Thanks to the medicinal tea, Vaneshta healed from her injuries quickly, and thanks to the fight that gave her those injuries, the new soldiers had gained respect for Vaneshta. Their team had a bit more peace, and no one else had challenged the team rankings—though Iryana didn’t care a bit about them.
Things were otherwise continuing as they had been. Pyetar trained with his new team, quiet and distant unless someone needed correction. Karvek did whatever he did behind closed doors, although he had greeted Iryana in the hall twice, hand squeezing her shoulder. He had looked tired every time she’d seen him, getting whatever plans he had in motion. Pyetar hadn’t come to her to do anything about those plans, but she assumed he was monitoring his brother somehow.
She couldn’t be bothered with the secrets of the Horvol brothers; if they wanted something from her, they knew where to go. Instead, she put all her energy into training with her team. She sparred with Vabihn and drank his favorite vodka with him. Worked on footwork with Shahn and sucked up to him by helping his little sister with her chores. Practiced archery with Mezhimar and taught him how to make his own bow-string. Ran obstacle courses with Pepha and learned about her late husband. And Vaneshta watched her every move, providing corrections and feedback. Their whole team ran through drills and scenarios even in their free time.
Iryana felt like a different person. One who almost had friends.
Just shy of three weeks after Karvek returned as general, her team was sent on their most dangerous mission yet. It was time to prove that all the work she’d been doing was paying off.
“We’re getting closer to the valley,” Pyetar called back.
Iryana eyed him for an overlong moment. He was ignoring her and acting even more standoffish than usual.
They were patrolling the forest south of the fort that morning, which was normally an uneventful trip. But instead of just her team, like the last few times they’d gone that way, they marched with two full squads.
The shade of the trees was chilly, but the sun was warm when it landed on her. The forest teemed with life, buzzing bees and scurrying critters accompanying the sounds of grass and sticks crunching beneath their feet.
After weeks of working closely with Vaneshta and the others, she felt like she had a good grasp of the techniques. But with the more dangerous missions, with more soldiers, the formations and strategies were much more complicated. She was nervous.
Before they prepared to set out, Pyetar had gone over the marching formation and plans for the mission, and Iryana kept repeating them in her head.She would not fail.
There were large packs of dakii moving through the southern valley—thankfully far from the Dovaki post to the fort’s east—but supplies needed to be brought to one of the brigade’s bases on the other side. It couldn’t wait, so here they were.
Time was slipping away so quickly. The days were growing shorter, and while the peak of summer was still ahead of them, it didn’t feel like she had enough time. Something needed to change or she would lose her opportunity to be let into the brigade. She couldn’t wait much longer.
Iryana was near the back with Vaneshta, in the rear-guard. There were other archers near them, alternating who had their metal-forged bow formed so they always had someone ready, but they didn’t all drain their magic too quickly. They would be marching for a long time, and it was important to reserve as much magic as possible. Every few hundred paces, the head archer would signal, and those who’d been resting their magic formed their bows and quickly strung them,the others only releasing their forgings once the others were ready, tossing the bow-strings over their shoulders.
Iryana looked at their bows, imagining the one she might one day have. If she were ever forged.
“If the dakii come from our right?” Vaneshta pointed to the side, continuing to quiz her.
“We hang back, provide cover from here, until Pyetar tells us to march again.”
“From the back?”
“Fire and move to the left, only engage until the center group can come back and engage with the dakii. Then we retreat to a good firing distance and provide cover from there.” It wasn’t hard to recite, after all the plans Vaneshta had shown her. It was all patterns.Rememberingin the heat of the moment would be different.
Everything about this march felt different; there were roles and formations, and it was far beyond anything she had learned as a guardian.
Pyetar was up ahead, the mission lead, talking with the guide next to him who held the map. Two soldiers walked on either side of the group’s flank, slipping through the trees as they scanned their sides of the forest, looking back to Pyetar every few steps. The rear point followed further back in the trees, watching behind them, and a scout kept an eye further ahead.
She knew the soldiers were watching for dakii, watching Pyetar, but she felt surrounded; likeshewas being watched. So she went back to thinking about what she would forgewhenshe earned her place.
“Do any of the soldiers have forged arrows?” Iryana hadn’t heard of forging arrows before, but a metal-forged bow wasn’t much more useful than an air-forged one. Sure, they were stronger, and the arrows hit harder, but the metal-forged bows still had to be full-sized, and regular arrowheads struggled to pierce the dakii’s tough skin.
Vaneshta frowned. “Not that I know of. You would need a lot of control to send your magic that far, and you wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long. It would wear you out constantly pushing your forgings that far away.”
But if someone had enough control of their magic… Iryana hadn’t seen another unforged who could hold their shield as tightly formed as she could. Would that translate to forged magic though?
They fell into silence as they kept walking. It was… not uncomfortable.
Iryana had found herself enjoying Vaneshta’s company more than she’d expected to, more than she should allow herself to. Vaneshta was blunt and straightforward, but she was also deeply loyal. Still, Iryana couldn’t let herself forget that she wasn’t there to stay; she wasn’t on Vaneshta’s side. Even if she didn’t fuck up badly enough to ruin Vaneshta’s opinion of her, the soldier would eventually find out that Iryana was betraying them all. But for now, she hadn’t had a friend since—well; it had been a very long time.
They fell into silence as they kept watching, Iryana’s mind puzzling over the metal-forgings she’d seen while she alternated between watching Pyetar and scanning the trees. She noticed Pyetar had slowed their pace.
Pyetar raised his hand beside him, fingers outstretched. Iryana’s blood seemed to rush as everyone in the group slowly came to a halt.
She felt the urge to summon her shield, but there was no point in hiding her scent amongst all the others. She would save her magic for when it mattered, though hopefully she wouldn’t have to use it.
