Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When Iryana finally made it back to the fork in the river where she had agreed to meet Pyetar, she was days early. She had run like she was being chased, not stopping to stay the night in her cottage. It had rained almost the entire time.
Iryana threw her head back and sucked in a few rasping breaths. Her legs were nearly shaking, and even though the rain had stopped, all her clothes and bags were drenched. Still, she wished she could keep running. It was so hard to stay still.
Throwing her eyes to the stars, Iryana begged for clarity. Had she found the well for nothing? Had she been forged for nothing? Iryana tossed her pack down with a thud.
She had known her grandmother would use this to push her to come back, had suspected that when she was young, the First had been training her to be Third.
Iryana had been given extra work and assignments, given special lessons with the First directly, or brought to watch meetings.
The others sometimes were, too, but none as often as Iryana. But that was a long time ago.
Despite her frustration and fears, she was now a soldier of the 18th.
There were other ways she could help on her own.
There was still a little time for her family to figure things out.
Levek was eighteen, just old enough to be forged too.
If they could get him to the metal temple, they’d have a better option for Third.
They’d just have to get him there—by traveling a week in beast-infested woods.
Her head fell into her hands. How were they supposed to manage that? They didn’t have the charts of the dakii paths like the brigade did.
“Iryana?” A low voice came from a few paces away, and Iryana spun into action, forming her bow and nocking an arrow.
She realized whose voice it was just as she stared down the arrow at him. Laughter caught in her throat. It wasn’t the first time she’d aimed at him, though this time she felt far less desire to let her arrow fly.
“Pyetar.” She stared, chest heaving. “You’re early.”
Brow wrinkled, he nodded. “As early as you. I thought you needed another—”
“No.” Iryana cut him off, finally remembering to lower her bow. “Not anymore.”
He was watching her too closely, and she didn’t like it. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He nodded as if he didn’t believe her in the slightest. “I was going to set up camp and wait for you, but if you want to head back tonight…” he trailed off.
“Yes.” That was all she could do after all, help her family from this side. “Let’s head back.”
She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, heading toward the fort. It took a few moments for Pyetar to follow.
Iryana wasn’t sure what her plan was. Kill as many dakii as possible? Get information back to the Kleesolds that could help? Try to stop Karvek’s war? Stay close enough to him that she could at least warn her family?
At least Karvek would accept her.
Iryana had not been prepared for how excited the 18th were when new soldiers were initiated. Even Shahn had clapped her on the shoulder and congratulated her.
There had been little time to get settled back in or talk to the others and learn what she might have missed before it was time for the ceremony. Which was how she found herself standing in the estate’s large hall, towering windows on one side, less than a day after returning.
Iryana had to make her oaths to the 18th.
Once, soldiers of Istri swore to obey and protect their queen, but it had been a long time since the queen had control of anything beyond her city. Now, soldiers swore to their generals and brigades. Iryana tried to focus on that as she waited, not on her family and her failures.
Had the military abandoned the queen then? The oaths they had taken long ago? Even though some claimed she still lived. Or perhaps they’d just changed how they interpreted those oaths for convenience? It mattered not.
Iryana looked around the hall, finding most of the regiment present and some from other regiments in the brigade too. Her own team stood at the center left, standing tall and quiet. Then she realized she wasn’t the only one waiting to take their oaths.
Lidishta came to stand beside her and glared like a fox approached while eating, ready to fight ferociously to keep its meal.
Had she been forged too, then? Iryana scanned Lidishta’s lean, leather-wrapped body, finding the edge of a metal tattoo peeking up around her collar. As if it were reaching around her throat to strangle her.
Lidishta had been at Redni Castle, so there must be another well nearby, Iryana realized. Something to tuck away for later. At least she had been spared the torment of having to go through her forging with Lidishta present.
As much as she disliked the woman, Iryana needed fewer enemies, not more. So she inclined her head in what she hoped looked like an offer of peace.
It wasn’t long before it was time for the ceremony to begin. Major Darish Babishol, leader of the regiment and second only to Karvek, stood before them.
“Before we belt our newest soldiers, there is a promotion we must handle first.”
Excited murmurs erupted across the room. Iryana was thankful for the extra time.
“Sen Vaneshta, come forward,” Darish ordered, staring down at the crowds as if to silence them.
An excited whoop went through the crowd as Vaneshta stepped forward and Iryana tensed, but her roommate did not seem worried. If anything, she seemed bored.
Then Iryana remembered Vaneshta was ketsan, a lady, and destined for more within the regiment. Had Vaneshta known this promotion was coming? If she did, she had not told Iryana.
Vaneshta kneeled before Darish, head lowering slightly in deference.
Darish spoke loudly above the excited murmurs.
“Vaneshta Frankola, daughter of Captain Rokosh, heir to the barony of Tyegron, you have proven yourself as a soldier of the Myura River regiment and the 18th Brigade. It is past time you are made an officer. I raise you to sergeant of the first team. Do you accept this?”
“I accept.”
Darish held up a dark navy belt, folded in half and stretched above him. The crowd roared. The entire regiment may not have liked Vaneshta, but they all respected her.
A strange feeling wormed itself inside Iryana. It wasn’t quite jealousy; it was more painful than that. Iryana longed for such acceptance.
Then Darish laid the belt over Vaneshta’s shoulder, who clasped it to her chest with a hand over her heart and said her part, though Iryana could not hear it over the crowd.
Vaneshta rejoined their team, and Darish called his sister next.
Nerves were getting the best of her as Iryana watched Lidishta’s belting. Iryana couldn’t stop thinking about what her family was going to do and what lengths she could handle going to in order to help them.
“You are now a soldier of the 18th Brigade, Sena Lidishta,” Darish declared. “I assign you to the first team.”
That snapped Iryana out of her tumbling thoughts. The first team? Lidishta would fight alongside her then. She watched nervously as Lidishta went to stand beside Pepha and Shahn. That was going to be interesting.
When Darish went to call Iryana, a hand on his shoulder stilled him. The general stopped him.
Iryana sucked in her breath, worry seizing her muscles. Had Karvek changed his mind?
Karvek whispered something in Darish’s ear, and then the major moved to stand off to the side. The room was quieter now; the discussion lowering to a confused simmer, as Karvek looked out at them all.
Then his eyes met hers, and the corner of his mouth tilted, and Iryana exhaled with relief. He at least would not abandon her.
“Iryana, come.”
She clenched her jaw as she walked up the center of the hall and kneeled before Karvek at the base of the dais, watching his eyes track her. Why had he taken over from Darish? To remind her she owed her loyalty to Karvek and not any of the others?
Iryana could feel the eyes on her, the wondering. The expectations. She did not want them. Not here too.
She felt like glass; fractures already running through her.
For years she had distanced herself from her family, protecting them and herself, but she had never felt so forsaken by them.
Why could they not accept her? Stop asking more of her?
Surely they knew it only forced her further away from them.
Tension was clamping on her muscles, her breaths growing weaker, and Iryana knew she was panicking. Her gaze jumped around wildly before latching onto Karvek. There was something in his look that calmed her as much as it worried her.
“Iryana Kleesolda, once a Guardian of Klees, you have proved your loyalty to me, proved your value to the 18th Brigade. Speak your oaths now.”
She swallowed, but spoke without hesitation. “I swear to follow the commands of my general, to never desert my service, and to never protect my life in sacrifice of the 18th Brigade.”
In her heart though, she remembered the oaths she had taken four years ago when she became a guardian.
To first guard and protect those her clan was charged with above all else, above all authorities.
Then came her duty to her clan and family, and only after that came the Kingdom of Istri.
The new oaths she took for the 18th would follow those, and she would obey them as long as they didn’t interfere with any of the oaths she took before.
“You are now a soldier of the 18th Brigade, Sena Iryana,” Karvek declared, still watching her with that sharp way of his. “You will stay assigned to the first team, and I also award you Bronze Arrows, for your service that earned your place.”