Chapter 33 #3
“No, she’s still alive, I believe. Her name is Hana.
She was gentle and beautiful, an accomplished singer actually.
My father sent her to one of the other settlements before he died, didn’t tell us which one of course.
Claimed that because she was a Countess, she shouldn’t be out here on the front lines with us.
But he really just wanted to separate us from her. ”
“That’s horrible.”
“That was my father. Hard, severe. Willing to do whatever it took to make the 18th strong enough to survive, to make my brother and me hard enough to survive.”
It explained a lot about Karvek.
Pyetar continued to lead her through the trees, continued sharing this story like he couldn’t stop now that he’d begun.
“When we first came to Myura River Fort, my father sent my mother to try and reason with the settlements, to let us join the guardians in defending the border, supply us from behind, but they refused. Said we couldn’t give up on the war against the dakii or all would be lost. It was the last order the queen had made. ”
Iryana nodded, trying to imagine what that had been like on his side. “I didn’t really understand it. They just told us kids the military hadn’t given up, so we couldn’t either.”
“Looking back, it might have been the right call for Istri. We distracted the dakii enough that the settlements could truly form, pull in stragglers and set up their walls and defenses. If the full brunt of the dakii had been at those borders, I am not sure how many would have survived.” Pyetar shook his head.
“But it was hard to see it like that. They struggled to find enough food for us, to repair our weapons and armor. There was a lot of illness, a lot of deaths even without the dakii killing us.”
“I suppose we were lucky in that regard,” Iryana admitted. “It wasn’t much, but the settlement did what they could to help the posts.”
“The brigade considered themselves abandoned, only fodder in Istri’s eyes.
Makes it hard for a soldier to feel honorable, like they are serving the realm.
By the time I was old enough to fully enlist and be forged, the brigade was nothing like it once was.
Being a soldier was something entirely different. ”
“It makes sense,” Iryana sighed. “The posts have villainized the military a lot, blamed them almost as much as the dakii for our troubles, but they became what Istri forced them to be to survive.”
Pyetar nodded, glancing back at her. “The dakii changed us all, not just the soldiers.”
Iryana sucked in a breath. “And we can never go back to who we were before.”
He turned away from her. “Let’s pick up the pace,” he said, rushing ahead.
It took a few moments to follow.
“These parts of the forest are not covered by our usual patrols.” Pyetar stopped at a large stone sticking up from the dirt, big enough to lie on and roll a few times before falling off. “I need you to be silent—not a word—until I tell you otherwise.”
Iryana’s gut reaction was to argue, but that was quickly suppressed by logic. This was his territory, not hers. And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she trusted him.
At least out here.
“Okay.”
His eyes narrowed slightly at her, as if he had expected an argument and had already prepared a counter.
“How long can you hold your shield now?” he asked.
“I haven’t tested it, but with all the practice with my forgings lately, I imagine pretty long.”
“Good. Don’t worry about your weapons right now; they will just drain you. You need your shield up until I tell you otherwise. Keep it thin and small—you will hold it awhile, so don’t push it. Make sure it can hide your scent from the dakii.”
She hesitated, but Iryana let the magic of her bow return to her. Walking through the dakii’s woods without a weapon in hand made her feel naked.
If she concentrated the raw magic in a small area, like she had fighting the dakya on that cliff, she could form a suitable shield. But to surround herself entirely—that would be a challenge.
It took her a while to stretch her remaining raw magic out into a suitable shield.
It was like rolling out dough a little too far, the spots thinning and threatening to break.
Stretched all the way around her, the magic was too thin to stop anything more powerful than a caress, but it would dampen her scent enough. She hoped.
When she looked over at Pyetar, her brows shot up.
She’d been impressed when she’d seen it before, when he first led her to Myura River, but the shield he formed now was even more impressive.
If the magic had any shine to it, it would look like he’d dipped his whole body in watery milk.
She hadn’t realized he was that good with his magic.
“Is this how you move around on your own so much?” Iryana had to admit she had wondered. It was hard to go anywhere without running into the dakii, especially lately.
Pyetar nodded, bringing his finger to his lips as a reminder to be quiet. Then he crossed the rock and headed back into the trees.
The forest gradually thinned, with the trees grouped in clusters or standing solitary in small clearings surrounded by rings of dead pine needles.
Wherever the sun could reach the forest floor, bushes and vines rose to suck it up.
Those patches took more time to pass through, and their progress slowed.
As they walked, the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky.
When Pyetar finally stopped, Iryana froze mid-step. He turned to her, slowly raising his hand to cup behind his ear and then point in the general direction of the forest.
She listened and realized there was nothing to hear. The forest was quiet. A shiver went down her spine; there were dakii nearby. She looked around for a spot to conceal them, but with how sparse the forest was here, it would be harder to hide.
Pyetar was standing there, statue-still, eyes closed and head tilted down.
She wasn’t sure what she was meant to do but wait.
So that’s what she did, watching him. His honey-brown hair was getting longer, sticking out the bottom of his brown felt cap.
A dark green summer cloak hid most of his broad chest and muscular arms, but she could see the studded leather of his brigandine where the cloak parted.
At least they hadn’t gone on this mission during the peak of summer’s heat, when they would have worn the bare minimum. He was distracting enough covered up as he was now.
She was just chastising herself for ogling Pyetar when, in a burst of movement, he reached for her hand and a flash of pressure hit her shield. His hand passed through and grasped hers tightly.
When she met his eyes, he nodded, trying to convey something in that expression. Iryana felt a wave of panic crash over her. Was he saying they would fight to the death together? Was he saying everything was okay? Was he—
Pyetar took off into the trees, dragging her behind.
They avoided the open clearings, sticking to the shadows and soft needle piles, running as quietly as they could.
He didn’t let go of her hand, but kept looking around and reorienting himself.
Iryana did her best to keep up with the huge strides of his long legs.
He was heading somewhere specific, but she didn’t know where and couldn’t ask.
They came to the trunk of a tree, one of the ones that soared higher than the others, and Pyetar gestured for her to climb. She didn’t hesitate.
It wasn’t an easy tree to climb. The branches at the base were short and far apart, but the trunk was thick and sturdy.
Partway up, she looked down to see that Pyetar was listening, focusing on the surrounding forest. Then he looked up, his eyes meeting hers.
He gestured with his head for her to continue and then began to climb after her.
Iryana knew the dakii could knock down a tree if they had a desire to; the only reason to climb one was if you were sure one hadn’t seen you. The thought made her feel like there were eyes on her. Watching.
A hand on her ankle made her jolt, but Pyetar held her in place and then climbed up beside her. They had reached a part of the tree with leaf-covered branches, the ground hard to see directly below them.
He didn’t look afraid, not overly so anyway. But there was certainly an urgency and stiffness to him. That relaxed Iryana somewhat.
Pyetar tugged on her sleeve and worked his way around the tree. On the other side, there was a ladder. She hadn’t seen it with the thicker canopy.
Believing they might outlive the day, Iryana followed him up it.
At the top of the ladder was some kind of watchtower, anchored to a few of the larger, nearby pines. The construction looked old, from before the beasts came or perhaps shortly after, but parts of it had been repaired recently.
Once they reached the top, she realized it was less of a watchtower and more of a covered platform.
And not a very large one. Pyetar laid down across the floor on his stomach, and Iryana laid down beside him, her body lightly pressed to his.
There was room to move slightly further away, but she knew they needed to stay hidden.
Her heart was still pounding, and the proximity to Pyetar didn’t help.
He wasn’t paying attention to her, though.
He was pulling out a few bundles of pine-cones from his back and chucked them out away from their tree.
Was is to distract the dakii? Make it sound like they were still moving further away if they were being followed? She didn’t know.
She hated feeling so helpless, so useless.
Without knowing what he was doing, she couldn’t strategize or plan. She could either imagine dakii throwing themselves at the base of their tree, the platform suddenly rocking and knocking them off, or she could focus on Pyetar’s body against hers.
Neither option was acceptable.
Iryana slowly laid her head down, facing away from Pyetar. She needed distance.