections, but we later find out from Tara that he [present tense] publishes. His years of studying the form and submitting his work is now paying off.
And thus, we come to Three Parts Dead.
Three Parts Dead
Shale shows up early in Three Parts Dead, with a classically excellent Gladstone character intro: “Shale recovered his senses soon after sunrise and discovered to his dismay that he was fleeing down a back alley, covered in blood.” Shale, in human form, is fleeing from the scene of Judge Cabot’s murder, naturally becoming the prime suspect. He then transforms into his gargoyle form to hide, but is promptly found by Tara Abernathy, who tricks him into turning back to human form so she can steal his face. As one does.
We also find out that Shale is really quite an attractive young man as a human:
“A young man stood before her, strong, good chin, ripped clothes, ripped chest. His eyes remained green as gems.
Tara’s eyes floated upward of their own accord.
“What?” the gargoyle said.
“You’re…”
“A monster?”
“I was going to go for cute.”
...
“One minute, seven and a half feet tall, big beak, wings and talons and teeth.” She raised one arm to its fullest extent over her head. “The next he turns inside out and becomes a six-one kind of handsome guy. Dark hair, green eyes. Definitely not a golem. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
He spends most of Three Parts Dead with his face and consciousness trapped inside a book. However, he is able to howl to his fellow gargoyles: “A gargoyle’s howl I sonly in part a sound carried on air like other sounds. A gargoyle’s howl, like a poet’s, resounds from spirit to spirit within the walls of a city.”
Despite this, they cannot free him. Perhaps they could have, given enough time, but Three Parts Dead is a very quick book. He is returned to his body by Tara, when her plotting requires him to be free. She hides a tracking rune in his face and is able to track his movements around the city to a warehouse, where he rejoins his flight and his goddess. Tara, of course, is on his trail.
This is when Tara learns that Seril survived the God Wars, weakened. Kos had recently discovered this and tried to transfer power to her in secret - Shale had been sent to Judge Cabot to collect the transfer. He was killed when he was at his weakest, and the transferred power had disappeared.
Tara and all the gargoyles are then hauled off by Blacksuits (AC’s hivemind police force) to be tried for conspiring against the city. Tara takes over the clearly biased proceedings to reveal the secret plot. We find out that Shale has unknowingly been carrying the transferred power this whole time. In a battle, Alexander Denovo tries to steal it, but all is well and it is returned to Seril.
At the end of the book, Kos and Seril are both revived, but Seril and Her children remain in hiding.
Shale spends the next year pushing the limits of the meaning of “in hiding”. He answers prayers in the Paupers’ Quarter, building up the beginnings of a Serilite mystery cult, which we see more of in Four Roads Cross.
Four Roads Cross
Tara Abernathy, new in-house counsel for the Church of Kos, is focused on keeping Seril’s return secret whilst working out how to restore some of Her old power to Her. However, Seril’s gargoyles (especially Shale) are giving truth to rumour by answering prayers across the Paupers’ Quarter. One night, Ave, mother and leader of the gargoyles, saves a journalist, who of course immediately breaks the story. Tara tries unsuccessfully to quash it, and needs to come up with a Plan B.
To shore up Seril’s credit, Tara needs Her old records - scripture and archives that spell out what Seril owns and how Her theology works. Having somewhat reluctantly become Seril’s priestess, Tara is able to ask her directly - but Seril claims to not have such archives. She had poetry, stone and wing and claw - her gargoyles.
Aev chases Shale across the skies, cursing the swiftness she carved into him, and convinces him to work with Tara. After some argument about the whole face-stealing shenanigans, Shale agrees to fly Tara over the city and translate Stone poetry into Craftwork legal jargon. They bond, and Tara removes the tracking glyph leftover from Three Parts Dead.
This is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Things are getting complicated with a Craftswoman serving suit against Kos for His off-book relationship with Seril, and consequent undisclosed liabilities. The gargoyles agree to lay low for a while. Tara sets up an exclusive interview between Seril and journalist Gabby Jones. Unfortunately, as part of a wider plot, demons are released into Alt Coulumb and begin to attack Seril and Her children. Shale is hit in the middle of the sky, and saved by vampirate Raz Pelham - literally thrown into the air by Cat Elle in Blacksuit form.
Kos intervenes at Abelard’s request. Demons fall to fire in the night sky. And there’s the proof Ramp needed: Kos has undeclared interest in Seril. She presses suit, and Tara calls a Council of War.
Tara gets Craftsperson Ashleigh Wakefield to represent Kos in the forthcoming suit whilst she and Shale fly to Dresediel Lex to speak with the King in Red and ask him to return the rights to Alt Coulumb’s skies, which he took as spoils of war after killing Seril. Shale hates the entire vibe of Dresediel Lex, and hates meeting the King in Red even more.
Shale tries to kill Kopil, who is Kopil-ing on a fake beach, drinking a bright pink cocktail with four paper umbrellas.
“Whatever happens, do not try to kill the King in Red.”
“Okay.” Shale sounded unconvinced.
“This is important.”
“He’s a monster.”
Tara shook her head. “He’s a respectable citizen. This city wouldn’t exist without him.”
“A man can be both citizen and monster. Especially here.”
“In which case he’s a monster and a respectable citizen, whom we’re about to ask for a big favor. Besides, if you try to kill him, you’ll probably just piss him off.”
“We almost broke him in the Wars.”
“Almost only counts with horseshoes and elder gods. He’s grown since you fought. And, honestly, I know you’ve had a rough few decades, but I wish things like don’t attack the immensely powerful necromancer we’ve come to ask for help could go unsaid.”
…
“I told Elayne I’d see you, and I have. You can go now.”
“I want to present my argument.”
“It’s good to want things. I want to hear from an old friend once in a while for some reason other than business. You want me to hand you a fortune for no reason. Your stone companion wants to murder me, though he’s displaying admirable self-control.”
“Would you like me to stop?” Shale asked. Jewel facets glinted beneath his imitation human eyes.
“Try me.” The skeleton sounded bored. “Get this over with. I’ve killed so many of you before, in very many ways.” His voice went singsong for that last bit, then lost all humor. “I tore your goddess open and ripped her heart and lungs from the ruin of her chest. Break yourself on me, if you like. You’re not the hundredth or even the thousandth to try. And when I’m done with you, I’ll go back to my drink.”
He took another sip. Translucent giraffes danced with sun.
“Shale!”
There was no Craft in Tara’s cry, but Shale stopped anyway, halfway to the King in Red. He’d begun to change. His skin was veined with gray and hatched with gleaming gaps, his back a wreckage of wings. The human seeming reasserted itself; the jaw cracked to fit shrinking teeth together. He knelt, gasping, on the sand. His shirt hung tattered from his shoulders. Scars crossed his back where the wounds had been.
The King in Red sat up and turned to face them both, elbows on knee bones, ridged spine rising between his shoulder blades. “Interesting. It listens to you.”
“He,” Tara said, “is an envoy of my client, Seril Undying of Alt Coulumb. Who is still alive.”
“Why did you listen to her?” he asked Shale. The gargoyle had recovered, mostly. Sweat slipped down curves of muscle. “Here I am. You’ve hated me for decades. I killed your lady, or close to it, and I liked it. I’ll even give you first crack. No shields, or wards, or tricks.”
Shale stood. Tara prepared to bind him, in case her voice would not suffice this time. Given how hurt he’d seemed in that momentary shift, her restraint might break him. He wasn’t in shape for a fight.
He might still try.
“Tara asked me not to fight you.”
“And you listened,” the skeleton said.
“Yes.”
Crimson sparks turned on her. “You’ve inspired a divine monster’s loyalty. Nice trick. It earns you my time.”
After this Kopil is impressed enough (and / or wants to get back in Elayne’s good books enough) that he tells them that he gave the rights to the Two Serpents Group, so off Tara and Shale go to try and deal with Caleb Altemoc. In classic Caleb style, however, he’s managed to throw himself into the middle of danger and is currently holding together a mountain that houses an ancient goddess. Tara and Shale make their way to the heart of the mountain, and Tara negotiates with Her. However, She needs some kind of collateral, and a body that can speak. Shale offers to take Caleb’s place, and remains trapped inside the mountain for the rest of the book. Caleb gives Tara the sky rights, and Tara threatens the mountain on Shale’s behalf, calling him her friend. It’s a gorgeous and heartfelt moment.
At the very end of the book, once Seril and Alt Coulumb have been saved, Tara joins a delegation of Deathless Kings, the Two Serpents Group, and M Grimwald to save Shale from the mountain goddess and build Her a body. Shale is freed.
We very briefly see Shale at the beginning of Dead Country, when Tara abruptly runs off to her father’s funeral. He intercepts her taxi and comforts her. It’s a small moment, but demonstrates the bond the two of them have built in the ensuing years.
And then it’s time for Wicked Problems.
Wicked Problems
Like in Dead Country, we first see Shale intercepting Tara as she tries to flee the city. This time, however, he fetches Abelard and flies him to the airport, gets him onto the same dragon transport as Tara, and leaves him to persuade Tara to allow her friends to support her. We don’t see Shale for some time.
And then, when Kai and Tara are undercover in Chartegnon, a surprisingly handsome young man starts talking to Kai in the market. It’s not made completely clear yet that this is Shale, but one can figure that out from context and/or a later scene in the book. He is playing host to Seril, who teases Kai in a delightful scene that I would love to quote in full. Alas, I have restrained myself, for once.
This is the first time we’ve seen Shale in undercover spy mode, and we get even more later, when he rescues Kai from the Iskari at the opera and the pair of them traipse through catacombs to find Tara.
“He did not have the basic manners to seem out of breath. In evening dress, in patent-leather shoes, he seemed kitted out not for catacomb exploration but for a high-born lady’s drawing room.
“We are not without resources,” her rescuer said. “But any operation takes time, foreknowledge, and prophecy. It would have been better for all of us if Tara had not done…This.”
“We’re getting her back.”
“My orders are clear. Any action we take to free Tara will involve a level of force projection. We can’t have a civilian in the mix.”
“I am not a civilian.”
“I did not mean it as an insult. We are all civilians in one field or another.”
“And your field is?”
“Intelligence.”
Yes, Shale is a goddess-powered James Bond, rescuing Kai from squids and Tara from vampires, and using his prayer like to Seril to transport the two of them to safety via the literal moon.
Cool af. I love Shale so much.
Shale joins Kai and Tara on their mission to the Grimwald spire, and gets badly injured while fighting skazzerai-metal-grey-men and Clarity the vampire. He’s pale and shivering in human form, and his stone form is “gouged and pitted down to the geode-like arrangement that served him for muscle.” He escapes with Tara and Kai via moonroad, and lands in Dresediel Lex. We don’t see his recovery from his injury, but have seen in previous books that gargoyles can heal themselves by sleeping in stone. Let’s hope Shale has time to do that before the next battle…
And that, my friends, is Shale’s story so far.
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