Chapter Seventeen #2
“I know.” He gave a sharp half-smile. “And in here, it’s just Karvek.”
She ignored the twinge of worry deep in her gut, the bit of her still questioning what Karvek wanted. If it meant saving her family, it didn’t matter.
When Iryana finally left his office, she felt warm.
Full of hope. She’d be going back, meeting with Karvek every day after her assignments from Darish were done.
So long as the major didn’t get pulled away for something important.
And only until the mission kicked off. But still.
Days to prove herself, to make herself invaluable.
She’d have something promising to report to her sister. Hope to offer.
Over the next few nights, a quiet rhythm settled between them.
Each afternoon after Darish dismissed her, Iryana returned to Karvek’s study, where the maps and plans covered every available surface of the room.
One of the young initiates working in the kitchens would bring dinner to the door, and they would eat quietly while they worked.
Sometimes Vaneshta would be in bed before she got back to their room.
Her presence in Karvek’s study didn’t go unnoticed.
It was a hard thing to hide given his office was off the main hall.
He had told her to tell anyone who asked that she was walking him through how the guardian posts and the settlement functioned, which some seemed to believe.
She heard the whispers of what they thought she was really doing in there, though. What they were doing.
Karvek said he didn’t care about those rumors either. “Let them believe what they want,” he’d said with an amused tone. “As long as no one knows what we're really planning.” So Iryana focused instead on helping.
They spoke little at first. Just murmured questions and short confirmations amidst the rustle of parchment and the soft scratch of a quill. But the silence was never awkward. It was focused. Purposeful.
Iryana was earning her place.
She pointed out everything she noticed: shifts in routines, the way guard rotations lagged a bit longer after supply days, the way they adjusted for a night of partying and the resulting morning when so many were hungover.
Karvek rarely interrupted, but sometimes leaned closer, following her line of thought, making adjustments in his own notes.
Sometimes captains she only recognized by the green belt around their waists slipped into the room and passed Karvek sealed letters or whispered in his ear. She burned with curiosity, but kept herself from asking.
But a few hours into the third night, they received a new set of diagrams. They unrolled them together on the table, pushing aside what they’d been working on before.
She started scanning the diagrams, looking for anything new. In the corner of one page was a note about the general’s movements within Midmarket.
Her heart began to thud wildly. She wasn’t sure if she was meant to see that.
Karvek had been careful not to name the place they were analyzing.
She had heard Midmarket whispered about; it was where the general of the 18th lived.
Karvek’s superior. Karvek would see the note soon enough, know she saw it. She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t.
“So,” she started softly. “You’re infiltrating Midmarket?”
Karvek stilled. Just for a breath—but the air changed. Tense and bloated.
He didn’t look at her at first. He finished reading the notes scrawled down the side, then turned to look down at her.
“Iryana,” he said gently, “you see things others don’t. You understand the patterns. That’s rare. And it’s useful.”
She said nothing. Just waited.
He looked at her then, with an almost fond expression. “You’re new to our way of life, to the 18th. But answer me this: what happens when a leader is dying? Sick? Unable to rule? Especially in a dangerous world like ours.”
She frowned, hesitating. “Someone else has to step in, hold power. Keep people in line.”
“And if the wrong person stepped in?” His voice was low, almost coaxing. “That would be a problem.”
“So—” she started, then stopped. “The general of the 18th is sick? And you’re worried the wrong people will wrestle control?”
Karvek gave a soft breath that could have been a sigh or a smile.
“Exactly,” he said. Then his voice gentled.
“The general has been training me to take over. It was always the plan, especially with my family’s legacy.
But there are factions of Midmarket that are moving in as well.
I have to get there first, before it’s too late.
Those factions would keep me and my soldiers from entering, so I have to sneak in and take position.
Complete the handover with the general formally. ”
She nodded slowly at his sharp gaze that was tracing over her face, as if gauging her reaction. “I understand.”
He turned back to the maps without another word, as if the matter were settled. And she didn’t press again. The whole thing made her nervous, but the world they lived in was not for the meek.
There was more pressure now, knowing what was at stake.
And she couldn’t help worrying over what would happen to the 18th’s territory if the wrong person took over.
It could make things even worse for her family.
And if Karvek ended up demoted or punished for failing, her chances of being accepted might be lost.
They had to succeed.
So she ignored the twinges of suspicion and worry that there were too many aspects of this plan that she was in the dark about and got back to work.
The next day, Vaneshta questioned her again about avoiding the team for dinners and coming back to their room so late.
There’d been a suspicious glint in her eye, and Iryana knew she’d heard the rumors.
When Iryana just repeated her story, that she was answering Karvek’s questions about the settlement, Vaneshta sighed and walked away.
There was a noticeable strain when she worked with her team, but Iryana knew Karvek was her best chance for success. Besides, it was only temporary.
And Karvek’s study soon became a retreat, a safe space. No one watching and judging. Just Karvek, happy to let her focus on her work. Not caring when she struggled to make conversation.
She could finally breathe.
Iryana slipped through the side gate of the barracks, walking in the shadows that pooled along the wall where the moonlight couldn’t reach.
The hood of her thin black cloak was pulled over her shoulder and braid, hiding the armor and pack she wore underneath.
Her bow and quiver were cradled under her left arm.
If everything went according to plan, she wouldn’t need them.
She needed everything to go according to plan.
Rounding the barrack’s stables was easy, but that left her staring at the exposed expanse beyond her safe shadows and the back fence of the estate. The well-trodden grass was bathed in the soft glow of the moon.
Iryana looked up at the torches on the top of the wall, evenly spread out across the walk.
She knew the soldier on this bit of the wall would walk from the tower at the main gate all the way to the corner tower and then stop to scan the ground around the fort.
It was impossible to make out the soldiers in the dark from such a distance.
The roof over the walk blocked even the moonlight, but Iryana was patient.
One of the torches midway down the south wall went dark, for just a moment. Then, the torch on the left flickered a little while later. The corner of Iryana’s lip perked up. The south guard was moving away from the river, facing away from Iryana.
She darted across the field to the mansion, tucking into the shadows before the last light along the wall went out. She froze, waiting, her muscles tense with excitement. Something about the rhythm of it all sent her heart flying.
Iryana frowned. The last light still hadn’t gone out. Had she missed it? Or had the soldier turned back for some reason? She couldn’t get caught.
Karvek had been very clear about that.
The last lantern went dark, and Iryana sagged with relief.
She wasted no time tracing the back fences and walls of the mansion.
The curtains to Karvek’s study were pulled tight, glimmers of light shining through where they met.
It was supposed to look like he was inside, working late into the night like he had been every other night for the last week.
Another watch for the soldiers on the wall, and then Iryana was across the field, across the road that circled the entire wall within the fort, and then into the bottom floor of the tower.
There were no lanterns inside; there never were, but Iryana could trace the wall to the stairs where she’d find the rope bridge to take her across the river. That wasn’t where she was supposed to go this time, though.
She made her way into the side passage that led inside the wall, having no idea what would happen once she got there. It was where her instructions ended.
Iryana hated the anticipation sending goosebumps down her arms and the queasy feeling in her stomach, like she had jumped off a cliff and was still waiting to hit the ground.
Something brushed her arm, and Iryana fought the urge to strike. The gasp stuck in her throat.
“Iryana.”
She knew instantly that it was Karvek; his voice was low but melodic, even more so in the dark.
And with him so close, she recognized the smells of his evening habits.
The woody bite of pepper from the infused vodka he drank, always from the same chipped crystal glass.
That strange scent from the ink he used for his notes, the sharp alcoholic stench softened by something that reminded her of hawthorn bark.
“It’s me,” she whispered, not that there was anyone else around to hear.
“Did anyone see you?”
“No. My team will know I left when I don’t show up for morning training, though.”
“That’s okay.”