Iryana felt increasingly claustrophobic with each courtyard they passed through. Stone walls closed the yards in from each side, and beyond them was always more fortress. There was only one way in, and there was no way someone could sneak out.
Karvek would be a fool to try anything there, and that was a comforting thought. Karvek was not a fool.
But what was his plan then?
Their party was led into a large courtyard where elite-looking dormitories lined each side of the center path. There was a stable to the side for their horses, and Iryana saw non-Rednian soldiers wandering around, watching them casually. The other brigades must have already arrived.
The Rednian soldiers that had been leading the 18th’s entourage assigned them one of the dormitories, and Iryana looked up at it with trepidation roiling in her gut. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t a prison. That they would be leaving again soon enough.
She was just a soldier, though. So Iryana followed her orders and helped the others unpack and bring their things inside.
“The only way into this hall is from that stairwell,” Pyetar was saying to their team as they looked around the small floor they had been assigned to. “We will have someone on watch here, and at the entrance doors to the building at all times. The general has ordered us not to talk to anyone outside our own party, so get ready to sit tight. Pick a room and drop your stuff off.”
Iryana almost growled.More waiting.
Iryana sat restlessly on one of the simple beds in her room with Vaneshta and Pepha. It was smaller than the barrack rooms at Myura River, though it was finer, meant for the ketsan and not soldiers.
Karvek was off at the initial meeting of the summit, and Iryana was restless. She was huddled on the edge of her bed where she could see out of their small window.
What was Karvek’s plan?
It was driving her crazy. She had nothing more engaging to occupy herself with than coming up with increasingly ridiculous theories. At least she wasn’t rooming with anyone outside her team, so it could have been worse. Lidishta was one of the soldiers that had come, and Iryana wasn’t sure she could have handled being cooped up with her.
“I should have packed some vodka,” Vaneshta was grumbling, pacing the room in all her armor.
The three of them had been holed up in the room for hours, having just finished their dinner rations. They hadn’t even been brought a proper meal.
Iryana ignored them; it was the third time that her roommate had lamented her lack of drink.
“Ugh, if only they’d let us out of this gods-forsaken building!” Vaneshta growled, plopping down on her bed just to immediately get back up.
“But we’re not allowed to talk to anyone,” Pepha hissed back. “What would we do if someone tried to talk to us? Clamp a hand over our mouths and run away? No, it’s far better we’re in here.”
“Bah.”
Pepha sat the tunic she was mending aside. “Vabihn has his dice and cards, so we could get a game together.”
Vaneshta immediately shook her head. “We can’t be that distracted, not if Rednian soldiers could march in here any moment.”
“Vodka would surely be a distraction,” Iryana mumbled, but they didn’t seem to hear her.
“What?” Pepha gasped, locked onto Vaneshta’s comment about soldiers storming the building. “Do you really think they will?”
Iryana sighed. Pepha didn’t need more to worry about.
Vaneshta looked to the door for a moment, face hard. “The other soldiers have been talking…”
“And?” Pepha demanded.
“I know you don’t like gossip.” Vaneshta looked over at Iryana, who found herself sitting on the edge of her bed now.
“I’m bored enough to make an exception.”
Vaneshta plopped down on the other side of Pepha’s bed, putting them all in the same corner of the small room.
“Most of the soldiers think we’ve entered a trap.”
“But?” Iryana asked.
