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They jerked, eyes focusing on her again.

“Do you have something to say? Or can we get to work?”

“No, Third,” they said in unison, looking sheepish. They hurried off.

Iryana swallowed down her regret over yelling at them. She always worried when she snapped, but it was getting harder to stay calm lately.

She turned back to Pyetar. “My Uncle Byorsh can tell you or your captains where you can sleep. Once we have all the numbers, we need to sit down and put together updated patrols and watches and all that. You know better how many we’ll need to handle the dakii.”

He nodded, the movement a bit lethargic. “I’ll have my uninjured soldiers stationed behind this spike wall until we come up with a plan. And I think we’ll want to keep a group near the valley mouth as well, so when the last few settlements retreat, we can guard them.”

Iryana nodded. It would give them some time to figure things out.

Iryana looked at the cliff and the switchback path leading up to the Dovaki Post. They’d driven spikes into the wall of the cliff, aided by the earth-forged diggers. She hoped the dakii and other creatures would find themselves impaled and falling to their death instead of making it to the top. Her eyes trailed through the forest in the direction of the valley mouth, where she could just faintly make out the sound of fighting.

This is what they’d been preparing for.

Things changed once the 18th arrived. There was nothing to draw the dakii away from the valley; instead, they were drawn right to the post. The attacks were smaller at first, sometimes like the dakii were testing their defenses and other times like the beasts just couldn’t help but be drawn to attack. They took advantage of all the gaps between attacks to enforce their defenses as much as possible.

A few days after the 18th had arrived, Iryana headed down to check on the soldiers. She was feeling tense and frustrated after another fruitless meditation session with her sister. Being peaceful was clearly not the same as being at peace within herself. But at least it made Hadima feel better to try and help.

It was late, the sky cloudy enough to hide the full moon, though they had enough lanterns in the lower valley to fight back some of the darkness. It wasn’t like they could hide anymore.

One more month to go.

One more month of waiting for things to suddenly turn for the worst, for whatever fighting was happening between the gods to come to a head.

Iryana hiked through the lower valley where they had multiple lines of soldiers stationed, a Kleesold guardian paired with every squad. Iryana followed the packed trail toward one of the middle groups to pass on a message. The carefully folded paper safely tucked in her pocket.

In the midst of war, it was hard to feel joy, hard to believe that something good could happen. The world around her pressed in, suffocating her with the weight of a heavy winter storm. The surge of hope from earning Limhiz’s staff and her settled magic only went so far.

She hadn’t been out to the front lines that Pyetar was setting up yet, but she knew when she was coming upon them by the voices of soldiers and the dull, woody thunk of axes digging into wood.

She looked around in awe.

Half the soldiers weren’t standing ready. They were constructing fortifications, expanding on what her clan had managed to prepare. They were digging ditches, forming banks of snow, building temporary palisades, and mounting spikes in the ground, all to funnel the dakii to a few defensible choke points.

They’d gotten much farther than Iryana had expected in the day they’d been there.

“Third,” Uncle Byorsh called as he saw her.

“How is working with the archers?” she asked. He was taking the night shift at the front line, leading the other archers.

His face tensed. “Well enough. We’re getting used to each other.” They weren’t all from the 18th, but she could imagine enough of them were to give him a hard time. “The earth-forged sling throwers are more deadly than I expected.”

That was good to hear. She listened carefully while Uncle Byorsh filled her in on how his shift had been, his suggestions for how to improve things. She gave him the go ahead to implement his suggestions after he also ran them past Pyetar. But then she’d stalled enough and had to go deliver the message. Iryana found Pyetar at a makeshift table with a few of his captains. She walked up to them, keeping her chin high.

“General, I have a message from Major Tenar.” She held out the slip of paper that Tenar had given her. The captains, most of whom she recognized, glanced at her apprehensively.

“Thank you, Third.” He took the message and skimmed it quickly. “You didn’t have to come yourself. I know you’re manning the wall tomorrow morning.”

“I was available.”

She exchanged a long look with him. They hadn’t had much time alone after she’d nearly died from using her magic.

He pulled her aside, away from the captains that she was sure were trying to listen in. “It’s dangerous out here. You should head back.”

Pyetar had seemed to be even more worried about her, like watching her almost die had pushed him too far and now the mere thought of her in danger was too much.