Chapter 34 #3
Iryana considered refusing; she didn’t know how to face her family now. But her heart was in shreds thinking of her mother, and she wished she could apologize to her sisters. She couldn’t leave. No matter what it took, she would save the Kleesolds. For her sisters.
She wouldn’t leave them like their mother had.
“Okay. Let’s go back.”
Back in the hall, the plates and platters from dinner already cleared away, Iryana found herself sitting next to her grandmother. The family was reserved. All eyes were on them, other than Iryana’s uncles, who were avoiding looking at her.
“We have a lot to discuss,” the First said, voice clear. “A lot to think about after tonight. But for now, we need a plan. Iryana needs to head back soon.”
That seemed to return a bit of energy to the room. Iryana took a moment to focus, to push all her emotions and anxieties away.
“Hadima said you had a plan,” the First opened for her.
Iryana found herself more collected than she’d expected.
She explained Karvek’s recently acquired strength, his mission to continue amassing power. Told them that Karvek was looking for a spy, a traitor. She didn’t tell them about Pyetar’s involvement, though.
“I have an idea. The start of one at least.” Her throat was tight, but she forced herself to continue.
“Karvek will never let his soldiers see any weakness. A traitor would be dealt with privately; he wouldn’t dare expose such a failing.
That means Karvek will deal with it himself, so we can get him alone.
And then we have to kill him. A surprise attack, he is too strong for anything else. ”
It was such a risky plan, but she didn’t know how else to scatter his forces, to give someone better a chance to wrest control.
“I can tell Karvek that I came back here with a suspicion that the 18th’s liaison was involved.
That I, uh—questioned him. Found out where the informant had arranged a meeting or something.
I have to work out the details. But when Karvek goes to meet the informant.
I will be there instead. And I’ll kill him. ”
“He’s a powerful fighter from what I’ve heard,” Vesima admitted. “Do you believe you can kill him on your own?”
Iryana felt lightheaded, as she did every time she thought about it. “I will have to.”
She’d lure him to a clearing with the promise of meeting the traitor, and then meet him herself.
Uncle Dinhal started to stand, a look of dedication on his face, but it wasn’t his voice that pierced through the room.
“I will do it.” Hadima was standing, a determined look on her face.
“No!” Misha shrieked, staring with wide-eyed fear that mirrored Iryana’s own.
“What?” Kladara sputtered. “You’re a healer, Hadima. We can’t risk that. And we have better fighters. Iryana should do it.”
Uncle Dinhal sauntered up, arms crossed and muscles bulging. “I can do it. I am a more experienced fighter than Iryana.” And he was metal-forged, too.
Aunt Emadya and Uncle Dinhal were the only metal-forged left that could actually fight—other than Iryana now.
Uncle Byorsh was still too injured, their two middle brothers were gone, their father was gone.
Even their cousin Gornhal was gone now. And Aunt Emadya was never very aggressive.
She preferred training the newest guardians and watching the children to going out and fighting.
Iryana couldn’t see her killing someone, not like this. Uncle Dinhal made sense…
If heirs could be replaced when they died, she was sure her grandmother would have chosen Dinhal.
Relief surged through her. If Iryana didn’t have to do it herself, she couldn’t fail them.
Hadima turned to their grandmother, and then to Iryana. There was a plea in her eyes. “You’ve said their general is dangerous, that he is too strong a fighter for us to take on directly. What is going to happen the moment he sees someone he thinks is a threat?”
Karvek would kill them, Iryana thought.
“Would he even let you get close, sister? Would he not immediately suspect you if you showed up instead?” Hadima turned to Uncle Dinhal.
“No offense, Uncle, but he’ll know you’re a threat the second he sees you, too.
” Then she turned to the rest of them. “If we’re setting up a fake meeting for him to intercept, we need to get close.
Before he decides we’re a threat. I am too young to have been metal-forged before; he’ll know that.
I will dress like a weak healer and make sure my forging tattoo shows. ”
Hadima took a deep breath. “He won’t suspect I am there to kill him.”
“Absolutely not.” Iryana said.
“Look, I have a plan,” Hadima urged, looking around at them all.
“I was experimenting with poisons after Iryana suggested trying that again on the dakii. It didn’t work on them, but for people it would.
I can go back to the temple I was forged in, reforge my dagger into a poison dart. I wouldn’t even have to get close.”
“How would you get to the temple? And we don’t have weeks like the last time you were forged,” Iryana argued. She’d have to go far beyond the wall.
“I will figure out the details, and the water well isn’t as far as they made us think. They tried to disorient us, to keep us from figuring out where it was, but I kept track. I have enough time.”
“No, Hadima.” She couldn’t let her sister put herself at risk.
Misha began crying, and Teshya pulled her to her side with her free arm.
“But… can you kill someone like that, Hadima?” Tonhald asked quietly, touching her arm.
Hadima pulled back and aimed a fierce stare at her cousin. “I am a guardian, trained just like you. Like all of you. I can do what I have to in order to protect my family.”
With a whirl, Hadima walked up to the First of the Guardians of Klees, the one whose decision could overrule the rest. “Grandmother, let me do this.”
“I don’t like the thought of losing any of you, and I would be foolish not to consider that you’re our only forged healer.” She took a slow, shaky breath. “But this is Iryana’s plan. If this is the best way to succeed—I will support whatever Iryana decides.”
They all turned to her. Iryana shrank.
“Don’t let her do this,” Misha pleaded, pulling away from Teshya to tug on Iryana’s arm. “I can’t lose her too.”
Iryana’s heart tightened, and she felt shaky. Like she was being pulled in a hundred directions. Misha had lost her mother because of what Iryana had done, so how could she risk the last family Misha had left?
“Sister.” Hadima pulled Iryana’s attention from their younger sibling. “You know this is the only way.”
But Hadima was wrong; it wasn’t the only way. And Hadima wasn’t a murderer. Iryana knew what a murderer looked like, what it took to be one. Karvek believed he had Iryana under his thumb, would let her get close. And she knew enough about Karvek to steady her blade.
It would be best if Iryana did it.
“Iryana,” Hadima urged again, perhaps seeing the decision on Iryana’s face. “We get one shot at this. It’s not something you can change your mind about, freeze up during.”
She flinched.
“Let me do this.” There wasn’t a bit of fear or doubt on Hadima’s face.
Because of course there wouldn’t be. Of course, Hadima would be brave enough to take the risk. She was perfect, and even when she wasn’t, the family would never blame her for failing.
And if Iryana insisted on doing it, they would never forgive her if anything went wrong. Might even blame her for the consequences even if she succeeded. Besides, this was the type of heroics meant for someone like Hadima.
She was tired of disappointing her family. Of never being enough.
“Fine!” Iryana shouted, turning away. “Fine, Hadima will do it.”
She felt cold inside. Empty.
Misha ran into Hadima’s arms, buried her face in her side and clutched her so tightly that Iryana could see the strain in her body.
“You’ll need to set up the meeting on your end,” Hadima said quietly. “I will need a few days to get ready.”
“Okay,” Iryana said numbly. “You’ll need to lock up the 18th’s liaison, anyone else he has passed messages to that’s not part of the family. We can’t let any of this get out.”
Iryana would make sure Hadima got her chance to save them.
It was an unseasonably hot morning when Iryana met back up with Pyetar. He had insisted on waiting for her where they’d met up last time, right at the end of the Yuresh River, and thankfully he’d been there when Iryana had arrived.
She looked at Pyetar as he walked beside her up to the Myura River Fort’s gate. Her plan to deal with Karvek would keep him safe too.
He had been quiet since they’d met up again, avoiding talking to her. She couldn’t blame him.
“I know why you haven’t done something about your brother,” she said gently.
“Because I’m a coward? Because I’m afraid of getting hurt?” he said bitterly.
Iryana felt a flip of regret in her stomach. “I’m sorry for what I said before. I don’t think you’re a coward.”
“You weren’t entirely wrong.”
“Look, we aren’t all heroes. Sometimes taking what life hands us and surviving it so we can help in small ways is just as important. There are people here who rely on you—you give them hope with your strength. You give them someone they can trust when they need it.”
Pyetar’s face crumpled with confusion.
Iryana looked away. “You work against him in your own way. Even if I didn’t see it at first.”
“I’m not doing much more than slowing him down.”
“I have a plan.”
Pyetar veered closer to her. “Can I help?”
“No, Karvek is too suspicious of you. He is watching you too closely.”
Pyetar clenched his jaw, but he looked at the ground in front of him with resignation.
“I need to go report to your brother.” Iryana offered a tense smile and then left him by the gate.
She found Karvek alone, standing on the wall and looking over the abandoned city beyond their fort.
“Ah, Iryana.” Karvek smiled as he turned to see her.