Chapter 11 #2
She came to a stop when Darish did, tugging her armor again and adjusting how the straps of her pack hung over her shoulders. Her gaze trailed over the soldiers that she’d be teaming with.
She was surprised to realize she recognized a few of them from that first time in the hall, although she’d seen each of them around at some point, usually sitting near each other. Which was unlike the captain, who seemed to have nothing to do with them when they weren’t on a mission.
“We’re going to walk the circles today,” Darish announced.
One of the soldiers, a huge, widely built man, groaned until Darish gave him a look. The soldier abruptly fell silent.
“The circles?” Iryana asked when no one explained.
“The paths immediately around the fortress, to cover the nearby territory,” Vaneshta supplied. “It takes all day to walk them all.”
“Have you met everyone?” Captain Darish asked dryly, as if hoping she wouldn’t burden him with introducing everyone.
“Uh,” she looked nervously at the others, not sure she could recall all their names. “Vaneshta is my roommate.”
Darish sighed. “Fine. Quick introductions, then.”
His words were hurried, as if reciting something horrendously boring.
“Sena Pepha.” He gestured toward a willowy, dark-haired woman with overly wide eyes.
She was looking at Iryana suspiciously. “She is our scout. Moves further ahead of the team as we’re moving through the forests, sends back signals. ”
Iryana knew Pepha’s look wasn’t overly personal; every time she’d seen her around the fort, she’d seemed equally anxious.
Next, Darish pointed at a barrel-chested man in his early thirties with an expressive and curious look on his face. “Sen Vabihn, our heavy-hitter. Fights dakii with as much enthusiasm as they fight us.” Which was clearly a good thing in Darish’s opinion, based on his smile.
She nodded.
“Sen Mezhimar, archer. Gives us cover when needed. I know you can shoot, so you’ll probably hang back with him or stay near the center. We’ll see.” The tall, lanky man nodded at her. He had no bow, but there was a full quiver on his back and a bow-string looped over his belt.
“Sen Shahn,” Darish pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. The most average-looking man she’d ever seen stood there, thumbs tucked into his belt as he waited, expression empty. “Our main shield-bearer. Marches near center. You’ll start next to him, I think.”
He stretched, yawning deeply. “And you know Vaneshta. Great, let’s go.”
The soldiers fell into a loose formation almost immediately, despite not having left the fort yet. Iryana jolted, struggling for a moment to remember where she was supposed to be, before falling in beside Shahn.
She followed them, trying to match her pace to theirs.
Chimney smoke rose into the sky around them from the hearth fires as they walked down the main street.
It smelled of birch wood, rye, and boiling porridge.
They passed the blacksmith’s forge, the fire just being built for the day’s work.
Goods packed onto carts moved about the fortress.
All with the dakii just outside the walls.
It was eerie.
“Don’t the dakii hear this?” she asked, doubting the Myura River hid much of the noise.
Vaneshta glanced back. “Sure, when they get close enough. But we patrol around the walls constantly, managing how close they get, mostly. And when a pack gets too close, we take care of it.”
Must be nice, she thought. If only her family had a quarter of their numbers, just a tenth of their metal-forged.
When they passed through the large gate, the first palisade opened just long enough for them to cross before crashing back to the ground, the outer palisade not opening until the first was down.
She’d been too amped up or too exhausted to inspect their defenses before. Now, she couldn’t keep herself from looking around.
There was a sizable field separating the walls from the first streets of the city, likely to give room for the archers to take down an approaching force.
The field was a winding path of trenches and wooden spikes angled away from the fort.
It would give them plenty of opportunity to take a beast down before it got too close, but she hoped the spikes had been sharpened with metal-forged tools.
They wouldn’t be a great deterrent otherwise.
And looking back, she noticed that the outer walls themselves looked nothing like from the inside. The bark had been ripped off entirely; the surface smoothed.
Mezhimar, who was walking a few paces behind her, noticed her staring. “To keep them from climbing the walls.”
Iryana shuddered.
The walls of the Dovaki Post were just raw logs, but they weren’t meant to keep the dakii out for long if a pack set their mind to breaching them. They at least had a trench filled with pitch that they could light on fire to slow them down.
They walked slowly through the buildings of the abandoned city, peering down every alleyway and inspecting the loosely nailed boards over all the doors.
The boards marked cleared buildings, and a missing one could mean a dakya was hiding inside.
There were so many little details like this that the brigade used to live amongst the beasts.
Withered ivy crawled up the sides of the buildings, some of which were in decent condition though covered with a layer of grime, the others rotting around the edges.
It clearly showed the difference between forged-construction and not; the forged tools imbued enough magic into the buildings to help them resist normal wear.
The streets themselves were cracked and uneven between piles of lingering snow.
Iryana fought the memories that threatened to rip through her focus when they passed a charred building where the inhabitants must have set a fire as a last resort. She’d seen that sort of thing before. When they finally left the ghost of a city and entered the woods, Iryana felt instantly calmer.
Vabihn started chatting absently, so Iryana knew they didn’t have to remain silent. It was strange making noise in the woods after years training herself to be soundless.
She looked over at Shahn, knowing she should try to start a conversation, start building a rapport with the soldiers of her team, yet nothing came out of her mouth. What did one say casually to a fellow soldier? She didn’t have a clue.
After a few miles of walking awkwardly beside Shahn, who was equally silent but didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest, Vaneshta fell back and made Shahn take her spot next to Vabihn.
“So, you said you moved away from your family years ago,” Vaneshta started to say, and though she spoke quietly, it seemed to pull everyone’s attention. “Have you been training with them still? Doing, uh, whatever guardians do at your posts?”
Iryana looked over to the soldier. The tone of her question hadn’t sounded casual, but serious. This wasn’t the friendly chatting that Iryana had received when she’d first arrived. This was more an interrogation.
“I trained. With the volunteers and the guardians.” Just her Uncle Dinhal really, but Vaneshta didn’t need to know that. “And I took a lot of watchtower shifts, spent a lot of time outside the wall.”
She kept the details light, not wanting to reveal how dire things were for her family.
She kept her answers like that, vague and short, as Vaneshta continued questioning her training, her skills, and even why she’d left.
With each one, Iryana grew increasingly uncomfortable, but they kept coming.
She even repeated some questions, worded differently, as if her answers might change.
The others didn’t seem bothered, just stayed quiet and let Vaneshta do her thing.
Iryana found herself hoping they’d run into a pack of dakii just to end the conversation.
When they finally finished the tedious routes around the fort, ensuring the nearby territory was free of dakii, it was already late.
Vaneshta had eventually returned to her post and the team’s chatting had resumed.
It had been shockingly normal, like she’d expect hiking around with a random group of volunteers from the post would be.
It left her feeling unsettled, like she was waiting for the villainy to reveal itself.
The sun had sunk behind the dense pine forest and great wooden walls, the sky a darkening, bruised blue.
Iryana marched with her team through the fortress, passing groups of soldiers that nodded to those in her team. Not to her, of course.
There was a sharp distinction between those who were on duty and those who weren’t.
Armored teams headed out for evening patrol or to take over for the first night shift around the walls.
Others had abandoned their uniforms, wrapped in cloaks or thick jackets, as they headed for one of the fire pits in the main yard or for the hall like Iryana’s team.
Some didn’t seem to be soldiers at all, rushing around for their chores or joining the off-duty soldiers.
There were even children playing in the yards.
She’d asked about it a few days earlier, and Vaneshta had explained that the Myura River Fort was home to an assortment of civilians, people who owed allegiance to the brigade but weren’t official members.
Some were the families of soldiers, but not all.
It surprised Iryana that people chose to live there instead of finding a safer settlement.
The brigade must have paid well, thanks to all the tribute they demanded.
“Dinner in the hall?” Vaneshta asked her, voice coming out of nowhere. Iryana almost tripped on a wooden block that was slightly higher than the others on the paved road.
She wanted to say no, desperately. She was exhausted and craved time alone—but that wouldn’t help her cause.
“Yeah, I’ll come.”
Surprise lit in her eyes, but Vaneshta smiled slightly.