It might be a death wish, but she had to try.
She had to lead the dakii on a chase.
Her heart was pounding so hard she worried she wouldn’t hear them, but just as she saw the first sign of movement through the trees, snow crunched behind her.
She nocked and drew an arrow as she spun; the movement practiced over hundreds and hundreds of hours.
Just past the tip of her arrowhead, stood the enforcer. Pyetar.
Her brain raced to catch up with what her eyes were seeing. He’d followed her? Had he traversed the cliff side too? Was she truly so rushed that she hadn’t seen rocks raining down from his climb? Clearly she was.
Then a thought occurred to her. It would be so easy to loose her arrow, get revenge for what he’d done to her family. Let his death be caught up in whatever happened here. Her hand twitched.
His expression stilled, as if calculating whether she’d do it. Whether he thought she hated him enough.
“I’m here to help,” he said in his softest, lowest voice, holding up his hands. The same way Tonhald had when Pyetar roughed him up that night.
“Liar,” she hissed.
Then the sound of battle erupted further into the trees; she recognized one of her uncle’s voices shouting out orders. Growls, thuds, and screams merged too much for Iryana to tell what was happening.
There wasn’t time for this. Iryana loosened her hold on the bowstring, lowering her aim.
“You need to leave,” she ordered.
“Absolutely not.” He folded his arms, a clear sign he had no interest in listening to her.
“Now, before it’s too late,” she pleaded. She was starting to panic now. The battle was growing louder. His presence could ruin any chance of her plan working.
“Aren’t we going to join the fight?” he asked.
Iryana sucked in a breath. If her family died today because of this man, she would return from the afterlife to rip him apart.
“Can you shield your scent?” she asked in a rush. It didn’t take too much raw magic, and some forged had enough left. Hopefully, he was one of them.
He frowned. “Yes.”
“Good. Do it and sneak along the cliff until you reach the watchtower. Help the guardians if any dakii linger. And donotmention seeing me.”
It felt like a stupid thing to worry about, what with the fate of the post at risk, but it was the only thing she could assure herself to keep panic from crumpling her.
“Do you want to die? One girl can’t fight off a single beast, let alone a whole pack. You need my help.”
He was arrogant and presumptuous and she hated it.
“I’m not going to fight them.” She looked nervously over her shoulder again.
“This still sounds like a death wish.”
Iryana clenched her jaw, taking a step closer to him, her body now inches from his. “If you don’t listen to me, we’re both going to die. The rest of them are goingto die. This post will be lost. May not matter much to you, but think of all the money you soldiers will lose.”
If eyes could catch fire, his would be burning.
“Fine,” he hissed, backing away.
She watched as he pushed his shield outside his body effortlessly, the translucent force mostly visible at the edges where the light didn’t hit right. Most of the forged didn’t have enough magic left for so thick a shield after putting all they could into their forgings, but his was solid.
Stop, she ordered herself. It was not the time to be impressed by such a thing, and he didn’t deserve it, anyway.
