Chapter Seventeen
A sharp breath surged into her lungs as she stared into Karvek’s eyes.
They were the color of mist; of the palest dakya fur.
The room suddenly felt less intimidating, less formal.
Lit by lanterns and cloud-dimmed light that left his study soft and glowing.
His looming, towering figure next to her now seemed protective. Familiar.
It all clicked into place.
The way he watched her. The way Karvek always seemed to look through her. Maybe some part of her had known all along that he was the same. That it was why she felt so off balance around him.
The only other person who had ever understood her that deeply was her father.
Her eyes dropped to her hands. The room blurred, and her breath grew shallow. She was back in that cottage—her father’s voice tight with accusation, his grip so unyielding on her wrist that she cried out. Look at what you did. Look. He never let her turn away from the truth.
A sharp inhale brought her back.
She blinked, realizing Karvek was back on the other side of the table, looking over his maps again.
Her heart was still racing, so she let her gaze drift to the table instead. A safer place than meeting his eyes.
Many of the maps showed layouts of a castle she didn’t recognize. The parchment was worn at the edges like it had been handled frequently, light paths inked around the outer walls. She leaned in, squinting. There were question marks scribbled in what looked like unguarded zones. Blind spots.
She studied the paths more closely. The movement patterns along the walls mirrored how the soldiers patrolled at the fort. But something felt… off. Different. Her mind reached for the shape of it.
Another map, nearly identical but marked with different times and more details. Guards with arrows branching out from their positions like lines of motion. Then another map, with the guards in different spots with new paths. Subtle shifts, adjustments. Yet they stirred something familiar in her.
“It’s like the dakii in the forest,” she murmured. The words slipped out before she could stop them.
Karvek’s head snapped up, eyes locked on to the map she hadn’t realized she’d picked up.
Her stomach flipped. She was out of line.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, setting the parchment down with trembling fingers. “I wasn’t trying to pry. I should go.”
“What were you saying," he stopped her. “About the dakii.”
She hesitated, unsure. But there was no anger or annoyance on his face. Just sharp, focused interest.
“Please.” Karvek gestured at the maps. “Show me.”
Iryana hesitantly walked around the table.
“It’s a pattern, I think. The question marks... they’re where the soldiers vanish from sight, right? You’re mapping how they move when no one can see them.”
“And you see a pattern?” His eyes were so intense.
After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded.
“Show me.”
Iryana slowly circled the table. “It reminds me of something,” she mumbled, more to the map than to him.
“Part of my studies included looking at protocols for various styles of defensive structures. We had to map out ideal schedules and routes, and how we would adjust them based on various external factors. Threats and sieges, but also smaller things too, like poor weather and important visitors.”
“Guardian training included all that?”
She looked down, cheeks heating slightly. “Our training was slightly specialized based on our skills and interests. But yeah, and we had a lot of books on these sorts of things. We didn’t manage to bring all of them from Klees, but we brought some.”
She didn’t mention that she had used that training to map his own guards, to find the best opportunities and paths to slip out unnoticed.
He hmm’d, distracting her for a moment as he poured something that smelled strongly of alcohol into a chipped crystal glass. The sound of the liquid sloshing against the glass was strangely soothing.
She turned away as he raised the rim to his lips. His mouth was full like Pyetar’s.
Jerking her focus back to the table, she pointed to one of the southern wall diagrams. “The guards here lessen at the same time it’s noted that cargo moved through, probably pulled to help with inspections or cover the open gate.
And there’s only one of these windows where they were gone longer than half an hour, so maybe there was an issue or delay with the inspections.
But there are these repeated windows, leaving certain sections vulnerable.
And it’s consistent in where they pull from.
The gaps are even long enough to slip through.
” Her tutor would have scolded her for not accounting for that if she’d been the one to set it up.
Karvek gave a slight nod.
“And on this one, where there was an attack from the beasts, the records just cut off, so I assume whoever was watching left at that point. But the next night is here, and they sent extra patrols around that side of the wall, but there’s no reason for it.
That’s the kind of thing the instructors always said to watch for.
When fear lingers. When people start guarding shadows. ”
Iryana glanced at Karvek, understanding dawning on her. “You’re not just trying to understand their routines. You’re looking for a way through them.”
He didn’t confirm it. But he didn’t deny it either.
She could understand not trusting someone—couldn’t blame him for it—but, oh, was she curious.
“How much do you think you can pull from this?” he asked, observing her.
She hesitated briefly, wondering what his goals were. “I can see how far I get this evening?” She didn’t want to over-promise and end up letting him down. If she let down Karvek, too, that might be it. The end of her options.
“Take your time.” He leaned back, giving her full use of the table.
A shiver of excitement ran up her spine. Not just from the promise of an interesting problem to solve, but because this was it. How she could help. How she could prove herself to Karvek.
She’d been doubting for weeks that she’d be able to get anywhere, her hope slowly dwindling. But now, it felt like there might be a true possibility.
He walked across the office, shutting the door with a soft click and turning the lock. As if their work was too important to be interrupted.
Iryana bent over the maps, lining them up in order by date and time. Her brow furrowed as her fingers hovered, tracing the lines above the parchment.
She spent hours looking over the maps, making notes.
Karvek watched her at first, then eventually migrated to his desk, working on something else while she tracked every detail she could.
Even the smallest coincidences. The hall outside his study gradually grew louder, but she shut it out.
Ignored everything beyond those four walls.
The world outside the windows was dark when Karvek finally spoke, passing her a warm cup of spiced tea.
“Thank you,” she murmured, realizing they’d missed dinner. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
“What do you have so far?” he asked intently.
She took a deep breath, pulling a diagram to the top. “I think this is the base plan, if nothing goes wrong or changes. It doesn’t exactly match any of the others, but when I account for other factors and isolate the changes, this is what we’re left with.”
He leaned forward, eyes tracing the diagram intently. She held her breath.
“And what about the things that change, can you predict them?”
“The notes here—” she pulled another paper on top. “I started noting the different factors and how they affected the base paths. But a lot of the factors seem to stack, which makes it complicated.”
Karvek leaned closer, eyes narrowing.
“And here,” she said, flipping to another.
“This part is interesting. Sometimes there is a guard who hugs this back wall more often than others. And based on the timing, it’s probably the same one.
I wonder if they have a specific reason to fear that part of the wall.
Perhaps they lost a friend there during a breach?
Sorry, it doesn’t really matter why. And it’s so small, but it changes the window of opportunity during their shifts just a little.
Probably doesn’t matter enough, but I found it interesting. ”
“Such a slight thing, yet you noticed it,” he pointed out, watching her intensely.
“It just… clicked for me.” She smiled softly without even realizing it. “It was something I read once about how soldiers respond to pressure. They don’t follow orders mindlessly. They respond to what they expect to happen. To instinct. Whether it’s justified or not.”
Karvek studied her for a moment, unreadable.
“You’re brilliant, Iryana.” His voice was steady, sure. As if he were remarking on something as inarguable as the color of the sky.
Her stomach flipped with discomfort.
It felt strange being appreciated, especially by someone who seemed to see her so clearly.
Knew how she preferred to be alone, how she struggled to trust others, how she hated things out of her control.
And he didn’t seem to think less of her.
For her faults. Her broken edges. It turned his compliment into something more precious.
Something that wouldn’t be taken back or regretted later.
She glanced toward her abandoned bag near the door. She still had to admit her failure in combing the city to her captain, now very late.
But she had a chance here. With Karvek. A real way to prove herself and get access to a well regardless of how well she fit in with her team.
“Let me help you.” She turned to him. “Whatever you need.”
He considered her for a long moment.
“You can’t say a word about it to anyone.” His voice was hard, serious. “And I won’t be able to tell you everything.”
He was offering her trust. And she knew how much that meant to him. “Of course.”
“Very well, my little guardian. Consider yourself on board.”
She smiled. “I won’t let you down, Major.”