The high of battle was dissipating, and Iryana could feel her muscles starting to shake, the cold filling in the spaces her energy vacated. She was not looking forward to walking all the way back to the barracks, but the sooner she made it back, the better.
Then she noticed Pyetar was still standing there, staring at her. Her eyes fell to his black belt again.
Iryana marched up close to him and spoke low enough that only he could hear. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I am here to stay. Get over it.”
She finally felt like she had a chance. Watching and fighting the dakii was one of the few things she was good at. Iryana had no intention of Pyetar getting in the way.
“I don’t care what you do,” he growled back.
“Liar.”
“You are inconsequential, and soon they will see you don’t belong here. Then you’ll be running back home. You know nothing about surviving here.”
“I know enough.” Iryana took a step back, stumbling a little as she did so.
The anger kept the shaking at bay until she made it back to her room and collapsed onto the borrowed blankets.
She followed Darish, still adjusting the issued armor as she hurried to keep up. It felt off compared to the guardian armor she was so used to, that had been fitted to her. Now she wore mismatched pieces that clearly weren’t designed to fit together—some steel, others made of leather scale mail. She tried not to let the unsettling way they hung on her body bother her. Tried to focus on other things.
They left the barracks yard onto the large wood-block street that followed the walls all around the fort. Frost still dusted the edges of the road, although it would melt quickly once the sun was high in the sky.
On one side, the stone walls of the barracks stood two times her height, and on her other spanned the massive height of the wooden fortress walls. Thick, interlocked logs stacked up impossibly high, bound with earthwork and gravel at their base. She felt small between them.
It was early, but not as early as she used to start her chores. The sun had begun its climb into the sky, though it hadn’t yet surpassed the great mountains to their east. Only the almost-full Mud Moon hung above them. She’d lain in her bed for hours waiting for Vaneshta to wake up.
She’d been at the fort for less than a week, and she was already heading on her first assignment with her new team. It felt too quick.
Based on the number of people out and about, it seemed few rose early. The morning-shift guards were just stirring to take over from the second night shift. It would be a good time to move about unnoticed, she realized.
When they weren’t on missions or training, the soldiers had time to themselves. Most of them seemed to spend the time socializing in the hall, but others took the time to work out or gather with their friends around the fort. This meant that usually there were people wandering around throughout the day.
A group of soldiers waited for them at the corner of the barracks, and with every step closer, Iryana’s heart beat louder and her throat tightened.
She had to ingratiate herself with this team, convince them to accept her. Something even her family couldn’t do.
That thought made her feel dizzy.
Then she remembered who they were. Soldiers. Thugs. She didn’t care if they eventually grew to hate her when they discovered her secrets.Whenshe messed up. They just had to believe for a little while that she wanted to be there, that she belonged there. Just long enough.
The panic retreated a little.
Vaneshta inclined her head when she noticed Iryana trailing behind Darish. There was a pinched look to her square face, a furrow of her thin brows.
There was that wariness in her eyes again, a tightness like when Darish had recruited Iryana for his team. Vaneshta had been quiet the last night, and not knowing what to do otherwise, Iryana left her be.
She came to a stop when Darish did, tugging her armor again and adjusting how the straps of her pack hung over her shoulders. Her gaze trailed over the soldiers that she’d be teaming with.
She was surprised to realize she recognized a few of them from that first time in the hall, although she’d seen each of them around at some point, usually sitting near each other. Which was unlike the captain, who seemed to have nothing to do with them when they weren’t on a mission.
“We’re going to walk the circles today,” Darish announced.
One of the soldiers, a huge, widely built man, groaned until Darish gave him a look. The soldier abruptly fell silent.
“The circles?” Iryana asked when no one explained.
“The paths immediately around the fortress, to cover the nearby territory,” Vaneshta supplied. “It takes all day to walk them all.”
“Have you met everyone?” Captain Darish asked dryly, as if hoping she wouldn’t burden him with introducing everyone.
