The words felt sick and sour on her tongue, but she couldn’t stop them. “I will never forgive them for that.”
“Then they made a grave mistake.” Karvek swiped his thumb across her cheek, and she realized she was crying. “You didn’t betray me, then.”
She shook her head, afraid to open her mouth again.
“I need you to look into my brother.”
“What?” she blurted out, brow furrowed.
Karvek leaned against his large desk, stretching out. “I think he’s the mole. I want you to find out for me. I will arrange for you to go on a two-man mission with him, to see if you have what it takes to train as a Specialist. You’ll have him alone. Show me how useful you are to me.”
Pyetar. He thoughtPyetarwas betraying him.
Karvek was right, but this had been her fault. She wanted to protest, say Pyetar wouldn’t dare, but she had to give Karvek what he wanted; it was the only way to stay in his graces long enough to damage his standing. Besides, she needed to protect herself, too.
The thought of her report being what caused Karvek to destroy his brother for good… her stomach clenched again. That worried her more than being alone again with Pyetar.
“I will find out if he’s your mole,” Iryana promised.
Karvek’s eyes turned dark the way a beast’s did before tasting blood. “Good.”
Iryana tensed, summoning an arrow and nocking it against the string of her bow forging. In the direction she’d heard the rustle, the forest was now quiet. Pyetar lowered his pack to the ground, sword at the ready. They stood like that for a few minutes, waiting. Listening.
The forest was the deep green of summer, full of critters and birds scurrying around. It was alive. She finally relaxed and loosened her draw. It was a false alarm, but the last two hadn’t been.
When Karvek had said he’d send her on a mission with Pyetar, she hadn’t realized it would mean venturing so far from the fort. She knew Pyetar normally went alone, and he was gone for days on end, but these days just slipping away to the Dovaki Post felt dangerous enough.
This felt reckless.
When Pyetar started moving again, leading the way, he didn’t lose any of the tension lining his body. But that said little because he’d looked on edge since they were summoned for the mission only a few hours before they had to leave.
He had said little to her either.
Pyetar had told her to wear only half-armor for stealth and ease of movement, and to bring a warm cloak for the nights that were starting to gain a chill. Thankfully any real cold was far off; she didn’t want to imagine having to huddle together with Pyetar for warmth.
They had large packs on their backs, enough supplies to keep them warm at night and to supplement what they could forage for food. It was hard to go hungry in the valleys during the summer. Tart, red lingonberries. Shiny red clusters of hawthorn berries. Even some early pine nuts. One only need walk a few paces to discover a new bounty.
They made it almost a whole day before Pyetar finally asked the question she’d been waiting for.
“Are you going to tell me what we’re really doing?”
Iryana gave him an unamused glance, one brow raised.
As a captain, he was technically no longer a Specialist and had only gone on a few missions on his own since his promotion. Still, she’d assumed it was an easy enough sell to ask him to try out a potential Specialist for training.
“Oh, come on. There’s a reason my brother sends me on these trips alone, and I know he talked to you a couple of days ago. He would never promote you to Specialist; he has been far too possessive to let his golden strategist go so far away.”
She sighed. In truth, she had never really considerednottelling Pyetar, just debated the finer aspects ofhowto tell him. Finding a way to satisfy Karvek, use it to her advantage, and not throw Pyetar to the wolves had always been the plan. She just didn’t know what the plan actually was yet.
“Karvek thinks you might be a mole, and he wants me to find out.” A weight seemed to lift off her chest. She couldn’t take it back now.
Pyetar turned to her suddenly, his face a mask of confusion. “My brother would reward you considerably if you told him I was moving against him. You would earn his trust, his respect. Isn’t that what you’re trying to do here?”
She just shrugged, climbing over a fallen tree. “I have enough of his trust that he asked me to do this.”
Hopefully, before the time came, Karvek would ask for her help to move on the river brigades. On Nenad and Jesha. He had to be getting close, Myura River was close to bursting. Though perhaps he’d wait until spring.
“I told you I didn’t need you to protect me,” Pyetar growled.
