She was just as tense, kept peeking out the window, but then Pyetar’s back door swung open and a cloaked figured slipped inside.
She breathed a sigh of relief as Vaneshta lowered her hood and nodded at them before quickly shutting the door behind her.
“I’ve got my people on shift at the gate,” Vaneshta revealed, grinning at her own success.
That was a relief, one of the pieces that was instrumental to their plan. Vaneshta had to ensure the gate opened when the Kleesolds and River Brigade soldiers were ready to march through.
“Good.” Pyetar nodded at her. “We’ll have to keep an eye on it, make sure that doesn’t change.”
Vaneshta and Lidishta had been slowly spreading the word through those they trusted in the 18th, now close friends after their week alone in the trees. They were gathering as many to their side as they could.
They didn’t telleveryonethe plan, or that there was one at all. The fewer people that knew what was coming, the less likely Karvek would be to learn of it. So Vaneshta and Lidishta just planted seeds, enough that when the time came, they’d hopefully stand withthemand not Karvek.
“Do you have the map for the leaders?” Pyetar asked her.
Iryana nodded, handing the rolled stack of papers over to him. She’d spent most of her free time looking at the charts of the dakya circuits, finding the best timing and paths for the armies that would march on Myura River.
Some encounters with the dakii were unavoidable, but they would hopefully not have too much trouble.
“I’ve just worried…” she trailed off. “With the dakii being more careful and strategic lately, I don’t think packs will attack the army as it marches. But I worry about the camps once the soldiers leave. And once the fighting at Myura River begins—” She tried to control her shudder. “The fighting is going to attract them; the bloodshed will stir the dakii into a frenzy if they can smell it over the walls. It would be a good time for them to attack us while everyone is distracted.”
The others nodded.
“I will go over the maps.” Pyetar looked around the table as if imagining one there. “Find the most defensible spots for the camps.”
“My other idea,” Iryana added. “Is to sneak most of the forces into abandoned buildings in the city. If we work around the patrols, we should be able to get them closer that way before we’re discovered. And it will give the dakii less of an opportunity to realize what we are up to beforehand.”
“That’s a good plan,” Vaneshta agreed. “I can make a map of the city. The streets that shouldn’t be visible from the wall. The best buildings to move through.”
Pyetar nodded. “We’ll need to distribute that to the captains on our side, and the Kleesolds. And make sure we’re prepared to deal with some serious dakya attacks as soon as we take the fort.”
“Will Major Jesha and Major Nenad be ready in time?” Iryana asked Pyetar.
“Yes, they’re getting ready as we speak.”
They had such a brief window…
“And the Kleesolds?” he asked her.
“They will be ready,” she assured him. It was an understatement to say the Kleesolds were not excited about fighting alongside the brigades. But they were guardians. They would put their issues aside for the good of their people.
“And the strike team?”
“Once I lead Karvek out,” she struggled to sound confident, trying not to think too hard about that part of the plan. “My Uncle Dinhal will be waiting. On his signal, we’ll attack.”
They’d debated it for a while. Whether Iryana should just try to kill him before the real fighting started, or whether someone else might have a better chance. In the end, they’d decided Karvek was too strong and there were too many unknowns to only have one person involved. Her Uncle Dinhal had been more than happy to help.
“And the fire-forged?” Vaneshta asked. That part had been her idea.
Iryana nodded. “Teshya is going to do it. We just have to keep her out of the actual fighting.”
Tonhald had refused at first, especially once he heard Pyetar was the one leading the attack on Myura River, but Teshya had insisted. His wife had little magic, but she was fire-forged, and one of her forgings was a dagger.
She’d been practicing forming it further away, so that she could form it for Iryana to use against Karvek’s forgings. Hopefully, it would weaken his metal-forgings enough togive them an edge.
“And I will join you as quickly as I can,” Pyetar promised. He’d wanted to be the one to take on his brother originally, but Karvek would be far more suspicious of him than Iryana. Still, he’d insisted on being backup.
Between the three of them, they’d kill Karvek.
