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“We were separated from you, and I outranked the guardian,” Soshya explained. “If we can’t trust rank and hierarchy, how are we going to fight together?”

Pyetar was silent for a moment, seeming to weigh and debate how to handle that. “We will discuss this once we’re out of the area. Help clean up.”

The soldier gritted her teeth but headed to help the others.

Iryana stumbled slightly, but no one was watching her.

She was glad she could trust Pyetar to make a smart call, even when he was angry. These kinds of issues could get people killed, and they’d have to be dealt with. Although when she met his eyes, he didn’t look angry. He looked worried. She offered him a slight smile, as if everything were fine.

It took all her strength to make her voice steady. “That goes for us too. Make sure the unforged are alright,” Iryana told her cousins, straightening herself. They immediately turned to their three charges, still huddled a few paces behind them.

They had martial training of some form, Iryana was sure of that, but this was likely the first time the three of them had seen a dakya, let alone an entire pack, in over a decade. She might have cowered too, were she not a guardian.

Once everyone was occupied or looking elsewhere, Iryana turned away from Pyetar and the others, stumbling toward a few large trees.

Chapter Seven

No longer having to pretend, Iryana’s face twisted with pain. She curled around her center, clinging to the tree with one hand and clutching the base of her ribs with the other. With every breath, pain pulsed through her. She tried to breathe through it. Her fingers curled into the rough bark, and it cut into her skin through her light gloves.

She didn’t let herself think about how much worse this was than the last time she’d used her forgings. She didn’t let herself think about what the Scholar of Noshtiz had told her.

When the pain had dimmed enough that she could hide it fully, pretend everything was all right, Iryana undid her belt, peeled off her blood-drenched coat, and set to wiping off her face as best she could.

When she emerged from behind the tree, she could feel Pyetar’s eyes on her.

They marched a few miles away and set up a temporary camp to clean the blood off their clothes, armor, and weapons. Everyone was subdued, even before Pyetar sat them all down to go over protocols and his expectations. Afterward, everyone was downright gloomy.

Vaneshta did not take well to soldiers who put others at risk, and Iryana saw her tearing into the sergeant. Iryana had been on the receiving side of that enough times to pity Soshya.

Iryana slipped the jar of water-imbued wound ointment back into her pack along with the other healing supplies.

“Thank you, Third,” mumbled the soldier with a cut on her arm who Iryana had just finished helping.

She nodded and let the soldier join the others. The other team seemed at least willing to accept her help, but when Edvar had offered to help a brigade archer fix the fletching on one of her recovered arrows, she’d quickly turned her cousin down and asked Mezhimar instead.

Amidst it all, she was feeling disheartened, which, combined with her lingering unsteadiness, was deeply unpleasant.

She was looking between the groups to see if she could sneak a moment with her old team when Pyetar waved her over to where he peered at the map again. He had managed not to get much blood on himself and was one of the first ready to march.

“I thought the threat of being ripped apart would make them work together,” Iryana admitted as she stood beside him, looking at the map.

Pyetar sighed. “I didn’t think it would be easy, but… I suppose it took you months to warm up to us.”

“Mostly just you. Vaneshta and I got along pretty quickly,” she teased, although it wasn’t true. She’d held her roommate at arm’s length just as long as she had Pyetar. It felt good to tease though, especially when her mind was cycling through contingency plans and countless things that could go wrong.

“I won you over eventually.”

But it was hard to replicate the scenario that had allowed her to build bonds with some of the soldiers, to see past the hatred and prejudice. It wasn’t like she could make the clan move into the fort. They had a border to defend.

Iryana couldn’t keep up the levity. “Pyetar, things seem to be getting worse, not better. If we can’t get them to work together, not only is that going to make this alliance more difficult, but…”

“I know.” He gave her a look that said he knew what she was going to say but didn’t want to hear it. “But it’s only been a few weeks. And if we can convince the other brigades and clans to meet, perhaps that will help move things in the right direction.”

“And if things never improve?”

He smirked. “Coming from the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met?”

She shook her head, smiling.