We stared at each other across the sparring circle. The heat crystals pulsed, steady and uncaring.
Terra grabbed a water flask from the side of the ring, took a long drink, then tossed it to me. I caught it, drank. The water was cool, mineral-rich from the river. It did nothing to wash away the bitterness coating my tongue.
"Things are happening," Terra said carefully. "You need to look at the whole picture, not just your piece."
"What things?"
She hesitated. That hesitation told me more than words would have.
"Terra. What things?"
"There's a mission," she said finally. "Already in progress. To Ignarath."
My hand tightened on the flask. "What kind of mission?"
"You know exactly what kind."
Months ago, Vega and Zarvash had infiltrated Ignarath. The city was an enemy to Scalvaris, and it had been a clear lesson in just how lucky we’d been to end up where we did. While there, they’d made contact with a group of humans from the same ship we’d crashed down in. The situation wasn’t good. And Kira’s sister was stuck among them, being used as a slave … or worse.
"How long?"
"Three weeks ago."
Three weeks. They'd been planning this, executing this, and Terra hadn't said a word. It must have started almost as soon as the Skalanth ended.
"Who?" I asked, my voice flat.
"Mektar is leading. He took Veyrak, Nyx, and two other scouts."
All Drakarn. No humans.
And I guess that explained why I hadn't seen Nyx for weeks. Not that I was looking. Hell, I should beglad.
"And you knew about this. The whole time." It wasn't a question.
"I helped plan it," she admitted.
"But you didn't think to mention it to the rest of us." Anger was simmering, not quite rage, but it could get there if I let it.
Terra didn’t look a bit ashamed. "It's need-to-know. Operational security."
"Operational security." I laughed, the sound harsh. "That's what you're calling it?"
"What would you call it?"
My words were a controlled blast. "Excluding humans from decisions about human lives."
Terra's jaw tightened. "That's not fair."
"Isn't it? You're the only one of us the Blade Council will even pretend to listen to. You helped plan a mission to find our people, and you didn't think any of the other humans deserved to know. Deserved to be involved."
"It's not that simple."
"It is exactly that simple."
"Think about Kira," Terra said, her voice sharp. "She can't know. Not yet. Not until we have real intel about Larissa. If we tell her now and it turns out her sister is dead, it will destroy her. If we tell her and Larissa is alive but we can't extract herimmediately, it will destroy her. We need information before we can make any decisions."
I wanted to throw the water flask at her head. Wanted to scream that Kira deserved to know, that we all deserved to know, that keeping secrets was exactly the kind of Drakarn bullshit I'd been worried about.
