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Pyetar looked over to her as if she would have the answers, as if he couldn’t trust himself to make the right call. Iryana swallowed, but nodded to him, accepting the weight of this decision, and turned back to Shahn.

“My clan was almost wiped out because of you. You put my family at risk.” Iryana hesitated, rolling her shoulders back to steady herself. “But we know how much you care about protecting your sister, and we could use every fighter we can get. Consider this your one chance at redemption.”

Shahn immediately bowed to them. “Thank you, Third. Thank you, General. I won’t let you down this time, I promise.”

“Go find Major Tenar,” Pyetar ordered. “He’ll work you into the rotation.”

Shahn bowed again, rushing toward the gate.

“I hope we don’t regret that,” Pyetar mumbled.

“Me too, but you know how Karvek was.”

They only made it a few more paces before their walk was interrupted again.

“Third,” her older sister called.

Iryana tensed but forced herself to turn. “What is it, Hadima?”

Her sister chewed on her lip, perhaps not knowing how to approach her after their fight the night before. “One of Mhakiza’s spies is here. I think it has something to show us.”

Iryana exchanged a look of foreboding with Pyetar, and then they raced after Hadima. They slipped through the gate, where the familiar creature sat just outside the wall, a group of soldiers watching it nervously.

Pyetar dismissed the soldiers as they approached, and Hadima dropped before the creature, offering a handful of frozen berries.

“Can you show my sister?” Hadima asked, reaching for Iryana’s hand and pulling her down.

The fox-serpent raised itself onto its hind legs and tail, upper body lifting into the air as it pressed a palm into Iryana’s forehead.

Her vision blinked away, replaced by pine trees racing past as they jumped from branch to branch.

She looked down, seeing a crowd of people quietly moving through the trees, pulling sleds of supplies and small children. Soldiers flanked them, forgings at the ready. They looked battle worn already, black blood splattering their clothes. There was a familiar face leading them.

Iryana felt a weight lifted off her chest.

“Vaneshta’s leading the last water settlement here,” Iryana managed to say, though it felt weird to talk while still seeing through the fox-serpent’s eyes. “They’ve encountered dakii already.”

“Thank the gods,” Hadima mumbled, and it sounded murky to Iryana’s ears.

Then the view of the forest shifted, replaced by the sight of a strange outpost she had never seen. All she could see was red-and-black-drenched snow, the bodies of dakii and soldiers littering the ground. The gate was torn off the side of the wooden outpost.

“I don’t know where this is, but an outpost was attacked,” she gasped.

The fox-serpent moved inside the outpost, the ground there littered with the horrifying sight of countless bodies. They were ripped apart.

“They’re all dead,” she added, feeling heavy. The forest around her shifted back into place.

“Describe the outpost,” Pyetar demanded quickly, tension lining his face.

“It was wooden, in the forest. I didn’t see much. I was too focused on the bodies,” she admitted.

“Will you show him too?” Hadima asked, smiling at Mhakiza’s spy.

Hesitantly, Pyetar crouched, pulling off his fur-lined cap. The fox-serpent reached for his forehead. Iryana watched his face carefully, which was scrunched with concentration. His mouth dropped open, a gasp tearing through his lips. Pyetar jerked away from the creature, pushing to his feet.

“It’s the regiment that I refused to take in,” Pyetar choked out. He took an unsteady step backward. “I need to… I’ll talk to… I—”

“Pyetar,” Iryana called as he stormed back toward the gate, ordering the soldiers to let him through.