“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Gil added.
Harle snorted as he turned towards the stable block. “No boundaries.Got it.”
Gil chuckled, then turned easily back to the launch hollow as if he were just taking a moment, but his eyes were sharp as he glanced at me.
“You okay?”
“Yes, but I need to ask you some questions abouttraining,”I said quietly, casually keeping an eye out for anyone approaching from the stable, or dragons overhead.
“Can you give me a hint?”
I thought about it for a moment. “My squad training… scouting and so forth.”
“Yes?”
“I wonder, with the war on the horizon and orders already in… what if I were to switch focus? From ambush to subterfuge. The Furyknights are brimming with scouts. What if I were to become something a little more specialized? Thenallmy training could narrow down?”
Gil frowned. “I don’t see a problem with it, but it’s not my call.”
“The thing is, I can’t talk to Ronen.”
“Ah. Right.”
“So, I’m kind of stuck.”
“Well, it’s not just our Wing Captain. The entire squad needs to be on board,” Gil said, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. “When you’ve been assigned a role, changing can cause ripple effects elsewhere. Though I doubt they’d protest for this. Leave it with me.”
“Really?” Was it that simple?
Gil turned as another dragon flew in overhead. “I’ll see if it’s even possible. We can discuss it in the squad meeting.”
Oh shit. I’d forgotten about that. Good thing Ronen had taken me off that flight. I wouldn’t even have had time for lunch.
I took a deep breath and forced a smile to my face. “Perfect. Thank you.” We chatted for another minute as another dragon landed on the far end of the launch hollow. Soon, Voski climbed the sloping side towards us.
I lowered my voice, though he was still too far away to hear me. “Maybe this gets me one step closer to sneaking up on Voski and making him jump, right? I haven’t forgotten your bet.”
Gil snorted. “I’d pay for more than a round of drinks to see that. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you!”
“Don’t thank him, it goes to his head,” Voski said as he rounded the top of the slope from the launch hollow, sweaty and grimy. He greeted both of us, he and Gil clasping hands briefly. “What did you do to make her think she had to be grateful?” he asked with a twist of his lips.
“I just agreed to help her with a shift in training.”
“Oh?”
“I want to specialize,” I said. “I know we can’t do much, but, I’m hoping to leave the ambush and scouting in the squad to Einar. Get some more practice with Akhane for shrouding, as well as subterfuge. So, all my training can narrow.”
Voski frowned. “That’s something we considered early on. But you showed such skill with finding and marking that camp, it seemed like a smart choice to keep your focus in that direction.”
“If I move to subterfuge, I can still search, right? And be part of gathering intel?”
Voski nodded and his eyes grew thoughtful. “Yes. But the implications… Have you thought this through? That kind of specialization and training isn’t just for one mission, Bren. It’s your whole life. Subterfuge would mean taking on a different role in our squad,andin the Furyknights as a whole. It would mean receiving different orders.”
“I know. I get it. But I’m floundering here. I need a role that uses my mind more than my body—not entirely. I’m not trying to stop training. Just to lean into my strengths. Surely if I’m better at this side of things now, I’ll be even stronger and more suited in five years?”
“Sure, but—”
